Nadim Ali – Witnesses Over Nations
AI: Summary ©
The importance of being a Muslim and not a coward is emphasized, as it is crucial for society to be healers and not just a coward. The speaker also emphasizes the need to address mental illness and be mindful of one's behavior, while also empowering people to take control of their own lives. The importance of learning from one's life and working on one's behavior is also emphasized, along with the need to implement change and teach others about da-use moments in Islam. The importance of building a healthy society towards a healthy society is emphasized, and the speaker stresses the importance of contentment, balancing, and witnessing change.
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, our 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 law guides, then there's no one who
can mislead him. And whoever law causes to
go astray, then there's 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.
Oh, 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, oh, 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.
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 raqib 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 and the
most evil of all affairs of newly invented
matters which has no precedence in Islam. And
indeed, all innovations are astray and each astray
is in the hellfire. And, oh, Allah, save
us from it, oh, Allah. Accept our du'a.
And before we start, inshallah, if brothers and
sisters could, you know, turn off the technology,
I appreciate it, inshallah.
Thus, we have made of you an ummat,
justly balanced,
that you might be witnesses over nations
and the apostle
a witness over yourselves.
Again,
thus we have made of you an ummah
justly balanced that you might be witnesses over
nations
and the apostle a witness over yourselves.
And when we look at this particular ayat,
we have to recognize
that it's important for us to recognize our
role in the society, not just the Western
society, but again, the world. As Muslims, you
know, we, again, supposed to be witnesses over
the nations.
And just like, you know, if you had
to go to court, you have to be
able to tell the truth.
And so
we want to be of those who are
cautious and and not be perjuring ourselves on
the day of judgment.
You know, because if we see something that's
wrong, we're supposed to basically
speak out against it. You know? And then
again, when we are witnesses of the society,
if we see some injustices,
we have to be of those who are
being want to be able to do something
about it. We speak out
injustices, you know, around the world. You know?
Not only again in this land, but throughout
the world, all throughout the society.
You know? And so
because what happens is if we don't speak
out against it, then what happens the the
oppression will overcome the people.
And so just like we have lots of
poverty in American society,
and we'll walk past poverty every day, and
what are we doing about it? As Muslims,
we should be, again,
able to put together programs to help people
who are impoverished, to help people who are
basically housing insecure.
We have to be of those who are
helping people who have the problems, whether it's
mental illness or whether it's substance abuse issues.
We have to be able to put together
the programs, not just the massages. We have,
especially in the Atlanta area, we have maybe
close to a a 100 massages in the
Atlanta area. But how many medical centers do
we have? How many hospitals do we have?
How many homeless shelters do we have? How
are we addressing the ills of the society?
Because the Muslims are supposed to be healers.
You know, Muslim means one who submits. Submits
to what? We submit into the law. We
submit to Allah
That's what we have to do. Islam, one
who submits to Allah in peace.
So
if we are
wanting to, again, talk the talk,
you know, we have to be able to
walk the walk as the other people say.
You know, we have to walk the walk
of Islam. We'll be the we we say
we're following the example of the prophet peace
be upon him. Even when you look at
he talked about neighbors. He said our neighbors
are anybody, 40 houses in any direction.
40 houses in any direction.
So if we have 1,500,000,000
Muslims on the planet, then all
the world are our neighbors.
And so even during the prophet's time, peace
be upon him, his neighbor who was not
the best to him, he did she didn't
treat him well.
But one day, he noticed that she wasn't
there, and he had the companions go check
on her. You know, she he'd that that's
how he basically, he didn't allow her behavior
to influence his behavior because he was accountable
to a loss
as we are are.
And so what are we taking to the
grave? You know, we we we put together
4 zero one k's for our retirement.
But what are we putting together for a
true retirement?
Our true retirement is when we leave this
plane of life. Because, again, as I'm always
mentioning that our first phase of life is
in our mother's wombs.
And this phase of life is just a
bigger womb. That's all. A true life begins
when we leave this plane, when we transition,
you know, past the barzette, the barrier between
life and death. And so what are we
doing? Just like, again, if we're nurturing if
we're nurtured in our mother's womb or if
our mother was drinking and smoking crack and
doing that stuff, everything
while we were while she was carrying us,
then we will be impacted like that. And
so if we're doing a lots of ills
in this society, our souls will be impacted.
So what are we doing for our souls?
What are we putting to what are we
putting forth for our true retirement?
Put to get deeds out,
doing charity,
fasting,
praying. These are some of the things that
we have to do.
Allah says, oh, you who have believed,
persist persistently stand firm in justice,
witnesses for Allah, even if it be against
yourselves,
your parents, and relatives,
whether one is rich or poor, Allah is
worthy of both.
Be witnesses against yourselves. And again, from the
Ukraine to Yemen to Palestine,
our voices must be heard. You know, often,
a lot of times when I go to
protest or
anti war protest, I find that there are
more people who are not yet Muslim
there than Muslims, and they're standing up for
Muslims
around the world. You know, whether again, whether
it's the bombings that's going on in Yemen,
whether it's the oppression that's going on in
different parts of Africa, we have to be
of those who are standing firmly.
And, again, do we believe what Allah says?
As he says, oh, you who believe, be
upright for Allah and be the bearers of
witnesses
with justice.
Again, we have to be the healers of
society. But first of all, it's just like,
for any illness, first, we have to recognize
that we have a sickness.
We see all of the the shootings in
the society, not just the the mass shootings,
but every day, every, you know, every each
minute someone throughout the country is getting killed.
You whether it's through the guns or knives
or some type of violence. And again, we
don't we don't just have mental illness in
the society
as they're trying to say. We need to
adjust the mental illness issues. We have spiritual
illnesses in the society. How do you address
the spiritual illness?
We have we have the solution in the
Quran.
We have the solution in the prophet's example.
But what do we do? We hold on
to it. We hold on to it.
We have to be of those who are
giving the dawah, not only through word, but
through action. We cannot be of those who
are just basically,
talking
Islam, but not practicing or internalizing and and
and actualizing
the Islam by giving again, giving to charity,
being prayerful,
being honest,
treating people fairly. These are some of the
things that we have to look at. And,
again, if I've said anything that's inconsistent with
what Allah has given us and the prophet,
peace be upon him, has brought to us,
I take full responsibility for that. And if
I've said anything in which you have gained
some insight, as always, all praise belongs to
Allah.
I heard the messenger of Allah, salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, one of the companions said,
say whoever
of you sees an evil,
let him change it with his hands.
If he is not able to do so,
then let him change it with his tongue.
And if he is not able to do
so, then with his heart, and that is
the weakest of faith. And this is a
strong hadith
on, from from from Imam
Muslim. And, you know, what he's saying that
if you're able to make the change,
implement the change,
do something with your hands.
If you can't do something with your hands,
then speak out against it. Talk about it.
But sometime,
talking about things can basically be problematic.
And then
if you don't talk about it or talk
against it, then it says hate in your
heart. In other words, don't accept the sickness
in the society.
Don't accept the what's called the normalization of
dysfunctional behaviors in the overall society. We don't
accept it in our hearts, but he said
that's the weakest of faith. So what does
that Hadid say? It says that we have
to work to implement change.
You you can't if an architect can't think
a building into existence,
you can basically,
have the thoughts of what type of structure
you're gonna have, but at some point, then
you have to write down the plans, and
then you have to basically put the the
building in into place. So it's the same
thing. We want a healthy society. What are
we doing towards that society?
You know, I always tell my brothers and
sisters at at my Masjid that if we're
gonna be here, we need to be here.
In other words, getting involved in in all
aspects of the society, not just being here
just, like you're milking a fat cow and
just taking what you can from the society,
but how can we basically help the less
fortunate?
How can we help the people who may
have plenty of money but no insight?
No insight. You know, because richness, as the
prophet says, is not about having diamonds and
gold, but richness is having contentment in your
soul. You have billionaires and millionaires committing suicide.
And you have homeless people,
basically,
in better shape mentally than people who are
living in mansions.
You have people in relationships
that they don't they may have 100 of
1,000 of dollars coming into their houses throughout
the year but don't feel safe.
And I was in my park, in my
neighborhood, I'm seeing a man with his his
his mate, and they're sleeping in a tent
in the park, and she feels very safe
with him. What's going on that this person's
rather sleep in a tent
than be in some dwelling with another person.
And so, again, contentment is an internal. It's
intrinsic.
So we have to basically work on getting
that attaining that attemptment contentment, and then we
want to basically teach
others.
And that's what we do about spreading the
Islam, spreading the deed. And I'm not saying
to walk around your job just preaching,
but look for dawah moments. Oh, why do
you take a break, you know, Abdullah,
on Friday? So it's a dawah moment. Well,
in Islam, you know, our day is Friday.
You know, you know, why you know, if
you're wearing a kufi or a keemar,
then why are you doing that? A dawah
moment. You know, why are you not eating
lunch during Ramadan? Or if you're fasting throughout
the year on a Monday or Thursday? Oh,
a dawah moment. So we have to look
for dawah moments.
You're not just you know, because it's the
boundary when you basically,
you know, just sort of impose your religious
belief on another person. But if they ask
the question, I always call that a dawah
moment.
Allah talks about
the,
then the heavens he has raised and imposed
the balance, that you not transgress
the balance and establish weight and justice and
do not make deficient the balance. In other
words, we have to be balanced in how
we implement and impact change, and we can't
be excessive.
We can't be too far to the right
or too far to the left. We again,
we have to be witnesses,
you know, you know, over ourselves.
Not be paranoid, but be aware and be
cautious.
Allah says,
oh, you who have believed, be persistently
standing in firm in justice.
Witnesses for Allah, even if it be against
yourselves, your parents, your relatives, whether one is
rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of
both.
And, again, may Allah guide us all to
help
heal the overall society because what happens,
you know, you especially in this environment, you
have people traveling throughout the world,
and and many of them have many challenges,
and so we have to be able to
be
like spiritual counselors at time. A lot of
times, you know, we'll pass judgment on people
as opposed to just sit and because it's
that's a test. That may be an angel,
you know, that that Allah is testing you
with. But a lot of times we're, this
homeless person. You know, you you you talk
to them and, again, what you do, if
you do good and then that person
as a result of the good that you
presented to them, they they give that to
somebody else. You get a reward for each
time
that that good that has been presented
is is is given to somebody all the
way down the line. It's like Amway,
better than Amway. You know? So we want
to be able to to do the good
and look for opportunities of doing good. Allah
says he does not burden
a soul beyond its ability to bear.
Again, we and the law says, whoever puts
his trust in Allah, he it will be
enough for him. So we have to have
the the taqwa, the trust of Allah.
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 our protector, and grant us
the victory over the unbelieving people.