Nadim Ali – Your Body Has Rights
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Indeed, our praise belongs to 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 all 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. 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 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 who created you from a single soul
and from it created its mate, and from
the 2 of them, we 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 rakib 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.
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 of the
guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and the most evil of all affairs are
newly invented matters which has no precedence 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 Allah says,
eat of the good things
and act righteously.
Eat of the good things
and act righteously.
In a hadith
reported by Aisha Rede Allahu Anha that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
sent for Uthman
ibn Madun,
and he came. The prophet said,
oh, Uthman,
do you not desire my practice?
Uthman said, oh Messenger of Allah,
know by Allah I seek your practice.
The prophet
said, verily I sleep
and I pray
and I fast and I break my fast
and I marry women.
Fear Allah Othman
or your family has rights over you and
your guests have rights over you. Verily
your own body has rights over you. So
fast
and break your fast, pray
and sleep. And again, it's from
a sunnah from Abu Dawood.
And when we look at the hadith and
this ayat,
we see that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
encouraging us
not only with the ayat to eat of
the things that are good and pure. And
then when you look at what the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he's trying to
recognize that, you know, it's important
that we recognize our humanity.
And it and it's interesting that in this
particular ayat, Allah talks about the the connection
between
intake of food
as well as the character.
Says eat of the things good and pure
and be righteous. Be righteous.
You know, he's tying it to righteousness
and character.
And we have to understand
that what we intake
can impact our behaviors.
There's a concept in psychology that talks about
nature versus nurture.
What we bring into the world. In other
words, what we have genetically
as opposed to what society gives us. You
know, if we're raised in a certain environment,
then it can impact us.
You know, if we have a loving home
and
no violence, no trauma,
then that can impact us. You know, they
again, you can take people who who genetically
may have
so many different problems and raise them in
a wholesome environment,
and then that can impact, you know, how
they they they they they develop as a
human being. And so we have to understand,
you know, what we intake
can impact our behavior. And in the computer
world, they have a concept says that garbage
in, garbage out.
Garbage in, garbage out. In other words, you
know, whatever you program that computer to do,
if you program it to engage in all
sorts of inappropriate types of behaviors and and
things of that nature, that's what it's gonna
spit out. But if you program the computer
to
let you use it to to promote Islam
and to give dawah and to to basically,
absorb and and and and and and and
load the Quran and the Hadith and volumes
of of of knowledge from the scholars,
then, again, that's what the computer is gonna
spit out. Same thing with us as human
beings. Garbage in, garbage out. You know, if
we load ourselves up with bad food and
and and and engaging in in actions such
as using intoxicants,
trying to rationalize the use of intoxicants.
Because again, I was looking as I was
sat in the workshop yesterday just on marijuana
and it talked about how the the potency
of the marijuana today is such that it
is, it's it's causing people who have a
genetic predisposition to have schizophrenia
to go into schizophrenic
fits,
have the schizophrenic breaks and psychotic breaks.
In in Colorado, where they have legalized marijuana,
there's just so many people coming into emergency
rooms
because they basically they're flooding themselves with this
weed, the THC. The and the grade of
the THC is so high
that it's causing people again, if you have
a genetic predisposition for bipolar, genetic predisposition for
schizophrenia, a genetic predisposition
position for depression, it can impact you. So
Muslims,
stop spreading the news about this weed.
Because if you basically
lead somebody
to do something that is inconsistent with Islam,
you're gonna get a piece of that
on the day of judgment.
Just like if you basically
lead somebody seduce if you just taught them
if
you taught them if you taught them if
you taught them just
some of the basics of the deen, then
that goes into your your your account, your
hereafter account.
That's your real 401 k y'all.
Because again, as I always say, this is
just the middle womb. True life begins
in the hereafter when
we we we not we're not sick, we
don't get aged, all of that.
And so the shaytan
was the movie talks about that the greatest
trick that the devil played on mankind is
to convince the world that he doesn't exist.
Shaytan wants you to forget that because these
little 80, 90 years that we spend on
this planet is nothing compared to what we
have in the in the hereafter.
Just a little bit of time and because
time will die. There'll be no more time.
And so this is just a womb, a
middle womb.
So what are we doing to make
a difference?
The prophet, peace be upon him, said that
a Muslim should not touch a thing
unless you seek to improve it.
We live in a city that's plagued with
violence. A brother was telling me the other
day that, I believe a 6 or 7
year old got shot 9 times.
Nine times.
What are the Muslims doing about that?
When are we going to establish
a Dawah program that addresses the ills of
the society? Because it's not so much because
you have Muslims engaging in foolishness,
Muslims engaging in cultish gangs.
But we have to recognize
that Islam is a complete way of life.
It's not just a religion. You just can't
take the shahada and just do what you
wanna do.
The prophet, peace be upon him, came as
the last messenger.
That's real.
He's the last messenger.
So if he's the last messenger, the Quran
is the last message, the last testament.
Like, you have the new testament, the old
testament, and you have the final testament. The
Quran is the final testament. So the instructions
for this life and the hereafter is in
the Quran, brothers and sisters.
Allah tells us again to eat of the
things good and pure, ties it to our
character.
You know,
again, garbage in, garbage out. So what are
we taking in?
You know, we have to program ourselves just
like we want to program our computers for
optimum
usage. You're just like we get a virus
in the computer and the computer doesn't work
well, we can get spiritual viruses as well.
If you're spending
your time around negative people and unhealthy people,
that can basic it can they can infect
you with a spiritual virus. This is worse
than COVID.
Worse than COVID because if your soul dies,
that's it.
You know, if you die from COVID, at
least you get the reward of martyrdom.
But if you die spiritually
while you're walking around spiritually dead,
then that's a true death.
So we have to recognize,
okay, what is what did the prophet, peace
be upon him, do in this situation? How
did the prophet, peace be upon him, handle
this, that situation? How did he treat his
family? Because he said the best of you
are those who are best to their families.
He says, I'm the best of you because
I'm the best of my family. So these
are some of the things that we have
to
recognize. We want to basically
be able to take care of ourselves. Your
body has rights over you.
Your body has rights over you. What are
we doing?
What are we doing to be able to,
again,
take care of ourselves?
We have to honor our bodies.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that
he ate, slept, fasted, and broke his fast
because the other part of that hadith is
that the person he'd you know, he just
wanna be super Muslim.
You know, I'm gonna fast and not break
my fast. I'm not gonna deal with women.
You know, I'm not gonna sleep. I'm gonna
pray all the time. That's what he was
bragging. The prophet peace upon him, said, man,
let me pour you a coat.
Let me let me talk to you.
You better than me?
I eat, sleep. I marry women. I fast
and I break my fat. You better than
me? Are we better than the prophet, peace
be upon him?
And so
he, again, emphasized the importance of the balance.
You don't wanna be extreme.
You don't want to be an extremist Muslim.
You know, just like we're living in a
society
that's
in trouble right now,
and if you look at the people who
study history, they're saying
that this
time, this period, this time period that we're
existing in now and is similar
to
the time period before the civil war, the
last civil war.
And so you have people who are basically
talking about that. And so we as Muslims,
what will be our role
in this type of if this thing happens?
But Allah has put us here for a
reason. We have to be the healers of
the society. We have to start to provide
a rational voice
to all this madness.
As we always talk, each week in the
Kutwa and and and and and sort in
in in Kutwa Hudja says that to tell
the truth, the law will make your deeds
beneficial. He will forgive for you your sins.
So we have to encourage people to tell
the truth.
I read a quote about Mark Twain. Yeah.
He says out the truth that a lie
can go halfway around the world before the
truth can get its boots on.
A lie can go halfway around the world
before the truth can put put its boots
on.
So we have to be of the people
of of the hawk, the people of truth,
and not just a label with the people
of hawk. We want to
be truthful in all the things that we
do.
Brothers, you don't have to be able to
you'd be doing some shady stuff and or
sisters doing shady stuff. You gotta take your
phone into the bathroom.
You should be able to leave it out.
Have transparency.
Be truthful in your relationships.
Be truthful
with the children. Be truthful in in society.
We have to be of those who are
the people of truth. We have to be
a good example for these people.
The Muslims
of of yesterday,
very strong people. I was, I've been going
through my vault
of of recordings this week
and,
you know, we used to do programs on
the radio here.
One program was called Jihad Al Akbar and
we would do weekly programs. Just give in
dawah.
You know, we would use all the radio
station. We didn't have the Internet.
And now we have the Internet. We have,
you know, just so much communications.
What are we doing to
basically further the word of Islam, brothers and
sisters?
We have so much technology that we can
reach all around the world.
We have to not only just use the
technology, but we also have to be present
in the overall society.
The Muslims of yesterday, you look at the
seventies eighties, Muslims were out there, even though
they were maybe merchants,
they were given pamphlets out. They were out
there active, had the fire.
We resting.
And then when this society starts to fall,
what are you what are you gonna do?
We have to basically be of those who
are getting in shape and stay in shape.
Whether you're walking, running, no matter how old
you are or what your condition is, we
have to be of those to honor ourselves,
honor our bodies. We have people who who
study martial arts and and and and and
the physical arts and trainers. We have everything
we need
right on the floor.
So we have to be of those who
to honor ourselves and honor our bodies. And
again, as Muslims, we should be the epitome
of health.
Allah has given the prophet
as an example
and the Quran as our book of instructions.
We treat our cars better than we treat
ourselves.
We treat our
items that we have better than we treat
ourselves.
Garbage in, garbage out brothers and sisters. Again,
we have to be of those so that
we can maintain ourselves for what reason so
that we could be better servants of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Had a brother reach out to another brother
this week.
Brother's suffering from cancer in his last stages
of cancer,
and his main concern
was to be able to
to to purify himself for prayer. And so
he reached out and we gave him the
information on Taill Moon.
Last days,
his big worry is, how am I gonna
meet my lord?
Yet,
time for Fajr, what are you doing?
Snoring and slobbering.
Snoring and slobbering.
The rule for
coming to the Masjid
has not been lifted. It has not been
abrogated.
And so brothers,
we have well over a 100 masajids throughout
this area,
so we want to make an effort
to do more, be more present. I understand
we've been under a pandemic for the last
2 years, so we have to be of
those
who are coming to the Masjid to get
that 25 to 27
worth of blessings that we can get.
Part of honoring our bodies is making sure
that our joints are in the ranks
and getting lubricated
with the salat.
If I've said anything that's inconsistent with what
Allah has given us, I take responsibility for
that. If I've said anything in which you
have gained some new insight, as always,
remember that all praise is due to Allah.
And then also,
as the prophet
said, take advantage of 5 before 5.
Your youth before your old age,
your health before sickness,
your wealth before poverty,
your free time before busyness,
and your life before death.
You are the best nation produced as an
example for mankind.
You're enjoying what is right and you forbid
what is wrong and you believe in Allah.
And 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.
Again, during these troublesome times in the world,
especially
this part of the world, we have to
be at our best. We have to be
at our best physically,
mentally,
and spiritually.
We don't want to ingest or be exposing
ourselves to things that will block us spiritually,
mentally, or physically.
Just like we can become
physically constipated, we can become
spiritually and mentally constipated as well, but it's
all based on what you're exposing yourselves to.
And with your mind, you can create medicine
or you can create poison just like you
can think yourself into an ulcer.
You can think yourself into an ulcer.
And what the the scientists say about anxiety,
anxiety
is how your body responds to your thoughts.
And so what you expose yourself to,
you're gonna have to basically making sure that
you are
in a peaceful setting,
putting yourselves around the people who are prayerful,
putting yourselves around people who are positive,
putting yourselves around people who are working for
positive societal change.
As I always teach that a Muslim should
be the natural activist.
During these troubled times, we have to be
involved
on all levels.
We go with the economics,
but what about the politics?
Because
if the political situation changes in the society,
we're gonna be impacted because you have people
basically openly saying that this should be a
Christian country,
that this will only be a Christian country
even though the founders weren't all Christians. Was
that
Thomas c q Ellison? He he took his
oath on the the the Quran that Thomas
Jefferson had.
They weren't all Christians, but this is the
lie that they tell.
So what about the Muslims? What about the
Buddhists? What about the Hindus? What about the
Yahoos? The Jewish people? What about the people
who don't believe in anything?
And one of the pieces of advice that
al Hajm Al Shabaab
gave us in his last message,
He said that this society
is just as capable of building gas ovens
as the society that hit the list.
He said that week before he was killed.
He understood that. And what we did during
the 1960s,
you have to we pushed we pushed it
back to be,
racist, but but it never
it never stopped.
He said there was a cookbook that Imam
gave Imam Jamil gave me years ago, said
that racism was America's age.
Racism is is an illness. It's a sickness.
And so we have to
be at the forefront of combating racism.
Allah says he among his signs is the
variations in our lands and in color.
He made us into nations and tribes to
get to know one another and not despise
each other.
And so if we are to
basically be present
and if we're touching this society again, the
prophet said that we should seek to improve
it,
as opposed to just be like the proverbial
obstacle sticking your head in the sand.
We have to be active and activist.
Radioactive, as they say.
This is this is the charge, because we
join into a political season that, we tell
y'all, each political season, what's going on the
menu?
So you're gonna sit and wait. Because you
have 30% of the country
that's basically
just diluted
by mad people. Not just men, mad people.
And we have all of this information
from garbage. Garbage in, garbage out.
And so we have to start using the
media
to to to to prevent
healthy food. Each of the things that are
good and true.
Again,
how can you
best honor your mind? How can you best
honor your your body? How can you best
honor your spirit?
What does Allah say? I did not create
the gems and men
except for one purpose, only one purpose,
That's to worship.
That's the only reason we're here to worship
Allah, someone with our love. And worship is
not just praying at the mosque here.
You know, you should remember Allah throughout the
day and all the things that you do.
Because if we don't do that, we're just
practicing religion.
So if you're practicing a way of life,
it's holistic.
Everything that we do and how we treat
our families, how we how we do business,
how we treat each other as individuals.
Who will this be?
The beauty of Islam. That's what why Islam
is fastest growing way of life on the
planet, in the planet.
But we have to give that message. It's
not a private club. We have to give
the message.
Our lord, lay not enough the burdens such
as you did lay on those that have
gone before us.
Our lord, lay not enough the 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 disbelief.