Friday Sermon 02-02-2024

So you need sense, or you need government support, or you need funding for your project. If you're doing good, we will let you do good. We're not going to get in the way, we're not going to give you money, we'll leave you alone.

And you're and if you're sincere, your reward is with Allah anyway. So you see, because sometimes corruption doesn't just happen from criminals, people come to the people of power. And they say, Hey, we're doing so much higher, give us some money. And he says, No, if you're doing Hey, Allah will reward you anyway. And Allah will provide. I'm not going to endorse one project over another. I don't know you people enough. I don't know you enough. So there's actually there's a there's a takeover. But there's also a level of independence is he's hands off also. He's not he's not meddling entirely. This is one situation. This is not a war. This is he's taken over, but he's taken

over in a soft way. When he continues his journey.lu Isla, you know,

our common lemenager, Nahum, Indonesia cetera, Gallic, very different approach. They'll complain with all of his army, all of his resources, all of his technology, he comes to a place where there's basically no real, they're so backwards, they don't even have real buildings. You can think of it like that, because they don't even have safety from the sun, which means they don't have real architecture.

And he tries to see what's going on with these people and realizes these people have a long way to go. There's no way I can force them to become like us. I'm going to have to let them be Catholic. Because I have to now be Mullah de cobre. Some people have to be just left alone. Just leave them be let them do this policy to some people just leave them to their own devices. They can't be helped right now, maybe some other times, if we can help them right now. It doesn't look like we can help them. And he let them be. You would think everywhere he goes, he applies the same policy. He doesn't, because one place different policy, another place different policy. And then he goes to the

third place. And we know the famous story. He goes to this third place, he's barely able to communicate with these people, which also shout at them suggests he went very, very far from his homeland. And he's out in the mountains somewhere, apparently, because Venus Dana's mentioned. Right? So he's out in some mountain region, hard to access. And when he gets there, he can, he can barely communicate with these people. And when he finally is able to communicate with them, they tell him that there's this group of bandits, these, you know, Raiders, huge, huge. They come and they just kill and they take our animals and they burn our village or whatever. And they come every

now and then, and they read, and then they disappear into the mountain, they come from that valley. They come from this pass.

Now Allah says about gold company that he's been given suburb, which means he's been given a military. He's been given the power to fight, he could stay there, wait for them to come and fight a war with them. You could do that.

He chooses not to do that. He chooses, he realizes if he dedicates an army here, you can think of it this way, if he dedicates an army here, he can no longer continue.

Because Allah only mentioned three of his stops, doesn't mean he only had three stops.

But also he has his own empire to take care of.

And he's not going to take run a proxy war from a distance for people he doesn't know.

So instead of getting involved directly in the military fight, he says, Look, right now, the best we can do is we need to build a defense so they can't come and attack you anymore.

We need to build a wall.

But he could have built the wall himself. He had the people he had the resources. But he says attorneys Uber al Hadid hepatitis our Vanessa Fein Colin for who had Dinah Jana, who now don't call the attorney of Nicola, he ketra. All that description in the Quran is what? It's what you can call an engineering process. First, let's bring the metal then let's bring the copper then let the the process of melting it, turning it into sheets and all of it. Why is he saying this to them? He is teaching them how to build. He's teaching those people how to build, he could build it himself. Now what happens for example, nowadays, China, for example, is making trade agreements with Muslim

countries around the world. Right? So many ports in Indonesia are being bought by the Chinese Indonesia, you hear the Adan all over Indonesia, except in the ports. You're not allowed to hear the other and it's also the most populated Muslim country in the world. Right there. China is buying up highways and building roads in Pakistan. They're making investments in Africa. They're going everywhere, right? But when they go, guess what the workers, the engineers, the technology all comes from where it comes from China, they do the work and then they take all the money they take all the salaries and they go back and

Now you keep paying them for the rest of your existence and your next generations. That's the plan. Sounds good for now. You pay for it later. The point the point isn't to bring jobs and bring prosperity to the locals, to bring technology to the locals. Actually, the technology remains with them, the resources remain with them. The local name comes and says to the local people who barely know how to speak Remember, these people barely know how to speak. But before you know it, he's teaching them while engineering.

And he's teaching them the process of building this. And why teach them the process of building this because anything you build, over time can deteriorate. And when it deteriorates, if they know the process, they can keep fixing it. And if there's a huge, huge on the other side, they're trying to break the wall. And every time they try to break the wall, there's damage to it. Now these people can keep fixing the damage and maintain it because he's not going to be there to maintain it.

So now he's empowered these people to build for themselves to learn for themselves. Allah azza wa jal gave us a remarkable example of a powerful figure who employed different strategies in different locations, different situations, different solutions, there is not one solution in the Quran, if you have our you must do this. No, you got to look at the reality, the welfare of the situation, and then decide what is the best course of action. What Muslims have done, unfortunately, a lot of times is we see a problem. And we see we know one story that inspired us. And then we use that one story and say, here's the solution, pick up the sword. Here's the solution, do this, this this because I

know this one story, that's the solution, this one profit use, or that's the solution. This one's a hobby use, we take one solution, and we think it fits every problem.

The Quran is teaching us through this remarkable story. Even when you have power, you don't have to use all of your power, you have to be strategic in your use of power.

And you have to build power in a way that sustains it sustained. So when he established justice in one community, justice is one of the foundations of a real society. When you build technology in one community, if you don't have technology and science and development in a community, that community can never prosper, if they don't know how to build for themselves. If they don't know how to construct and develop for themselves, they can, they will always be dependent on someone else. And someone who has better technology will them than them will always be able to attack them and overtake them. So they have to advance themselves. This is part of the message of the Quran.

And after all of that, after all of this empire building, you know, the British Empire used to say the sun cell shall never set on the British Empire. That's what they used to say. And funnily enough, they ended up in only in England now, where it's always cloudy. So the sun's practically always on the British Empire. But you know what, at the end of all of that Volker reign is not looking back and saying, and this empire shall last until forever.

Glory to the emperor, he says, you know, how it will be, it will be the Allahu dukkah what kind of adorably haka, he is not in love with his own empire. He's not worshiping his own accomplishment. He's saying this wall that we've been able to build, and this progress that we've been able to make all of this is from my Rob, and when Rob decides, this wall will be gone.

But in this and why, but this is the last message I want to share with you in this hotbar today, why go through all the trouble to build this giant wall? And at the end of it, say, well, Allah is gonna destroy it one day, it's okay.

Then you could just say, Well, what was gonna destroy it anyway? Why am I even building it? What's the point? Right? It's kind of a nice, holistic a negative view of the world. Why do you want me to try it? It's all going to end anyway. It's all going to be finished anyway. What's even the point? No matter what we do, he realizes that Allah has expected from human beings to do their best spiritually, but also materially, also the resources Allah gives you is an Amana and you have to make the most of them. Human effort has to be at the maximum. It has to be at the maximum. And then Allah decides when he decides that it will be replaced with something else. But that's not your

problem. Don't make Allah's problem yours. That's Allah's, that's Allah's mandate. Your mandate is key buildings. Your mandate is keep expanding. Your mandate is think huge. What is the inspiration that especially young people sitting here should take from the story of local nine?

whatever resources we have to really look at the resources Allah has given us. You know, America is in an amazing place and people complain about this place. I am

Good, I've had a chance to travel so much of the world. And when I come back to the United States, I think Allah that I live here with all of its problems, but all of us, I think, a lot that I live here. And I think a lot for the Muslims that live here. And I'll tell you why there are you have an opportunity here to get an education that you don't have in most of the world, you have an opportunity here to start a business like you cannot start in most of the world. There are places in the world, if you hear you want to start a hello pizza place, you could do it, you can pull it off, you want to start a hello pizza place in some Muslim countries. You know how many politicians you

have to bribe? You know, how many bigger pizza places are going to come? Kill your coworker? Kill your workers or buy them out? Or somebody's gonna come and say this is my land? No, it's not. Yes, it is. I decided today that this is my land.

And my uncle is the governor. So what you're gonna do.

And this happens every day, you can do it. And how many people can get it, they're getting education. They're They're young men and women all over the Muslim world, getting a bachelor's degree, getting a master's degree, getting a PhD becoming dark medical license, doctors driving Ubers

selling bananas on the street, medical doctors, you don't see that here. You have an opportunity. You have sub people that are much smarter than you and me, Allah did not give them these as Bob.

They're much more. And I've seen them. I've seen the youth and the Muslim world. They are superior in their intelligence. They are incredible. But they don't have the resources.

And here we are sitting on some of the most abundant opportunity and resources in the world.

And when we have those resources, our responsibility isn't just to build here. But in fact, we should expand east west and in every direction.

And we should be thinking about how to expand and enhance our influence. I'm not going to go down the road of naming other countries or other other ethnicities or minorities. But I can tell you, there were other minorities that came to this country.

100 years ago, 150 years ago, minorities came to this country. And when they came to this country, they were treated like dogs.

They were not treated like VIPs. They controlled nothing.

And they decided that whatever suburb they have, they're going to build more as Bob with it.

For at barrel suburban, that's what they did. And you know where they are now. They influence government, domestic policy. They influence education, they influence media, they influence multinational corporations, they influence international politics and funding.

They went from that to that. How do they do it? Well, there's not some formula in The Hague. Allah has given us the formula already in his own book. We believe in Allah, we follow the book of Allah, we have to call in Allah. But while we have to according Allah, we are also supposed to be strategic people thinking bigger than our own locality.

You know, you can now who fell out, it was not enough for him. That was just the starting point. He's in his land, and he's gotta go, he's gonna go far and far and far and keep going farther and farther and farther. Wherever he goes. He wants to make those people independent. Can you imagine those people that learn how to build a wall using that same technology, they'll also learn how to build something else, they'll build swords. They'll do other things with metal, they'll build other tools. By the time he comes back and 50 years, they're the metal resource in the entire region. Who knows, he started something, he started something that will expand into something colossal,

something absolutely massive. This is the kind of building and thinking that Muslims need to develop all over the world.

This is an I argue, unlike the situation of Musa alayhis salam where he was entirely helpless. He was entirely helpless. The Muslims, no matter how much they tell themselves, that they are entirely helpless. They are not that is a lie, that we tell ourselves. We do have resources. We have the human resource, we have the intelligence, we have the talent, we have the opportunity, we have the risk, even if it's small or big, we can invest into each other, we can build with each other. There are neighborhoods of Muslims. I see I just came from Sydney, the last thing I'll share with you, I came from Sydney and Australia. And I went to a neighborhood which has like, you know, the Muslim

neighborhoods like you know, we have in New York, we have like Jackson Heights or Steinway street or whatever, right? The Muslim neighborhoods. If you go to a Muslim neighborhood in Queens

in 1995

and you come back to that Muslim neighborhood in the same neighborhood in this area,

and 2005 and then you come back in 2015 and you come back in 2025. And I've done it not 25 yet, but I've done it. I can't tell the difference.

I look at that place and I say men time stops here.

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Doors are still hanging outside on the street. The street is still as dirty as it always was, the neighborhoods still exactly the way it was. Everything's exactly the same, Mashallah. And then there are other neighborhoods with other ethnicities and other communities that were a certain way. And now they become some of the most elite developments in the entire state.

Why does that happen? Because they're not satisfied, keeping things where they are, they're thinking about expansion and making things better for everyone. This is not just about you growing your own pizza shop. It's not just about you. He's going and empowering other people, they empower each other, they help each other, they give each other business advice, they don't see each other as competition. They cooperate and build and build and build together. They do that with each other. And this is election, he describes this and says, Well, Latina, Cafaro. But

this is Wilaya. And they do it. And this is the kind of thing that local nine was described as doing in his journeys across the world.

It's remarkable that this is this is the culminating story in the Surah. And, you know, there's lots of ways to analyze these stories and social gohealth and lots of ways to compare them. But one way you can certainly think about is the youth, the US How will come up in the beginning or powerless, right? And Allah miraculously helped them, Allah helped them in a way that we can, we can't, you cannot expect to go into a cave, and Allah will put you to sleep for 300 years, that's not going to work for you. Okay, so that's not that's not a formula for you. Sometimes Allah helps nostril min Allah that comes from Allah fine. The second story is the gardener who had resources, but he misused

his resources. He was selfish in his resources, and Allah took away his resources.

So the misuse of power is in the second story. When you get to the third story, again, you find a situation of helplessness, just like in us, how will you find a situation of helplessness and this time, no Nussle from Allah came?

No, okay, just the situation's happening. And you have to watch it happen and be frustrated. And finally came the situation where you have some power, and you're going to use it properly. So one of the ways of the dynamics of the surah is actually power and lack of power, power and lack of power. And we have to think about where are we in that scheme of things? Where am I in that scheme of things? And what kind of mentality do I have to put inside of my children and coming generations? What kind of impact are they supposed to have? We keep talking about us as being a united onma. We cannot be a civilization a powerful civilization. If we don't learn to think big, if we don't learn

to put our resources to work for us, Allah azza wa jal, makers of those who truly become the followers of the legacy of local name and of the hikma that Allah has given given us in the Quran and through that legacy that we build the hate and the guidance of Allah and the Sunnah of His messengers of Allah who spreads far and wide throughout the world. BarakAllahu li Walakum Kim, when a value er

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salam ala.

As was mentioned, inshallah I'll be here starting tonight, from seven to 10pm, we're going to be doing a deep dive study of a single Surah of the Quran, it's going to be sorted out.

And it is, I know that I made this announcement in the last year or two. But I want you all to know that of all the rules that are mentioned in the Quran. The one area the one subject that Allah talks about more than any other law in the Quran is divorce. It's the most detailed subject in the Quran. Allah puts everything in the right balance Allah revealed Amis on so clearly there's an importance to the subject that Allah says that we need to see also. And for that reason, it's not just important to people that are going through it or have gone through it and things like that, that need to understand this subject. This is something that the entire Muslim community really properly

needs to understand, because it's that pivotal and that important. So inshallah tonight is when I'm going to be starting that study some of the some of the cool things that we're going to be covering just I want you to know, we're going to be looking at how the Christians looked at marriage and divorce, how the Jews looked at marriage and divorce. How did the Arabs look at marriage and divorce before Islam? How did the Americans look at marriage and divorce? You know, through the Constitution until now, how did England look at marriage and divorce? And how is the Quran? Looking at the same thing? What is it adding? And what is it taking away? How is the Quran saying something different or

the same as all of this literature and all of the societies that have the same institution and then we're gonna go aisle by aisle through the entire Sora and channel dialogue. So that's our adventure. Hopefully it will create an interest in you family members, even non Muslims are welcome to come to get an idea of what the Quran is actually talking about. You know, so hopefully I'll see you guys tonight in sha Allah, there's a registration but you don't need to worry about that tonight just come and see how the program goes when I do recommend the program for at least 1112 years and older because it's an adult subject inshallah. So I'm

just gonna look at it well, that could show a lot of but I mean, but it doesn't really matter of fact a lot of like a and then a full capacity don't to say, I shall not manage Inshallah, they also selected Asha Inshallah, from today this week will be at eight o'clock. salata Asha, only this week from today from tonight. Until next Friday.