When Muslims Work Together 1 – Introduction – What Motivates Us
Date:
Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
Series: Nouman Ali Khan - When Muslims Work Together
File Size: 24.91MB
Episode Notes
Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan provides an in-depth discussion of the importance of the need for Muslims to stand on a united front and confront the inner struggles n the quest for the progression of Islam.
From an Islamic point of view, there are numerous struggles at the level of the individual such as to fight his nafs, to fight shaytan, to fight his laziness and anger, to become better in his Ibadah. We need to understand that any of these efforts that we make for others are at the end of the day more than anyone else is benefiting first and foremost ourselves. They benefit us. They don’t necessarily benefit anyone else because we are not capable of that. The Prophet ﷺ benefited humanity more than any other human being but Allah commanded him to say, ‘La amliku ahadun naafun wala darrun,’ ‘I don’t possess the power to benefit you nor the power to harm you.’
The challenges we are facing as individuals and as an ummah are unique and particular to the times we are living in. It can even be said that as Ummah we have never in our history faced the type of challenges we are facing in the current epoch.
We need to understand is that the first generation of Muslims and a majority of the scholars throughout Islamic history never went around claiming to be the only ones with the whole truth and condemning everyone else to hell. They were too humble to make such claims. Even the companions had differences of opinion amongst themselves. But they loved and respected each other.
But today the situation is drastically different where one is always trying to outdo the other thereby, tarnishing the spirit of Islam. What have been the results of difference of opinions? It results in further divisions and in-fighting. They usually end up splitting into sub-sects themselves, leading to further divisions of an already divided entity. We have to instill respect for each other keeping our difference of opinion aside.
AI Generated Transcript ©
Tanaka gene,
sha Allah Mina de Nima was swaby. He knew how
when lady
he like
Amanda was saying he he, he mahamudra
an LP Medina wa Kofi Kabira Moshi kina Machado home Isla de la jolla GTB e.
y de la he may only be rubbish actually sorry, we're silly. Dr. Melissa Hokulea hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salam O Allah shortfill ambia eva mursalin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. inshallah tada the intention of this series of talks that hopefully we we can finish today. But the law is to create a resource for Muslims that are involved in any sort of Islamic work, whether that be, you know, at a Masjid or at a school or at, you know, a charity organization, or even an MSA or any collective work any sort of activism. The idea behind this series is that allows origin doesn't just give us guidance at the level of the individual, he
also offers us guidance at the level of a community and a community, and even work that the efforts we have to make as individuals and efforts we have to make as a community, we have guidance for that in the last book also. And these few hours are supposed to be a glimpse, at least, into some of that guidance, some of that wisdom that we can benefit from, and therefore bring Baraka and bring guidance of Allah azza wa jal into whatever work that we're going to be involved in, in shallow Tyler. So this first session, I hope I can wrap this up rather quickly, in 30 minutes or less, is basically the overview, the bigger you know, just to kind of lay down a conceptual framework for
this conversation. And I want to begin with, essentially, that all human beings are engaged in a struggle, all human beings, our article said our lives, and that struggle suggests you know, you could be in struggle to just survive, people Muslim or not get out of bed, and they have to go to work to survive, or they're engaged in the struggle, that's one level of struggle, even animals do. Even animals are engaged in the struggle to survive the bird needs, leaves its nest, and comes back to feed, it's, you know, it's young, etc. The another another level of struggle above and beyond that is the struggle, if your immediate needs are met, you want to make your neighborhood safer, you
want to make sure that there's a stop sign on the street, or you want to, you know, go talk to your local county person, because their neighborhood is not clean, or this liquor store should get out of here, whatever, you know, you become involved at a communal level, and you start making struggle towards something more than just yourself. Maybe it has to do with your neighbors, maybe it has to do with your family, it has to do with your community, etc. But you struggle beyond yourself. And again, this is not something limited to Muslims, this happens in any human endeavor, you have people that just basically live their life to survive. But those that are beyond that point, those that
have the means that have a little bit of extra time and extra money, etc, then they get involved in more things, they get involved in maybe communal work, you know, and political concerns, social concerns, etc, etc, then there's a struggle even beyond that, there's a there's a third level of struggle, and that's the struggle towards a cause of belief. And it's not necessarily something tangible, this is the hard one to understand, you know, somebody, you know, petitioning for a stop sign, or somebody, you know, advocating for, you know, better schools or something like that they have a tangible goal in front of them. But then there is I believe in this idea. You know, we, for
example, for Muslims, we believe in Islam, we believe Islam is something that should be shared by humanity. Everybody should know what this beautiful religion is. And what its true teachings are, there could be someone equally passionate about Christianity, or Judaism or Hinduism or whatever else. And they want to spread that there are people who are passionate about atheism. They want to spread that in the world. And the struggle for that cause to spread that idea across the world, to different people. And that's not necessarily struggle for a tangible good, it's struggle towards an idea. And maybe you will never even see the fruition of that idea in your lifetime. Because that
idea is too big for even yourself. These are, these are the kinds of things for example, in the in the non Muslim sphere before I come to us, Muslims and the non Muslim sphere, you might have people that are struggling for
Or, you know, justice
or they're struggling for a better way of life, you know, think of the Think of the revolution in Europe, the French enlightenment, right? They're struggling against the church, they want this idea of popular democracy, or they want this idea of, you know, human beings being able to be sovereign over their own fate, as a community as a government. And this idea, they don't even know when they're fighting for it, whether they're going to live to see it or not, but they're ready to fight for it, they're ready to struggle for it, even to the extreme, where they're giving their life up for it, right. So three levels of struggle I outlined for you at the level of the individual, and a
little bit past that tangible goals within a community, tangible goals you struggle for. And then there's the intangible ideas or ideals in a society, those are three levels of struggle. Now let's paint those three struggles with Islam.
Beyond the worldly, and not just in the worldly sense in the in the in the other worldly sense. Islam also asks us to make a struggle at the level of the individual, I have to fight my knifes I have to fight chevonne I have to fight my laziness, I have to fight my anger. I have you know this struggle with myself. That's a struggle I have to make with myself, I have to struggle to become better in my in my ibadah. So many dollars we make are about the struggle of ourselves. Allahumma Niala decree Kawasaki Kawasaki robotic. Allah eight been remembering you aid me in thanking you and aid me in perfecting and beautifying my worship to you. That's a struggle with yourself, then we go
a little bit past that, and let's keep things in the American context. inshallah, even though this is universal value, you go a little past and you say I shouldn't just worry about myself, we need a machine, we need to have a place where we can worship where, you know, people can remember a lot, and so much massage got built. And then when massage got built, then there was a bigger concern. We need to educate our children, schools, God built, Sunday schools got established, then there were even more concerns, we need to help others get the word of Islam that our organizations were created. Right. So these were additional struggles. These are additional struggles that stem from
first at the individual level, then at the community level, right. And then even beyond that, there are those who are trying, you know, they have an open ended target, the open ended target is one day, we want everybody in this country to know what real Islam is, that may not be a tangible goal, it may be very open ended, but they're ready to struggle for it. And they're not turned down turned off by the idea that they're not seeing tangible results. You know, it's enough for them that that is a worthwhile activity. And any of these efforts that we make, you know, for any other human being, they can believe what they believe we believe every one of these efforts are actually at the
end more than anyone else benefiting our own selves. They benefit us. They don't necessarily benefit anybody else because we're not capable of that. You know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam benefited humanity more than anybody else, more than anybody else. And yet, Allah commanded him to say Hola, hola, como Ron, what if I do not possess the power to benefit you and I don't possess the power to harm you. I think about that. The Prophet Alayhi salat wa salam is more beneficial to humanity than any other human being that ever lived. And he's commanded to say I don't possess the power to benefit you. In other words, the benefit that the Prophet Alayhi salat wa salam has given
us that we benefit from him. The credit keeps going to him through him to Allah azza wa jal, and that's the attitude of the believer, the attitude of the believers, whatever good I'm doing, I'm not benefiting anybody except myself. That's why I'm benefiting in the end. Me even giving sadaqa is benefiting myself, me helping build the machine helping out of school, giving a charitable donation, whatever it may be, is helping me and the benefit that comes to others is not from me, it's from Allah. That's the attitude that one develops, right? This is unique to us. This is not shared by others who make struggles across these three different levels. Now, these three struggles, they can
be, you know, they may be disconnected in other worldviews, but in Islam, the struggle for yourself and the struggle for tangible goods in the community. And then beyond that the struggle for the idea of Islam itself to benefit Islam itself. They're interconnected, they're married to each other. You can't just for example, be an activist, that that doesn't worry about themselves, you have to be worried about myself. And you know, sometimes this kind of imbalance happens, some people, they, you know, they will get so active and involved in an organization or volunteering, you know, they become so engrossed in that volunteering activity that they don't even have time to pray properly. And they
don't even have time to reflect on for themselves, or, you know, to engage in personal worship, they become, you know, they start having a diminished role in that and having an excited role in the other and that's not that's not something acceptable in our religion. These things are interconnected.
So one of the studies we're going to do is how are they interconnected? How are they interconnected, then, beyond the fact that they're interconnected?
This proves something to all of us. religions, generally, you know, especially modern postmodern society, religion is considered something personal, like religion is, you know, in our Constitution, for instance, we have the freedom of religion, and just like the freedom of speech, you know, and the freedom of choice, etc, except these freedoms that we enjoy in this country are because religion is a personal matter. So nobody can stop me from praying, and I can't stop somebody else from worshipping the devil if they want to. that's entirely up they want to believe in a god their business if they don't believe in no God, that's their business, right? It's a free marketplace of
ideas. And it's a personal thing. But you know, this understanding from the Koran and from the life of the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam, it lends us to something. Islam isn't only concerned with yourself. If you're a Muslim, Islam is not just your personal business. Islam, by definition needs to be shared. Islam, by definition seeks to benefit others to it seeks to end if I'm a believer in Islam, then I cannot say my Islam is limited to myself. It doesn't affect anybody else. I don't have to do anything else, but worry about myself. So long as I'm praying, so long as I go to Hajj, so long as I give some zakat. So long as I pray, I'm set. I don't have to worry about anybody else.
That is not something our religion lets us do. By definition, it is at the core of it concerned with others, one of the most fundamental sutras of the Quran that probably all of you know by heart is soulless. Right? So tell us a very short surah are easy to memorize. Most of you probably know it by heart. If Islam was just about yourself, it would be in London Dena Amanullah, Amina Sally heart, full stop.
If it was just about yourself, it would just be a little Idina Amanullah.
But we have a little Athena amanu, Mohammed Ali heart and we have, what are wasabi hot? What are some of the subject that is necessarily engagement with others, that isn't necessarily sharing this religion and its goodness with others. So it is something that is inherent into our religion. And it's not something I have to prove to you we look around is the fact that we're sending in a question. The fact that there are volunteers recording this video, this is actually collective work, there are people that you know, could just be sitting home, and eating Hello food and waiting for Lord and pray Lord and say, Look, my Islam is done. I'm not doing anything wrong. But you know,
we're we we built community, we engaged ourselves in this kind of work, right? So there is something that inherently we appreciate about the struggle for this religion beyond ourselves, then there are a couple of realizations that are very important. And those are that, you know, we have to understand what what time in history we live in, if I was giving this talk, 50 years ago, maybe my content would have been different, you know, based on the reality around us. And even though I'm not going to give you a comprehensive kind of social analysis of wearables, substan, I do want to share some things with you. We are living in a time, where there are so many different efforts, and there
are so many different movements. And there are so many different labels, all under this big thing we call Islam. There are so many flavors of Islam. There's so many variations within Islam. To give you a personal example, I was
my adult life began in in New York City, and I spent, I spent most of my adult life actually, in New York City, I only left New York about five years ago. And I was exposed to Islam and Assyria at a serious level in New York. And depending on which Masjid you go to, you'll get a different brand of Islam, completely different from the other. And you get exposed to very different ways of thinking about Islam. I'm not here to label groups or ideologies. And I'm not talking about like, outside of the mainstream fold. I'm talking about Sunni Islam, mainstream Islam. Within that you have a lot of variety, you have a lot of variations. And as a young person, I was like a teen, you're very
impressionable. So you get exposed to one and you're like, this must be the right one. Then you get exposed to the other and you say, well, maybe maybe there's something wrong with that one, this must be the right one. And you keep kind of experimenting is this experimental experience, in that I at least had in my early earlier, a youth right. But at the end of it all, one thing became obvious. One thing became very clear to me, Islam and the struggle for Islam is not one thing. And it will never be owned by one group. It can't be that time is over. That was the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Islam was one thing. It was one people. They had exactly the same
understanding on every issue. And they represented Islam and if there was a difference of opinion, they could take
Back directly to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam and he could answer them for it for them immediately in the flesh. We have the Quran and we have the Sunnah. Yes. But Have there been differences of interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah? Yes. Are there going to be intellectual legitimate differences of opinion among us? Yes. Are there going to be different varieties of Muslims? Absolutely. Now there's two attitudes we can take one of the attitudes is the one that I'm holding on to is correct. And everybody else not only are they wrong, they are deviant, corrupt, heading into the Hellfire, stay away from them, if you know what's good for you, etc, etc, etc.
That's one attitude. And I've seen that attitude. I'm from New York after all. I've seen that attitude, don't go there, they'll send you to hell don't listen to them. They're Islam's corrupt. And the other we have the right Islam. And the other one the same way, everybody's proprietary holding on to their variation of Islam as the right one, everybody else's. I don't know what they're doing. But actually, at the end of the day, the more you mature in your knowledge of Islam, you realize that the struggle for Islam, the work for Islam, is not going to be owned by one group, one community, one individual, one school of thought, it's not going to happen, it's just not going to
happen. That's not practically possible. And if you know, it recently, 100 I had a chance to go to Hajj, as I mentioned before, you realize how much diversity there is in Islam, when you're at Hajj,
how wildly different Muslims can be, you realize that if not any place and Hajj. And actually I believe that you can easily observe that in the United States to there's quite a diversity among us. Even within Dallas, you're going to find some incredible diversity of Muslims. And so the reason I'm bringing this up, is that one of the first things that I want to remind myself of and hopefully instill in all of you, is to have respect for good work that is going on, whether it's coming from people that are exactly like you, Muslims that are exactly like you, or it's coming from Muslims that aren't exactly like you. So long as it's good work, then it should be respected, it should be
respected, and it should even be supported. It should even be supported. And it's not, and we shouldn't just support or aid or agree with people that are exactly like ourselves. That's again, impractical. There may be somebody there are scholars, for example, I will I'm not here to name them. There are scholars that I have tremendous respect for. And at the same time, I can't get myself to agree with some of their positions. I just can't do it. I and I've told them I just this is one thing I cannot agree with. But I still love you to death. And when they do good things or when they start good projects, I wholeheartedly support them. It's not that I disagree with one
thing. And that leads me to say, I'm not going to support this person, there's one thing they said I don't agree with, which other human being Are you going to agree with? 100%? Do you agree with your wife? Does your wife agree with you? 100% on everything, do your children agree with you 100% on everything, how's that even possible? So if we become so idealistic, that we're not going to work with someone until we are exactly on the same page on every single issue, then it is impossible for us to work with each other.
After all, at the end of the day, even the companions of the Allahu anhu much mehreen even they had differences of opinion among themselves. In the interpretation of cron of all things, they will be independent of us for the long run, who is opinion would be one thing and another Have you ever been massaged his opinion would be something else. Same idea, but they loved and respected each other. So that's something we have to instill into ourselves, inshallah Tada. Now, I've talked about the diversity of the mind how we have to respect different, you know,
different avenues or different kinds of diversities. one ayah that comes to mind and it's interesting that it's one of the last ions revealed so little Maya, is one of the last settlers revealed in the Quran. And in the beginning of Soto that Larissa will told us what the eligibility were taqwa. Tawana is commonly translated as cooperate. So the ISS cooperate in good things and piety that's a rough translation of the ayah but the hour in the Arabic language comes from our own our own means aid and serious aid. Like not just any small help serious aid is called our own desperate help is called our own. And that's the same word that's in the root of the fatty when we
say ear canal Buddha aka the stallion it's the same root actually is from our own also the our new seriously help each other. Seriously help one another. Help each other a lot. I'll build on all things good. Allies origin did not even specify which good deeds he just says and bear and by the way, Albert is probably the most comprehensive word in the Arabic language for goodness. What does what does that mean? anything good
anything good? If it's happening, support it, if it's happening supported, and this is a good time also, to highlight something else that'll that, you know, it'll save me from, you know, reiterating it later. And that is that there's not one cause in Islam. There's not one project in Islam. There's a, you know, as diverse as communities are, the our needs are diverse, the work of Islam is diverse. So for instance, educating children is one project. But within that project, there could be 100 smaller projects, how are we going to educate them in the Quran? How are we going to educate them in history? How are we going to educate them in manners? How are we going to educate them in you know,
the other sciences? How are we going to educate them in you know, a character, etc, etc, etc, right? These are each individual projects. When we talk about building, you know, establishing community or counseling, counseling for teenagers is a project counseling. Middle schoolers is a project, you know, counseling, married couples is a project, counseling seniors is a project, these are individual projects. So when you think of it like that efforts that have to be zoned in on zoomed in on and then excelled, and then you and I should realize, we, me personally, and you personally, we have to ask ourselves, how can I contribute? What can I serve in? What good can I do? Or what good
do I think I could be a really good asset towards? Maybe I need to start something new, maybe something already exists, and I can make it better along the lines of what I was thinking. You see, for instance, you know dour people talk about the importance of dollar, but that was not one thing is 1000 things. There are efforts happening on very specific forms of Delvaux, for example, you know, john Fletcher, for instance, is working on Islam in Spanish. Now in the Spanish language, that's a very particular project. And it's very, I respect that project a lot. Because that's something that's much needed. And so that's one area similarly, you know, that whatever particular,
you know, groups of people, like, you know, the prophet alayhi salatu salam would send people to tribes that were people that tried to make vow to them, right. So under what I derive from that is understanding for yourself, where am I going to contribute? really doing like, you know, people do go to a counselor and they like, what career should I do? You know, here's what I'm good at math, I kind of like science, I hate art, blah, blah, blah, what should I do? Well, you should be an accountant, and you should be this or you shouldn't be that. Right? They get counseling. Similarly, you and I should actually kind of sort of think about counseling ourselves or seeking counsel from
others in our talents, our experiences, our education, how can that be used to service them in some way? And it can also be should take into consideration your interests. What are you interested in? What do you feel passionate about? Because Islamic work is something you should feel passionate about. You don't just do it like grunt work. You do it because you love doing it. You were made for it, you know, and that's what you have to find for yourselves and inshallah tada like minds come together and they cooperate with each other. What are our little bit, but he added what I wouldn't believe what taqwa he added the word dukkha, which is really beautiful and very subtle wisdom in
adding the word dukkha dukkha in its origin. And you probably heard many talks about taqwa one of the core meanings of taqwa is protecting yourself.
And duck, why is an individual thing
that what is the most individual thing about social media
is here, it's the most private like nobody can see inside my heart. Nobody can look in there. On the one hand, the I began talking about us cooperating with each other collective work, and immediately said, make sure that you cooperate in instilling each other's stuff. Why to Why? Just because you're doing good work doesn't necessarily guarantee you have Taqwa. So remind each other Hey, it's time for salaat remind each other we should recite more Koran. You know, we should make a lot of dough have that spiritual element in our activism is embedded inside the work of cooperation with our ability. What taqwa together It's incredible. So we don't just become volunteers that an MSA that
pass around flyers and you know, do all send all the emails and update all the Facebook pages and send out all the tweets. But at the end of all of that, we're also reminded by that same MSA but the brothers and sisters to each other. The sisters remind me the other sisters, hey, listen, it's time for salon we should pray and we should pray some extra in the office before the convention that Allah makes a blessing makes it a blessing and nothing bad happens and Allah protects it and the leg saps all this effort that stuck well, so we help each other in bill and in the quality if needed, whether or not you know the Arabic language. Some students would know what I will do is actually
with
Arabic, the original Arabic word is when I wanna
One time is removed. And this is a subtlety in the Arabic language. Some say they're both allowed, which is true. But the benefit linguistically is don't even cooperate in the least bit. Either, if me, first of all don't cooperate in sins. And now the reversal has happened, you see in the first part when you cooperate in goodness, and in dakhla, the goodness the project was mentioned first, then the personal spirituality was mentioned. But when make sure you don't cooperate with each other, the first thing mentioned is its reverse. The spiritual problem is mentioned first, which is an Islam and Islam is sin. don't cooperate with each other in sins. In other words, hey, now that
the convention is over, I want to go grab, you know, get some hookah, I
want to go hang out later, I want to go grab the movie, I want to go out, do this or that or the other, don't cooperate with each other incense. Don't let that happen to you. You know, when people are together, the collective responsibility goes down young people can testify to that. When people are young guys are together, a bunch of people are together. And one of them says, Hey, man, let's go watch a movie. Then even if one of you is thinking, it's not a good idea, you just kind of go along, you don't feel as guilty. There's a collective dropping of guilt. And just the opposite is true, too. When yours, there's a bunch of people and one of them says, hey, let's go to the masjid
and pray, everybody will go. It's easy to encourage a group to do good things. It's also easy to encourage a group to do bad things. So Allah says, make sure you cooperate with each other in good things. And taekwon makes sure not to cooperate, because it's very easy for the entire group to go downhill. don't cooperate in sin. And listen, what happens when people young people especially get together and talk too much. They start making fun of each other, they start backbiting they start using, you know, start making inappropriate jokes. things go south really bad. You know, you go to somebody's house for dinner, just a bunch of friends are talking and in for a little bit, the
conversation was somewhat productive. And eventually, or not a couple of minutes go by, and this is like a really bad conversation and you're involved in it for an hour. This is Islam.
And what does it lead to further it doesn't just when your heart becomes dirty with sin, then it creates even more, it's the opposite, no more cooperation will not I will not allow if me when one animosity. animosities are brewed. Now you start turning into a cult, a gang, you guys hang out together. And when you guys get together, you bash the other guys, you talk trash about them. And so you're, the more you get meat, the more cut off you are from everybody else. And that's one of the great dangers of Islamic work, great danger of Islamic work. When you're involved in your youth group at your Masjid, and you guys get together, then it's easy to bash the other youth to be
totally schooled them this time, we got them, our program was so much bigger, we're so much better. Those guys don't even know what they're, you know, talking about, etc, etc. It's so much so tempting to just do that, to build that animosity. But I started by saying all Islamic efforts have to be respected. All of them have to be respected. I got a phone call, you know, from I actually, before I got a phone call, I met this brother at the state convention, I was at the convention and there was a fellow from Australia. That was there, just to see how we hold conventions because they're trying to do Islamic work in Australia. And he said, You know, I could use your advice on the Arabic
program in Australia or trying to set up an Arabic program and this and that, and, you know, if you don't have to share your tips or whatever, if you think that they're proprietary for the you know, or, you know, if you you know, if you feel that we can hire you for it, I was like roll teach in Australia, do it what am I gonna come to Australia and teach, take the curriculum, use it?
Just cuz you know, they're fulfilling a need, where I can't possibly help yet. So go do it, do whatever you can. And so if there's a youth group here, and there's a youth group in Plano, and there's a youth group in Irving and there's a youth group in Fort Worth or whatever, the more the merrier. that's a that's a really needed resource. Okay.
So, what are our taqwa? What are the other if me, what are the one this is like the golden rule of working collectively as Muslims, we have to cooperate in all good things. We have to forget our labels, we have to forget that we are, you know, we have to further the organization.
We're not loyal to organizations. We're loyal to the work of Allah. That said, Allah will not ask us under which banner? Did you do your work? Allah will not ask her which logo did you put on the flyer? It's not going to be asked. We're going to be asked for our intentions. We're going to be asked for the sincerity and the openness with which we work with others. And I tell you, if
You get if you get so hung up on labels, and you get so hung up on logos and you know named your brand, the name of your project should be prominent. If that becomes at the forefront, then you definitely create a culture of animosity, you create competition, you create unnecessary, why are they having a program? I have a program. Why is that happening? This is happening. You know, and you start seeing your effort as something that's competing with other efforts. So hon Allah, this is not the direction Islamic work should go in. That is not how a healthy community flourishes. I argue in the last couple of minutes of this introduction in shallow Tada. I argue that establishment of the
suta Shula says and at Medina Allah tala Kofi he established the deen and don't be divided in it. Establish the deen and don't be divided in establishing the deen is not one struggle, it's a million struggles. It's a million projects. And each one of them is you know, I compare establishing the dean to building a building. When you're building a building, it is made up of bricks.
Everybody's working on one brick or the other. So don't think it's not part of establishing the deen it's part of a bigger picture. And you may not see the full building yet. But you know what the more people are at work, the more people are doing covering different areas one is handling this room The other is handling that room, the more people are doing work the further the establishment of Dean is going and this is how it progresses slowly, gradually, even Allah gives the example of the entire Islam itself La ilaha illAllah itself Allah gives it the example of a tree well Mater Luca limited in play but Inca shallot in play button, the example of a good the good word meaning La ilaha illa
Allah is like a tree does a tree goat grow all of a sudden? No, it takes its sweet time. It takes years, the roots have to be deep. And the branches go in one direction or different directions. Branches going every which direction. They go in every which direction. That's the diversity of the oma. It goes in every which direction. And each of those directions has to be respected. So this was a little bit of an overview that I wanted to share with you about you know, what is going to be talked about, I'm just going to give you the titles of you know, some of the conversations I'm going to be having with you guys in shallow Tyler. In the next in the beginning of the next session, what
time is the lawyer by the way?
Also 145 Okay, so I'll give you five minutes off, and then I'll do the next session because I want to I'd rather be done quicker than later. So I'd rather do it that way inshallah. So the next session I'm going to talk to you about is what should motivate you and me to volunteer. What should motivate us to do this work. And though there are so many I have kuranda talk about that. I'm just going to take one passage again from Salt assura which tells us about establishing a lesbian and akima Deena without a photography. I'll talk about that one passage and how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is motivated to do this work. So this is how Allah motivated His Prophet alayhi
salatu salam, and we should be inspired by that and we should be motivated as a result.
Only we let him initiate one on
one photo.
Roku in
the manager
buying a home while Allah can
be karela
melancholia in a home
in LA Vina o de todo kita
de him laughing Shakira, Minho, moody
corbishley Sabri were silly. de Vaca Nakata, melissani Gokhale al hamdu lillahi wa salatu salam, ala rasulillah, who on earth he was married to mama dad, once again salamati Kumar, Mottola, hirakata, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had basically three major audiences. Besides the Muslims, he had three major audiences he had the most raccoon, the idol worshippers of Makkah, he was interacting with the Christian community and he was interacting with the Jewish community, of course, both of them together, the phrase in the Quran is located. Right, those who were given the book and the people of the book, that's the phrasing use for them in the Quran. And of course, to
all three of these groups, he's trying to deliver the message of Islam.
And there are enough people around that are discouraging the Prophet Alayhi, salaatu wa Salaam, and all of us know the effect that discouraging language has on us, when people discourage you from doing something or discourage your potential or discourage the productivity of your actions and why are you even bothering what's the point of that you're wasting your time. When you hear that over and over and over again, it can happen
have an effect on your motivation. It can wear down on your motivation, right? And that's just a human thing. And these aren't just anybody that's discouraging the Prophet sallallahu sallam. It's the elders that he's come to know and love and respect his entire life. It's these knowledgeable people of the Jews and the Christians that are the source of discouragement, to say the least to put it mildly, but in the IR I'm about to share with you the discouragement is not coming from them. It seems at first, that the discouragement is coming from Allah subhanho wa Taala. He says NLT Medina, Allah tala, Kofi, you should establish the dean and don't be divided in it. Okay, establish the dean
establishing the dean means deliver the message to the people of Makkah. Maki surah Soto Shura, he says Kabbalah and mushy kena method rowhome la, it is too big a deal for the people of shirk, to accept what you're calling them to, it's too heavy for them. Now, if somebody else was telling the profits or something they're never going to accept it's too heavy for them. It's too big for them. They're not gonna take it. He might not be demotivated because, you know, so what if they say it, but who's saying it to him?
Ally's saying to him Kabuto Chiquita, matadero luminae it's too big a deal for them. It's too hard for them to accept what you're calling them to.
And then so the profit size that I'm realized is what are what he is calling them to is too big of a losses is too big for them is too hard for them that it is too hard for them. Then what's the point? Why should I even bother inviting them? The next part of the answer is Allahu alayhi wa Yasha. Actually Ally's the one he selected towards himself whoever he wants. Well, yeah, de la even you need any guides towards himself, whoever turns to him. But the first appearance de motivation is that the people have sherek they don't even they have no experience with a book. They don't have previous prophets. They don't know about this al Qaeda business all new for them, all of this is new
for them. So this, they have no exposure to this, it's too hard for them to accept. So now the prophets hopes sallallahu alayhi Salaam turn towards the people that have knowledge, who are the people that have knowledge, the Jews and the Christians, maybe they have better hope. The next is as well matter for Rocco in loving da de vida.
The Prophet salallahu alaihe salam expects more from them, because they have knowledge. Allah says actually, they didn't fall into disagreement until after knowledge came, knowledge was not the reason they accepted the truth, knowledge actually became the reason they rejected the truth.
Because they use knowledge as a means of power. knowledge to them was a weapon. And when they owned it, then they had control. So they use their knowledge to say, No, we can give anybody else that authority. And so we come to another. And I hope I can be brief and concise in this matter. So I can get this point across the the dual nature of knowledge in collective Islamic work. One of the areas of Islamic work, for example, is our teaching as one of the major areas of Islamic work, right. And of course, this area of Islamic work requires knowledge. You can't really be teaching somebody if you don't have knowledge, and what area of knowledge depends on what you're teaching. Okay? Now,
when you if you do have knowledge, and you're teaching, and you have a following, and people are listening to you, and somebody else comes along, and apparently they have more knowledge than you do,
and your audience starts slipping away, and you feel like Hey, what happened? That guy, he took all my crowd. So maybe I should prove to the people with my knowledge how that guy is no good.
And they should stay with me.
You understand? Now the guy is this knowledgeable person who's supposed to be sharing knowledge for the sake of Allah is now using that knowledge as a weapon as a means, to put it crudely, to hold on to his market share.
It's just becoming a capitalistic exercise. Now. Don't listen to that guy. Listen to me.
And now understand that the Jews and the Christians, one of the things that had happened at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was that the knowledge of the Torah and the
the knowledge of the Torah and the knowledge of the Bible, were actually exclusive classified information. Not any Christian knew about the Bible, not any new Jew, about any any Jew knew about the Torah. These were the scholars of the Jews and the scholars of the rabbis that knew about these books. So if you want to learn their religion, you better come to us. You better go to us.
Now this prophet comes on a Salatu was Salam. And he's making the knowledge of Allah's book accessible to everybody. He's not just saying I have the knowledge of the book, he's teaching it to me sabie
knowledge is becoming open source, if you want to put it in programming terms is becoming an open source. And if it does become a
One source who loses their market share the people who had knowledge. And because they had knowledge, they were the ones you could go to.
The other thing with knowledge, though, you've heard many lectures about the benefits of knowledge and the merits of knowledge that's there. I don't deny any of it. But understand the other side of it, I refer to it way back over here in a lecture before you have a car problem, for example, to help you understand this issue, you have a car problem, you go to a mechanic, you don't know anything about cars, you're like me, I'm scared of an oil change. I don't know anything about cars, nothing. So I go to a mechanic and he realizes, I don't know anything. And all I needed was an oil change. But the guy looks at my car and says, you need a new transmission, or fan belt, you're
probably need to replace the engine. And this and that. He gives me like an A list of like, 10 things?
Do I have any way of saying he's lying or telling the truth? No. When knowledge is in the hands of one or two or a few? Is there the possibility that they can use it to take advantage of other people? They can do that? Right? They can do that? Certainly. And if I know about cars, I'm like, What are you talking about? Man? Show me the belt. What are you talking about? He'll be exposed. Now, they were leadership of the Jews and Christians at that time, were they not using knowledge to their advantage? Allah calls it selling the ayatollah, as well, because there was they were using that knowledge as a source of manipulation. And so they did not want this knowledge to be taken away
from them. And they use that knowledge to keep the divisions going, because it is through those divisions that they benefited. Now, I'm not here to talk about using Christians, folks. I'm here to talk about little
is this phenomenon existed in the Muslim Ummah,
people using knowledge, Islamic knowledge, to basically hold on to a market share, and to basically nullify everybody else's efforts and to literally turn the knowledge of Islam into a this cultish industry.
The prophets hope so let's get back to the passage the prophets hopes sallallahu alayhi wa sallam were okay the machinery Khoon are not knowledgeable. They're not going to accept Islam. It's too big a deal for them. Allah said, Maybe these people have knowledge, since they have knowledge should be easy for them. Allah says Actually, it's because of their knowledge. They disagree with each other, on buying a home out of the urge to rebel against each other. They use that knowledge as a means of you know, making themselves even more arrogant knowledge is supposed to make you humble. So little Islam is the the ending of socialism is a passage about that knowledge is supposed to make you
humble, but their knowledge made them arrogant. They wouldn't be able to be put down. Why would they accept the supremacy of an Arab messenger of all things? Are they sought to set up? Well, not?
Not me? No, I won't go into the rest of the ayah. But I just want to share with you there was one, you know demoralizing statement mushrikeen are not going to accept there was another demoralizing statement now that people have the Jews and the Christians they not they have knowledge, but they use that knowledge for the exact opposite purpose. Instead of coming to guidance, they use it to further their arrogance.
So the prophets I said I was thinking just like he will think about that people have five, what do you what do you think if they don't accept Islam, who will accept Islam, you remember, if they don't become believers, at least who can their children, so his hopes will now go to the next generation? Now the ayah concludes why Amen. Latina ue full Kitab I'm in Bali, him Luffy shacman Hungary
no doubt those who are given the book and inheritance after them. The people who are going to inherit this religion from people that disagree with each other, they're in doubt about it, they're not sure about it either. Can't say much about their mind either. The future can mean humare so he's got three levels of problems then we should include will not accept the People of the Book have knowledge and they use it for corruption, not for guidance, and their future generations are riddled with doubt. problem after problem after problem and you know what's weird, I started this session by saying, I will show you why how Allah motivates His Prophet. Elisa, remember, I told you that and so
far, what does it sound like? How is Allah de motivating is probably
one of the most remarkable IOD to me on this subject is the next one. It really is fascinating. If you think about it, it's fascinating. Allah says when he finally that deca, just those words, finally danika do have a world inside them. Allah says then for that reason,
invite
brief translation for that reason, invite what is the prophets job at the end of the day. So the lesson I'm inviting people, that's his job. And unless as I have listed before you three major, major, major problems with the audience you have in front of you three major problems enough for anybody
Else to hear that and say there's no point to invite them.
There's no point there's no purpose, unless has actually because these problems are so major. And that is why you have to invite them. That is why I chose you some of the law news, Hello, this is not just any man's job, this is your job. If the problems were small, it wouldn't need the greatest messenger of all humanity.
It is because these problems are so big, you're needed for the danika federal what is the motivation given to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam? The motivation? Isn't the motivation given isn't all your path is going to be easy. they'll accept what you're seeing right away. Don't worry about it. No, no, no, no, no, the motivation given to him is this is a toughest crowd you'll ever have anybody's ever had. These are the toughest crowd anybody's ever had. And you will deal with them directly.
Previous profits, think about it previous profits, some profits should equal.
Some profits dealt with people of the book.
One dealt with one kind of problem when dealt with the other kind of problem. Some dealt with the ignorance, some dealt with the arrogance, some dealt with the knowledgeable HR, they seldom dealt with people of the book.
You know, Zachary Allison dealt with people of the book.
But this prophet has to deal with everybody. And the worst of them to the worst of it.
And he has to deal with it directly. And unless as that's the reason you've been chosen, what am I telling you then and myself? I'm telling you and myself if you look around us and this is coming back to us now, when Muslims get together for dinner parties jasha bunny Shani, what do we discuss problems? We love discussing problems. Man this is going on and that's going on and they're doing this and this one's doing that and oh my god, we love problems. And you know, some of you Mashallah are seasoned problem, discussion experts, you spent your entire life that's the sooner you've established, that's what makes you Sunni. You just you've been talking about problems of the
Muslims, your whole odr in Qatar, holy crap robber. That's when your whole life.
And you know what Allah says, Yes, there are huge problems. But you, Allah decided you and I will be alive in 2012. around all of these problems, and every generation of Muslims, Allah raises, did every generation Muslim see problems around them? Yes. And Allah raises the generation of Muslims that he knows is qualified to solve those problems.
Because of those problems, you and I exist, because those problems have to be solved. You and I have been given a air debris. That's why we're here. But he that he got federal, and stand firm, don't buckle because you see problems, what's stuck in kilometers. Stand firm as you've been commanded one at home, and don't follow their empty, empty desires. You know what that means? Don't be demoralized, because all they want is to you not to be motivated. So you would stop worrying about this Islam thing. We're not at our home. Welcome to Bhima Angela, la hoomin Kitab in and tell them I've been, I've been commanded. I've come to believe in whatever Allah revealed in his book, a lot
of reveals that he charged me with this mission and I have to invite so I will, whether you listen or not, what we'll move to Dr. de la Vina co I'm going to do what I'm going to do. This is the current version of you know, in modern society, say Mind your own business. Unless has led Armando Kumar, Maluku, we have already do you have yours, you know what that means? You can keep doing all the evil you want. You can keep spending trillions of dollars on your propaganda, go ahead, we're still gonna, we're not gonna give up. We're gonna do what we're gonna do. That's what I'm gonna welcome.
You do what you're gonna do, you can call on the forces of shape and the armies of shaitan and do whatever you want, we will do our work.
That's, that's the standard of the Muslim. That's the standard takes. That's the motivation.
And then, even among other Muslim efforts, just because I'm making effort through one organ, at the end of the day, we're going to work through organizations. That's just how human societies organized you're going to work through a machine, you're going to work through a national institution you're going to work through in a college or a mother cell or a school or you know, whatever you're going to work through one of those channels for the sake of Dean you're not going to just work by yourself you're going to work through some other collective initiative but you make do it and a lot of big metal bandana male let make union between all of us male let make union between all just because and
you know, some Muslims, I think prematurely say man, there's so many Islamic organizations stuff in law. Why can't just we have we can just have one Muslim organization I told you in the beginning of this series where most of you weren't here. That's not how Islam works. There's not one effort, there's gonna be 1000s of efforts and they all have to be respected, so long as they're addressing some
Thing unique, if you're going to start an effort, if you're gonna start an organization, be my guest do it All the best to you just make sure you didn't start something in competition with something else.
You started something because there was a need and it wasn't being addressed. And so you felt that should be addressed. That's when you have the need to start a new organization. There's an area that isn't being served. So you start something new, not those guys did it, they're pretty successful, I should start something just like it's like it'd be successful to know that you're not you're making competition. That are the that's not that's in a healthy competition is competition and good deeds, not in undercutting other efforts. Because at the end of the day, you know, look at the social realities, Muslims are a minority in this country, we have a small population. On top of that, which
means financially, and physically, our manpower and our financial resources are limited. So if there's a good effort happening in one area, then all of our resources should be put in that. And if we want to put money in other efforts, they should be complimentary efforts, not competing efforts, they should be complementing the effort that's happening here, not competing with it. There are cities in the in this country, for example,
Muslim communities, very well established, Islamic High School, easy to build are hard to build,
hard to build within a half a mile of each other to Islamic schools, all the way to high school.
And they both have their fundraisers.
My God, why? Because this principle doesn't like the personality of that principle.
All of us have to suffer because somebody's personality disorder. Because we don't know how to work with each other. We don't know what it means that the work of Islam is greater than ourselves. You have to put personality aside, you have to put that aside but more about that in channel with Allah after our real break, because I really want to this this session was more about the the motivation. And the point I'm hoping I'm getting across to all of you is that it is because of these problems that Allah chose this oma so the problems around us aren't a reason for us to complain the problems around us as they say, in Arabic, Sham Moodle, and so on. And so I didn't fold up your sleeves get
to work, it's supposed to the problems around us should make us more serious. You know, I when I went to Hajj, so many people go to college and they get depressed.
Right is really awesome. It's spiritual, but you see some really bad stuff, some pretty, you know, sad things you see there, and you can come back depressed, maybe the state of the ignorance of the people the poverty, the you know, the child slavery, there's so many like, ugly things you see. And it can be can really mess with your head, you know, not to mention that, that tower with the lights shooting out of it and all of that, but, you know,
it could mess with you. But you know what, you come back with more resolve, that just means we're not doing enough work.
And work needs to get done, and alone would never leave us hopeless. He would never leave us, you know, without his aid. If we were ready to do work, things will change. The Baraka from Allah will come. That's what we have to believe. That's, that's the motivation that you and I share. So that's, um, Hamdulillah, the conclusion of our first session, I'll give you a little glimpse of the next session that's coming. The next session is going to be short. I think I can wrap it up in 30 minutes, I think. And that's going to be balance, striking a balance within ourselves for collective work, working together working with an organization volunteering, you know, being active and our own
personal spiritual needs. How do we balance both of those things? What is what is guidance about that? So we'll deal with that and shout out Allah in our next session, and that's going to be inspired by the last few minutes of social hedge specifically. So with that, I conclude barakallahu li walakum feel for added Hakeem when a family with er can be it with Kim saramonic mirandola Ricardo