Jumuah Khutbah at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center on April 28, 2017.
Omar Suleiman – Dont Run People Away From God
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
As the right to be worshipped except for one God and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam as his final messenger, and we asked him to send his peace and blessings upon His messengers, his prophets, those that came before Mohammed, Salah Harney, who was Southern as well as our Prophet, Allah, his Salatu was salam, his family, his companions. And those that follow on his blessing example, until the day of judgment, we asked a lot to make us amongst them a llama, I mean, the brothers and sisters, in theory, every individual's relationship with their Creator is dictated entirely by that which is within their control. In theory, the only way that we view our religion is
the way that it was taught by our Prophet peace be upon him, and not in any other way. In theory, when we meet Muslims, or when we meet believers, it brings us closer to our Creator and closer to those that were beloved to our Creator in the past generations, because they exemplify the beauty that we seek to discover in our lives. However, all of that is theory. And more likely than not, there going to be factors on the outside of our relationship with our Creator, that are going to drive us to or away from him. And more often than not, that's people,
people that turn us away from our Creator. People that are supposed to be doing that which is righteous, but don't exemplify it. People that are supposed to characterize the best of Revelation, but do not characterize it and were turned away, or we turn others away from our Lord subhanho wa Taala. And there are many different narrations that we could go through and many different arts and verses of the Quran and a few months ago, and I'm sure that no one else would remember this, but a few months ago, I gave a hold of about this ayah Robin, alotta Jana fitna tun, Linda Medina cafaro, our Lord do not make us a trial for those who don't believe meaning Do not let us be a means by
which they are turned away. for many different reasons, do not let us be a hindrance, a set de, a barrier between them and their Creator, do not enable the oppressors and the wicked over us in a way that they would think that they are upon truth, and we are upon falsehood, and do not allow us to embody of our faith, something which does not be fitted in a way that would turn them away from their Creator. However, what about internally? What about someone who already does believe? What about your children? What about your spouses? What about your community members? What about the youth of our community? What about the Sisters of our community? What about your brother who's
sitting next to you? How do you exemplify Islam to them? And how are you becoming a means by which they come closer to Allah, rather than away from Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I want to give you a few examples of this. From the Sierra of our profits lesson from the biography of our messenger it is salatu salam, as well as from the Quran, from the Sunnah of the Prophet sly Salaam. We find a very interesting narration that took place it's narrated by Abu Masaru. There'll be a lot of time I know he said that a man came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he told the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that I don't go to the budget, or I go very late to the federal prayer,
because the one who's leading the federal prayer takes too long in his recitation.
Now keep in mind here the prophets lie Selim said that the most difficult prayers on the hypocrites are federal inertia.
And this man says, I don't go because he takes too long and his cut are too long and his recitation, or I go very late on purpose. I will miss Ruth says that the prophets lie some gathered the people and his face was full of anger. Now if I was to stop the narration here, you would probably think that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is going to lecture the people in the community about not coming to visit on time, and about how they should enjoy their standing in prayer. After all, the messenger, I think is salatu salam was a man that used to stand in prayer until his feet would swell. He was a man that could enjoy hours and hours and hours with the Koran and not be fatigued.
So you would think that he's going to lecture the people from that standpoint, from that angle of how dare you avoid the salon? How dare you feel an aversion? How dare you not enjoy the long recitation of salata fetchit but instead, he gathered
My name is Salatu was Salam and he said au Hanna's Oh people in min como una farine. There are people amongst you that run people away from Allah.
There are people amongst you that turn others away from their Lord monastery and Allah says no poor answer Pharaoh Illa Allah, fleet flee to Allah. The prophets license said there are people amongst you that make you flee away from him. And who is he upset with Allah His Salatu was salam, the Imam, or the moon, the one who liked to recite the Quran for a long time or the one that could not handle it. The messengers line someone was upset with the one who recited the Quran for not taking into consideration that person, a very famous incident with more either than Java will be a lot of time I know where more of them will be allowed. I know every night he used to go and lead his people and
allotted a shot he prayer show with the messenger Sai Salaam and then go to his people and lead them in Asia. And this is the greatest fapy of the companions, a scholar of jurisprudence, a Mufti amongst the companions. And there was a man that complained that you take too long in your Salah, you lead Salah too long.
And when that man complained about that more as well, the Allahu anhu responded in the homeowner. He's a hypocrite.
Why because that's, that's more either the Allah and His vantage point. What this man doesn't enjoy the long recitation of the Quran. He doesn't enjoy this Salatu the Isha, what's wrong with him?
And when that reaches the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, what does he do? Does he call that man to account? Or does he call more of the Allahu anhu and say, turn on aunty Amara? Are you becoming a pfitzner for the people on earth, when you leave them in Russia, read this read from the Quran that which they can handle because you have behind you, the elderly and the sick and the weak you have people that cannot tolerate that cannot stand all of that recitation, the blame went into more ad, even though all more ad says with in the homeowner. He's a hypocrite and the prophets lie. Some said the most difficult prayer on the hypocrites is pheasant and Aisha so more ads might be
telling the truth, but the prophets lie some ultimately put it on him.
You have a responsibility to embody the religion to exemplify it in a way that you would not run people away from Allah subhana wa tada you would not hinder their relationship with Allah. And he only his Salatu was Salam also received this message from Allah.
Who Tabby mountain mean Allah, He lint Allah home, it was only a mercy of your Lord that you showed leniency towards them. That you were lenient with your companions, though couldn't follow one Holly they'll call we learned faab woman Holic if you were to be rough in your language and your character if you were to be ill mannered and harsh hearted. They would have fleed away from you far from home, or stuff for a home or shower at home for them. So be merciful with them. seek forgiveness for them, and include them in consultation. Allah subhanaw taala is speaking to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah is speaking to the mercy to the world's Allah is speaking to a man that was given
miracles upon miracle upon miracle upon miracle. Allah is speaking to a man who is extremely effective at calling people to Allah, a man that lived in poverty, a man that had gained the trust of his people for decades. And Allah is saying, even if you O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam don't call the people to Allah with good manners, you will run them away. They'll flee from you.
And there are many different lessons we can take from this ayah London faab Domine herrlich and Mr. Mr. De Rahim, Allah said they would flee from you, not from Allah, they would flee from you. And in fleeing from you. They would also flee from Allah subhanho wa Taala. But it would have been used that caused the departure not Allah. So when people have an aversion to Allah or have an aversion to their Creator, because they come into contact, close contact with someone who's supposed to be a means of bringing them closer to Allah subhanaw taala and they flee away from that person and flee away from Allah. It's not a law that caused them to flee away. It's you that caused them to flee
away, it's me that caused them to flee away. And Allah subhanaw taala sing even you Oh Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if you act in a mean in a manner, which is not befitting to the truth, you will run people away from Allah subhanho wa Taala
Does that mean change the religion? Does that mean compromise the principles and the pillars of this religion? No. In fact, it starts off with and this is very profound. There are elements say if you look at this, I lost pants I started off with false before if I leave them fall is your manners if you had bad manners, the second one is if you're harsh hearted. You know why? Because they're in a mindset, even if you have a good heart. And even if you have good intentions, if you have bad manners, people won't care if you have a good heart or not. They don't even get to that part. You've already run them away from Allah subhanaw taala with the bad manners, maybe someone who knows you
very well, it can say, Well, he has a good heart. Well, you know what, I don't see that all I see are the bad manners. All I see is the fun part. I don't even need to get to the vocal part. I see the bad tongue the bad manners, I don't even need to get to the heart part. I'm going to make an assumption based on the bad manners, that the heart is also not clean. I'm going to make an assumption based on the abusive tongue, that the heart is also abusive. I don't I can't even get there yet.
And that's why when a loss of Hannah Montana teaches us the methodology of calling people to Allah subhana wa tada
lsvt big call to the path of your Lord been hikma with wisdom and Elmo, everyone has
good, beautiful preaching.
Good, beautiful preaching. A lot did not even mention the substance of the message. Allah did not mention the LM, Allah mentioned the way you communicate it? Do you communicate it with wisdom? Do you communicate it in a way that's beautiful? Or do you communicate it in a way that would run people away from a loss of Hannah Montana little Quinta, one with a legal Colombian football min Holic, they would run away from you. Not because the knowledge was not sound, not because what you were teaching your children was not right. Not because there was something wrong with the message. There was something wrong either in the way you were representing the message in your actions or in
the way you were communicating it. Either the verbal communication was off, or the actions were a misrepresentation of the message to a point that a person would say, you know, Islam seems okay, it seems okay. But the Muslims not so much. Eventually, that becomes muddied. Eventually you see it all as one. And the aversion to the people becomes an aversion to the message that those people are supposed to be representing in the first place. Now you might be thinking to yourself, well, then this is DERA. We're talking about imams. The problem is with the Imams, the problem is not with us. No, you know what selama to ignore the knob. While the Allahu anhu says about this ayah Selim Amadou
dinar says about the Aiello Quinta favela, the evil Colombian problem and how Look, if you were to be harsh in your tongue, bad mannered or harsh hearted they would run away from you. He said, the first people that would flee from you would be your family members.
It starts off with an ILA. It starts off with your family members. Imagine the pressure
and the amount of nonsense that fills the minds of our children as they grow up in this culture, the subliminal messages sometimes not even so subliminal, that your religion is oppressive and backwards and abusive, that your religion is a hindrance, that your religion is incompatible with modernity and civilization, but your religion belongs in the caves. And then they come home and dad acts like a caveman.
What does that do? It validates each and every single notion that has been put out there about their religion. Because I've seen it. I've seen it. I see it in my parents. Maybe I see it in my brothers and sisters. I see it in the masjid. When I go to the mustard, are people smiling? Are people welcoming? Are people making me feel like the masjid is a place of Allah subhanho wa Taala where the servants of Allah subhanaw taala are welcomed are made to feel like they belong, are they turning me away? Because Surely if they're turning me away, maybe that means Allah is turning me away.
they ingest it all. Suddenly, it all becomes validated. And some had a lot of psychological study after study shows what that the way that those who are closest to you, especially in a place of authority teach you or the way that you view them is the way that you're going to naturally view God.
You're going to view every authority in life in that way. So if the authority figures in my life are abusive and they're not compassionate, then surely the ultimate authority is also abusive and not compassionate.
I'll view everything and know what about mana Rahim is going to undo that.
That's something that's being ingested and being put into their hearts and minds over and over again and being reinforced over and over again and you have nothing in them in kimono theory, you could run people away from Allah, even your own family members, if the way the Quran is given to them is in an angry way, in a way that makes them feel like this is a burden not she found the manifest,
then, of course, it doesn't feel like a cure. And it feels like a punishment all the time. And it feels like discipline, of course, I'm going to have an aversion to the book of Allah. Of course, I won't see it that way. If the sinner is only exemplified and embodied in a ritualistic fashion in a way that screams anger, the no Hadeeth of every time I looked at the profits license face, I saw him smiling is going to change anything. The sooner means how long the cinema means don't do this, don't do that. The sooner will be interpreted through my experience, not through what I've heard about the profits a lot harder to sell them, I'm going to look to the people around me that either claimed to
be or are claimed to be representing the son of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. And if that spoiled, then the sinner will be spoiled in my eyes, that I'm going to see it in a way that's overbearing, that's ugly, but are we compromising? Does that mean you compromise the essence of the message? Does that mean you don't preach what the prophet slicin them preach? No, you preach it in a way where you exemplify it so that those that are closest to you will love it.
Not just people of other faiths, those that are closest to you. In fact, Selma to the novel The a lot of times I know he said, well, like a person of bad manners, even the animals would flee from him.
Not only land problem and helic Jani a nurse, not only the people, even the animals, everything around you would hate to be around you. It's an overbearing presence. How do you make the people around you? How are we making people that are on the edge feel about Allah subhana wa Tada. And when someone says, well, it's not our job, they can come to the message if they want to come to the masjid. It's not our job to make the medical field more welcoming to people the message of this the house of Allah they either like it or they don't know it is our job. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam admonished to
admonish to the Imam in the narration of Obama's rule or the Allahu taala. And it goes back to us, it goes back to how we're exemplifying it, how we are communicating it. And just as we can do a very poor job of showing down in action to our non Muslims to our to our neighbors of other faiths and our friends of other faiths and people around us we can also do a very poor job of communicating that to the people that are around us because they will interpret Islam in the way that you embody it in the way that you exemplify it. And that's why the nominal Rosario Hema Hollen said the worst damage that could be done to the religion is a corrupt scholar, the worst damage, there's the same
zella to Lanham that the the fall of a scholar is Allah to Allah, Allah is Allah to Allah is the fall of the world.
Because that's supposed to exemplify faith. When it fails to do the job. The problem is that people often will not be able to separate what is hap, what is truth and what is false. What
is the message itself substantive or not? Is the message worth it or not? And you look back at these narrations and you think about the messenger sallallahu wasallam. You think about this hadith of Abdullah Salaam radi Allahu taala anhu the Chief Rabbi of Medina when he heard the prophets lie some for the first time saying au Hannah's Oh people of Salaam spread peace amongst yourselves Well, I'll tear him apart and feed the poor amongst you are suddenly the lady when NASA Nia and pray at night while other people are sleeping through the whole agenda to be saddam you would enter Paradise in peace. It wasn't just the message. That was the first time you heard the prophets lie Selim. You
imagine the first hope but he heard from the prophets lie Some were these beautiful words. That's the inauguration speech of the prophets Isom and Medina.
But it wasn't that that won them over. You know what one of them over. He said I looked at his face for hours after the lunch later we went
and looked at the profits license face. I looked at the way he was communicating the message. I looked at who he was, and I knew that's not the face of a liar. That man is not a kidnap. That man is not a liar. That had just as much of an impact on a scholar of the Torah, a rabbi
as the words of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam because ultimately
It's not just what you learn, it's about what you experience. And it comes back to us as a people. And when the prophets lie Selim says to us, and I leave you with this hadith with the spot, when he says to us, Allah, his Salatu was salam, that a people were drowned because they were on a boat, and the people on the upper deck and the people on the lower deck as they were proceeding in their journey, the people on the lower deck had to go up to the people on the upper deck to get their water.
And when they go up to the people of the upper deck to get their water, they felt like the people on the upper deck were annoyed by them. They were annoyed by their presence. They didn't tell them stop coming.
No one stands in front of the Muslims has stopped coming to the masjid. No one tells their children stop being Muslim. No one tells the people that we subconsciously and unintentionally run away from Allah run away from Allah. They didn't tell the people on the lower deck stop coming up to the upper deck. But the people on the lower deck did not feel welcomed by those on the upper deck they didn't feel like they wanted them there. So they said you know what, we're sick of going up there and getting water from them. Let's just figure it out ourselves. So what do they do?
Start to drill holes into the bottom of the boat into the bottom of that ship and start to draw water until eventually what happens it all starts to sink and then the people on the upper deck are oblivious they say what happened guys? Why did you do that? We were giving you water What are they respond to the Tom Bina you were annoyed by us. So we just felt like we should go ahead and take the water from the bottom.
The people on the upper deck unfortunately did not realize what was happening until the boat is sinking and the ship is sinking.
All of us who would identify as being religious, whatever that means in this day and age connected to Allah, people over the people who want to bring people to Allah subhanaw taala people who desire that their children in the next generation collectively will hold on to this Deen and they will love this Deen and they will be proud of this Deen and they will be empowered by this Deen. And they will come to love Allah even more than we have ever loved the loss of Hannah Montana, we should want for our children, that they are even more connected to their Lord than we are collectively we hope we hope that Allah would bring about from this next generation a generation even better than us. And a
generation that loves a lot even more than we do and a generation that is connected to their sin not connected to this beautiful faith and empowered by it.
But sometimes we're just not paying attention to how we're making them feel when we're giving them that water.
And eventually, they'll go looking for it in other places. And when they look for it in other places, because they feel judged, they feel unwelcomed by people of Allah, or those who deem themselves people of Allah or those who are deemed by others people of Allah,
the blame is not on them for digging into the bottom. The blame is on the people on the upper deck for not making them feel welcomed on the upper deck and for not giving them that guidance for not transferring it to them in a way that they felt empowered by it. That doesn't mean change the religion of Allah He it does not mean change anything about our religion, it means we need to think about how we embody it and how we communicate it to those that are in our presence, that are Muslim as well. Not just on the outside, those that are Muslim, I should have just as much dedication to each and every single person that prays next to me in this message
that I do to anyone on the outside the mess on the outside of the masjid.
I should have just as much love because you know what, I don't know what experience that person has when they walk through that door. You know, something's a panel of Dear brothers each and every single one of you dear sisters, each and every single one of you. The person sitting next to you, has baggage because you have baggage to
all of us have baggage. And we've all had experiences and difficulties in trying to find our way to Allah subhanaw taala some of our kids here might have been forced to come to Jamaica. Some of us felt forced by social pressure to come to Jamaica or it's become routine, but we're having difficulties in our relationship with the lost parents. I'm trying to figure it out. When you stand up for prayer, and you pray next to that person, the way you pray next to that person, the way you smile at that person and say salam or Aleikum after the prayer, the way you make them feel from the moment that they came in to the moment that they went out all of that is part of their unique
journey to Allah, all of it. And you're either being used to hinder or to bring closer may allow us You and I
To bring people closer to him and not allow us to be lost in that process. May Allah Subhana hoods Allah make a man beloved to our hearts and make a man beloved to the hearts of our children and to the hearts of the people around us May Allah subhana wa tada not allow us to be a hindrance on anyone else's path to Him. May Allah subhanaw taala guide us and guide through us rectify us and rectify through us and may He forgive us for our shortcomings and not let our own shortcomings be projected onto his perfect religion alumna I mean Apollo calahonda was when he started Muslim infested in a hole for him
the dinar Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah while early He will send me your Manuela love my friend and let me know what you want me not Muslim you know what a Muslim even home while I'm watching the Casa Mian Caribbean movie with a llama fill in our water for an exhibitor. robina Juana and Susannah were in lambda for Lana, Lana coonan nominal ha serene la ma Selena was Latina la Marina, Divina a la homophilic Valley Dino Bahama Kamara buenas era urbanna habla Naaman as well as you know the reality Nakata Ariana lamattina imama la ilaha illa Anta superamerica in Konami, nobody mean now you know learn to Suppan oka in couldn't I mean a lot I mean a la mer Islam Islam or Muslims Meanwhile,
Kevin Kennedy been with them and Dean Allah Maliki whining in the lobby Meanwhile, Krishna was one of them invading him Saudi mean about the law and the law yet what are we gonna do with Exxon later on? In fact, it wouldn't, wouldn't carry well does he? Yaga caminando come to the Quran says Kuru long as Kuru Kuru Elena Is it like what are the karoli Akbar Allah Yamato sinner own waka masala