Sh. Omar Suleiman, Founder and President of Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, Fellow at Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, speak about reclaiming the narrative about Prophet Muhammad ï·º at the 2017 ICNA-MAS Convention in Baltimore, MD.
Omar Suleiman – Reclaiming The Narrative About Our Prophet SAW – Part 1
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of studying the Prophet Muhammad's life and his actions to one's success. They stress the need for more time to develop one's realization and the notion of "anti intellectualism." The speaker discusses the norm of a man wanting to send captivity to his partner, but argues that this is not his norm. They suggest avoiding warm behavior, avoid a woman, and avoid a woman-to- Men relationship.AI: Transcript ©
The beginning of a lot more praise and glory belongs to a lot Lord of the worlds indeed a lot of deserving of the best defense and the most beautiful phrases, those that we say far above and beyond anything we can say about him some kind of was out of the glorified exalted can testify that no one is worthy of our worship and our devotion, and our dedication and our absolute love and obedience, blah, blah, blah, alone, finding partners to choose to bring in and
indeed, in truth, is Prophet and his servants and His Messenger, whom Allah said to the mercies of the world.
Begin
why is it that Allah Subhana Allah data shows that our profits from above or below, come forward from the purest of ancestry
and that he
have the most impeccable brightest smile.
And that he added his gospel of Salaam for all had the most flawless morals and ethics.
Because a lot of
that was legitimising him.
I claim legitimizing him by that perhaps more than anything else. Because whether people like to admit it or not, we as human beings, historically, and this is even capitalized on in marketing. We are more moved by people, personas, personalities that impress us, we see that as more legitimate. We're more inspired by those that impress us than those that convinced us our decisions, we may not admit it are more emotional than we think, and less intellectual and we may rely, and so on not legitimizes the message of the profits of a loved one equals the love, by what by the person who carried that message. And so to D legitimize the messengers of a love wanting to send them as a
person is the number one tactic if you want to call this question in the call his message into question, and that's why we see so many attacks against the prophets.
quote, unquote, civility is peacefulness, when they question his mercy and His love was Salam that has been a major catalyst behind what he's the love article send them also foretold that at the end times people enter Islam in ways but also leave in waves. Because to delete Jimmy D legitimize the messenger is to call into question the message of the messenger.
But for those that are paying attention to the importance of this, they take all the allegations that are made against our prophets of Allah, Allah, he'll send them him supposedly not being a nice guy and just waiting for the right time to strike being an opportunist, or human problems for requiring his followers supposedly, to force conversions as their requirement of their faith. They see that as an opportunity. And we should add a necessity as we should to rediscover the beauty of this character.
And so anyone who studies the narrative, the life story of our profits from above are the ones that immunize themselves, immunize their families, their children, their communities, from the allegations, they would be able to decipher, which is an honest depiction, which could not possibly be our messenger.
What was his norm, and what were exception to the norm, as a matter of fact that this is very important, the more we study the life of the Prophet.
The more you realize these exceptions to His mercy, were in fact, not even exceptions. They were other dimensions of His mercy that he added his thought was the ram fails, people fail to understand.
And so studying the zero this is the importance of studying his narrative, his life story, it liberates us. It liberates us from the manipulative illustrations and our profit from a love audio center. And it helps us notice firsthand what Allah said about him. Not that he was a mercy to the world, but that he was nothing but a mercy to the world, that everything about him was that I was at Mercy. But when you have super official information about his life, when it's just casual information about his life, then you could be prone to being a monk or be doubting that
You know, there's a phenomenon called anti intellectualism. And it's a product of the information age that we live in. Anti intellectual ism is basically the disregard for expertise, right? anti intellectual ism is not the result of ignorance is the person that doesn't know, they know, they don't know. They realize they need to learn. But it's the anti intellectual ism comes from the assumption of knowledge. When someone's out there that thinks they know that there's nothing more to the story, right? And so I don't need to go find out. And so people that think they know the life of the prophet SAW the love,
they feel qualified to pass a judgement about
or when you go online when everything's just so Google, right, is that a word? It is now?
You just think there's nothing more to the story. You know, it's like, they say that, like some islamaphobe. Cool. So suppose an expert,
just because he has a website, and they do have a lot of money, right? They got a lot of money. Are they hiring?
Somebody from?
And so just as he has a website, he has funding behind him. And then he comes and he can't even spell his name in Arabic, sometimes, right? Supposedly an expert on Islam and says, you know, the religion of Muhammad.
Islam, he brought the first obligation on that blood on this in this religion, this one, because the first thing that happens is what they cut you.
And then if you think that's too tough, and you want to leave, you know what happens? Because
decapitation.
And so a person that thinks there's nothing more to the story, he goes and checks when the shampoo doesn't understand the context, context, sometimes. And the shin fumbles the end, that person will walk away thinking, Oh, man, I know, I get cut on the way in and cut on the way out. Why would I want this.
But when a person takes ownership of his profits on,
you know, personally, I developed a newfound appreciation for the province.
in that article in the paper that you're being put out, you will not
even talk about that in here, right Institute for Islamic research called the 70 moments of moral greatness. How the prophet SAW Selim, consistently and always rose above enmity. And so, you know, when I collected the first few dozen incidents, I said, Wow, like about our profits loss, and it really was amazing at containing himself.
But then, to be perfectly honest, the more I kept collecting, I realized it wasn't just self control,
that he thought
was really something humanity has never seen before. So you need to give yourself time to develop that realization. And you need to know that this is not a given in your family, it's not a given in your children.
What why, by the end of the research, I was sitting there like I remember the statement of one of the setup when he said, If only we were with our enemies, as he act with our friends, he said, as he
was with his enemies, things will be fine and dandy, if we can treat our friends the way he treated his enemies.
And so a person begins to shift when they learned that from feeling qualified to critique his morals, the morals of the Prophet was set up a lot that was on an exalted standard of character,
to now getting in the backseat and saying, No, no, no, whatever happens in his life in his life, if it is confirmed, that it happened, there must be something wrong with my discretion, my understanding of it, that's the comfort zone every believer needs to be and you need to give yourself time to gradually allow that to crystallize inside. And I want to give one example regarding this, that was very moving for me in that paper, the 30 moments of moral greatness. And that was the conquest of Mecca. And the conquest of Mecca is truly worthy of being called the conquest like no other. I mean, you can only begin to imagine what it's like for our profits on the
lava lake to send them to Mars. Like after all these years, you walk into these streets, these alleys where we were beaten to * poles, right? These places where children were pulled apart like this, none of
them are located. This is where somebody here was killed. This is where Vila is torture. These are the homes of the people that gutted open houses. This is the place this is the place where Khadija will get kicked out and she never recovered from from the boycott and now
We'll call it as well. And they during the thing here, you don't think that they were not thinking about these things when they walked into Mecca. And so when they saw the leaders of Mecca
and young young men hammer, today's payback time, today's the day of slaughter, your people finally get what they deserve. And so when use of this reach the prophets of Allah Vallejo send them he says when Yom Yom marshana No, today is the day of mercy. Today's the day on mumble honor,
honor the Kava, a mumble guard the Kava, clean slate,
this is the date
and then actually secure the city. They all gathered in front of the Prophet Allah His father was at the doors of the Kaaba. And he says to them, man, that's our own. And he said, What do you think I'm going to do with you? And so basically, you're like you only do good with the bigger man.
And they say to him at home carry in carry no brothers. No brother, we all know you're the most noble family in America, where would that end years ago, right? We all know like.
And so he then he says to them something
that is unimaginable, like think of what victors do when they enter countries, how they make an example out of the leadership, how they gloat over punishing those that resistant them.
And he has every right and every ability, but he wanted something more.
His heart was different, it was far more alive. And so he immortalized his legacy of forgiveness of mercy of matchless morality by saying to them, let them in.
I will not say to you anything, but what used to said to his brothers that kicked him out of him down the world got him sold into slavery, got him thrown into prison. I will only say to you with the use of
leather free valet cool. Yo, yo.
They will be no blame on you whatsoever today. I pray that Allah forgives me, I pray to get the message now and become listening to a level from you.
And then he says he's humble, and
you are on town.
go about your business.
This was so unexpected. So unbelievable that even some of the some of the younger onslaught I want you to stop here for a second because this is the point, even the Sahaba who lived around him but not as long as dental hygiene, not as long as the early onslaught of the migrants from Mecca. And the onslaught are those that received them and stood with them and solidarity, some of the younger ones
that did not yet have the full image of who he was, at least
in the toughest hours and the darkest moments that nothing could have been him.
They said
to
me what
they said this man from the global center, he's become overtaken he became stopped by his compassion for his relatives, and these hopefulness for his town. You know, they're saying, they're saying he's tired of fighting. He's hopeful to move back to Mecca. He just wants to just put it all down.
He can't anymore, I suppose.
It has affected his judgment.
And then revelation came down. And when revelation came down, it was always clear to us and nobody would lift their eyes there stare at the prophet SAW Selim, when he was undergoing that experience of receiving that way, the revelation. He said that it concluded and he looked up.
And he said, You have said that this man has been overtaken by hopefulness for his hometown. He wants to go home
now in Canada, that was that that took place. And so he said to them, and
I explained for mine His Messenger had joked to me that while he was illegal, I migrated to a lot and towards you said mafia here was my magical my living is with you. And my daddy is with you.
The unfaltering to him in tears at this point.
And they said what La Jolla, la na na na na in London and De La
Salle money. The only reason we said that
What out of protectiveness for one is messenger, we don't believe you would do that. But we're afraid that you're going to do that. We're afraid you're going to leave us we couldn't bear that talk.
And so the prophets of Allah, he says to them, in
an equal way, Veronica, Allah, His Messenger, believe you.
And they excuse you.
They, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam understood that what he just did of supreme forgiveness with Rajesh, I can excuse you for not being able to comprehend that this was for no worldly benefits for nothing at all, just because this is who Allah wants me to be. I know, it's hard to believe that a human can do this way. That's why I'm excusing it. And so it takes time. Don't expect of yourself, you need to dedicate time to invest time to this, rehearse this reality about the profits of a loved one.
I don't know time is up.
So I'll close it.
And so the last thing, the last point I want to make and then get off the stage.
In what about the incident now, when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam appears to have stepped outside of his norm.
He did take part in that.
He did command that we must reiterate always. And I get tired of seeing this disclaimer, though he did come in as the head of a state
to take certain people out to execute certain people.
And our country, by the way, does devil jobs all the time?
as the head of a state he did that. But is that immoral? First of all, the first thing we need to do is we have to agree that this wasn't his norm. If you're not going to agree that this was not his normative practice, the standard, the default for the province lifestyle, was that um, and that's what that whole paper was about 70 points to watch out everything else, right. Let's first establish that's the norm. Because if we're not going established as the norm, then you're not being fair. There's no point continuing the conversation. Or perhaps you need to pick up a book and don't talk about a subject you haven't read one book on.
And then from there, we see that the process of of love wanting to send them they take part in these incidents, at least those of them that were confirmed, that's another issue right? Over inflating the list.
He did take part in this number one, against his own will. In other words, he wished he didn't have to,
for example, the province of
Manitoba, I do don't wish to meet your enemy.
A lot of diligence, this thing
is the grind to beat you in quantity, don't initiate don't go for it. And put your trust in Allah and Allah will make the peace workout.
But then if he didn't want to, why did he because ultimately our messengers of Allah, mercy was not for us to brag about to me and lectures. That's not the primary reason. He did this out of devotion to Allah. And so he did this, because Allah wanted him to do this. And so his mercy is not going to interfere with justice either, or obedience to Allah when Allah tells him to do something.
So for example, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wished inclined to spare the captives that he wish to do that, right.
And when he did go down is criticizing this decision. Why did you wait for revelation?
You should have put your foot down here, they should not have been released. And so human workers put the work found by Roman crying because of a lot of criticism of them that they went with the default without double checking, is it applicable here?
So does that mean Oh book is different
than Allah? No way. Allah is the most versatile, who gave them the aptitude to be merciful. He taught them how to be merciful. He's the one that inspired their hearts to be like that. But a lot dilligent knows best his creation, that unlimited mercy and unconditional forgiveness will not work all the time.
It can be seen as weakness sometimes, right? Like when the profit from above, for example, executed. And where it says a warmonger is the poet who gets the troops up and going for the Battle of vision. He was caught captive. The message releases him. He promised I'll never do it again for the whole startup war against you. Can you believe this then? He's caught again a year later, bringing a triple Five Armies and don't invent it.
And so it's never going to do
again.
So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
He said, Allah, He will not stop in Mecca any longer thing I tricked him comment twice. And he commanded us to wait an hour. He said to my believers about the weekend from the same thing called twice, we need to put our foot down here and everybody still was executed by the head of the thing, right? Why? If you excessively focused on this, quote, unquote harshness, you're going to lose sight of the fact of how much mercy it entails for everybody else. So even that was an expression of his verse galleys.
It was generally avoided, he would have avoided whenever he could, but he would not let that inclination of his
be distorted by our human perceptions. You know that the beautiful eye on the Jetsons angels tell the Valkyries that we're going to destroy the town with your nephew Luke. The people, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, right.
You don't have to call me Luke. He started debating with us regarding why there's believers there Can we wait a little longer? The mercy
didn't want to see it happen. Didn't want to see a town destroyed. But then Allah says what he says in a Brahim as a honeymoon wahoo Mooney, Ibrahim Alayhi Salam was forbearing grieving meaning he was hurt by human suffering. A lot of people praising him for that quality, it hurts them to see that. But then he called him money, but he's frequently returning to us. He didn't let that feeling inside him that noble feeling stop him from resigning to a lot of decisions in the end.
So it's my surgery almost. Surgery should be generally avoided. But when it is the only way to stop to save someone's life, we are very welcoming to surgery. Don't say this doctors and animal. Look at how big that cut was. You know how much blood you lost in that surgery.
Likewise, a lot telegenic versus failure to prep preservation. He told his prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you cannot act on that all the time. There are certain times and it was necessary for the greater good of everybody. Because it was about mercy and about strength, excessive mercy, his weakness is humiliation humiliation you get run over and excessive strength and oppression. And so I've lost struck the balance between those two noble values through the story of the branding on Instagram and elsewhere. He taught his property from above wanting to offend them Do not be like the merciless, merciless. Don't be like that. But don't show so much mercy that it will embolden those
without mercy. Some people just don't understand compassion. They don't understand forgiveness. So don't do what will embolden them. And one will make so many other people vulnerable because you want to have mercy here. You get the expensive all that mercy there. That was the perfect, perfect model of our profits and values. Without seeing his life story head on normative and then exceptional the understanding of how that exception applies. We will not be able to grasp this and certainly a 20 minute lecture won't do it for you either. Forgive me for the luggage and everybody was kind of being encumbered.
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