Sadullah Khan – 16 Dhul Qa’dah 1443 17 June 2022
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In the name of Allah, most gracious, most
merciful,
all praise is due to our creator, our
cherisher,
our nourisher and our sustainer.
We bear witness. There's none worthy of worship
but Allah.
We bear witness. We believe in all the
prophets who came throughout history
and we bear witness that prophet Muhammad ibn
Abdullah,
Rasulullah
is the final of all the inner cities
of Allah.
Especially
elders, brothers and sisters, respected youth,
I greet you with the Islamic universal greeting
of peace.
May the peace, the mercy, and the blessings
of Allah be upon each and everyone present
here at this auspicious hour of jum'ah.
There are occurrences in our lives
over which we have absolutely no control.
For example,
birth.
We are born all of us
but none of us had any choice in
when
or where
or to which family we were born in.
Neither do we have much control
over death
or
where and when we would die.
Some people may attempt
to take their life
but ultimately only Allah exactly
knows how,
when
and where
our life will end.
Just on this issue,
the Veserni
Prava
newspaper in Prague in Czech Republic
reported a story in 1978
of a lady
by the name of Vera Zernak
who was informed by her husband that he
is leaving her for someone else and if
she felt so betrayed
that she wanted to kill herself.
So when he left the house,
she jumped out of the third story
of her apartment
in the flat
and as she jumped from the window to
kill herself, her husband was exiting at the
bottom, she fell on top of him.
He died and she was injured.
She attempted to kill herself and he died
and she was injured and survived.
No one
knows what we will accrue from tomorrow, what
we will acquire
from tomorrow,
and no one knows exactly in what place
we will die.
Surely only Allah is all knowing,
well informed and all away.
But between birth and death,
we have different degrees of choices.
And therefore, we have different degrees of accountability
and responsibilities.
And this is in relation to what we
do.
These choices that we have as human beings
are limited
when you're a child
because
as a child, you do not have the
means
nor the ability
nor the resources
to live by yourself
and therefore you are under the control
of your parent
And until you're adult or mature,
even Allah did not hold you fully accountable
for any wrongdoings on your part as a
result in Hadith
documenting the 3 people from whom the pen
is lifted in other words they're not held
accountable
Among them,
the young the child until he or she
becomes responsible
for their actions.
So children are completely at the mercy of
parents and their guardians regarding their home, their
shelter, their food, their beliefs,
their values,
and their education.
What we do to them there is what
will affect them for the rest of their
lives.
Then you have youth,
teenage and beyond
which is perhaps the most crucial part in
the intellectual model and emotional development of a
person.
A period where there is a rational capacity,
but limited opportunity
because the world
even for the youth, are dictated by adults.
When you can go, where you go, where
you live, depending where the father works or
the mother works, That's where the child will
live and so on and so forth. Whether
they'll be children of a divorced parents or
not, single home or double parent, all of
this is not a choice that they have.
So that their youth, their intellectual capacity and
ability,
Sometimes
certain abilities technical and intellectual which even the
adults may not have but they don't have
a choice in the decision making.
Adults on the other hand are in charge
of the finance
of education.
We from among us come to the government
and the laws because in adulthood,
we have most choices,
and because that's the period of free control
where we are only limited by our circumstances.
We are only limited
by our circumstances.
Whether we are youth or adults,
there are incidences that occur
impacting the lives of individuals.
There are also experiences
that affect the lives
of communities
and then there are events
that change
the cause of a nation's history.
And then
in our era, in our period, in our
lifetime,
one such major event
was June 16th
1976.
An uprising
that occurred 42 years ago,
yesterday,
42 years ago
and has been designated
as youth day and hence it was a
national public holiday.
It was an event that profoundly
changed the social political landscape in South Africa
that was called the uprising
led primarily by youth.
Further highlighted by the killing of the 13
year old Hector Peterson,
and that event in its aftermath,
shook the foundation of the apartheid regime at
that time. A regime which was fully weaponized
racist military regime
and was challenged
by unarmed
youth
We took on the government at that time.
Some lost their lives
but that encounter
forever changed
the power dynamics
in our country and it changed the power
dynamics
against
a well armed, well machined
apartheid system.
The sense of that movement at that time
was
eventually inclusivity.
Young and
old, workers and professionals,
faith based leaders across board, most of them.
And it was not ultimately a struggle only
about education, about the and so on and
so forth.
But the entire
apartheid system, they subjected people,
the majority of the people of this land
to political oppression
and to economic exploitation.
It also challenged and embarrassed
fearful and passive adults among us
who are living in the country and some
were outside the country.
How these youth rose up against injustice
and therefore, that event
irreversibly
changed the cause
of our lives.
It was youth at the forefront.
Youth who fought for freedom and justice
and if we reflect on Islamic history,
we realize the valuable role
of
youth. Those future leaders
depending on what the adults do at present
because much of what happens in the future
is what we leave behind for them. As
some wise people have said, we don't so
much inherit
the time and the age and the land
from our parents
as much as we borrow it from our
children.
What do we leave behind for them?
Because what we leave behind for them could
make them the potential victims
or victors
of the past
but certainly nonetheless,
they will be the inheritors of the future.
The question is, what are they inheriting?
Prophet
said,
hadith documented by mama and there are different
wording
Different wordings to the hadith. But basically it
implies
no parent gives a parent or guardian gives
the young people or the children
a better
gift
or a better inheritance
than good preparation
and moral training.
It has often been in history
the revolutionary spirit of the youth who stood
up.
Ibrahim alaihi sallam as a young man
against the idolatry of his time was a
young man at that time when it happened.
Aesah in defense of his mother was infected
toddler.
Thus the people of the cave, Ujur Rasulullahahu
alaihi wa sallam
encourages us to read that surah on Friday
that's most sacred day of the week to
remind
us and among the central themes of that
surah is the lesson of the youth
who saw the corruption around them
and extricated themselves from the corruption
not to be part of that corruption.
We look at Dawood against Dawood, David and
Goliath, he was a young man.
Youth
who are more
open to the realities
and insights
to engage the present
who haven't become yet rigid
in their traditions
that are affected or influenced by families and
societies.
In fact, if we look at Musa alayhi
salaam in Surah Yunus, Allah mentions
Had the verse of the Quran,
but no one believed in Musa. No one
believed in Musa be besides his brother who
was with him, Harun alaihi salaam,
except the youth.
People
were conscious of the oppression they were facing,
not fearful of the pharaoh.
That is why the prophet
himself focus so much on the youth. He
knew they were the future.
They were the ones to perpetuate the legacy
of Islam and the civilization of Islam.
Rasulullah
Alaihi Wasallam announced his prophethood at the age
of 40
and the vast majority of his followers were
younger than him.
Besides Abu Bakr
and a few elders Khadija al Kubra radiAllahu.
Majority of them were his age younger than
him and the vast majority perhaps half his
age and even younger than that. It is
well known that the sizable majority of the
prophet's initial companions
were the youth.
In fact, therefore some of the said, we
find none following you Muhammad except the slaves,
women
and the young.
Throughout the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he maintained
the perfect balance
between appreciating and respecting
the wisdom
and the lived experience of the elders.
May Allah be pleased with those companions.
May Allah be pleased with them But always
appreciating and respecting and including and incorporating
the dynamism
and the sharp insights of younger companions like
Sayed Ali, Anas Bin Malik, Amar Bin Yasir,
When Rasool
initially met in secret when they met when
they couldn't make Islam public they met in
the house of Al Arkam, Al Arkam was
16 years old. He was the one who
organized the meetings at night.
Usama bin Zayed who led in the army
in the lifetime of the prophet in the
army was Abu Bakr as Umar fighting under
him and he was 18 years of age.
Mu'ad bin Jabal whom Rasul sent to Yemen
as an envoy while he was a young
man. Atbab bin Usaid Rasulullah made him the
governor of Makkah in his lifetime in 8th
year of hijra at the time after
the battle of Unain.
You see, Rasulullah
appreciated
the potential
of the youth.
In our country,
36%
of the population
are under the age of 35.
Children and young people lie at the heart
of South Africa's untapped potential.
Yet, more than 50% of these people, of
these young, of these youth, especially those between
the age of 15 24,
have no form of formal employment or education
or higher training
and 46%
of people between the age of 2534
fall into this category,
and that means 7,900,000
people, young people in our country, are out
of work.
Not insufficient education
or training opportunities.
When you want to go work, you can't
find work because you need experience. How can
you get experience if there's been no jobs?
And this has been exacerbated and worsened by
COVID 19, where people like us who do
have jobs, some of us have lost our
jobs. What about those who don't have jobs?
How would they get into the market?
And in that,
financial and economic instability, what hope is there
for the future?
50 years into our democracy,
And we are in a pitiful state.
Many researchers have proven that a pool of
young people who are not in employment,
training,
are more prone to be entangled
in crime, in drug abuse,
in poverty,
and in violence.
And therefore in recent years we have experienced
it's not a justification but it may be
a an understanding of the situation. In a
country that is richly blessed in natural and
human resources,
if nurtured properly,
we as adults,
we who elect people to power.
If nurtured properly,
these resources will be able to create a
country
where the concept of inequality,
unemployment,
and poverty
would be distant memories.
But that's not the case.
50 years into our more than 50 years
into our democracy,
South Africa falls deeper and deeper into a
state of poverty
and desperation
while political leaders increasingly
become the problem
instead of the solution.
Instead of fulfilling the potential
of being a regional and a continental
leader,
South Africa is becoming a beggar at the
world.
We are leading the world in so many
things. We have so much gold,
so much platinum and coal, natural resources,
human potential,
But yet we remain remain the most unequal
country in the world.
The leading country for * and femicide in
the world.
Among the highest youth unemployment in the world.
The national debt of our country is 4,300,000
rand.
And just to serve us the interest of
that, it costs us R350,000,000
a year. This is what our children are
gonna pay.
Not debt which they incurred, but for which
they will be liable.
You must be aware of this.
We must be aware of this. What are
we leaving for them? Our house or a
car we leave from them
will not be sufficient. We're leaving a system
that's broken. They can be victims of crime,
they can be victims of corruption, they can
be victims of violence.
And that's why Quran encourages not only for
yourself but those around you.
Allah commands you to worship them but Allah
and then he says
and those who are near to you and
your parents
those who are near, those who are impoverished
All those who are around you. Those close
to you are related to you, your neighbors,
those in your area, those in your vicinity,
those in your neighborhoods.
So we indeed need to commemorate
the events of 1976
as
we remember the noble struggle of those
who fought so bravely
for freedom in this country.
In 1976,
when the youth took to the streets,
they were shot, they were killed, they were
traumatized, they were detained
and some went missing up till today, no
one went knows where to they disappeared.
They were fighting an oppressive racist leadership.
They fought for a different future than the
one that they were experiencing at that time.
Oppression, discrimination,
and dehumanization.
The youth youth of today, 42 years afterwards,
are also begging for a different future
to the present one that they are shackled
in.
How many youth
want to leave the country?
How many of our youth are we telling
to leave the country?
Why?
We fought
from the time of Tonguru. Our people came
here in chains. They fought Dutch imperialism when
they came here. They survived.
We are here
at Muslim al Furqan at Islamia
on Imam Abdullah Haroon Road who gave his
life for the struggle. We betrayed that struggle.
We betrayed their blood and their honor and
their dignity.
And we are the generation after Imam Haru,
and our children are the generation after us.
The youth of today are also begging for
a different future to the present that they
are shackled in.
They're having to fight corrupt and selfish leaders.
You see, at that time,
they fought racist
leaders.
Now we're fighting corrupt and selfish leaders.
And the youth are shackled as as we
are with corruption, unemployment,
ineffective education,
mismanagement in government, violent crime, insufficient infrastructure,
atrocious delivery service
especially to the impoverished communities,
lack of basic facilities,
and no job opportunities.
These factors
have also been worsened by the COVID pandemic.
In 1976,
the youth fought for freedom
from injustice.
42 years later,
our youth today are fighting for survival.
Oh, you have faith.
Save yourself and your family from the fire.
Fire could be the fire of Jahannam, of
course.
So in other words, prepare them morally, spiritually,
but it can also imply that you prepare
them in the world in ways that close
avenues
to the fire.
Don't create
corruption, don't perpetuate corruption,
don't create poverty,
don't let those who are
living on bribes and connections
get to senior positions
and therefore they will feel the only way
for them to survive
and to succeed
will be to be like that because that's
the norm.
Ensure that you don't create conditions
like corruption,
like injustice,
like the death that they are in inheriting
or even poverty
that could open the way
for our youth to feel that the only
way of earning a living is through these
means of corruption,
injustice,
being in debt.
Because
when we open the ways for wrongful living,
we also
pave the way
that can open avenues to the fire.
I conclude by making reference
to a lecture by Maulana Fazlur Rahman Ansari,
which he gave
more than 20 years before our first election.
And I was a young child
and he said it was 20 years before
the election. He was here in 1970 and
74. We had our elections in 93.
He said
and he quoted, he explained the verse.
Chapter
104 of the Quran, he explained in the
lecture
and he said be careful of every that
people make
and backbiting and slandering which is so right
in our society.
2nd point in that verse, those who
amass wealth by means of corrupt ways and
so on, thinking that this wealth will make
them eternal and everlasting.
You can count the 1,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 and
so on.
You think that your wealth will make you
invisible.
Never.
Never.
You are gonna die, number 1. And those
who you leave the money to are gonna
die too but nonetheless,
you'll be cast into that thing which will
crush you.
And what is the thing that will crush
you? And one of the explanations Mawlana Masadi
gave is not necessarily the crushing of the
fire in the hereafter,
It's the rising of the oppressed people
against the injustices
that opens the way for you to become
enriched the way you become enriched.
Will Allah
grant that as we reflect on these days,
it's not a political talk.
It's a reality.
How many of you are sitting here thinking
that my child must go to Canada?
You all condemn America, but they must rather
go to America.
We all condemn the embassy but rather go
to Qatar or Dubai or Abu Dhabi to
find a job.
Of course, you can't go to India anymore.
They're killing us there too now.
So what I'm saying is,
think about this, this is our reality. This
is our legacy.
The Masajid, the Madaris,
all of these must channel our energies to
create an environment.
Not only will we train them but to
be able to create for them to create
an environment
free of this kind of corruption and injustice.
So that the blood of our martyrs of
the past
can nurture the fruit of freedom and justice
for which they died.
And there are so people leaving for Hajj.
This coming week and there are lots of
people leaving. So may God
in the journey with ease.
And Insha'Allah soon we'll announce when our will
start again, Insha'Allah.