Sadullah Khan – Jumuah 3 Safar 1446-9 August 2024
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
We are indeed honored and privileged to be
in the house of Allah
during this
auspicious time of.
We ask Allah
to
bless this gathering and to accept all of
our good deeds
during this auspicious time.
There are just
2 announcements.
First of all, there there are 2 cars
that are blocking,
driveways that need to be moved immediately.
The first one is Haval, and it's a
CAA
413404.
That's CAA 413404.
And the second car is
CAA
148558.
That's a Toyota.
CAA 148558.
So those people can please just move those
cars urgently
as they are blocking some other people to
leave.
Can I just ask the Jamar, please, to
stand and fill up all the gaps from
the front? There's a function at the Masjid.
There's there was a dikar earlier today, and
Masjid is quite full today. So can I
just ask the brothers, please, to stand and
fill up all the gaps?
And, we just like to apologize for the
as the school quad will not be in
use today
as inadvertently there was a vindica and a
function that that's taking place there. So we
apologize on behalf of the Masjid Committee for
that. So that's why we need to fill
up the gaps. The ladies will be accommodated
upstairs,
and the men will be all downstairs.
So, if you can just fill up all
the gaps and keep it nice and tight
in the front,
and, inshallah,
we'll place the occasion. Our
speaker today is
none other
than the CEO of Islamia College and our
honorable Sheikh, Sadullah Khan. Without any further ado,
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 salallahu alayhi
wa sallam is the final of all the
emissaries of Allah.
Blessed
elders, brothers and sisters,
blessed youth,
guests who are from outside,
we greet you with the Islamic universal greeting
of peace at this auspicious hour of Jumaa
as salaamu alaykum
wa rahmatullahi ta'ala
wabarakatuh.
South Africa today commemorates
the month of August and particularly today,
due to an event that occurred on 9th
of August
1956 where there was a woman's war march
to the union buildings
and that happened 68 years ago
And it was primarily in protest against the
extension of the past laws,
and the march was led by Lilian Ngoi,
Helen Joseph,
Sophia Williams the brain, and Rahima Musa.
And who delivered a petition on that particular
day to the then prime minister, Streatham,
the apartheid,
government at that time at the union buildings.
And throughout the country
over a 100000 people put their names to
that petition
and
they thereby indicated their anger and their frustration
at having their freedoms
of movement
restricted by the hated official past law system.
And for those who may be foreign or
those who may be too young to remember,
the past laws at that time required
South Africans
defined as black by the population
registration act to carry a document
at all times, a so called internal passport
that severely restricted people's movements.
And each path designated
a specific
urban or metropolitan
area
very similar to what Palestinians are going through
and was right now,
a system used to control the movement of
people of color in this country
and it dictated when and where a person
could be and where they couldn't be or
where they should be out of by a
particular time.
And if it was not abided by people
could be imprisoned
on the spot.
Now
people are remembering this day and
today it's a public holiday due to that
particular event.
So we see that these kind of fixed
memorials,
a day or a period,
it very often serves as a tribute
to a life or lives of people or
to an event
and provides a focal point for people to
deflect,
sometimes to honor those
who have,
stood up for justice and truth
and at times for their resilience
but also as a means of passing on
to the next generation the lessons and the
the experiences that people had
of the past.
My topic today is,
the Quranic and historic perspective on women.
And I want to bring to our attention
the fact
that in Islam,
the notion
of gender,
Allah
reminds us
that all of humankind
evolve
from one source or emanate rather from one
source.
And Allah says in Suratul Nisa'ab, the opening
verse of the chapter 4 of the Holy
Quran.
Your guardian lord, your creator, your cherisher, your
your nourish and sustainer
who has created you from a single source
and created the like nature of his mate.
And from them have scattered
innumerable,
countless men,
Innumerable
men, women and children throughout history.
And all of us emanate from that one
soul, from that one pair
of male and female.
And all of
males and females
as a collective
are integral
and integrated components of the society.
From our very origin, from our very beginnings,
and that's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminds
us in the Quran,
The male believers and the female believers,
all these are protectors one of each other.
And more than that,
that each person irrespective of the gender have
equal worth in the estimation of Allah.
So Allah, for example, does not set values
for particular deeds between men and women whereby
he preferences
one over the other.
And that's what Allah
says in Surah al Imran,
Allah does not
cause there to be a diminishing,
a belittling,
or suffer any loss in the work or
in the fruits of the labor or the
efforts of anyone, whether they are male or
whether they are female.
Now one of the most problematic issues
among religious people in particular
is somehow we misconstrue
culturally inherited chauvinism,
culturally
inherited chauvinism
as part of our religion.
And this is why you'll find for example,
there'll be absolutely no issue of women attending
last year and there'll be other parts of
the country where it's an absolute no no.
And the question
arises, well where does this arise?
I do not want to go into the
ficki aspect of it.
But why is it that in one society,
in one system, it is not an issue
at all and it becomes a major issue
somewhere else.
So sometimes,
may Allah bless everyone for the understanding and
the interpretation,
but sometimes
there are cultural constraints,
cultural impositions upon the way we see the
way we see our religious tradition.
Allah clearly tells us that we are members
of 1 in the same human race as
human beings and therefore
equal to one another in our common humanity.
And therefore,
inna aqramakum aindallahi atqam, the most noble of
you, irrespective whether you're young or old, male
or female, that is not in any way
an indicator
of your piety or your righteousness which after
all counts the most. Because
Allah judges you by your taqwa.
And here
he says,
the most righteous among you are those right
the most honorable in the estimation of Allah
are those who are most righteous irrespective
of their gender or their age.
Now the prophet wife,
one of the personalities that outlived
quite some time even after the time of
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Salam,
she was approached by some women among the
companions, the wife of the companions
who felt that some men
at that time were given the impression
that men the men folk were somewhat privileged
by the flow of the language,
the flow of the revelation. They felt that
way,
though it wasn't that way.
But the feeling was that some of the
men felt that way and some of the
women came to the wife of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and told her about
it and she approached the prophet. And 3
verses were revealed
regarding the correction of that misperception.
3 verses. Among them was this particular verse
in Surah Hazab where Allah specifically emphasizes
the equal worth.
Allah
It
means all believers, all male, all I mean
all people of faith, all believers,
carnitine,
those who are humble, those who are subservient,
those who are patient. It means all male,
female, everyone. But it's specifically
emphasized
in response to the kind of
attitude that people had. So Allah says in
this verse 10 specific
categorization
of male and female. He says,
walmuthasadikin
walmuthasadikat.
Wasawimin
wasawimat.
Walhafiileenafurujahum
walhafiilah
Those people,
whether they are
Muslim men, Muslim women,
believing men, believing women,
devout men, devout women,
those sincere and truthful men and truthful women,
for those men who are patient and those
women who are patient,
For those men who humble themselves and those
women who humble themselves.
For those men who give charity and those
women who give charity.
For those men who fast and those women
who fast.
For those men men who guard their chastity
and for those women who guard their chastity
and those who remember Allah much among the
males and those who remember Allah much among
the females,
and a tremendous reward without distinction
between male or female
despite mentioning each one of them as a
category, but in the conclusion,
the reward is the same.
So
we find that throughout Islamic history, even from
the Quranic narratives,
female personalities
in the Quran
serve as a unique example of good character
from which the seeker of truth
and the seeker of good character can learn
and along which we can model our own
lives. Sometimes you have the notion
that, you know, the example of women are
for, are for ladies. Saidah Hajjal, good example
for the ladies,
Saidah Khadija, good example for the ladies. You're
a good example for the ladies. Example for
all of us.
Khadija was the first one to believe. She
gave all her wealth
for the sake of Islam.
She was the first to believe when no
one believed.
She consoled the prophet when there was no
one to console him.
And that's why the Rasul said afterwards
She was the one who helped me when
no one want to help me. When she
believed in me when no one believed in
me. Never mind if she's male or female.
It shows that she was a bedrock for
the prophet at that time.
And therefore, we find
categories of women. They are numerous but just
for us to remember how Quran mentioned some
of them. For example, say the Hawa.
Eve
is the womb of human origin and the
symbol of human equality because
through her conception,
the birth of humanity and the unfolding of
the human race became possible by the permission
of Allah. And the verse I recited,
in nafsuwwahidawakalakaminha
zawjaawawbasaminhum
arijaalandkatheerowwunisaah
through her womb,
as a progeny of Adam and Hawwah.
Allah, for example, mentioned the nurturing spirit, which
is a spirit of a caring person.
Here it's a mother, but it can refer
to the father. And very often in the
Quran you'll find
at times, yaku Yusuf alayhi salaam and yaku,
but very often father and son, Ishmael and
Ibrahim,
but Isa and Mariam, Musa and his mother
in the holy Quran. So here Allah, for
example, mentions about the nurturing spirit of,
the mother of Saydham, of Nabi Musa, alayhis
salaam, and Allah
Allah comforts her, but she has to part
with the child. And the nurturing spirit we
find
that Allah
makes reference to them. We find Bilqis, the
queen of Sheba, was not a prophet
nor a mother of a prophet
nor a wife of a prophet,
but she was an astute leader, an embodiment
of astute leadership
and of judicious wisdom
as Soleiman
is informed. And Allah
documents
that if as Soleiman is informed about this
lady.
Allah makes a reference to it in in
the Holy Quran in Surah Al Nambal.
I found there a woman ruling over them,
providing them with every requisite and she has
a throne of magnificence, make making reference to
the queen of Sheba, Bilqis, who was not
a prophet, who was not the wife of
a prophet or the mother of a prophet,
but because of her astute leadership.
25, for example, Hannah
and the mother of Sayida Mariam, Allah
mentions her.
When she was bearing Sayida Mariam and Allah
makes reference to her as an icon of
nobility.
You find Sayida Maria myself
who is the essence of virtue
despite her being ostracized and,
humiliated somewhat or attempt to humiliate her character
and character assassination by those around her. But
Oh, Sayida Mariam. Allah says, oh Mariam, the
angels confer to her and say, oh, Mary,
Allah has chosen you and purified you and
chosen you above the women of all nations.
So we have made reference here now to
say the Hawa,
Bilqis,
to Hannah,
mother of of Nabi'Issa,
Sarah Mariam,
but also to mention
Saydah Hajar
as a significant role model in Islam.
And has becomes more relevant to us in
some ways because all of us reenact her
running during the Hajj.
So Hajar is an honored matriarch
of
the monotheism
because her father was the patriarch of monotheism,
Ibrahim alayhi salam.
And it was through her that Isma'il alayhi
wasallam was born through her in Abi Ibrahim
and
that prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasallam was from
her progeny.
She was a migrant woman by the way,
moving from one place to another place to
another place. Her very name Hajarib
implies the one who migrated.
And moving from one place to another, ostracized
at times,
isolated very often in her life, yet she
never gave up. We see reflections of Hajar
even today on our screens in the brave
women, the mothers, the daughters and sisters in
Palestine
today.
The incident of her running selflessly between the
hills of Safa and Marwa,
searching for water for the survival of the
helpless infant
is reenacted
by every pilgrim. There's no umrah. There's no
Hajj without the running of Hajar.
So Hajar's courage,
not for the women as a woman.
Is that the example for women?
Hajar's courage,
her selflessness
symbolizes
the celebration of humility,
a celebration
of hopefulness
and a determined resilience
despite odds.
And the fact that every one of us,
whether male or female, king or pauper, young
or old, have to go through, put ourselves
on the same plane at the same place
where she ran and you run that plate
that that, Ibadah, you do it, that part
of the Hajj, you do it at the
very place where she did it by the
way, in her footsteps.
And therefore,
this is indicative
of the equality,
the
honorability that Allah
places rather where there's no discrimination. It's done.
The Hajj is done. The running of Hajj
is done where?
Not one day the fajr tudoor is a
man and after Asr al Tughr is a
woman. No.
Indicative that everyone is equal
where no discrimination
exists on the basis of race, of gender,
or age, or social status. The running of
Hajar is symbolic of that and an ideal
symbol of that.
All this
symbolic
of equality of humanity
and the annihilation
of racism, of chauvinism,
and of superiority complexes that some of us
still harbor.
Now we need to realize
and we wish to internalize
this reality
that Quran does not privilege men
over women
in their biological capacities as males
or treat men as the self or the
normative
and the woman as the others.
Though Islam acknowledges the role of responsibility and
hence patriarchy,
it doesn't imply superiority.
There's a difference between the two.
I'm responsible for my son doesn't make me
I'm superior to my son,
for example.
So
distinguish between responsibility
and superiority. Some of us, I pay for
you so I I I'm better than you.
It doesn't happen like that. What if you
tomorrow over? If I'm old tomorrow and my
son takes care of me, then who superior
then?
Very careful how we equate things.
The Quran does not privilege men over women
in their capacity as males or females.
And at the same time,
just because the Quran
acknowledges patriarchy
of male responsibility
does not imply
chauvinistic superiority.
Many of our knowledgeable ones among us have
gained Islamic knowledge.
Many scholars
at institutions of learning
and these institutions of learning
are either named after
or founded
by great women.
Nafisa Bint Hassan,
the great granddaughter of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
was was at such a level of scholarship
that Imam al Shafi'i was imam, he was
a Palestinian.
He was eventually in in Iraq.
He was a scholar then. He was a
faqih then. And he went to Egypt
towards the later part of his life. And
he went to Egypt as a faqih. He
studied under Saeedan Nafeezah.
In fact, used to lead his prayer at
her mosque.
When they let took her his janadah to
be buried, they brought it to her mosque
and she prayed over him as well.
So she was the teacher
of Imam al Shafi'i, not in his youth.
It indicates
this transmission
of knowledge and learning. And Azar University named
Alta Fatima Du Zahra,
the the the daughter of the Prophet
University of Al Qaraween, older than Al Azhar
mind you, Jamia
Al Qaraween
is in in phase in Morocco.
It was started in 859,
236
years before any university was built in Europe.
It precedes as a university by over a
100 years, a 111 years.
And its European counterpart, the University of Oxford,
came much afterwards, came in 1096.
And the first university
established in Europe
was the University of Bologna in Italy in
10/88.
And that university of of course she gave
the grant for the masjid and became a
university from there promoting knowledge and so
on. And the founder of the Joseph Fatima
al Fihri
of Karaween University and scholars. Ibn Khaldun studied
there.
Pope,
I think one of the popes if I
remember correctly, pope Sylvester
II was a student in that university.
The great brilliant
Jewish
theologian and philosopher Moses Maimonides
was a student there.
Look at the centers of learning.
Look
what kind of input these people made and
look how far reaching
was
their impact.
So reflecting all of this,
there's a dying need for us
to introspect and reflect on on the positive
legacy,
on the positive history
that we have, the rich legacy of the
Quran and reread the message of the Quran
with knowledge and with understanding.
That we inculcate respect
and accord dignity
specifically to our our women folk. Rasulullah
Muhammad hadid documented by Imam Atirmid, he said
Part of the perfection of a person's faith
is the goodness of his character
and
the best of people are those who are
best to the women.
So we are duty bound
to acknowledge the cumulative contributions
and sacrifices
made by men and women throughout history
that has enhanced civilization as we know it.
And despite all of this,
gender inequality still persists.
And as people of faith, it is our
responsibility
to dismantle those unwarranted
barriers.
They have no real foundation perhaps in the
essence of our faith that inhibit human human
beings from reaching their full potential.
And to ardently work towards fostering an environment
where every woman, where every man and every
child,
regardless of his or her role,
are appreciated,
are valued,
are respected and recognized.
I leave you with the Quranic director where
Allah says in the Quran,
The male believers and the female believers
are allies one to the other.
They enjoin what is good, they forbid what
is wrong, they establish prayer, they practice regular
charity,
they obey Allah and His Messenger.
And on them,
Allah will have mercy
for Allah is the Exalted in Power,
the mighty and the wise.
For that inspirational talk. We ask
to grant us all the understanding and to
take heed from what was said here today.
Just a couple of an one announcement,
or two announcements, actually. Can I just ask
the Musalis that are outside?
The committee has requested that if they can
please just help and assist in rolling up
the mats
after the salah as they blow away with
those strong winds that are out there. And,
there's 1
And then there's also 2 cars that need
to be moved again. Another 2 cars that
are blocking quite urgently.
The one is CA 479-634,
and the other one is CAA406659.
So that's CA479634
and CAA40659.
If you can please move your vehicle urgently,
somebody needs to leave these people need to
leave urgently.
Please to stand, and if you can just
fill up all the gaps again so we
can save a bit of time. And there's
a lot of standing at the back as
well. You can all come inside. There's a
lot of space inside as well on both
corners as well.
Just once again, you should always fill the
gaps, fill the gaps, but you don't waste
time over the following over the hoodbank shop
hoodbank shop. Just fill the gaps. Just fill
the
gaps.