Sajid Ahmed Umar – Steps to Bring Positive Change as a Muslim
AI: Summary ©
The search for a change is essential, and the importance of learning Arabic language and responsibility is emphasized. The responsibility of Islam is discussed, including the quote "has no title void" and the need for a solution to the world. The um row of Muhammad sallahu alayhi wasallam is emphasized, along with the importance of learning to be a change-maker and not just a result-focused person. The importance of change is emphasized, along with the need for individuals to make changes organically and stay true to their beliefs. The need for change and the importance of staying true to their beliefs is emphasized, along with the need for patience and understanding of the process of becoming a better Muslim.
AI: Summary ©
Gaza has caused the masks to fall off
and everyone has seen the hypocrisy of these
isms and the world is looking for an
alternative or Ummah of Muhammad.
They are looking for you, the Ummah of
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has brought to us
the opportunity because the hearts of the human
beings are looking for this alternative.
We have to become the change we wish
to see.
We have to be the change, mindfully put
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala first and live for
him.
Don't move except for his sake, don't remain
stationary except for his sake, don't speak except
for his sake, don't remain silent except for
his sake, live until your life becomes a
Waqf and endowment that no one has control
over except your Lord subhanahu wa'ta'ala and
that is the ultimate freedom.
We begin in the name of Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala seeking his blessings.
We praise him and we request praises and
blessings upon our master and teacher Muhammad ibn
Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam to the Ummah of
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
I greet you with the greetings of peace,
the greetings of safety and mercy, the greetings
of the people of paradise.
Salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
You can do better than that brothers and
sisters.
There's more voices here than mine.
Salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
Jazakumullahu khairan.
My brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala, he blessed us with the best
revelation, the Quran and he revealed this best
revelation to us in the best language, the
Arabic language and he did so via the
best angel Jibreel alayhi salam to the best
messenger Muhammad ibn Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
And all this happened during the best of
all nights, Laylatul Qadr, the night of power
and decree and virtue, a night that you
and I consider better than 1,000 months
and in the best of all months, the
month of Ramadan and also in the best
of all places, Mecca al-Mukarramah and in
this best revelation that came to us in
the best of all ways.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala declared the ummah that
received the best revelation as the best of
all nations.
And we heard this in sister Fatima's talk
just now, in the first quarter of the
fourth Juz, Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala reveals that
you are the best of all nations, subhanallah.
But my brothers and sisters in Islam, just
as was said before me, every title comes
with its share of responsibility.
There's no title void of responsibility.
In fact, titling void of responsibility is an
exception to the rule, honorifics are an exception
to the rule and we have been commanded
to engage with revelation.
So if Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala tells us
we are the best and we know that
we live in a world where every title
is connected to a responsibility, then we naturally
have to ask ourselves the question, why?
Why are we the best?
What responsibility do we carry that makes us
the best?
Why weren't the nations of other messengers given
the title of being the best?
And Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala in the very
same verse, he tells us why.
He tells us that we are the best
because we ultimately carry the responsibility of the
anbiya alayhimu s-salatu was-salam, the prophets
and messengers of Allah.
No nation before us had to carry that
responsibility because after every prophet Allah sent another
prophet.
But after Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, Allah decreed
that he would be the final messenger.
No prophet to come after him.
But you and I know and we've lived
long enough to realize this, that mankind existed
after Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
The battle between truth and falsehood existed after
him.
The battle between justice and oppression continued to
exist as well.
And if there's no prophet to come, then
what solution does humanity have?
And Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala revealed this solution
in the Quran.
The first solution being that he will give
us the best revelation that no one will
change.
Allah himself subhanah, glory be to him, will
preserve it.
There's no need for further recalibration.
No need for another prophet to come.
But then we have the other dilemma.
Allah always sent a revelation with someone to
distribute it, to distribute its teachings, to distribute
its message.
So we have the best revelation, but if
no prophet is to come after Muhammad, who
will run the process of distribution?
Allah says in this verse in the fourth
juz, the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam,
they collectively will be the distributors.
The young from them and the elderly from
them, the males from them and the females
from them.
That before us, this responsibility was carried upon
the shoulders of individual people.
But after Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the legacy
of justice, the legacy of prophethood, the greatest
legacy the world ever experienced, it will be
taken off the shoulders of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wasallam and transferred to the collective shoulders of
an entire ummah, yourself and myself, my dearest
brothers and sisters in Islam.
O ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I
wish I was speaking to you under better
circumstances and Dr. Norman yesterday said the cup
is half empty.
But we are an ummah of positivity.
The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he used to
love positivity in all his affairs.
And that means this ummah is a formidable
ummah and your presence here is testimony to
this that despite everything that's happening, you have
attended, you have stood up and you have
become part of inshallah, what is the change?
You are testimony that this ummah is an
ummah of resilience similar to a seed that
is planted deep beneath the earth soil.
It's surrounded by darkness.
It's surrounded by hardness.
It's surrounded by extreme cold, but it never
loses hope.
It nudges and it pushes and it forces
itself to grow with the hope that one
day it will break through the soil and
experience the warmth of the sun and the
wetness of the humidity of the air and
it will grow and grow and become a
tree inshallah that will last over a hundred
years.
This is the reality of the ummah of
Muhammad ibn Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Ummah of Muhammad, people are looking for an
alternative and Paul Williams earlier, may Allah bless
him.
He said that he himself, if I can
paraphrase, went through an awakening, an awakening after
seeing the behavior of the leaders of their
isms that have been marketed since time as
the bastions of humanity and human progression and
human rights.
Gaza has caused the masks to fall off
and everyone has seen the hypocrisy of these
isms and the world is looking for an
alternative.
Ummah of Muhammad, they are looking for you,
the ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
We are the alternative and it's time to
present ourselves as an alternative.
Sometimes I ask myself this question, is the
test greater on the people of Gaza or
greater upon you and I?
Because Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has brought us
an opportunity especially with those within our sphere
of influence to present to them the religion
of truth, a religion that has laws that
are wise by design, just by design, subhanallah,
merciful by design and transformatively beneficial by design.
We are now tested to deliver when Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala has brought to us the
opportunity because the hearts of the human beings
are looking for this alternative.
We have to become the change we wish
to see.
We have to be the change and the
question only remains how.
What change do we need to effect?
How can we do this?
And over the last two days we've heard
about what is needed organizationally, but if I
can zoom in further and bring the message
closer to home and highlight a few messages
referencing us as individuals.
You see my brothers and sisters in Islam,
change isn't an event.
It's a process.
Yes, Allah can bring about change with a
mere bee, but Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has
said he won't do that.
Allah has said that indeed Allah will not
change the situation of a people until they
change their situation themselves.
Allah wants the change to come from within.
Change is a process.
It's not an event.
And moving forward, O servants of Allah, we
need to consciously become mindful of being a
people that put Allah first.
Let us start putting Allah first for those
who put Allah first will never ever finish
last.
Stop conflating result for purpose.
Many of us study a degree for the
sake of a degree.
We work our jobs for the sake of
the salary.
We go to the gym for the sake
of being fit.
These are result orientated visions.
The Ummah of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam finds
Allah in what they do.
They make Allah their purpose for what they
do, knowing that the result is a matter
of physics.
If you go to the gym, you'll be
fitter.
If you pass your degree, you'll have a
degree.
If you meet your KPIs, you will have
a salary.
It's a result of what you do.
The Ummah of Muhammad lives upon a paradise
centric mindset.
They put Allah first and make Allah the
purpose for what they do, knowing that whoever
puts Allah first will never finish last.
So number one, mindfully put Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala first and live for him.
Don't move except for his sake.
Don't remain stationary except for his sake.
Don't speak except for his sake.
Don't remain silent except for his sake.
Live until your life becomes a waqf, an
endowment that no one has control over except
your Lord subhanah.
And that is where ultimate freedom is in.
Number two, the sunnah the better.
Not the sooner the better, but the sunnah
the better.
And the sooner you apply the sunnah, then
definitely the better.
Put the way of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam
before your culture, before your whims, before your
fancies, before the trends, before the norms of
society.
For whoever walks the footsteps of Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wasallam is being true to the testimony
of faith.
For when we announced ourselves as believers, we
declared that there's no one worthy of worship
besides one Allah.
But we also declared that we will not
be with Allah except upon the teaching of
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
And improve how you learn about Islam.
We talk about bad answers, but sometimes there's
bad questions.
We are gone beyond the age of asking
a scholar, is music allowed or not allowed?
Is intermingling allowed or not allowed?
And so on and so forth.
Take it further.
Put yourself in the process of the sunnah
the better and ask your scholar, did Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wasallam do this?
Did Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam do that?
And wallahi you will only get one answer.
No one will tell you there's a difference
of opinion about what he did sallallahu alayhi
wasallam.
Allah says in your messenger is the best
example.
Put him sallallahu alayhi wasallam first for the
sunnah the better.
That's number two.
Number three, implement the idea of ummah.
I just said to you, we collectively carry
the legacy of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Make your mandate about the we before the
me.
Every choice in life has a trade-off
and an opportunity cost.
Many a time, many a time we choose
ourselves over the majority.
In Islamic jurisprudence, there's a principle.
The benefit of the majority takes precedence over
the benefit of the minority.
Islam nurtures us to put the we before
the me.
We talk about supply and demand.
It's an economics equation.
The more supply, the lower the demand.
The lower the supply, the greater the demand.
Every choice we make creates a supply demand
paradigm.
Be mindful about what you choose, oh ummah
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam and raise your children
upon this mandate of the we before the
me.
Last but not least, oh servants of Allah,
put the idea of living in the service
of the vision of Muhammad ibn Abdullah sallallahu
alayhi wasallam as the main mandate in your
life.
My brothers and sisters in Islam, we want
change, but change will not happen.
And wallahi, wabillahi, watallahi, I've thought about this.
I swear by Allah thrice.
It's not going to happen if the change
you seek is one matter of another thousand
matters in your life.
If becoming a better Muslim is one matter
amongst paying my bills and improving my financial
standing and material well-being and so on
and so forth.
No, oh servants of Allah, change will come
when you make the idea of change and
servicing the vision of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam the mandate.
Where it governs the waking of your every
day and the sleeping of your every night.
It becomes the conversations that you have with
your children on the table.
It becomes a paradigm shift for you that
when you see them watching TV, you know
that that's at the expense of something greater
in their life.
The idea of putting change as the main
mandate shifts parents from being people who raise
children and puts them into being people who
raise leaders and there's a difference in this
paradigm.
My brothers and sisters in Islam.
If we want change and it's going to
be one thing out of the many things
we need to do.
It's not going to happen.
Make change the main mandate and then calibrate
everything around it for time is short and
before you know it you will see something
that you heard about in lectures and in
khutbas and you read in the books of
Islam.
And that's the day when Allah lifts the
veil between us and the angel of death
very soon.
We will see it.
Wallahi the only thing guaranteed to us is
death not life way in the Quran did
it say we have a guaranteed time span
to live but Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala told
us that we will die and this should
teach us that when we wake up every
day.
We should thank Allah because we aren't borrowed
time death could come anytime and when you
sleep you need to make sure you are
able to analyze your day the cost-benefit
analysis.
How did I move the needle up in
my life today is my today better than
yesterday because I'm on a guaranteed journey to
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala the difference between you
and me and the people of Gaza is
Allah lifted the veil between them and the
reality of this earth and we have the
veil in front of our eyes.
The patience they have is phenomenal.
We feel broken, but they give us the
inspiration the people on ground zero.
They give us the inspiration why because they
see the world for what it is may
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala forgive our past and
inspire our futures.
I mean and make us the change we
seek to achieve.
I have to get off the stage.
I love you all for the sake of
Allah.
Jazakumullahu khairan.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.