Sami Hamdi – Muslims Shaping The Future Of America
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the success of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. in modern culture, with success measured by material possessions and not by personal accomplishments. They stress the importance of not giving up on one's opinion and not giving up on others'. The conversation also touches on the struggles of modern society and the importance of staying true to the Prophet's message. The speakers emphasize the importance of promised support and loyalty to promises.
AI: Summary ©
Thank you very much for being here.
Thank you to the organizers for bringing me
to Allentown.
I hadn't heard of it before I came
here, I'm joking.
The topic of the discussion is Navigating the
Modern World, Balancing Faith with Contemporary Challenges.
And sometimes when I read this particular title
of the topic, I often, I like to
do tafsir of, you know, diplomatic language.
What this diplomatic language actually means is, how
do I choose between my nafs that desires
a life of comfort and what the seer
of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ teaches me, which
is that struggle is the epitome of success.
How do I navigate between being told that
the epitome of success is to go to
university, to get a good job, to make
a lot of money, I speak American too,
and to get a big house and to
get everything and to say, finally I've succeeded.
How do I wrestle between the desire to
achieve that and the mission that Islam calls
on me to embark on, which is to
be a mercy to my society, to stand
for what's right and to be proud of
doing so, even if there is a backlash
in doing so.
I tell the story quite often, but I
like it.
I was in New Jersey, I don't know
if people laugh, I watch the movies, the
movies they say New Jersey, you know, get
out of here, forget about it, you know.
When I first, wallahi I tell you, when
I first came to the US in 2018,
I came for, a friend of mine was
getting married in North Carolina, so initially I
said I don't really want to go to
America, I don't really have an interest in
going, and I kept delaying the interview, and
then he called me one day and he
told me, did you go to your interview
process, so I said, give me some respect
for my dignity, you want me to go
to the embassy and tell them please, please
let me into your country, give me some,
and the reason why is because Obama had
the Muslim ban, so Obama's Muslim ban was
that if you'd gone to Sudan or Iraq
or these places, you couldn't use the waiver,
you had to go to the embassy and
do an interview process, and then Trump got
excited and continued the process later on, but
in any case, when I went for the
interview, of course, they gave me the visa
within 5 minutes, my friend beforehand said if
you don't go, we will never be friends
again if you don't come, she has 400
people coming to the wedding, I've got 8,
I told him, you're the one who went
there, you could have chosen somebody here, when
I landed in America, of course, I landed
in New York, and everybody is talking like
the movies, you know, like I'm staring at
people, you know, they're like, hey, you know,
sometimes, hey, I'm walking over here, you know,
I was very excited, so I wanted to
try one of those sketches, so I entered
a bagel shop, when I went in the
bagel shop, of course, I'm telling my friend
on the plane, I say, when we land,
we got to talk American, you know, he's
like, Sammy, please don't go overboard, please don't
embarrass us, so I walk into a bagel
shop in Brooklyn, I've gone, hey, how are
you, can I get a bagel with egg
and cheese, please, they said, sure, can I
get some water with that, they said, yeah,
sure, then Abu Bakr walks in, Abu Bakr,
of course, is like, I'm not playing these
games the way you do, Sammy, so he
said, excuse me, can I get a bagel
and a bottle of water, please, they went,
what, can I get a bagel and a
bottle of water, what, what, what's he talking,
what's, and I'm watching, I'm going, so he
asks again, I've gone, water, water, he wants
water, oh, water, yes, you can have water,
so I was very excited about coming to
America and the like, but one of the
things is that when we're talking about the
topic of what it means to be Muslim
in America or indeed elsewhere is, how do
you see your purpose in America, the Prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was sent as a
mercy to mankind, he was sent to take
people out of darkness into light, and so
when I was in New Jersey, because I
learned all this American language, there was a
sheikh who said to me, Sammy, what is
the hardest part about these talks that you're
giving across America, and I told him, the
hardest part is convincing my ummah that the
price they pay for standing for what's right
is worth paying, I find it hard that
I have to try to convince them to
do what's right by teasing them with a
dunya outcome that they will be content with,
it's hard to tell them to do what's
right, when the price they will pay for
it might put them under some struggle, it's
hard to convince them that struggle is worth
it, and he said to me, Sammy, this
is because Islam in many ways in the
modern day has become quite problematic for Muslims,
I said, Astaghfirullah bro, what's wrong with you,
I said, you know if someone caught you
on camera with that, you'd be cancelled everywhere,
nobody will have you, even in Allentown, I
didn't say that part, the Allentown bit, so
he said, Sammy, send blessings on the prophet,
the Egyptians don't tell you shush to cut
you off, they don't tell you shut up,
they don't tell you get out of here,
what the Egyptians do is, and every time
you say it, you're like, I did it
5 times man, exactly, now let me talk,
so he says to me, Sammy, how would
you describe the relationship between the prophet Muhammad
ﷺ in the first 40 years of his
life with Quraish, how would you describe it,
anyone, just shout out, excellent, amazing, he was
Sadiq, Ameen, the golden boy, when you have
a problem between two tribes, bring Muhammad ﷺ
to mediate, if you have a lover, an
amanah, your cousin is always cheating you, give
it to Muhammad bin Abdullah, he won't cheat
you, you want to send your brother with
a caravan, but your brother is a sleaze
sometimes, you know, you don't trust him, send
Muhammad bin Abdullah, Muhammad bin Abdullah will never
cheat you, Muhammad bin Abdullah will always look
after the amanah, he was the golden boy,
when he walks in, Muhammad, the noble man,
son of a noble man, is walking in
on us, Tayyib ya Sammy, when do his
problems begin with Quraish?
Does his character change?
They know he is truthful, they know he
is sahib amanah, they know he is a
good man, they acknowledge his character hasn't changed,
so what changes?
What is it that happens when he is
40 years of age that alters the relationship
between him and Quraish?
He stands up and says, La ilaha illallah,
Muhammadur Rasulullah, stop the genocide in Gaza, stop
burying your daughters alive, stop abusing the poor,
stop cheating each other in business, stop cheating
those who are weak in society, the Prophet
Muhammad s.a.w. does not do what
the Christian priests are doing in Mecca at
the time, which is telling people focus on
your personal self, keep it in the home,
keep it private, focus on the personal relationship
between you and God, Muhammad s.a.w.
goes in their social issues, to their town
halls, to their school boards, everywhere he goes
and he tells them, guys this is how
it should be done, this is the message
from upon high, uphold that which is right
and forbid that which is evil.
He said Sammy, what was Quraish's reaction to
that call?
The reaction was oppression, repression, the reaction was
a backlash, he went from overnight from being
the golden boy to somebody being persecuted.
Why?
Because of the message where he was demanding
that society changes and delivering the message saying,
stop this injustice, stop this injustice.
In the first 40 years, the status quo
was fine, when he challenged the status quo
for that which is right, there was the
backlash.
Don't know what's your point sheikh?
He said, today when we want to point
to somebody's success, the moment he pays off
his mortgage or buys the home, we say,
mabrook ya waladi, you succeeded, Muhammad be like
him.
You bought the Tesla, I don't know why
everyone likes Tesla so much, but I'm in
America so it is what it is.
You bought the cyber truck, very ugly but
in any case, you bought the stuff, I
shouldn't say that, the views expressed on my
own, they don't reflect those of the organizations
that invited me.
Sorry Elon Musk.
In any case, when they buy the car,
the parent sits in the car and says,
mabrook waladi, mabrook binti, you succeeded, Allah Allah,
drive past aunty Halima so she can see
it as well.
Sami, the same way we point in modern
day to this moment where we say, this
person succeeded, go through the seerah, point to
that point, tell me where the prophet Muhammad
s.a.w. succeeds.
Measure the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. by
the modern standards that the ummah considers success.
Where does he rank?
Sheikh, don't do this to me.
He goes, what's going on?
Is your brain the wire going all haywire?
Is it going all, I said but sheikh,
success is not measured by what?
It's not measured by the material possessions.
How is success measured then in Islam?
Because the struggle of the prophet Muhammad s
.a.w. does not end until his dying
breath.
Even when he enters Mecca, he passes away
within a year in Medina Munawwara afterwards.
He does not stay in Mecca.
He does not stay from where he was
kicked out of.
He goes to Medina Munawwara and he passes
away and goes back to Allah s.w
.t. and it is said that every prophet
is asked, do you want to stay in
this dunya and see the fruits of your
efforts or do you want to go back
to Allah?
He said, I'll go back to Allah.
I won't stay here.
Sammy, where does the prophet Muhammad s.a
.w. measure up in that modern terms of
success?
I said, I beg you stop asking me
this question.
Get to the point.
He said, who would you describe as the
most successful person in history?
It is Muhammad s.a.w. Now I'm
aware that because I look like you and
we Muslims have inferiority complexes, I am considered
hadith daif, mutawatir.
So I came armed with what I like
to refer to as sahih non-muslim.
sahih non-muslim is a compilation of non
-muslim testimonials about Islam and the prophet Muhammad
s.a.w. because I know that has
more value than my words.
I know we're the age of Dajjal, so
the other eye is not open yet to
appreciate it.
My quha, he put Muhammad s.a.w.
as the number one most successful person in
history.
Why?
What does he measure the success of the
prophet Muhammad s.a.w.? He measures him
by the fact that he said no man
in history.
The prophet Muhammad s.a.w. did not
have conquer as many lands as Genghis Khan
did, did not conquer as many lands as
Alexander the Great did.
He did not have wealth comparable to Enrico
Dandolo of Venice, but he left behind a
spirit and legacy so great that generations after
him would move in the name of his
message without ever seeing him.
They would love him though they would never
meet him.
They would move based on his promise.
They would move based on what he told
them.
They would move based on what he delivered.
They would sacrifice and struggle based on the
promise that he gave them and 1400 years
later, la ilaha illallah would be raised in
Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Ibadallah, the magnificence of the prophet Muhammad s
.a.w., the success was in his ability
and perseverance to keep going, but I'm not
here to talk to you about the struggle.
I'm here to talk about what might prevent
you from struggling and I won't go on
for too long.
They told me we're behind schedule.
So Sami, please don't talk for 50 minutes.
Please talk for half an hour.
So that means I'll talk for about two
hours inshallah and then we can deal with
it.
I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I'm semi-joking.
The reality is that when you look at
the seal of the prophet Muhammad s.a
.w., he gives his dawah in Mecca.
He fights winds in Badr, is defeated in
Uhud, existential crisis in Khandaq, Hudaybiyyah, the sahaba
angry at the treaty.
When he enters Mecca, he goes to Medina.
But I think that when it comes to
the perseverance of struggle during when you're here
in America or in the or in the
UK, his majesty's kingdom sends his regards.
I think it's more about to what extent
does the promise of Allah move you and
how do you perceive Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala in this movement that you embark on.
Explain what I mean.
I know that sounds vague.
One of my favorite surahs in the Quran
and I don't know if you can have
a favorite surah but other mashayikh can correct
me.
I love surah Taha.
The reason why I love surah Taha is
because when I was 16, I was flying
back from Saudi Arabia.
Inshallah, I get to see that country again
inshallah at some point and see the Haramain
inshallah.
If you go there and see the Kaaba,
make dua for me.
Don't say my name in person, you might
get in trouble but just make dua for
me inshallah.
When I was flying back, I heard surah
Taha and surah Taha, there is a dialogue.
There is an exchange between Musa alaihissalam and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that I loved
so much because in this, Musa alaihissalam was
pretty reminded me of an ordinary Muslim of
today and I'll explain what I mean.
There's no blasphemy in this, don't worry.
Musa alaihissalam is going past Tua and he
says, I've seen a fire and I'm going
to go to this fire.
Maybe I might find some guidance that might
help us to get us to the location
where we're going to.
So when he goes there, Allah talks to
him.
So he talks to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and Allah shows him two signs.
Allah says, What is in your right hand?
It is a stick that I use for
shepherding and there are some other uses that
I have for it.
He threw it and it became like a
serpent, like a snake.
Take it, we will restore it back to
a stick.
That's the first miracle.
The second miracle, on the side.
Put your hand on your side and a
bright light will appear.
We will show you two of our major
signs.
Now after he's spoken to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and seen the two major signs,
Allah tells him, Go to Pharaoh, go to
society, go out and go and convey the
message, go out and go and talk to
people, go out and go and engage with
society, go out and deliver the message.
You would like to think that if Allah
told you to do the same thing, you'd
say, bismillah, not Musa alaihissalaam.
Musa says, Allahumma, expand my heart so that
it's able to endure the struggle that is
coming and remove the stutter that is in
my tongue, implying that Musa alaihissalaam said to
Rabbi subhana, Allahumma, I have a stutter.
I don't know if I'm the best person
to convey this message, but look at the
next part.
And appoint with me Haroon to go with
me.
In another ayah, he says, He is more
eloquent than I am.
Now, I just want you to imagine this
conversation.
He's spoken to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
directly.
He's seen two major signs, but his reaction
is, Allahumma, I have a stutter and can
you send Haroon with me?
I don't want to go alone.
I don't want to go by myself, Rabbi.
Rabbi, what you're asking me is scary.
What you're asking me is hard.
What you're asking me is tough.
Allahumma, I don't know if I can do
it by myself.
Remember, Allah has told him go, given him
the order.
Somebody, maybe a fringe movement of today's Ummah
would have said, What power does Haroon have
that Allah doesn't that you need Haroon when
Allah told you to go?
Realistic thing to say, right?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when I'm
listening to it as a 16 year old,
not now, as a 16 year old, before
anybody cuts this clip and goes wild with
it.
As a 16 year old, I'm thinking, Musa,
what are you asking Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala?
Allah told you go.
Allah told you go.
What are you doing?
Negotiating.
Oh!
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as a 16
year old, I did not understand that my
Lord's mercy far outweighs his wrath.
So I'm expecting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to say, Am I not sufficient for you,
ya Musa?
Instead, Allah says, Musa, we are going to
give you what you ask for.
But there's something afterwards that he says, And
Musa, this is not the first time that
we've shown favor on you.
But look at the reference point that Allah
uses when he talks about the previous favors
that he gave him.
He doesn't use a reference point when Musa
asked for something.
He uses a point when Musa could not
ask for anything.
He says, when you were born, ya Musa,
We already showered our favor when the other
babies were being slaughtered by Pharaoh.
When the other babies were being slaughtered, we
rescued you, ya Musa.
We are the ones to your sister to
put you in a basket on the river.
And we for your mother, for you to
be delivered to your mother, in the belly
of the beast.
I always imagine that dua, Allah answers when
you make dua.
Here, Allah is saying, Even before you made
dua, I'm giving you.
Even before you raised your hands, I gave
you.
Even before you asked, I'm giving you.
Why do you make dua as if I
never gave you before?
Why do you make dua as if I
am not blessing you and that I only
bless you when you make dua?
Why do you ask me as if I
don't give?
You should be asking me on the basis.
I'm always giving.
So it's only natural that you go back
to Allah and you ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Now I'm thinking Musa got lucky because Allah
could have got angry with it.
I'm 16 at the time.
Go easy.
But then when Allah tells them again, go
to Pharaoh, Say, Allahumma, we're both scared to
go to Pharaoh.
You spoke to Allah.
You saw two major signs.
You asked for favors.
Allah gave it.
And you're both turning around and saying, Allahumma,
I'm scared.
Surely Allah is going to turn around and
say, How dare you be scared?
How dare you be fearful when I, the
Lord upon high, have given you a command
to do?
Surely a Muslim is not allowed to feel
fear.
Surely you're not allowed to hesitate.
Surely it's a sign of weak iman if
I hesitate or I'm scared.
But Allah stuns me and says, Qulna la
takhaf, innaka anta al-a'la.
Qala la takhafa, innani ma'akuma asma'u
wa araa.
Do not be scared.
I'm with you.
I see and I hear.
And Allah advises them how to approach Pharaoh.
Okay, surely Musa alaihissalam now has understood.
But you read the next page of Surah
Taha.
When they arrange the competition between the sorcerers
and Musa, Fa awjasa fee nafsihi khifatan Musa.
Musa is surrounded by people taunting him, sorcerers
goading him, Pharaoh threatening him.
Allah has given him the promise, but Allah
says in his heart, he felt fear.
The same way you feel fear when you
raise your voice, when you feel fear to
go to a protest, when you feel fear
to share a social media post, when you
feel fear to stand up for what's right,
when you feel fear to engage your society,
when you feel fear that maybe they will
treat me badly, maybe they'll insult me, maybe
I'll be sacked.
The same fear.
Allah is saying that Musa felt it.
It's normal.
It's not weak iman.
Subhanak Ya Rabb.
Because Allah responds, Qulna la takhaf, innaka anta
al-a'la.
And Allah reminds him of the signs.
Wa alqi ma fi yameenika, talqaf ma sana
'u, innama sana'u kaytu sahiru wa la
yufli'u sahiru haythu ata.
Musa, throw the stick.
Leave it to me, Musa.
Just move.
Just go.
Just try.
Make the effort.
Musa, I've got this.
Musa, go.
Trust me, Musa.
Trust the sign.
Trust the miracle.
I know you feel fear in your heart.
But trust me, Musa.
I know you feel fear in your heart.
Believe in me, Musa.
Believe in my power.
Throw what is in your right hand and
watch how I deal with the rest.
Raise your voice and watch how I flip
the hearts.
Raise your voice for Gaza.
Watch how Candace Owens starts defending Gaza.
Raise your voice.
Watch how I make Tucker Carlson say we
need to cut funding for the Zionists.
Raise your voice.
Watch how I make American society flip from
pro-Zionist to pro-Palestine.
Move, Ya Ibadallah.
And watch how Allah works his miracles.
Who would, Alayhi Salaam, Yazid Qum Quwatan Ila
Quwatikum when he sends Tana Hesse coats to
go all across America to tell them this
is apartheid, this is injustice, and this needs
to end.
Allahu Akbar.
And when Musa...
Now sometimes, I believe that the Quran is
the word of Allah SWT.
So when Musa, Alayhi Salaam, is feeling fearful
before he throws the stick, my imagination of
the story is not that Musa went, and
threw the stick.
My imagination is that he went, Why?
Why?
Because the following ayah says, He found that
the sorcerers were in prostration.
Allah doesn't say they prostrated.
He says, He found, meaning he discovered that
they were in prostration, meaning he didn't see
their prostration.
He wasn't watching them when he threw the
stick, meaning that when he threw it, he
threw it in a matter of faith.
I don't see how I'm going to win
in this situation.
But Allah says, Throw, let me throw it.
Allah says, Move, I will throw it.
Allah says, Speak, I will flip the heart.
I threw the stick, and the sorcerers are
all in prostration.
But I want you to look at this
parallel.
Musa, Alayhi Salaam, has engaged in a lot
of dialogue with Allah SWT.
And Allah has given him six reassurances, six.
But look at the sorcerers who saw the
miracle and prostrated.
Pharaoh says to them, You believe in Musa
before I've given you permission.
I will crucify you, cut your limbs off
and crucify you in opposite directions.
And then I will show you who amongst
us is the most powerful.
They don't say, Allahumma, We're not, we are
lacking in something sent to us an ally.
They say, Wallahi, We will never prefer you
Pharaoh over what Allah has brought us.
Do what you wish with us.
We will never go back to the way
we were before.
We will never support the Zionist again.
We will never support your kufr again.
Musa, Alayhi Salaam, in this dialogue with Allah
SWT, and it's a beautiful dialogue.
I encourage you to go back to Surah
Taha.
It's a beautiful dialogue.
Why?
Because it tells you what Allah truly is
like.
That Allah does not desire hardship for you.
Allah knows that you feel scared.
He knows that you feel hesitation.
He knows that the price of raising your
voice might be putting you off.
He knows that perhaps when you raise your
voice, there'll be consequences that you are worried
about.
Allah doesn't say, How dare you be worried?
Allah says, I know you're worried, but trust
my promise.
Trust me to deliver.
Trust that when you raise your voice, trust
that when you boycott, McDonald's share price will
drop.
Trust that when you boycott.
You know, I'll tell you a true story.
When Muslims started boycotting, many Muslims, they said,
we don't have the numbers or the power
to be effective in boycott.
The inferiority complex was so bad that when
Starbucks share price dropped because of the boycott,
many Muslims said, No, no, Sammy.
It's not because of boycott.
What it is, there's an ism in the
economics and, you know, supply demand and this,
this and it led to.
I said, Akhi, you didn't study economics and
neither did I.
You are ignorant and I'm ignorant.
Let's not talk like we know what on
earth happened.
Then when the Starbucks CEO came and said
it's because of the boycott, I said, Sahih
non-Muslim.
There you go, Habib.
Because this is the most authentic book in
what you believe.
McDonald's, Sammy, I don't think we have the
numbers.
I don't think we have the numbers.
Then McDonald's CEO came out and said, please,
please, please, stop boycotting.
The Muslims initially, they said, well, like the
boycott is not working.
It's the ism, it's supply and demand.
It's, you know, it's ergonomics and this and
whatever and up and down and all these
things, etc.
Ya'am, please believe, just believe that you
can have power.
Believe you can make an impact.
Bukhari and Muslim was not sufficient to make
him believe.
Quran was not sufficient to make him believe.
But in Sahih non-Muslim, the chapter of
companies in the book of McDonald's, the CEO
said, the boycott by this ummah for the
sake of Gaza means we have to close
150 stores.
Ibadallah, I met some of the owners of
the Yemeni cafes.
I said to them, I want to understand.
I had to speak a bit of American
for them to understand me.
I got to understand, bro.
How?
How are all these Yemeni cafes doing so
well?
What's the secret?
He said, Wallahi, Sammy, if I show you
the profit and loss sheet, our success has
only really been in the past year.
What happened in the past year?
What do you mean?
Boycott.
What do you mean?
He said, Muslims before, they had the power
to make us great, but they had no
taqwa in how they spend their money.
They were spending it elsewhere.
But when they boycotted for Gaza, they came
to us.
And because we had such a windfall, we
were able to open up across America.
They always had the ability to make us
great, but they were choosing not to.
They were not conscious where they spend their
money.
And that's why I appreciate that there is
a very big difference between reading hadith as
a Muslim and reading hadith like a Dajjal.
And I explain what I mean.
Many people, they don't like this example, but
I think it helps explain it.
There is a hadith about taqwa that produces
two different interpretations based on whether you read
it as a Dajjal or whether you read
it as a Muslim.
Umar Ibn Khattab goes to Ubay Ibn Ka
'b and he says to Ubay Ibn Ka
'b, tell me about taqwa.
So Ubay Ibn Ka'b says to Umar
Ibn Khattab, Ya Umar, have you ever walked
on a thorny path?
Umar says, yes.
He said, how did you walk on this
thorny path?
He says, every step I took, I would
make sure I was not stepping on the
thorn.
I would look down and make sure that
every step was in a place where there
are no thorns.
He said, this is taqwa, to be aware
of every single step you are taking, every
single penny you are spending, every single protest,
every single word you are saying.
And that's why, Ya Ibadallah, the whole point
of this 20 minute talk is, Ibadallah, Allah
has said he's all powerful.
Believe it.
Allah has said this Ummah is strong.
Believe it.
Allah has said, Those who do even an
atom of good deed, Allah sees it.
Believe it.
Allah has said that if you move, He
will increase strength to your strength, meaning that
objectively, there will be no way you see
where the strength will come from.
Allah will bring it from places that you
never even expected it.
How many allies of Palestine have emerged that
we never knew their hearts could even be
flipped.
Ibadallah, start believing in the Quran.
And some of you might say, Sami, you're
calling us hypocrites.
I'm not, I think.
What I'm saying is, and I put it
to you this way.
I was in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
And there was an imam, he finished the
khutbah.
And then afterwards I said to him, imam,
you know, we're doing our best for Gaza
and for Sudan and for these other places.
But I feel like people are relegating everything
to dua.
He said, dua is not the problem.
The problem is we don't make sincere dua.
I told him, what do you mean?
He says, we think sincere dua is, We
think it's the shouting and the spiritual high,
woo, that you feel in your heart.
I said, I don't understand your point.
He said, have you ever seen people praying
for rain?
I said, yes, they do all the time
in Tunis.
He said, have you seen how they pray
for rain?
And they all go, He said, I said,
yes, I love it the way everybody comes
together.
He said, have you ever seen an umbrella
in any one of their hands?
Have you ever seen an umbrella in any
one of their hands?
Because yes, Sami, if they believed Allah could
deliver the rain based on the dua, surely
they should have come prepared and brought the
umbrella.
But the reality is they were enjoying the
sense of being sincere, but their actions betrayed
them.
They weren't actually sincere.
Dua is not how you feel.
Dua is the belief that Allah can deliver.
It's the belief that if I boycott, Allah
can deliver.
If I move, Allah can deliver.
If I raise my voice, I can flip
the hearts.
That is dua.
It is on the basis that Allah can
deliver.
And I'll finish on this point.
Ibadallah, this ummah has never been weak.
There are many people when I go across
America, you know, the ones who want to
be pessimist.
They want to.
You know, it's in their genes.
They don't want to believe in the power
of Allah.
They don't want to.
They want to pray five times and do
tahajjud, but not on the basis Allah is
powerful.
On the basis of complaining that Allah is
weak.
Astaghfirullah, Hasha.
That the ummah is weak.
So they will say, Sammy, the ummah is
destined to be weak based on the hadith.
I say, which hadith?
They say the hadith where we will be
weak.
What hadith did the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam
say we will be weak?
He said, one day you'll be like the
foam of the sea.
Tell me where the word weakness is used
in the hadith.
He says, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said
that one day Allah will remove the fear
in the hearts of your enemies and they
will come upon you like a feast.
I said, okay, first of all, the fear
is removed from their hearts.
Ummah doesn't become weak.
Continue hadith.
The Sahaba respond and they say, Ya Rasulullah,
will we be many on that day or
few?
Will it be because we are few and
weak or will we be many capable of
resisting?
He said, you will be many.
You'll have power.
You'll have the resources.
You'll have the finances.
You'll have the manpower.
You will have the talent.
You will have what you need to be
great.
But you will be like the foam of
the sea.
Why?
Because your hearts will be afflicted with love
of comfort and you will resent anything that
requires sacrifice.
Meaning, it's not you don't have the power
to be great.
It's not that you don't have the power
to do what is right.
It's that the struggle that is associated with
it, you will say to yourselves, it's not
worth it because it might compromise the comfort
that I have built.
It is not worth the struggle because I
don't want to jeopardize what I built.
Yes, Sammy, it's happening over there.
Don't bring the problems here.
I want to support those who committed genocide.
Don't bring it here.
Sammy, leave the problems of the ummah there.
I want to make dua here, but in
peace.
Don't bring it here.
Yes, Sammy.
Ibadallah, I want to leave you with something
that keeps me going.
It's true that we're all seeing the destruction
that's taking place across the Muslim world.
For those of you who have a small
connection to the ummah, you are following Gaza.
For those of you with a bit more
of a connection to the ummah, you're following
Sudan.
For those of you with a greater connection
to the ummah who care a bit more,
you are following Rohingya.
For those of you with a bit more,
you are following the Igor.
You are seeing all these tragedies unfold in
different places.
But Ibadallah, Allah says that His promise is
true.
Allah will deliver the promise.
When people say that the ummah is weak,
why did Megan Rice enter Islam if the
ummah is weak and being beaten?
Why did Sean King enter Islam if the
ummah is weak and being beaten?
What is the power that they saw in
the ummah that you are unable to see
as part of the ummah?
But I want to leave you with this
that inshallah might make you keep going.
Sheikh Omar Suleiman did this thing called the
Jannah series.
Now as growing up as a teenager, I
didn't think too much about Jannah.
I just wanted to avoid hellfire.
As long as, even if I'm like a
bawwab, you know, like a doorman in the
first Jannah, as long as I don't feel
that burn of the hellfire, Alhamdulillah, people like
me should not think about higher Jannahs.
And then you see a man, you know,
he's done all those lights, you know, the
light is behind his head, you know, while
he's talking and he's, you know, Jannah is
like, you're like, Jannah sounds cool.
And then you lay down at bed, and
you lay down your bed and you start
imagining Jannah.
You start imagining, imagining Jannah.
First, you start in the first Jannah.
And what you do in the first Jannah
is, you go through all of the list
of the things that you want in this
dunya.
So let's say you go to bed about
9.30pm, 10pm.
By about 2am in the morning, 3am, you've
exhausted the list.
It's a long list, but yeah.
Once you finish it, what happens is you
say to yourself, what would it be like
to go to second Jannah?
Then third Jannah, then fourth.
First Jannah is 6.15 in the UK
sometimes.
So, you know, you get to 6pm, 6am,
and now you're in the sixth Jannah.
So you think, I'm here, I may as
well check out Firdaus.
I may as well.
So you start imagining things that you didn't
know that you loved.
So you start imagining Firdaus.
What would it be like?
Because you've already exhausted all the things you
want in the dunya.
You're no longer thinking about those.
You've got everything you want.
All the Teslas and Cybertrucks.
When you're there, you start thinking, who would
I like to meet that, you know, because
I met my grandfather, I met, etc, great
grandfather.
You start imagining, what would you like to
meet?
Sahaba.
Sa'd Abu Waqas.
What was it like in Qadisiyah?
Amr Ibn Aas.
What was it like going to Egypt?
You know, Khalid Ibn Waleed, etc.
But then eventually you get to a point
about 6.14, one minute before Adhan or
Fajr.
You meet the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And then you start conversing with the Prophet
Muhammad.
You start imagining all these things that you
would say to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
And you realize you actually start liking it.
When you wake up, you start saying to
yourself, I have a lot to say to
my beloved Prophet.
But how do I get there?
And I want to finish with this story.
I was in Florida and somebody stood up
at the end of a talk and said,
Sami, you're a motivational speaker, which is the
greatest insult that anybody can give to me.
Because motivational speaker means you have no substance.
It just means you give me a spiritual
high and that's it.
I'm not a motivational speaker, ya jamaat.
I like to think of my mind as
substance, inshallah.
Put your hand if you agree.
No, don't.
So after the first 13 years of the
life of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
at the end of the 13 years, he
said the Prophet was kicked out.
You are exaggerating the power of our word.
Yes, the word made Umar Khattab leave the
elite of Quraish.
Yes, it made Abyssinia become Muslim.
Yes, it made even without an army, without
money.
But he still got kicked out of Mecca
after 13 years.
I said, ya Dajjal.
He said, what?
I said, ya Dajjal, why did he leave
Mecca?
He said he left because he was kicked
out.
I said, no.
Why did he leave Mecca?
He left Mecca because Aus and Khazraj, they
came to him after the 13 years and
they said to him, ya Rasulullah, we saw
the TikTok.
We saw the videos of your dawah of
what's happening in Gaza, of what's happening in
Palestine.
We saw the injustices that are taking place.
We are so horrified by it and we
believe in your message so much.
We are thinking we want to reinforce you.
We want to give you our city as
a base.
Now, Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet, said
what I imagine Muslims would have said today,
which is, hey, hey, hey, what do you
mean you want to give all your support
to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?
Do you realize you might be sacked from
your jobs?
You might struggle.
All of Arabia will turn against you.
You will go through a period of struggle
where society will do a backlash against you.
If you're not ready for it, don't raise
your voice for Gaza.
Don't raise your voice for Palestine.
Don't give your support to the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
They say to Abbas, We know what is
in this pact.
We know.
But we are ready to give everything for
this message.
The system doesn't scare us.
Now, I say this quite often, but when
I'm traveling, when mama calls me, you pick
up easily.
How are you, my son?
How is everything?
Are you looking after yourself?
Are you this, etc?
Alhamdulillah, mama, everything very good, etc.
When Baba calls, Not that he was hard
on us.
He wasn't.
It's just that the disappointment of my father
weighs heavily.
Baba is calling me directly, not through mama.
I shouldn't take too long.
Alhamdulillah, Baba, everything is good.
How are you, Baba?
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, everything very good.
I was watching one of your speeches in
America, and I heard you telling the story
of the Pledge of Aqaba.
You were saying about how Abbas said to
Awsan Khazraj.
I said, Yeah.
And he said, But you didn't.
You didn't go to the whole point of
the story.
I said, What do you mean?
You stopped before the point of the story,
before the zubda of the story.
Baba, I don't understand.
Sami, I said to him, Baba, I told
him the struggle, we're ready for this.
That's not the point of the pledge.
You forgot the next part.
Baba, I don't understand.
What was the next part?
What did Awsan Khazraj ask Rasulullah after they
spoke to Abbas?
What did they ask him?
I said, Baba, they asked him, What's our
reward?
For those youngsters here, it doesn't matter how
old you get.
The relationship with the parents stay the same.
It is what it is.
You know, I have kids as well.
Subhanallah.
I said, They asked him, What's our reward?
Huh?
Sami Waladi, Waladi means he's getting in a
better mood now.
Sami, if Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had said
to them that your reward is every khalifa
will only come from Ansar and their descendants,
Muslims most probably would have agreed to it
because they supported him when he needed it
most.
I said, Yes, probably.
If he had said to them that out
of every zakat or every spoil of war,
50% goes to Ansar and their descendants
for the support they gave him when he
needed it most.
I said, They would probably have accepted it.
So what did he promise them?
Sami, I said, He promised them Al-Jannah.
And what was their response?
Their response was that it's sufficient for us.
Sami, I see you in America.
You are trying to entice the community by
promising them a comfortable dunya consequence.
Punish genocide and it won't be as bad
as you think.
Stand for what's right.
It won't be as bad as you think.
Stand for justice and it won't be as
bad as you think.
You will be able to stay in your
homes and it will present.
I see you, Sami, trying to sell dunya.
But that is not the point of the
seerah, my son.
What did the Rasulullah ﷺ offer Ansar that
made them give everything?
He promised them Al-Jannah and that was
sufficient for them.
And there is no glory for the Ummah
until it is sufficient for us.
Sorry, I didn't mean to buy that.
Ibadallah, I asked myself the question, does Jannah
move you in that way?
Does Akhirah move you in this way?
Does the desire to meet the Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ and tell him of how you struggled
in his name, does that entice you?
Does the promise of Rida Allah, of Allah
being pleased with you, does that move you?
And if it doesn't, what does that make
you?
Ibadallah, I appreciate that I've gone on a
bit in this speech.
But I did not come here to lecture
you or to patronize you.
I actually came here to plead with you.
I came here to plead with you that
the only obstacle to your success is Wahan.
That justice is always a path of struggle.
That the seerah is always a path of
struggle.
But there is an interview that I encourage
you to watch.
There is a Turkish boy, and I promise
this is the final part, I promise, I
promise.
He grins at me telling me you took
way more time than you promised.
There is a Turkish boy who is interviewed
by a presenter and the presenter says to
the Turkish boy, what is your dream?
He said, my dream is to meet my
beloved Prophet Muhammad.
And he says, what would you ask him?
Now I'm watching the interview thinking I'd ask
him Uhud, Badr, Hudaibiyah, I'd ask him this,
that, etc.
The boy, 13 year old says, I wouldn't
ask my beloved Prophet anything.
So the presenter says, what do you mean
you wouldn't ask him anything?
He said, what would I need to ask?
I would thank him.
Thank him?
I would thank him.
I would tell him, Ya Rasulullah, Jazakallah Khair,
that when your people persecuted you, you kept
going.
When they would beat up your Sahaba, you
kept going.
When they stoned you in Taif and you
were bleeding, you kept going.
When you saw your friends being tortured because
of your message, you kept going.
That when your people offered you the sun
in your right hand and the moon in
your left hand, you kept going with the
message.
That when Khadija died, you still kept going.
That when your heart was broken, when your
uncle died and you lost your protection, you
kept going.
That when Abyssinia was the NATO ally, you
believe that Allah could flip his heart, so
you sent Ja'far to them.
That when you were kicked out of Mecca
and it broke your heart, you said, Wallahi,
I would never have left you if your
people had not driven me from you.
That you went to Medina and you kept
going.
That when a thousand Quraish turned up at
the gates of your city and said, we
want to eradicate you, you looked at the
300 and you said, let's do it.
This message is worth it.
That when you were defeated in Uhud and
you saw what it did to your uncle,
you didn't forsake the message.
You got back up and you kept going
and you continued, Ya Rasulullah.
That when all of the Arabia came against
you in Ahzab and they blockaded your city
and you were digging the trench, you had
no plan to drive them back.
You just tried to buy time digging the
trench.
You didn't compromise on it.
You didn't give up the message.
You dug the trench and when Munafiqoon laughed
at you, when they said, look how desperate
situation he's in, you kept going saying, I
see the pearls of Persia.
That when Hudaybiyah was signed and your Sahaba
were upset, that you kept going and when
you entered Makkah, you forgave them and in
your forgiveness, those people carried the deen and
because of that forgiveness, because of that struggle,
because of that perseverance, because you persevered and
embraced it, Islam reached me and I reached
here in Firdaus with you.
Jazakallah khair Ya Rasulullah.
That you struggled in a way that my
generation hesitated to struggle, but Jazakallah that you
struggled because you delivered the deen and we
entered Jannah.
The deen is about struggle because to them
is the dunya and for us is the
akhirah.
Let akhirah move you in the way to
do always meant to.