Know One Another – Live Fully and Righteously

Hola ilaha illAllah

Muhammad Abdullah

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I want to say, first of all, that I'm very honored to be here. This is my first time being in an msgid, in Oakland. And I speak from the perspective of 30 years as a Muslim in this country. And one of the things that, in fact, the only thought that I really want to leave us with today is a thought that has to do with the seriousness of, of historical consciousness. I know that's a big word. So I'm going to try and break it down in terms that will be really meaningful to us, because I really think it's important for us as Muslims, especially in this day and age in these times that we're living in, that we understand who we are historically, that we understand what our historical role

is, that we understand that we would not be here, not in this place, not in this time, not with this diversity, not with this racial diversity, not with this ethnic diversity, not with this linguistic diversity, not in the most powerful, the most influential, the wealthiest country in the history of humankind, we would not be in this place, if it were not Allah's Will, that we'd be here. And what we all have to do is we have to recognize that this is allows will that we are here in this diversity, and these numbers in this place. And then this time, and and then that, like we have to understand that we have an historical role to play. And in point of fact, what Imams aide said in

the hotbar, about greatness, I would simply add this, we are going to be a great community. The only question is whether we are going to be a great success or a great failure. Because the reality is that when the history of Islam, in the West in America is written 100 years from now, no generation will probably be looked upon as having played a greater role, a more pivotal role, a more informative role than this generation in which we are living right now. This is the generation that will determine whether Islam and America will be a flash in the pan, something that came and went for Bob than the home, as the Quran says about many other communities, or whether we will be the

beginning of a renaissance of Islam, whether we will be the beacon that allows us lamb to be beamed out not only to the rest of this country, but to the rest of the world. We have to understand who we are in this world today, here, right here in America, we American Muslims. The fact of the matter is that, and this will not be the case forever. It is the case today, it will probably be the case maybe for another 100 years, maybe for 200 more years. But after that, after that the learning of civilization will probably pass to someone else. It will not be the Americans, America star will probably have begun to win by then. And I don't say that, as someone who wishes ill for my own

country. I don't say that for someone who wishes ill for America. I say that as someone who is looking at America through the prism of history, and that no civilization lasts forever. No human civilization lasts forever. All of them have the beginning. They have the middle, and they have an end. And America will have an end, like all other civilizations has an end. But right now, we are in America. Right now. We are the people whom Allah has chosen subhanaw taala to carry the message of Islam in America. And if we, if we if we this community here, if we if we are successful, being able to subdue our egos, and able to therefore parlay all of the genius that Allah subhanaw taala has

implanted in this community, if we are able to work that into a liveable, workable social, religious order, a cultural order a political or an economic order, a civilization that can draw the attraction that can earn the esteem that can be the envy of other communities. If we are able to do that here in America, then we will have a multiple

effect that will be heard around the world. Anything we do in America has, has a multiplier effect. If I write a book, and it's a successful book, in six months, it will be translated into 27 different languages. And it will be all over the world. If I write that same book in Spain, or in France, it may go into two or three other languages. And that will be the extent of its multiplier effect. So we Muslims here in America, are successful at translating Allah's Will subhanaw taala into a livable breathing, empowering, invigorating, inspiring reality that enables human beings to do two things. And this is this is the genius of Islam, that we have to find a way of communicating

to the people. You know, some religions have come into the world, and they have focused on living righteously.

And they have told people that living fully, that's for somebody else. As religious people, we want to live righteously. There have been other ideologies that have come into the world, and have said, we want to live fully. All those people who want to be spiritual and righteously, then go over there and do something else. The genius of Islam,

the genius of Islam, and no one who studies the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam can fail to see this. The genius of Islam is that this is a religion. This is a way of life that calls upon us to live both fully and righteously.

And that there is no contradiction between the two. That is the very meaning of Islam. And we know the famous Hadith of the people who came to the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa Salaam and talked about, I'm not going to eat. I'm going to spend all night praying, I'm not going to marry, what did the Prophet say to them, you will not want to meet them. You will not want to meet them. You want to just live just righteously. You're not want to me. I sleep some nights. I sleep part of the night. I pray part of the night. I find some days, I eat some days. And I'm air. The Prophet SAW Allah wa salam was a sua Hasina, of how we can live right life fully and righteously. Not just righteously,

not just fully, but fully and righteously. That is the message of Islam. And that is what the world is crying out for today. And if we want to look at what our youth and our young people are suffering from today, it's that imbalance between how we live fruitfully and how we live righteously, we are the generation who has to find that formula. We are the generation who has to parlay our skills, partly our knowledge. And by the way, it's not all just religious knowledge.

And I want to be very clear about that. And then I want to be quiet because I don't want to get into

but we have to understand

that we have to have people who know a camel salah, who knows a camel will do. Who knows a camel buddy who knows all of the atom, in fact, who knows that have yet to be arrived at yet, because we have yet to really contemplate this reality that is American reality. We're just going to call upon us to develop some new accounts that are related to these realities. We need people who can do that. At the same time, we need poets, we need fashion designers. We need comedians. We need business people. We need people who can help us to put together a civilization

that combines that formula of living fully and living righteously. We need comedians even. And in that regard, everyone has their role to play.

Everyone has their role to play. I might be the scholar, you might be the business person.

I might be the engineer, you might be the poet.

I might be the martial arts instructor, you might be the person who has the next Facebook. I don't know what those things are. I'm a technophobe myself, but somebody else can, can do that. Maybe my point here is that let us now go away from here thinking that greatness can only be by becoming a religious scholar.

Call it a monopoly, the Great General of the Muslims was not one of the major or the man

among the sahaba.

But he was one of those people who was able to contribute to the Muslim community in a manner that was absolutely critical. And we must understand that all of you have a role. Each and every one of you have a role, because each and every one of you have been gifted by Allah subhanaw taala with whatever gifts he has given you. And it is time for us to subdue our ego to devote ourselves to Allah to find that path to ourselves. Imam Zaid mentioned m&r pa Allah I mentioned one last thing about him and

one of the things that we have to understand is that we have to clear the path between ourselves and ourselves and ourselves and Allah

Many of us don't find greatness because we don't find ourselves. We're too busy trying to be like someone else. We're too busy looking at how someone else became great, what their greatness is. And because we don't have a focus on Allah, we can't find a straight path to what has Allah given me. What is the what is the greatness that Allah wants me to achieve? Not everybody can be a Muhammad Ali.

What is the greatness that Allah wants me to achieve?

And what we have to understand is that when we find that path to ourselves, when we find that path to Allah, subhanaw taala, then the talents, the gifts, the ingrained values that Allah subhanaw taala has given us can find their fruition, they can find their expression. But again, as Imam Zaid said, they have got to be for the pleasure of Allah, we have got to subdue this ego, we have got to subdue this self, we have to understand that that is not necessarily our friend. And this was part of what Islam teaches us. That we are to be people who are masters of ourselves, and we're not slaves to ourselves. We can take our talents, we can take our knowledge, and we can go beyond

ourselves because we're not imprisoned by that. So I just want to I just want to end by saying that I'm very honored to be here. It's very humbling to be here. As I said, I speak as someone who's been a muscle for over 30 years. I'm originally from Philadelphia that's on the on the East Coast of America. And today, one can travel from the East Coast, all the way to the West Coast. And finally, jumaan anywhere in the country. That's in a short span of 30 years.

You know, oftentimes we have so much coming on us so much negativity, terrorism, this than the other that we forget, we don't we're not able to step back and look at what Allah has blessed us with. Look at what we have been able to achieve, Despite the setbacks despite the challenges. Look at us, we are everywhere throughout this country, we are black, we are white, we are Are we are Persian, we are indo Pakistani, we are all over America, and Islam is here. And now the question is, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with the opportunities? What are we going to do with the challenges that Allah subhanaw taala has placed in our lab and in that regard, one thing we

should not forget is the model is example is exemplar of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

and let us let us let us let us not forget that, that that that we will, we will come upon hard times, they will be difficult days for us, just like they were for the Prophet. All right. But Imam Zaid mentioned a great champion Muhammad Ali,

I want to leave you with something that I hope will stick with you for some time, because oftentimes, we don't really know the meaning of a champion, we think that a champion is somebody who never hits the canvas, who never hits the canvas. We think that that's what what it means to be a champion. always win. Right? The the real test of a champion is not whether or not you ever hit the canvas. Have you ever get knocked down? But the real test is, how quickly do you get up? And what do you do when you get up? All right, if you want to know how great a champion Muhammad Ali was, I want everybody to do this right now. I'm not joking. This is This is seriously, open your mouth. We all

want. I'm not just gonna joke

and do like this.

You feel that? No, no, it's your job.

You feel that you feel in your head. You feel that inside your head. Hmm.

Now when a fighter gets fired, I used to box I know.

You know he didn't when they start on me hear that.

You hear that? Part of that is the teacher to be that he knows right up that he knows you keep your mouth work. Keep your mouth closed, when a fighter gets tired.

Trying to get more oxygen so he does work

on the mouth. Now you still have felt when you just

just kept that like that. Right? Muhammad Ali got hit in the 15th round by Joe Frazier left whole

mouth wide open.

And guess what? If you had sneeze, you would have missed it.

Because he hit the canvas, got right back up and went back to war. That's a champion.

That's a champion.

When we hit the candidate, the question is, will we get back up? And when we get back into the battle, ask Allah to bless you and to bless me and to bless us all to bless us to see who we are, where we are, what we are and what our role is. There's nothing wrong okay was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.