Siraj Wahhaj – Muslims In America – Muslims In America – What Is Next
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the success of their Islam education program and the challenges faced by Muslim businesses in New York City. They emphasize the importance of not forgetting to pray and caution people about their deeds. The devastating impact of the pandemic on Muslims, particularly on their health and safety, is also highlighted. The speakers encourage caution and caution about one's youth, while also discussing the importance of being a Muslim and sharing wealth to give children a better choice.
AI: Summary ©
Asalaamu alaikum, bismillahirrahmanirrahim, wasalaatu wasalaamu ala rasoolilahi
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Brothers and sisters we pray Allah the Almighty
that Allah continues to bless you, bless this
conference and bless Iqna for the marvelous work
that they have done.
If I would guess, speculate, how many people
became Muslim at the Gaza?
I would say plenty, hundreds of thousands, a
million more, Allah knows best.
If I could speculate, how many people will
go to Jannah as a result of what
happened to Gaza?
I would say plenty.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Allahumma
laa isha ila laa ishu al-akhirah.
Oh Allah, there is no life except the
life of the Hira.
Allah asked the angels, did you take the
life of the beloved of my servant?
Did you take the life of the children
of Gaza?
Yaquluna naam, they said yes.
Madha qala abdi?
What did my slaves say when you took
their child?
What did they say?
Yaquluna hamidaka wastarja.
He said, oh Allah, we praise you and
we accept your Qadra.
We're happy with your Qadra.
Qala ibdu li abdi baitan fil jannah wa
samahu baitul hamd.
Allah told the angels, then build for my
slave a house in Jannah and call it
the house of praise.
What are my servants saying?
They're praising you.
Ar'auni?
Do they see me?
Yaquluna laa mar'auka yarab.
They don't see you.
What if they saw me?
What are they seeking refuge from?
They're seeking refuge from the hereafter or the
hellfire.
Do they see it?
Yaquluna laa.
They don't see it.
What if they saw it?
Brothers and sisters, you have no idea how
grateful I am for being a Muslim.
Most of you were born Muslim.
How many of you born Muslim?
Raise your hand.
Look around.
Look around.
Good.
How many of you like me converted or
reverted to Islam?
Raise your hand.
A handful of people.
And that's going to be my talk tonight
for a few moments.
Years ago when I was a young man,
they sang a song, what is America to
me?
I'd like to tell you a little bit
about New York.
How many from New York?
Raise your hand.
Mashallah.
Allahu Akbar.
New York is in the house.
Alright, calm down.
Think about New York City.
1,500,000 Muslims in New York City.
300, 300 masjids.
30 full-time Muslim schools.
And I've been saying for years, thousands of
Muslim businesses until I just found out recently.
You know how many Muslim businesses in New
York City?
Are you ready?
96,000 Muslim businesses in New York City.
My, no, my du'a today, that Allah
opens wide the front door so that people
come in to Islam and close that back
door.
And we sent down the Torah in it
is guidance and light.
And gave him, him who, Isa, al-injil
fi hudan wa nur.
In it is guidance and light.
My brothers and sisters, my prayer is that
the Muslim Imams, the leaders, heads of Muslim
organizations, open wide the front door and close
the back door.
One morning, we were at my masjid for
Salatul Fajr.
And one of the brothers there who comes
almost every day, I said, though, where's your
son?
He's, oh man, Imam.
I said, you tell your son I want
to see him.
And the next day, he came for Fajr.
And he came the day after that.
And then he disappeared again.
I said, what happened?
He said, Imam, so we are having challenges
with our youth, many of them.
Open wide the front door.
Allah bless me with children.
Anyone know how many children I have?
Nine.
And every one of them went to a
full-time Muslim school.
Every one of them.
Many of our children go to public school.
I'm not saying you can't thrive, you can.
But it is difficult.
One out of ten students in public school
in New York City are Muslims.
Our job, open the front door and close
the back door.
Now, most of you know my history.
I came from the same history of Malcolm
X, Muhammad Ali, in the nation of Islam.
When I was a student in New York
University, not one Muslim came to me and
invited me to Islam.
But the brothers from the nation of Islam,
they came and sat next to me and
said, how you doing my black brother?
So I joined the nation of Islam like
Malcolm X, like Muhammad Ali.
19, how do they know that I wanted
some water?
Allahu Akbar.
That's pure love.
Thank you.
Allah blessed us in 1975 with the death
of Mr. Elijah Muhammad and his son, Imam
Warat Ali Muhammad, who transformed that nation of
Islam to Muslims.
And now, alhamdulillah, we join the Muslim ummah
of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
My recommendation to you, there are a lot
of people out there not Muslim.
Will we invite them?
There are so many people in need of
the da'wah.
Open wide the front door and close the
back door.
Can I give you a scene on Yawm
al-Qiyamah?
Consider this.
There'll be some people in the hellfire and
they will cry out, those Muslims will cry
out.
They see people in the hellfire.
They recognize, Rabbana, ikhwanuna, kanu yusalluna ma'ana.
Oh Allah, our brothers they used to pray
with us, wa yusalluna ma'ana.
And they fasted with us, wa tuhujjuna ma
'ana.
And they made hajj with us.
We ought to ask the question, if they
prayed with us, they made hajj with us,
they fasted with us, what are they doing
in the hellfire?
Latakunuka ladhina nasu allaha fa'ansahum anfusahum.
Do not be like those who forgot Allah.
Do not die except by the permission of
Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Alhamdulillah, for this crowd coming for the ikhna
conference, my prayer is that we be concerned
with two people.
Number one, those who used to come to
the masjid.
I know some who left the masjid.
I'm sure you did too.
Allah warns us, latakunuka ladhina nasu allaha fa
'ansahum anfusahum.
Do not be like those who forgot Allah.
Therefore Allah calls them to forget themselves.
Don't you tell me how you began the
race?
How did you end?
Innimal ahmalu bil khawateen.
The Prophet said, alayhi salatu wasalam, your deeds
shall be judged by your last deeds.
So today, my little admonition, my advice
is that we as Muslims be concerned not
only for today, but for tomorrow and our
children.
In Italy, it is predicted
by the year 2050, 60% of the
Italians will have no brothers, no sisters, no
cousins, no aunts, no uncles.
What happened?
Those who have gone away from Allah, Allah
calls them to go away from themselves.
I've traveled all throughout America.
If I can tell you how many Muslim,
Muslims have bought churches, that they sold the
churches to the masjid, sold the synagogues to
the masjids, churches closing down, synagogues closing down.
And finally the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam said,
you will follow those who came before you,
shibren bishibren, step by step by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, by step, by step, by
step, by step, an inch by inch, so
that if they crawled in a hole of
a lizard, you follow right behind.
You never know how Allah the Almighty is
going to help us and to guide us,
even amongst the difficulty.
Do not be like those who forgot Allah.
In the last 25 years, 40 million churches
churches in America have closed down.
Will we follow?
Will we be like that?
In the United Kingdom, since 1960, 16,000
churches have closed in the United Kingdom.
The British used to brag, the sun never
set on the British Empire.
Now look at it.
How many states in the United States?
50.
One state, Texas, almost three times bigger, larger
than the United Kingdom.
What happened?
Do not be like those who forgot Allah,
therefore Allah caused them to forget themselves.
Brothers and sisters, today my message is simple.
Invite the people to the way of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I would like to give you something that
happened to me when I was in the
Nation of Islam.
I went, I knocked on thousands of doors.
One day I'm on Eastern Parkway and I'm
looking at a building about to go in
and I see two young men in the
hallway.
I said to myself, they're going to try
to rob me.
I'm asking you, should I go into the
hallway?
How many say yes?
Raise your hand.
Yeah, you would go, right?
How many say no, Imam, don't go?
Allahu Akbar.
I decided I'm gonna go in there because
I ain't afraid of nobody.
So I go into the hallway, two men,
the guy on the right looked mean and
the one on the left looked the more
reasonable.
The guy on the right, I took out
a Muhammad Speaks newspaper and I put it
under his arm.
In the other one, I put another Muhammad
Speaks newspaper under his arm and I said,
give me 25 cents.
True story.
The guy on the right took out a
gun and said, you just can't rob a
Muslim.
Put his gun back in his pocket and
gave me 25 cents and the other one
gave me 25 cents.
What's the lesson?
You can argue about the Aqeedah of the
nation of Islam all you want, you can.
But the one thing you can't argue about,
their love for their people and going after
their people.
Imam Talib told me in Harlem one day,
there was a black woman with a hoodie
on, walking down the street of Harlem and
there were two men behind her and she
perceived that they may be following her.
So she stepped up a little bit.
They stepped up.
She began to jog, jog, they begin to
jog and when they were just about to
grab her, her hoodie fell off, revealing kima
and they stopped.
Oh sister, we're sorry.
Why?
Right Aqeedah?
No, but right intention.
My question to you and us, do we
care about the people?
Open wide the front door, close the back
door.
The constant dripping of water on a stone
will drill a hole in the stone.
Not a tornado, not a hurricane, but a
little bit.
So my prayers today in this conference, may
Allah bless you and your children, but be
careful that back doors open.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in
the United Kingdom and some of the young
Shabab, they drove me around in Birmingham, Manchester.
They said, Imam Siraj, the Muslim youth here
in the UK are going crazy.
They're selling drugs like everyone else.
They're robbing people.
And he said, so many of the people
in prison are inhabited by Muslims.
He said something like 40, 45% of
the inmates are Muslims.
Why am I saying this?
Two things we have to be careful about
with our youth, to make sure that they
remain in the masjid.
Our masjid began 1978, 25 members, all of
them former nation of Islam.
Now, average Juma, 1,500 people.
We were 100% of the population.
Now, maybe the African-Americans, maybe 20%
of the population of my masjid.
35 different nationalities.
So, in my conclusion, Alhamdulillah, so good to
be a Muslim.
Allahumma la'aishu ila al-aishu al-akhirah.
Two things on Yawm al-Qiyamah and then
I finish.
You see, when you try to judge someone
who dies in this life, you can't do
it.
The Prophet, alayhi salat wa salam, said, no
one who dies in this life and go
to Jannah, but were to come back here
in this life, even if they're given everything
in it, ila shaheed.
Except the shaheed, the martyr.
Why would a martyr want to come back
here?
To die 10 more times in the way
of Allah because of the great honor that
Allah bestowed upon them.
Don't worry about the people of Gaza who
lost their lives.
They're good, sure.
We, of course, we mourn for them, of
course.
And then Allah will ask the person least
punished in hellfire, if you had all the
wealth in the world, would you exchange it
to get out of this?
And he would say, yes.
So therefore, in this wonderful gathering, I make
dua that Allah will bless every one of
you.
That all of the trials that you have,
they're going to purify you.
Stay in the deen, never leave the deen
and do everything that we can with our
children to give them the best choice.
Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.