Siraj Wahhaj – Navigating Uncertain Times
AI: Summary ©
The police in Majd al-T----
The police in Majd al-T discuss the importance of community building in addressing issues such as drug abuse and the ongoing obstruction of the public's movement. They emphasize the need for individuals to participate in a support initiative for Islam, and provide advice on managing one's life and enrolling in the M Jacob program. The police also emphasize the importance of community building for achieving positive outcomes and creating meaningful change in the face of corruption.
The police in Majd al-T discuss the importance of community building in addressing issues such as drug abuse and the ongoing obstruction of the public's movement. They emphasize the need for individuals to participate in a support initiative for Islam, and provide advice on managing one's life and enrolling in the M Jacob program. The police also emphasize the importance of community building for achieving positive outcomes and creating meaningful change in the face of corruption.
AI: Summary ©
But Abdullah is interesting because Abdullah is the
first Muslim born in the Ummah of Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Everyone else, ready?
I'm going to give you a word.
Everyone else was a convert.
I want that to sink in.
Abdullah was the first Muslim born in the
Ummah.
I'm going to show you a video, maybe
two minutes long, maybe three minutes, of my
masjid, Masjid al-Taqwa in Brooklyn.
If you know anything, this is a kind
of an extension from the Kutbah, Innamal ahmalu
bil qawatim, your deeds shall be judged by
your last deeds, not how you begin the
race, how you end the race.
So this is going to be a video
of my masjid.
We started with 25 members, all of them
from the Nation of Islam.
How many heard of the Nation of Islam?
Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali.
We all started from them.
We left them and became Muslims.
And you're going to see our masjid that
we started with these 25 members.
All of them former members of the Nation
of Islam.
This is one of the days of the
Eid.
I'm going to show you now, inshallah.
The masjid is packed.
There's about 1,500 people on the inside.
These are the people who couldn't fit in.
The Africans, Americans, maybe 20%.
42 different nationalities in our masjid.
The police closed down the streets for us,
for Eid.
Okay, there's a point here.
It's not how you begin the race, how
you end it.
And these members of the Nation of Islam,
do you know the theology of the Nation
of Islam?
They believed that this man, Elijah Muhammad, they
believed him to be a prophet.
The prophet said, There's no prophet after me.
In the theology, they didn't believe in Yawm
al-Akhir.
They didn't believe in life after death.
In all of those things, but alhamdulillah, we
started at a brother's apartment.
We used to have Juma prayer in a
brother's apartment.
And then we bought this property, and then
the rest is history.
Why I say that?
What's the significance of us, inshallah?
May Allah bless every one of you.
Islam, may Allah accept it, alhamdulillah.
All of the ibadah that you did, we
didn't fast in Ramadan.
We fasted in December, right?
We never made salat.
When we used to pray, we used to
pray in the east like this and raise
our hands.
We never bowed, we never did anything like
that.
But there's one thing we did do.
You call it da'wah, inviting people to
Islam.
We called it fishing.
That's the word we used.
We went fishing.
I don't want you to ever think that
we were Muslims.
We're not Muslims.
It would not be accepted by Allah at
all.
But there's one thing Allah blessed us with.
He guided us to Islam.
And as a result of him guiding us
to Islam, we were able to transform that
neighborhood.
This neighborhood, our masjid, was one of the
worst in the city.
We had about 50, you ever hear the
word crack?
Crack?
You ever heard of crack?
Drugs.
Crack.
So we had about 15 crack houses, drug
houses, on the block of the masjid.
Our brothers closed those crack houses down and
transformed that area to now, the police said,
was one of the most dangerous streets, now
one of the most safest in the country.
What the Muslims did.
My point is, it's not how you begin
the race, how you end the race.
So inshallah, we're going to have some conversation.
And I just think that Muslims can do
better.
That there are a lot of people out
there who don't know Islam.
And we know the, Abdullah was the first
Muslim born in the Ummah.
Everyone else was converted to Islam.
You understand what I'm saying?
I see some of your faces like you
don't get it.
Tell me, I want some feedback from you.
You don't like the word convert?
Let me know.
Yes.
Abdullah was the first Muslim in the Ummah
of Muhammad, that was born Muslim.
Born Muslim.
Everyone else, Abu Bakr, Ummah, Abdulhamid, Sa'd bin
Rabi, all of them were converts.
You hear what I'm telling you?
You get what I'm saying?
They were what?
Okay.
That's not a bad word.
Converts is not a bad word.
Huh?
Reverse.
Reward.
I thought that was important.
Because we forget that our job is not
just to be Muslim.
Yes, of course.
What about the people?
What about our neighbors?
So I'm saying, I'm pushing, I'm proposing that
Muslims need to interact with the non-Muslims
and to invite them to the Deen of
Islam.
This religion is not just for us.
1400 years ago, they went out there and
some of the greatest Muslims, listen to what
the Prophet said, I'm not making it up.
The best of my Ummah is my generation,
the generation of converts.
Then the generation that follows them, then the
generation that follows them.
Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You don't get what I'm saying.
I'm not talking to you.
Hey Imam, before we begin tonight's topic, I
know you're here for a specific cause, an
organization known as M4C Change Foundation.
For those of us that don't know, Muslims
for Change is a non-profit organization committed
towards transforming the lives of underserved girls and
orphans globally.
Their current project is Sakina Home and Education
Center for girls based in Kenya and their
mission is to raise and support 200 girls
and Sakina focuses on empowering them towards transforming
their circumstances, nurturing their families, and having a
positive impact on their communities.
So Imam Siraj, regarding this project that you're
here for today, you're someone that's deeply committed
to community development.
How do you see the Sakina Home and
M4C Foundation transforming lives and why is it
essential for all of us to support this
mission?
Yeah, alhamdulillah.
Who could argue about orphans?
Who can argue about our assistance to orphans
as the Prophet Alayhissalam was an orphan?
So alhamdulillah, I hope that you can support
it.
You can go out there and see what's
happening in Africa and all the orphans that
we have and supporting the orphans in Africa.
So I wish you could go back there
and kind of see what we're doing.
Okay?
Inshallah.
You will?
Yes?
You are allowed to speak back to me.
I want to let you know that.
You are permitted.
You can speak back to me.
Okay?
My question, I guess, a follow-up to
that is do you have a message to
share just about the foundation, about why it's
important to contribute to initiatives like Sakina?
Yeah, I think that as Muslims we are
people of passion and compassion love and respect,
especially orphans.
And as you know, our Prophet Alayhissalam was
an orphan.
So I think that I don't have to
even preach to us about our support for
orphans.
Everybody agree?
We should support orphans.
Okay.
Very good.
Like Imam Sarraj mentioned, M4C is doing a
really important work.
I pray to Allah that He accepts all
their efforts.
For those that are interested, they do have
a table in the back.
You have the opportunity to have positive impact
on these girls.
They're collecting funds and they have that table
right in the back in the Brother's side.
So I really highly encourage all of you
guys to take advantage of the opportunity for
the sake of Allah.
Now going on to today's topic, Imam, today's
topic is navigating uncertain times through lessons from
early Muslim America.
My first question for you is many of
us know your contributions, but can you tell
us about your journey to Islam?
I know you kind of touched upon that
before, but what kind of first inspired you?
And what role did your faith, Islam, our
faith, what role did it have in shaping
the direction of your life?
You have to remember, I started as a
Christian.
Basically, America is a Christian nation.
Me and my brother, we got an award
for 100% attendance in the church.
That means we went every Sunday.
I remember all of a sudden, maybe in
high school, I went less and less to
church until I went to church no more.
So my journey in Islam is different from
yours.
Most of you born Muslim.
Again, I'm in this organization called Nation of
Islam.
It has nothing to do with Islam.
Like many people, how many studied the life
of Malcolm X?
I recommend you read the book, The Autobiography
of Malcolm X.
Malcolm X is one of the most famous
Muslims in American history.
Malcolm X, like me, and many of us,
started with the Nation of Islam.
Muhammad Ali, the great boxer, started the Nation
of Islam.
Many people started the Nation of Islam.
When we started, 25 of us had Jumu
'ah prayer in one of the brothers' apartments.
Brother named Salim Abdul-Sabur.
On Fridays, we would push his furniture to
the side and have Jumu'ah in his
apartment.
That's how we began.
We got this building at an auction from
the city.
We paid $30,000 for it.
A few years ago, someone offered $7 million
for that same building.
Today, I'm sure we get $15 million for
it.
Alhamdulillah, we got that, and we're going to
build a huge complex in that same area,
inshallah.
We began, not Muslim, but Elijah Muhammad, the
head of the Nation of Islam, he died
in 1975.
His son took over, Imam Wadathuddin Muhammad.
In that one man, Imam Wadathuddin Muhammad transformed
us into Muslims as you know us today,
alhamdulillah.
It shows you that one person can make
a difference.
That's how we started in the Nation of
Islam and became Sunni Muslims.
Most of us left the Nation of Islam
and became Sunni Muslims, alhamdulillah.
Imam, my follow-up question is that I'm
a young guy.
If you could go back in time and
give advice to your younger self, what would
your advice be like?
My biggest advice for Muslims, you know, any
of you ever heard of DoubleTree Hotel?
Years ago, I was in a DoubleTree Hotel
in Los Angeles.
In every room, there was a card that
said, when you care, it shows.
When you care, it shows.
I've come to the conclusion, when you don't
care, it shows.
When you care, it shows.
Say what you want to say about the
Nation of Islam, but they cared about the
people.
I was a college student.
I was working.
And when I joined the Nation of Islam,
I quit my job to sell a 25
-cent newspaper.
I knocked on doors and sold a paper.
The brothers from the Nation of Islam were
known.
I need two volunteers.
You.
You stand here.
You stand here.
Do you know martial arts?
Yeah?
You know how to fall?
You know how to fall.
So if I flip you, you'll be okay.
Now, one day, I'm selling a Muhammad Speaks
newspaper, and I'm looking at a building.
And I notice there were two men standing
in the hallway.
And I said to myself, they're going to
try to rob me.
I knew it.
I knew the look.
So I'm asking you, I see these two
mean-looking men.
No, you're smiling too much.
Mean.
And I ask myself, should I go in?
I'm asking you, should I go in the
building?
Knowing these two guys are standing in there,
I'm asking you to go in?
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Okay.
I decided to go in.
The guy on the right looked really mean.
I took a Muhammad Speaks newspaper, and I
put it under his arm.
In this one here, I put it under
his arm like that.
And I said, give me 25 cents.
True story.
The mean-looking one, he can't even look
mean.
The mean-looking one takes out a gun.
And he says, you just can't rob a
Muslim.
He puts his gun in his pocket and
gives me 25 cents.
And this one gives me 25 cents.
Thank you.
You did good.
That's it.
And Imam told me, Imam Talib, that there
was a woman in Harlem, New York, with
a hoodie on.
And she was walking down the street.
And there were two men seeming to follow
her.
So she picked up her pace.
They picked up their pace.
She started to jog.
They started to jog.
She started to run, and they started to
run.
And when the man was just about to
grab her, her hoodie fell off her head,
revealing keema.
And he said, they stopped.
They said, Sister, we're sorry.
We're sorry.
Why?
Because they recognized her as being a Muslim.
And the brothers from the Nation of Islam,
wrong aqeedah, was strong in their faith.
I'm saying to you, it's not how you
begin, but how you end.
And because of that, Allah guided us to
Islam.
There are a lot of people out there,
millions of people waiting for us to invite
them to Islam.
This is my eternal message to the Muslims.
You've got to invite the people to Islam.
When I was a student at New York
University, no Muslim ever came to my university.
But the brothers from the Nation of Islam,
they came.
And they would sit next to us in
the cafeteria and say, how you doing, my
black brother?
And it was because of that they brought
us, invited us to the temple.
How many of us invite the people to
the masjid?
When you care, it shows.
When you don't care, it shows.
So I am going around the country trying
to inspire, to motivate the Muslims to go
out there and give da'wah.
Would you want to do that?
Is that something you would like to do?
To give da'wah to non-Muslims?
Would you like to do that?
Show me by your hands if you'd like
to do that.
Allahu Akbar.
So tomorrow morning, meet me here at 9
o'clock.
No, I'm messing with you.
You know, you guys, I've got to bring
you to New York.
Okay.
Yes, please.
You're from New York?
So you abandoned us and came here.
Alhamdulillah, I was born and raised in New
York as well.
Really?
Kind of in a similar note, I know
you've touched on this, but one thing I
want to say, alhamdulillah, in Dallas we've had
tremendous growth and activity in this community.
We have mega masjids.
We organize towards expansions and improving services.
However, one thing is that in the focus
of this progress, sometimes we lose sight in
the importance of grassroots community building.
Reflecting on your efforts to rebuild the Brooklyn
community around Majd al-Taqwa, where the focus
was uniting people at the local level, what
lessons can you tell us that we can
apply here to strengthen unity and overcome division?
I don't expect you to do what I'm
going to say.
When we moved into that area, the police
told us that this area here where you
want to build your masjid is one of
the worst in the city.
Crimes and things like that.
That didn't deter us.
We had those 15 drug houses.
We had an anti-drug program where we
literally closed down those 15 drug houses.
We worked with the police, we told them
where they were, and they raided all of
them, got the drug dealers out.
We stayed there 40 days and 40 nights
in front of these drug houses, letting no
one back in.
That area, which was one of the worst,
became one of the best in the city
because of what the Muslims did, the people
loved it.
There's a woman, an elderly African-American woman,
I'll never forget her, sitting in my masjid.
She comes and she says, can I come
in?
I said yes.
She sat down and said she was a
Jehovah's Witness or something like that.
She said, I've never been in a place
like this.
I didn't know about Muslims, and I love
Muslims because they saw what we did.
Those business people, they thanked us because we
got those drug dealers out.
Admittedly, it took strength, it took courage to
do that.
But alhamdulillah, Allah blessed us, cleaned up the
area.
Even other areas, other people, other parts of
the city asked us can we do the
same thing in their area because again, we
feared none but Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Alhamdulillah.
You know Imam, one thing that's been in
the forefront in all of our minds is
of course the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
May Allah subhana wa ta'ala make it
easy for them.
But this was especially prevalent during the election
season where everyone was trying to find the
best way to make a positive impact for
our Muslim brothers and sisters abroad.
However, often times it seems like our attempts
are futile.
There doesn't seem like there's any good options.
You've experienced a similar challenge working in a
society that seemed broken.
Just like you mentioned when you took up
the task of cleaning up the streets in
Brooklyn plagued by drugs and crime.
How did you uphold your values while remaining
steadfast and also create meaningful change in the
face of such corruption?
I don't want to give the impression that
we in the nation of Islam have the
right answer.
No, Islam has the right answer.
So I don't ever want you to think
that we've got to go back and see
what the nation of Islam did.
That's not my point.
But the Prophet, peace be upon him, taught
us a very valuable lesson.
Whoever sees an evil, let him change it
with his hands.
If you can't, because everybody can't do that.
I don't expect everybody to do what we
did.
If you can't change it with your hand,
change it with your tongue.
And if you can't change it with your
tongue, change it with your heart.
This is the weakness of faith.
So my point is, at least have the
attitude.
Alhamdulillah, the Muslims everywhere about Gaza, I have
seen everywhere I go in the country, Muslims
contributing toward Gaza.
Alhamdulillah, it's good.
It's an effort.
And it's having an impact.
So the question, do we even care?
What do we do?
What have we done for Gaza?
I want to tell you about a Sahaba
that in Jannah, he never made one Salat.
Never fasted one day in Ramadan.
Never made Hajj.
We don't even know his name.
A man said, Should I fight
or become Muslim?
He took Shahada, he fought and he was
slain.
And the Prophet said, He did a little
work but got a big reward.
I don't expect everyone to get a weapon
and go and fight.
Fighting is prescribed for you and you hate
it.
It may be that you hate something that's
good for you.
So it begins with an attitude.
What are we going to do about Gaza?
We can at least donate.
I've gone all over.
May Allah bless us for all of our
efforts.
May Allah bless us to strengthen us and
to make us better inshallah.
One of my final questions I had for
you is you talked about how you played
a role in transforming the neighborhood plagued by
crime into a thriving Muslim community.
As we navigate uncertain times, many of us
are grappling to deal with issues like corrupt
leadership within our communities and outside of our
communities and challenges within the Muslim American community.
What advice would you give to Muslims who
are trying to build positive change in their
communities despite these challenges?
How do we apply the lessons from your
work in Brooklyn?
I think the thing is we have the
duty and the obligation to learn our faith.
What is our faith?
And to look at those models that we
have, the prophet and his companions.
Who can get better than Abu Bakr and
Umar and Ali, Abd al-Rahman ibn al
-Auf, Sa'd ibn Rabir and all of those
sahaba.
So it's about learning, following, studying the history
and then trying to apply it in the
best way that we can in this modern
time.
And that is we start going by going
to the masjid and our ibadah and all
of the things that we do inshallah.
And I think that, and again I want
to conclude that we have to get involved
in our neighborhoods.
We have to get involved into the society.
Do you agree with that?
I mean really, because I know we don't
do it.
But I think that may Allah bless us
to strengthen and to care about the people.
Enough about the people to go and to
at least talk to them, inshallah.
Jazakallah khair Imam.
And my final question is, we have a
lot of young people here tonight who are
inspired by your incredible work.
And however much of your journey began in
humble efforts like you mentioned, Brooklyn, small house
when the masjid first began.
My question is what advice would you give
to young people who want to make a
difference but they feel like their effort might
be too small to matter?
I don't think anything is too small.
You know, when I was a student at
New York University not one Muslim ever came
to me and invited me to Islam.
Not one.
But the brothers from the Nation of Islam
they came, we were in the cafeteria and
they would come and sit next to us
and put their arm around us and say
how you doing my black brother?
And that did it.
It showed that they care.
How many of us care?
In my tradition in the Nation of Islam
in reaching out to people, I still do
the same thing.
Did I tell you about the Jehovah's Witness
woman who came and spoke to me and
said I had never been here before?
And there are people like that when we
show them effort and they say wow, these
are really nice people.
I mentioned in the khutbah 10,000 Muslim
businesses in New York City.
Think the kind of dawah we could give.
10,000 Muslim businesses, people Millions of people
come and contact Muslims.
We sell them products.
But how about giving them a flyer?
How about inviting them to a masjid?
How about inviting them to some kind of
program in the masjid?
Do you have programs in the masjid when
you invite the people?
And the people they come?
Excellent.
I would recommend that we continue to do
programs like that continuing to invite the people
and you'll see that it makes a big
difference and you'll see all over Texas, all
over Dallas, all over New York, all over
Boston you'll see the people are really learning
to respect and even love the Muslims.
Thank you.
I really tremendously benefited from this and I'm
sure everyone here listening would feel the same.
We can't express how much we appreciate you
visiting, spending time with our community today giving
khutbah in the morning of course and doing
the program with us tonight.
All we can do is make dua to
Allah that he accepts your efforts and allow
it to be a means to enter Jannah
for those.
We hope you visit us more often inshallah.
Of course.
I was going to say once again I
just want to remind everyone that we have
the Muslims for Change they're doing really important
work.
They have the table in the back.
This is an opportunity for us to earn
the pleasure of Allah by doing one of
the most beloved deeds which is to take
care of orphans.
Don't let this opportunity slip by and take
advantage of it inshallah.
Jazakallah Khairan.
Once again Imam, really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.