Suhaib Webb – Anchored Activism Principles for Faith And Advocacy
AI: Summary ©
The importance of balancing spirituality and physical activity is emphasized, as it can lead to division among Muslims. The use of "the" in various titles, including the church's use of the spotlight, is emphasized. respect for each other's approach to life is emphasized, along with the importance of avoiding criticized behavior. The speaker emphasizes the need for everyone to be aware of their actions and not hesitate to use it, and to find beauty in one's experiences. The speaker also discusses the importance of respect for each other's love for worship, serving God, and speaking out against racism.
AI: Summary ©
We praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. We send
peace and blessings upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
upon his family, his companions,
and those who follow them until the end
of time.
I'm sure all of us are very aware
of the statement
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
that the best affairs
are those affairs that lie in the middle
that are balanced. And,
of course,
the prophet
and his community
are described
in Surat Al Baqarah verse verse 143
of a chapter which is 286
verses. So this is the verse which is
in the middle.
Allah says
That we have made you this moderate
ummah, this balanced ummah, so that you could
fulfill your responsibility and be a witness
towards people.
And the Prophet
will be a witness
against you.
And
sometimes we struggle to maintain that balance.
It's one of the hardest things to do.
That's why Allah
says,
Allah orders us to establish justice,
to be internally just and balanced,
and to be externally
just and balanced.
And that's why,
one of the goals of someone who truly,
is trying to reach Allah should be to
be balanced in their affairs,
and their religious affairs.
And that's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
when those people were told,
by his wife that how the prophet
worshiped.
We know that some of them said, like,
I will never stop fasting.
Another one said, I will never sleep. Like,
I will pray
every night. I'll pray tahajjud, the night vigil.
And then, of course, the third one said,
I will never marry. And when the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam was apprised of this from
Sayeda Aisha radiAllahu Anha, he ran to those
people,
salallahu alaihi wasallam. And he corrected them, and
he said, you know,
like,
I I fast and I break my fast.
I pray and I sleep.
And I'm Mary.
Whoever turns away from my sunnah is not
from me. So the Prophet
here in the acts of worship
is focusing on balance,
but also internally and in our lives. And
that's why the famous dua
of the prophet
at the time
of
and Taraba Jibreel, Umika'i lu Israfil,
Fatiirasamaawatil
Art.
Oh Allah, He would say,
after waking up, the Lord of Gabriel, the
Lord of Michael, and the Lord of Islafir.
And the reason that he mentioned these 3
angels
is because
Satan Jibril
is the angel whose job is to bring
revelation.
So this is a spirituality.
Said in Mikael, his job, of course, is
risk and nabat
and matar.
So when he's talking and saying the Lord
of Mikael, it means my worldly affairs.
And Islafil, of course, is the one who's
going to blow the trumpet. So we see
in this dua,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam achieving the
balance
between his spiritual,
his physical, and the hereafter.
And that's why in Istikharah,
in
That's why when he would make istikhara
and he would ask
for Allah's decision in an affair, he would
balance
the impact of that decision
upon his
worldly ambitions, upon
his deen, and upon
his hereafter.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So quickly, I just
gave you two examples of how the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam focuses on balance
between our acts of worship,
between our spirituality,
and then of course within our daily life.
As he said, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, your
soul has a right on you, your family
has a right on you.
Your Lord has a right on you.
So give everything its right.
And this is one of the greatest causes
of division amongst the Muslims,
is that oftentimes we aren't able to appreciate
that people are not like us,
and that Allah
has blessed certain people with passions
in certain things and blessed others with passions
and other things.
And that's why Ashaltabi Al Madiki, he said
when people would come to the prophet alayhis
salatu salam
and ask him,
what's the best action?
The prophet always has a different answer
because people, their passions
are different.
And oftentimes, we, in an act of selfishness
or perhaps a myopic view of religion,
fail to appreciate
that people are going to be coming to
Allah
from different places.
That's why Imam
Sheikh Ahmed Zarook,
he says,
Which means
different ways to God through different acts of
worship, spirituality,
activism, seeking knowledge, within the realm of orthodoxy.
These different ways towards Allah
do not necessitate
a difference in the goal.
And that's why Sayyidina Imam Malik
when a Sufi, he sent him a letter
and he said to Imam Malik, you know,
you're not Sufi enough. Like, you wear nice
clothing, You teach,
but you should spend more time in,
and you should be more, you know, aloof
of the world.
When imam Malik, he wrote back to him,
he said,
Allah
Allah has spread actions amongst people
like he spread rain.
Some places there'll be a lot of rain.
Some places there'll be a light rain, and
there'll be a different type of rain. Look
at the beauty of his response,
That everyone is doing something,
which Allah has given them as their risk.
And that's why he said to the person,
I have no doubt that what you're doing
is good, and I have no doubt in
what I'm doing is good
Each and every one of us are on
good.
So sometimes if we see people
doing something that we're not doing, maybe we
feel angry like, why isn't this person an
activist?
Why doesn't this person memorize the Quran?
Of course, the
that's not on we're not talking about
now. We're talking about
and other things. But when I see people
not doing what I'm doing,
I don't get upset.
I don't become angry. And that's why in
the hadith of Sayedna Nabi, alayhi salatu salam,
Allahu subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
there is a servant of mine
who seeks
an opening to me through worship,
but I refuse to open that door for
him and her because that act of worship
is not good for them.
So perhaps
what I want for someone
and thinking that it's good within the divine
knowledge
is not good for them.
Are we the ones our job is to
dispense the mercy.
So I just wanna focus on 3 things
quickly, and then the second Khutba, InshaAllah, we're
gonna give you the beef.
But this is just the appetizer,
the samosas.
So, subhanAllah,
we see now our community divided over religious
knowledge, spirituality,
and activism.
And oftentimes,
we we send to create these ecosystems within
the community
where people are activists, people are students of
ilm, and then, of course, you know, people
are seeking Allah
through worship and so on and so forth.
But, subhanAllah, we see in the Quran
the greatest title,
as the Prophet mentioned in the sound hadith,
that anybody can be given is 'Abdullah or
Abdulrahman.
For a girl.
And we know that the word 'Abdullah, this
is i'dafa to tashrif.
Right? This is a possessive which,
emphasizes the honor of someone.
That's why the Prophet
Right?
The one who is the slave of clothes
and wealth
is cursed because here the Elbafah is not
teshrif,
it's to lower somebody.
But this usage, Abdullah,
is only used
in a positive way.
And if we were to
quickly just survey the Quran,
we'll find that it's only used in 3
contexts, and you wanna remember this.
Number 1 is in the context of knowledge.
Allah says that the only ones who truly
revere God
from God's servants
are the scholars.
The second in spirituality
when Allah
talks about Satan Ibrahim
And he says that he's from his Ibad.
He's from the servants of Allah.
Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
So sayin Ibrahim, he came to Allah
with a tranquil,
tranquil, satisfied, submissive soul.
So spirituality.
And the third is activism
in numerous places in the Quran
while Allah
talks about the battles of the prophets
and talks about the struggles of the righteous.
He uses the word but one in particular
in the end of Surat Al Furkan.
That the servants of the most merciful
walk
with humility
in the earth.
And when the ignorant
apprise them or attack them, they say salama.
So here, subhanAllah,
we took the context of Abbed
and applied it to 3 situations,
which unfortunately our community tends to divide over
instead of learning to appreciate one another and
respect one another
and understand
that each and every one of us has
our own way. And that's why the
of * Fatiha, zirato mustaqim
as a shout to be said, washem as
I
the
was saw according to halal and calaf, one
of the 7
from our imam.
Alzirat
is the original meaning of
and means to be swallowed.
That's why one of the 7
I don't make it hard for you.
If you hear somebody read that way, don't
get upset.
And the word
means to swallow.
The Arabs used to say,
You know, don't be too nice to people,
you'll be swallowed. The reason it was called
is because
the path is so wide that when people
walked on it, it looked like they were
swallowed.
So even though the path is one way,
but the different types of people on the
path,
the path will be so wide that we'll
swallow each and every one of us, insha'Allah,
with our talents and our abilities.
So the point of the first khutba is
that we should respect each other's different approaches
that fall within the realm of orthodoxy
and not expect people to be just like
me. We ask Allahu
What I talked about in the first part
of the khutbah
actually applies to certain acts which are obligatory,
and those acts which are going to fall
under highly recommended sunnah,
or those acts which are considered
good in general.
There's no discussion to be had about the
permissible because within the realm of the permissible,
how you dress, how I dress, how I
talk, how you talk, the kind of food
I eat,
whatever.
But now we see even our ummah, not
only do we divide over the obligatory and
the sunnah,
but we sound find ourselves not even being
tolerant
in the permissible.
But we see Saydna Umar Radiallahu
Anhu when he went to the mash as
mentioned by Al Qarafi, Al Mariki,
and he found Sayna,
some of the Sahaba,
they were dressed really nicely.
And for Sayidna Omar, that was something strange,
because Sayidna Omar, he was he was Zahid.
He was a person who was aloof from
the opulence of dunya. Masha'Allah.
So Allah enriched him
to be free
of the need of dunya.
Where most people, they think riches
is to have the dunya.
Islam says that riches
is the ability to be autonomous
from being attached
in an unhealthy way to dunya.
And when he met those sahaba, they were
worried.
God said, man, like, Omar, he saw us.
We're like, we're looking fly.
And he said to them, you know,
Like, you know
You know your people better than me. So
while this permissible act that you're doing is
disagreeable
to me personally,
I'm not going to censor you because this
is something permissible.
Look at the fiqh of Sayyidina Umar
in the ibahat,
in the permissible.
The reason I say that is that oftentimes
we have the passion of activism,
whether it's religious activism or political activism,
but we don't tether it with adab and
akhlaq.
And we know as Imam Al Ghazari mentioned,
Rahimohullah and Imam Ibnotemia,
that every act has
2 or 3 components.
The first is the inner edab,
the second is the performance of the act,
And then the third, which is the wrapping
on the gift, is the akhlaq,
which should surround this act.
So whether it's political activism
or religious activism,
have we asked ourselves about our character and
our akhlaq
and how we engage people? And have we
tethered it in knowledge? We live in a
time now where ignorance is knowledge.
Just look at our president,
and knowledge is ignorance.
That's why Abu'ala al Mu'ari,
the great Arab philosopher and poet, he said,
He said, you know, when I saw ignorance
had permeated society,
I learned until people said I was stupid.
Meaning as an alim,
people thought I was dumb.
Literacy. And that's why if you look at
the life of Sayna Musa, literacy.
And that's why if we look at the
life of Sayna,
Musa, we see
For him to be a prophet, he has
to have of Allah.
And for a Muslim,
I have to make sure that I'm tethering
my work
for God.
If
my work in the political sphere
is for other than God,
then my ability to see that this is
a religious form of activism
became suspect.
And if my religious activism is untethered
from the character of the Prophet
and seeking only the pleasure of Allah,
then my religious activism is a charade.
The
second quality is to be a person of
khitma.
And if you look at most of the
prophets in the Quran,
they usually were anointed as prophets
after a heroic
act after an incredible act
of service.
So we see Sayid Nabuza.
He helps Abu Nasheikhon Kabir. He helps those
2 women. He gets married,
And then when he assumes that there's fire
to help his family,
he goes to get this fire. As Ghaleb,
the great Urdu poet said, If you're worried
about God's plan for you, then think about
Musa. He went for fire and came back
a prophet. SubhanAllah.
But service Am I a service oriented person?
Do I always have to be the leader?
Do I always have to be on the
front lines? Do I volunteer?
People, they always come and complain
and I ask them, have you maximized your
ability to volunteer to solve this problem? And
the answer is always,
I've never volunteered once. Then what are you
complaining about?
Do you have a project proposal for saving
the ummah that you're so angry with? Well,
last night, you know, I was playing Fortnite
and, I shot this pink bunny and I
had a, you know, John Wick's
scan on, and I decided, hey. I can
save the Ummah. Like, really?
Like, that's how it is?
Go and serve first. When I became Muslim,
my teacher, I said to him, I wanna
memorize the Qur'an. He said, Iron my clothes.
I was like, What? He's like, You have
to serve.
You need to learn how to serve.
The third is the love of
The love of worship.
Finding a talav of the Ibadah,
and loving to be alone with Allah more
than we love the likes on Instagram.
Loving to be alone with Allah more than
the filters that we got
on the App Store.
Loving to be alone more with Allah and
finding the beauty
in that experience
more than anything I could buy at Sephora.
Looking at my heart more than I look
at my biceps in the gym. And
And that's why Sayidina Musa,
we learn something from him in the same
Surah as we finish
When Allah says,
What is it in your right hand? He
begins to talk about his staff. This is
called Itmaab,
and he begins to embellish. He talks about
the staff like people talk about buggaris, man.
Nobody in the world has ever talked about
a stick like that. What is that? It's
a stick. Okay. Cool. Stick.
It's my stick. I walk on it. I
use it to look after my flock.
And the way it's said in Arabic is
like, I have a lot of other things
I can do for it with it. So
ask me about it.
I asked one of my teachers in Esar,
why did Sayidina Musa describe his
staff this way?
He said, because he wanted to extend
the conversation with Allah.
So when the opportunity came to speak to
God,
the stick
became a priceless jewel.
How do we make dua now if we're
activists?
Or do we enjoy
that moment?
The last, because we don't have time,
is the ability to recognize shortcomings and have
interlocres and mentors.
Most people, they don't like to have people
around them that tell them you can improve
on something.
But that's the sign of a good sincere
activist religiously and politically.
So we see that, say, Nimusa,
he's introspective.
He recognizes his challenge.
That's the next quality is group work, being
able to work with people. So he asked
for Sayyidina haroun.
And the last
two points is being able to speak truth
to power.
If someone is a coward
this they should not be in religious and
political work.
But it demands
bravery.
So Musa immediately has
to carry the responsibility of prophethood
to speak to Fir'aun,
to speak truth
to power.
And the last is to have an ask.
And his ask is to free Bani Israel.
Free
them. Often times we go to interfaith groups,
we sit with politicians,
we meet with different community leaders,
and we feel that the meeting
is enough.
No.
You have to have an ask.
Because if there's no ask,
then what's the purpose?
So ask Allah
ask Allah to expand our hearts. With that
in mind, I'm here this evening with our
brothers and sisters,
here at
Ikhna Ralif, Alhamdulillah, and
helping hand. And tonight we have a program
inshallah. And as you leave, you're going to
see a brother,
on the side. Again, khidma in service.
These opportunities to serve
are indeed incredible. So if you have an
opportunity, just stop by, holler at him, see
what's up, insha'Allah.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to bless
our brothers and sisters in Congo.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to bless
our brothers and sisters in Mali,
in the Gambia,
in Senegal, in Liberia,
in the West Coast of Africa, the East
Coast of Africa, in Egypt and Libya.
We pray for our brothers and sisters in
Bosnia, brothers and sisters in Shechnya
and Dagestan, brothers and sisters in Crimea.
Ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to bless our
brothers and sisters in East Turk
Turkmenistan, of course, which is the Uighur community
in China.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to give
them, insha'Allah, justice and freedom. We pray for
our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and India
and Iran and Bangladesh
and Yemen.
We ask Allah to bless the brothers and
sisters in Palestine
and You har rahum, insha'Allah,
to give them freedom and independence insha'Allah and
a honorable life. Pray for our brothers and
sisters in Syria and Somalia
and all over the Muslim world. And most
importantly, we pray for this country that Allah
And that Allah makes our
existence in this place a means of benefit
for others.