Suhaib Webb – Don’t Get Played Maintain Balance With The Qur’an
AI: Summary ©
The Quran is viewed as a teachings on moderation and a need for balance between worldly and religious responsibilities, with critical race theory and the use of critical race theory being key pillars for religious criticized moments. The importance of understanding the context of one's origins and seeking a livelihood is emphasized, along with balancing work and life to achieve a balance between success and the environment. The need for a livelihood and working hard to achieve a balance between work and life is crucial for success in the future, and individuals should start their lives with themselves and their families.
AI: Summary ©
Messenger, Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam,
upon his family, his companions, and those who
follow them until the end of time. We
ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless each
and every one of you, to protect you,
to protect your family, to protect your livelihood,
to ease any of your anxieties, to relieve
any of your stresses
and help
us as a community
continue to support and be supportive
of one another.
Just just a quick Jummah Reflection because as
you know, this weekend, we have a seminar,
on the art of reciting the Quran.
And one of the great, great benefits of
the Quran is that it teaches us really
a set of foundational principles to live by.
And one of those important principles is
moderation. And moderation
can be subjective. So that's why the idea
of moderation,
has to be ultimately defined be defined by
religious texts and specifically, of course, the Quran
and the Sunnah, and then the broader practice
of the Ummah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. Of course, Allah says,
the Quran has no doubt in it. It
is a guidance for people.
He says, who have taqwa, he says about
the prophet
that the prophet
is the perfect embodiment of an example for
someone to appealing,
emulate for someone who hopes in meeting Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and hopes to be successful
in the hereafter.
And then of course the Ummah, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala mentions this community
and says,
you are the best community sent for the
benefit of people. And one of the
the dangerous outcomes of of a post colonial
hangover is that we hate ourselves as a
Ummah,
and that we adopt the ideology and methodology
and
other
and other
philosophies engagements
that tend to look down upon the Muslims
and the foundational
assumption of Muslims is evil.
And we see now within our own community
that we hate ourselves. No one hates a
Muslim like a Muslim.
No one can hate and destroy a Muslim
like a fellow Muslim in 2020,
and we're talking about for illegitimate reasons here.
So the Quran teaches us to be balanced
in all of our affairs
and
balance in our love, balance in our hate,
balance
in our attachments,
and that is a prerequisite for success.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Surat Al
Baqarah
We have made you a balanced.
This is verse 143
and sota baqarah, sota baqarah's
286 verses. So subhanallah, this verse is in
the middle
of the chapter.
We find this idea of balance
beautifully illustrated
in the end of Suratul Jumu'a.
Well,
shows us that we have to pay attention
to our
religious responsibilities
in the
specific explicit sense,
as well as our social responsibilities.
All in the same verse as though,
same verses as though these verses are actually
an interpretation of
Our Lord give us good in this life
and the next and save us from the
hellfire.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala background, we know that
this
set of verses was actually sent due to
a cause.
Something that had happened in the prophets community.
One of my teachers used to say,
that
understanding
the authentic context
of why verses were sent will remove any
difficulty from you, as also Imam Ibn Hajib
mentioned in his Muhtasir.
And we know that the prophet
was delivering the Friday Khotuba,
and suddenly a what could only be, like,
understood now is, like, a fair
came into the city.
Like, a a traveling market
came into the city. You know? And there
was music according to the strongest opinion.
There were animals. There was food. There was
all kind of these interest. So it was
like, Costco came into Medina. You know what
I'm saying? Like, that's how you could understand
it. Like, Costco on wheels.
And
the companions of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam stood up during the hotuba
and left
and went to the market,
went to the Costco,
and only a few stayed and continue to
listen to the of the prophet
that tells you
that number 1, and this is a side
point that religious
literacy
and religious
adherence
are very much a process.
There's like this emergent literacy
and
adherence amongst the Sahaba. They weren't just like
perfect, right.
Even though Allah is pleased with them, right.
He's pleased with them and their imperfections.
So when Costco rolls into Medina,
the Sahaba, the majority of them and others
in the Masjid of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam because it's important to know at
that time, there were also non Muslims
who would attend the Khutbah of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. There were non Muslims
who were mixed into the community of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. These people stood
up in Fadhu and they
they ran away.
Allah
says at the end of the Surah, they
left you standing.
The Surah at the end here teaches us
a very important balance between worldly responsibilities
and religious duties.
And we find sometimes within
our religious communities,
for example, now the
unfortunate
opinion of some Muslims
to completely discredit critical race theory. This this
is going to an extreme,
but it's disgusting
and irreligious to see people
completely saying and debunking
critical race theory when critical race theory is
a language, is a mechanism
by which people use to identify how race
is used to gain
undeserved and unearned,
and in fact, illegal power.
It it's sad to see,
even some Muslims regurgitating
the Trump administration's
take
on critical race theory,
letter for letter.
This is an example of losing balance.
When we see Muslims
swerving to an unimaginable
place on Palestine
and completely selling out the Palestinian people,
the cowards
that the power of Allah has been blinded
from their hearts because they are blinded by
the power of dunya.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
and because of this and because of their
love for material gain have completely
turned their backs
on some of the most,
some of the weakest people on the face
of the earth.
Some of the most oppressed human beings on
the face of the earth.
So these are examples of swerving from balance.
This can also be at a at a
micro level when I fail to observe my
salah,
when I failed to observe the remembrance of
Allah as I'm supposed to, when I failed
to observe my family responsibilities.
Because to be a good Muslim
really means to achieve
the ability to be a good servant to
Allah,
a good husband or wife
in
a person who is responsible for his or
her community.
Start with yourself,
then with your family. Allah
says, oh, Muhammad to your wives, and to
your daughters, then to the believers. So we
start inwardly
and project outwardly.
That way we maintain balance.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala at the end
of
he says very beautifully
after the story that we've talked about here
and people running to see the Costco
coming into Medina.
All believers,
Oh believers,
when the call to the Friday prayer is
made,
the word isa means to
run with full speed,
to strive, fasaw. And then actually there's a
meaning in Arabic that's lost. He didn't say
fajiri,
says
Fazau, then say Famshu,
right? He says
Fazau, which means that there's gonna be a
struggle to come to this. There's gonna be
a Jihad enough
to leave what you're doing.
And that's why I say,
Uthman ibn Affan Radiallahu Anhu, he added a
second Adhan to the Jum'ah prayer.
The first was made in the markets
so that people in the markets
would become alert and they would have time
to struggle
and prepare
to leave their businesses
and then come to salah. This is called
Maslaha Mur Salah in the Usul of Sadat
Al Madikiyyah.
People still today making 2
Adans,
perhaps they fail to understand
that
the reason for that first Adan is no
longer there. Like you don't have to make
2 Adans and the Masjid. The Azaan was
made by Sayyid Nizhmed Nafan as a second
Azaan to help people achieve this balance, that
you would have time to leave the markets
and pull away
from the transactions that you're engaged in, and
then head to salah. Then the second adhan
was called, and this shows you the great
and the understanding of the Maqasid,
of Sayyid
Uthman ibn Affan and Ma'alif al Osuriya
that he has to achieve this balance. So
Allah says,
so you must come to the remembrance of
Allah and you should leave business
immediately
immediately
that's better for you if you knew and
then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
and when the salah has completed,
when the prayer is done, when Jummah is
done done,
spread out in the earth, This is also
the strong proof of later scholars who said
that the designation of Dara Islam and Dara
Harb, the land of Islam and the land
of war is not Quranic
because Allah says
go anywhere in the earth
because the earth belongs to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allah says,
Allah says, we made everything in the earth
for you and the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said
the whole earth has made was made from
a pure and purifying
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So fantashiro
intishar
means spread out.
So the Muslims are encouraged now to engage.
If SubhanAllah
we were to think about this, we would
understand that Islamic Spirituality
is not about selling,
or selling ourselves
into small enclaves
where we don't engage society.
Because after
and you must seek blessing of Allah. The
blessing of Allah here is a livelihood.
So the chapter begins seeking livelihood, this verses
excuse me, then prohibits seeking livelihood
and now commands
us to seek a livelihood.
We have
and that is that the command
to not do something and that was permissible,
if that permissible act is commanded, when that
act is done, then it's understood to be
permissible. Meaning,
seeking a livelihood, the of Allah.
So we learn something
from this chapter that the Muslim
is somebody who not only works for their
success in the hereafter,
but also creates
enough wealth,
and and we're not here talking about the
gospel of prosperity. Islam doesn't encourage us encourage
us to be
opulent or to celebrate opulence, and this is
why you need to be careful of the
Instagram culture.
Faith doesn't need filters
and Jannah doesn't need filters and our relationship
with Allah doesn't need filters.
But the continued amplification
of the beauty of the Dunya is counter
to Islam.
So if I am inadvertently
reinforcing in the hearts
permanence of this world
and the beauty
of this world in a way that causes
them to swerve
from understanding and be blinded by the beauty
of the hereafter, I have failed to call
to Allah.
That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. We
see the balance when Sayidina
Abu
Bakr having dinner with him, and they were
enjoying the food. And then he said, Allah
is gonna ask us about this namma. So
even though it's a moment of joy, a
moment which obviously Instagram worthy,
he reminds them and says,
remember what this is for.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Taal says, Fadlullah,
seek the Fadl of Allah,
meaning being financially
sufficient.
That's why, SubhanAllah, Sayyidina Imam al Shafi'i used
to say,
You know, if I'm busy thinking about onions,
I can't serve the people.
Sayna Imam, Sofia Nafoor used to say,
You know, that having sufficient wealth is
a weapon for the believer. And you think
about it now, if you're a convert, especially,
and you don't have a family to support
you, you don't have an extended Muslim family
to support you, you gotta get your hustle
on. You wanna get that degree. You wanna
go to college. You wanna work hard. You
wanna become educated, and then you trust in
Allah to put barakah in your work so
that you can afford to send your kids
to madrasah. So that you can afford to
protect your children be in the lap in
your family
from power.
As Dave Chappelle says, money is the fuel
of choices.
So it allows us to make choices InshaAllah
for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So we learned something here at the end
of Suratul Jum'ah as I finish. The balance
between obeying the commands of Allah.
Leave
it, leave everything for Allah, but when you're
done with that,
Go and seek your livelihood,
and go and work hard.
What
impressive verses
and what beautiful verses from the Quran.
And this is why I said earlier that
the Quran provides the lenses Al Marif,
right, for us to think and see the
world correctly and see our place in the
world.
If I am exposed to other things
more than an intimate relationship with the Quran,
then those things are going to be impacting
how I look at the world. And those
are things are going to be impacting how
I see life. Doesn't mean you have to
sit in front of the Quran all day
24 hours a day, because you don't need
too much light.
Right? Too much light will blind you and
blind me. We won't see correctly,
but just enough to shade
and offer some,
critical lenses by which we look at the
things around us.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and you
have been