Suhaib Webb – Heavy Rotation- Explanation of Sura al-Asr
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So this chapter is a Meccan chapter.
And Meccan chapters means anything that was said
before the migration
to Medina whether it was in Mecca or
not.
Right? So whether it was in Mecca or
not is still considered mekiya
and the Meccan chapters that were sent to
the prophet which are the majority of
the Quran have certain sort of characteristics.
The first characteristic is that they don't deal
with law.
There's a big debate amongst,
you know, legal scholars within the Muslim tradition.
Are there actually any legal verses?
Meaning anything related to you have to do
this, you can't do this.
Found in Meccan chapters.
But they're
at least we could say extremely rare if
they exist to the point that it's it's
debatable if one exists.
Why?
Like, why why do you think
that went down that way?
Like, why is it that these chapters sent
this 13 year period in Mecca
are not dealing with law?
And how do you apply that to new
Muslims now?
And how do you apply that to people
who are be coming back to Islam?
Because most of the time what I see
I have a 23 year old daughter who
tells me about this all the time
You know, there's a lot of lawyers on
social media.
Like, everybody's sort of
which the law is important,
but seems to be, like, a focus
that may be out of place,
especially if you don't know who you're talking
to.
Like you might go and just like see
someone just go off on somebody's social media
page because how they look or something that
they say or do but they don't even
know where that person's coming from.
So why do you think
it's a question first 13 years,
Mecca and Sura
one of the
distinguishing characteristics
of those chapters
is that there's no law.
Why?
Yes, Sarah. Sarah. Right? Try I'm trying to
remember. Imran. Your name is Imran. Right? Okay.
I'm trying to do this. Sarah. Yes.
I've heard that it's because,
in those early days,
it would have been too much of a
deterrent,
to people who
were
just learning about the faith and learning how
to incorporate it into their daily life.
Absolutely. Like, it could be overbearing.
I remember the night I became Muslim. This
man told me, like, you gotta pray 5
times a day. And I was like, 5
times a day? You got twice? You know,
like, 5? How do you do 5? Can
you, like, join them all together?
No. Because that was that was a lot
on the bar. Right? If you look at
life like a bar, that's a lot of
plates that you suddenly put on that deadlift,
you know, the deadlift of iman. So I
remember myself
sort of being like, wow, and having to
work into
that. That's a that's a good point. Say
to Aisha says, as related by Bukhari,
she said praise be to Allah who said,
you know, verses about belief in the hereafter,
good character, belief in Allah before he said
don't drink and don't fornicate because if he
said don't drink and don't fornicate we'd have
never been able to do the form like
the first
would have our iman wouldn't have like blossomed
right
so that's a good point what else like
yes ma'am I I I didn't hear your
name
Naima. Okay.
So could it be the way of, like,
putting more importance to that section for whoever
it belongs?
At that time, right, building character,
building commitment.
That's a good point. Yeah. Absolutely. So sort
of
focusing on the fundamental core issues, and then
that it becomes a core issue later on,
but people are in a place it's easier
to accept it. You know, there was an
old man who came to the prophet in
Medina who became Muslim in the Mecca. And
he said in Medina, the law is
now. It's a lot of stuff to do.
Like, is there just a few things I
can do, you know, outside of the the
obligations?
And the prophet told him, like, make dhikr.
Like, just remember Allah.
Keep your tongue moist with Allah's remembrance.
Yes, Muhammad. That's right. Thank god.
All I was gonna say is just like
we've heard there's a that crowd could deem
the idea of if the if if if
during those early years of Sam there's law
and then you get a whole bunch of
boost info as they're trying to improve their
characters with looking at another store. You shouldn't
do that and you shouldn't do that and
that's wrong and the law says blah blah
blah and that is not very invitey in
any way, and and everybody's still trying to
figure it out. So the last thing we
need is to have
to watch people going around judging other people
based on what's
said you can.
Yeah. My own experience, I found the law
good because it gave me a a framework
that I didn't have, say, in Christianity.
So it provided, like, a a a scaffolding,
but, like, too much would have been hard.
Right? So there's that unique balance
of, like, needing
kind of a place. There was a survey
of Generation Z, think in the Washington Post
about their attitudes, why they're leaving the church,
and one of their responses was there's no
there's no there's no substance.
It's fluff. Right? So the the law is
there, but it
it can be a burden. You will do
the law
of
Allah intends the ease for you, not hard
for you. A hardship for you. Nice. Thank
you, Mohammed. Anyone else if I don't know
your name is because I didn't hear your
name. So I just I'm just joking, but
anyone else have any suggestions? Yes.
Your your name. Sorry. Safa. Okay. And then
I do something like, but
just like, you know, like like, the first
twelters on, like, a chowder just like adding
them based it so they understand. There's one
guy that, like, out my thoughts on the
inside of a cigar. Now I as, like,
a basic you need to as well. And
everything else, we can build without to be
a fat or no flow. So, like, the
fact that there are a lot, like, a
lot of stuff we've learned in spirituality. So
they get that basic settlement and then, like,
had none in the other day. It's, like,
a loss in that. Get it takes too
long.
My father-in-law has a great definition of Islam.
He said yielding to Allah.
Right? So to yield,
sometimes it's hard. You know?
You gotta look in the blind spots, you
gotta make sure there's no one there, you
know, it takes a lot to yield
in this this commitment that Islam is ultimately
demanding of us.
Absolutely. I think there's another point I'll make,
that I've always thought about that Mecca was
hard.
Like, the Meccan experience was brutal.
Right? Social
suicide, you know, to become Muslim in Mecca
basically meant you lost your tribe support, you
lost,
your economic,
agency potentially.
And then there was, of course, the physical
aggression
when people were banished like the people in
Al Ghazza, you know, the people in Shibi
Abi Taarib
who were abandoned,
no one could do business with them, no
transactions,
like at that moment, sending Allah would be
hard, right? People are already kind of proving
themselves,
and so I think it's also like out
of a rahma,
and we we should take that in consideration
when we are I know when I trained
as a mufti,
we're to actually ask a lot of questions
just to make sure that the answer that
is given is the truthful answer,
but it doesn't lead to more harm
that that person may not be in a
place where they can
perform those things.
So Sur Ta' Asr is a meccan surah.
Mecca surahs tend to be distinguished by a
focus on character,
a focus on belief in Allah, the prophets,
and the hereafter,
and and books and angels,
and then whatever happens, good or bad.
And also,
Meccan chapters focus on community,
needing each other,
alliances
if you will that are intra faith oriented
because the road is a hard road
so Surah Asar comes and it kind of
encapsulates all this
That's what Imam Sheffi,
he said that if Surah T'aser was the
only chapter sent it will be enough for
people.
Like if that was all that was revealed
like that would suffice people.
So Allah
begins this chapter with an oath
this is called you
find it especially in the last part of
the Quran
where Allah swears by, you know, the morning
light.
Many places in the Quran
and basically, if you wanted to get the
meaning of what this wow,
it's like I put that on
or I swear by. Like, that's really the
feel of it. Right? And it's kinda lost
sometimes in translation, but that's the meaning.
Like, so I swear by this. One of
the my earlier teachers, he was from Brooklyn,
he passed away in COVID. Mal, I have
mercy on it. He used to say that
this wow was like, if you play basketball,
congrats no one's gonna congratulate me on the
Celtics.
I still love you, though.
That when someone fouls you,
you're like, that's a foul, you say like,
I put that on this this this you
fouled me, right? That's the feeling of this
wow,
like, I swear by this,
and when Allah
swears by something in the Quran it's because
it's important.
Ibn Qayyim he wrote a whole book just
about these oaths
the divine oaths and like what are the
wisdoms what are the lessons
what are the implications
why would Allah swears so 'wa'
Some people said it means salatul Asr but
that's impossible because there was no salatul Asr
in Mecca.
With respect. Like, don't go and tear people's
head off if they say it's salatul Asr
God bless. Right? You don't need to
go out like just go on, you know,
halal brisket on people. You know what I
mean? Like, take it easy. Another interpretation
is that Al Asr means adahr,
like all of existence,
from the time of Adam
to
Al Ashira.
The other interpretation
is that Al Asr means the time of
the prophet
because it's a blessed time.
Like, since he was sent until the end
of time,
this is the Asr,
Muhammadi.
Like, this is the time that the prophet's
message is permeating amongst the people.
So Allah swears by time. We're gonna talk
about
that. We get back to it. Inna the
word Inna I wanna do this so you
have every word. So when you pray, you,
like, now it's like it's pixelated more you
know but do your own research don't restrict
yourself to my reflection
is used to show like if you think
the person doubts you
if you think the person doubts you
so
an example may be an Egyptian slang like
beget, oh, beget the
like, really? Really?
And it's used when you think the listener
either needs to be encouraged,
maybe they're they're themselves are struggling, or you
think the listener doesn't
believe you. It's called
and rhetoric.
It's it's a it's a sentence where you're
requesting something.
Indeed. It's translated like as indeed. There's other
ways we could render it but, you know,
in slang we use a lot of these
kind of terms,
but in means like for real
without a doubt
so in al insan
means human beings
humanity.
This lamb is called means it's a lamb
which used again to show emphasis. So here
we see in one verse 2 emphasis,
which means for real for real
indeed indeed
that's the feeling when you read it and
that's why a good qari who leads salah
like they'll read it with the rhetoric
so they won't read like about hellfire and
some like super nice soothing voice
Not gonna read about heaven and they sound
like, you know, they're watching a horror movie.
That they they feel the language. So
indeed
all people
are without a doubt
The Quran uses a lot. Actually means to
be inside something literally
So
I'm
now in center DC.
But here it's used in a rhetorical form
to show depth,
to give a feeling of of of a
of a of a sort of submersion.
That's why usually when Allah talks about disbelievers
and people who are astray, he says
they are submerged in this guidance.
And you lose this, like, a little bit.
It's called
in rhetoric. It's like a form of rhetoric
related to articles of preposition.
Indeed, they are submerged.
Here,
the word means to lose,
but the the the bigger meaning is like
failed to profit,
failed to, to, to bring about some kind
of,
you know, benefit from
the transaction that a person was engaged in.
And the transaction is time.
So these people
that Allah is talking about here in this
first part of the chapter, I swear by
time, and the answer on the oath is
when I say, man, I put that on
something, you failed me. It's like I put
that on something. Indeed
people
indeed are lost
because every oath has to have an Arabic
like an object of the oath. You
speak already you say Joab.
So you say Joab.
Right? So in the insana lafi hussar.
Here is something cool, man.
And if this is too difficult tell me
but it's it's important. Right? If you look
at the word hussar, it's indefinite. It's not
a definite noun. It doesn't have aliflam.
And usually in in the Quran I want
to teach you things that when you read
on your own you catch things
like I don't want you just to come
and have like you have your own important
relationship we talked about this before with the
Quran that has to be meaningful for you
There are easy, like, skill sets you can
acquire to be able to you might not
I'm not a Arabist. So what? Well, most
of the Sahaba, they weren't Arabists. They're baduns.
Right? But here is to say, indeed, humanity
is in the loss.
Why is it indefinite? Because the loss cannot
be defined.
The person who fails to use this life
in the right way is
committing
such an act of loss
that it can be it can't be cornered.
So the feeling here is like, wow, like
real loss,
undefinable
loss.
And that's the secret why sometimes ariflam is
used and not used. So when Allah talks
about the prophet, now you do it. Why
does he call him Rahmatan
not arrahma?
The prophet is an indefinite mercy not a
definite mercy. Why? Because the prophet's mercy cannot
be limited or defined.
When Allah talks about the Quran he says,
Nurun,
a light,
indefinite. He doesn't say Anur, why? Because the
light of the Quran
it has unlimited
undefinable
usages.
It's actually beautiful, man.
But here it's used to say, you had
trouble.
Right? It carries a different meaning.
And also,
it's meant to make the listener who's strong
in Arabic to say, what kind of loss?
Because it's not defined.
So like if you if you if you
are talking to someone and you start with
an indefinite, they're gonna be like, well, I
don't know what you're talking about right now.
Or also sometimes the definite, I don't know
what you're talking about. The Quran does this
all the time to as we talked about
when you when we explained to
bring you into the narrative,
to compel you to ponder and think about
it. Quran
says, will they not?
Tadabur is some dubur. Dubur means back. So
it means, yeah, tadabur doesn't mean they think
about the Quran. They think about it to
the extent they start from the front, they
go to the back and they come to
the front again.
They know it like this.
So here this is called Tashwiq
Assemeh. Tashwiq means to entice the listener entice
the listener
to bring the listener into the moment. Yes
ma'am?
So I don't remember what the manifold instruction
is called.
That's okay. I don't either. Could it be
possible
that needs to be associated with
With what? So, like so those are in
at indefinite. Right? So could it be,
a,
like, lost time?
Well, that yeah. Exactly. Like that that
yeah. The under that undefinable
loss
is linked back to their failure to use
Time. Time. Correct. Totally.
Please,
time, it it time completes that phrase.
They're gonna be dead in the end.
No. No. Yeah. No. No. No. Not yet.
Oh, alright. I don't know.
Yeah. That's not that's not a Moldavoni. Like,
that's a but you know what? I'm glad
you're you're in it, man. You know what
I mean? Like, if I was going to
give an answer that may have been a
little off, it couldn't have been better than
that answer. No, honestly, like, that's a very
good essence.
No, I'm saying honestly, like like, that's like
a right
answer, you know, in the wrong place. I'm
not trying to diss nobody. Don't please don't
take it, though. I'm I'm saying, like, good.
You know, one time in, in iftar, we
had a Russian out of Russian classmate from,
Dagestan, so he knew how to fight.
And, yeah, he just knew how to fight.
And he had the Beatles haircut, the whole
nine. Right? And so
he memorized the Arabic dictionary. He was a
genius.
But then he would say all these weird
words
you know and you know Art Gustez was
90 years old and he was like
like why you always coming with weird words
man?
You know like nobody here said
I've never heard this word before in my
life you know and then he started telling
him you making up words he's like no
I swear to God I missed it you
know but one time he said a word
which is a vulgarity
in
Egyptian slang
but in ancient
Arabic it has a positive meaning. So that
Ustaz didn't know the ancient meaning and he
kept saying it and saying it and it
did and finally he was like, 'Listen,
that is the best wrong answer I ever
gave that's how he got in wuzdah but
you're not necessarily wrong because you're pushing through
and you get double the edge according to
the hadith, alhamdulillah.
You know I don't like religious studies that
intimidate people from trying
That is unacceptable and that starts sometimes at
home,
right? Everything's haram.
Everything's halal unless you prove it haram,
but it can be reinforced by
quote unquote
teachers,
and there's a place for that. I mean
if you have a really crazy student you
might need to keep them in check but
in general people are not robbing banks, you
know what I mean? Doing crazy stuff. So
in the insana
lafi hosorin.
Here, is the object of the preposition fee.
That was your question. It's not.
They are submerged
in this undefinable,
unrestricted
loss.
This is in rhetoric. Yes, ma'am.
So, Khosr, is that a singular, a formal
It's just it's just mustar. It's a word.
Khosr is it's just a verbal noun. Why
insen is that
Insen means all. All you that's why I
had.
That Adifelan means everybody. Like,
I love these questions, man. Look at y'all,
man.
Yeah. Yeah. Singular. It doesn't
have it's called. It doesn't take a plural.
It's understood to be plural. It doesn't go
singular. It doesn't go. It's just insen.
Yeah
it means everybody
means everybody
that's why it has like al hamdu
all praise every type of praise yes sir
what's the difference between
nests and insen we'll talk about it and
we get to shoknest I don't want to
give away that easter egg now and hold
up hold up guys wait a sec no
I'm just joking
so insen is all humanity from the time
of Adam to the last person that will
die.
It's very interesting in the rules of we
are forbidden to stop on this verse.
Like we can't say
I'm out.
Because that's, like, super depressing.
You know, like, everyone's lost.
Everyone's submerged in loss you have to continue
is
an exception one of my teachers used to
say this is the exception of hope
like this is the exception of Rahmah
except those
who believe.
Wa'amir alsarihaat
and we talked about Amal before
who perform works
of righteousness.
What Tawasobil
haqq and here pay attention
maybe I didn't see how he translated it
but
Tawasaw is in the past tense it's not
in the present tense Tawasawna
Tawasaw
they did
they cooperated
what Tawal saw Bilhaq
they cooperated
with the truth
and there's a reason that bat is here
this bat
is given you it's different than Bismillah
This bat here is giving you a feeling
like
it's stuck to them.
It's with them
sort of wherever they are in the situation.
They're
So they
cooperated,
not cooperate.
That's the translation sometime you missed something.
And they cooperate and they work together. They
organize, if you wanna think about it in
contemporary language,
on resilience. Then he translates it as perseverance.
I don't like the translation patience. If you
like it, it's fine.
I'm not a fan of.
Why is it in the past tense though?
Because
it is though
these people are certain like they've acquired this
characteristic to the point that it's become like
if you tell me can you pick me
up from the airport I'm like it's done.
It has that feeling.
They've inculcated this quality in them.
So it's like it already happened.
Like that's the kind of people they are.
So they're so consistent in the future that
you talk about it like it's already done
in the This is rhetoric.
Arabs like to do this in classical language.
If you wanna praise the good qualities of
someone in the present,
you mention it in the past.
As though like your whole life you've been
like this. It's guaranteed.
No doubt.
Done deal.
So that's like the simple
meanings of this
super important chapter
that says everyone is going to be a
loser
except those who believe
and those who do good
and those who work together towards,
truth and those who work together towards
perseverance or resilience. Here's
something nice.
Is
it perseverance and resilience part of truth?
Again, the broader scale of things,
persevering
to be a righteous person in front of
the
tides of life
certainly is part of truth.
The prophet, peace be upon him, said nobody
was given anything better than
razayd.
And in the Quran,
you you find something interesting.
That often times when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
talks about the people of patience, the grammatical
tense suddenly switches.
So for example,
Allah says it's not righteous that you turn
to the east or west,
but righteousness is the one it's the object.
It's more for if you're if you're into
Arabic, I know see we got some Arabic,
so I'm gonna do it like that. It's
in this active I like to say, Rafal
is the doer. I don't like this nominative
and all these weird words that mean nothing.
The Rafal case is the subject of the
verb or the subject
of the, of the of the noun sentence.
So
who believes should have dhamma?
Subtir doesn't because it's man. But then in
the middle of this verse it doesn't say,
Wasabiruel.
It says what? Wasabiri.
It changes.
Even though it's a conjunction,
the tense changes from being the subject to
being the object
as though Allah is saying,
I pray specifically
and
recognize
exclusively
out of all of these noble qualities that
are talked about in this verse, the doer,
the doer, the doer, the doer,
the resilient is the object because I
praised him.
I recognized him because people of resilience
are rare. And people of resilience, the people
of Maqluba now, turn in the world on
its head because of their resilience and preservance
perseverance.
So it's something important.
So is it resilience
and perseverance part of truth?
Absolutely. Now why is it mentioned in isolation?
This is something that is unique to the
Arabic language but we do it a lot
in sports.
We say the Boston Celtics and Jaylen Brown
isn't Jaylen Brown part of the Boston Celtics?
The whole series they were saying the Boston
Celtics and KP without KP they won't win
so they kept saying Boston
Celtics and,
Kristoff Porzingis.
But isn't he part of the team? Yes.
Why is he mentioned the isolation?
Because he's so important to success. He's so
important to the goal. So as though Allah
says, Haqq, you do whatever you need to
do.
Please feel
free. Now I got your back. I've been
there. My wife has 2. 2nd one she
almost died so I've been there done it.
You don't have to feel any inhibition, right?
Mothers are on our heads.
As
if to say
fundamental to your ability to scale a life
of truth and a life of good deeds
and a life of iman
is resilience.
Resilience is the key. Resilience is your starter.
And this is called
where you mention the universal and then you
mention something specific later to show us importance.
For example, in Surat Al Baqarah, Allah says
whoever is the enemy of Allah
and his angels
and his messengers
and Gabriel and Michael. Isn't Gabriel and Michael
angels?
Absolutely. Why are they mentioned to isolation?
Because of their importance.
So here it says those who work together
in truth
and those who work together
in resilience, resilience is part of truth, but
it's mentioned in isolation
to highlight
its
centrality and living a life of iman.
And that's why Imam Al Ghazari and Minhajal
Abideen, inshallah, we can teach it here the
abridged version.
He says that one of the key components
of faith, the seven qualities of a person
on the path of faith and adherence, is
resilience.
They have to be resilient.
Resolute.
It's hard.
Imam al Razi
offers some layers of reflections about this chapter
that I'll mention,
and then we'll stop, But I think they're
very powerful because at a broader level this
chapter is giving us everything we need in
our individual,
sort of, commitment to Islam. But then as
a community, how do we scale
community? And we'll talk about it in 4
ways,
rather quickly.
Number 1 is this chapter is an encouragement
to repent.
Because sometimes people,
if we take the and this is the
interpretation we're going with, 'asr' means time.
And in fact, if you look at the
30th part of the Quran, it starts backwards.
How we think about life: I was born,
I was a toddler,
I was a pre k, I was k,
elementary school, middle school, high school,
college,
emergent adulthood. I have all these terms now.
I had to learn I did my degree
in education. I forgot them all. Right? Then,
you know, middle age, halfway middle age, tweens,
all these terminology. But
Al Asar
means time.
And
if we go with this interpretation, we look
at the 30th part of the Quran, we
see it starts backwards. Doesn't start with when
you're born, it starts the akhira. Amayatasaaaloon
anin nabadil a'ream. It begins the 30th part
of the Quran
not talking about when you're born, talking about
after you're dead.
And then if you look at the 30th
part of the Quran, the whole part of
that Quran is going backwards. The day of
judgement, what happens in the grave, heaven and
*,
this and that, this and that. And then
it gets to what?
Read in the name of your Lord with
the name of your Lord who created you.
Starts with creation.
And then it ends by saying what?
It
feels like backwards.
So in a way the 30th chapter, 30th
part of the Quran
is interrogating us to see how we prioritize
our life. Do I start with the hereafter?
Would I start like when I was a
baby then grew up and this and this?
What do I prioritize? Because that's gone.
That's done.
What am I preparing for that meeting with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? So we'll take here
the meaning of 'asr out of all the
interpretations that we gave just for our
sake and for time and brevity we'll say
'asr' means a 'dar'
time.
It's great that this chapter is only 3
verses so we can all memorize it.
It's one of the first chapters I learned
and was very impactful in my life.
But Ar Razi says something nice.
Sometimes people, they live lives that are foul,
man.
You know? Even Muslims.
I met, like, Muslims in my life, and
and and we all struggle not to live
foul, of course. Not my obere o nefsi
and they'll say to you like it's too
late
like I can't I can't turn back to
Allah like you don't know what I've done
or maybe they haven't lived a long time
but they've done a lot of stuff
a lot of evil
and so their insecurities will start to bubble
their shaitan will start to mess with them
things will happen and and they will say
like
why should I repent?'
Ar Razi says something beautiful. This oath should
inspire
anybody to turn back to Allah because Allah
didn't swear by your youth. He didn't swear
by being middle aged. He didn't swear when
you're old. He said time, which means all
the time you have in this world. And
he says something is kind of hyperbole. I
put it on Facebook, I think, tonight. I'll
put it there. He says,
if you lived a 1000 years of sinful
sort of, like, behavior,
not hurting others, that's a whole another level
of discussion,
but a person has their their their private
sin, you know, their public sin maybe that
doesn't, like, necessarily harm people,
and you repented in the last months of
your life, you will fall under
the promise of this chapter.
So it's like an it's inspiration to always
come back.
And toba, of course, means to live right,
to repent, and then try to live.
So at an individual level this chapter should
inspire us to think about like, am I
repenting? Am I turning back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala? Am I seeking Allah's forgiveness? Am
I seeking Allah's pardon? Again, one of the
qualities of Ghazari mentions out of the 7,
the second is repentance.
Persons are always engaged, not repentance at least
to guilt. In Islam, repentance isn't a synonym
of guilt. In Islam, repentance is the synonym
of emancipation.
To be free of dunya,
to be free of vice,
to be in a state of to Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So he says
by time.
People are going to be lost so you
know what let me use my time let
me get back to Allah. Let me turn
back to Allah.
The second lesson that we take individually
is how we
scale
our life and our time.
Consistently
investing in our iman
and consistently investing in doing good.
And sometimes it's hard, especially where America is
now. It's a it's a very cathartic environment.
It's one that sort of breeds hostilities
and
breeds a lot of anger, and that's amplified
by social media. The algorithmic
suggestions are there
to make you react cathartically? You ever wonder,
like, if you go online, you're like, why
do I see what I hate?
Like, you know, I'm just looking for some
stuff about my kids, man. I need to
find some wood furniture. I got a Waldorf
kid. I open up and it's like, guy
like, I hate these mausoles and I freaking
wanna kill them all and boom them up.
And I'm like, I don't even know this
dude.
Like, why is he on my feed? Because
they know
psychologically
that that may cause me to wanna comment,
to react,
to, blow up the Google ad, so to
speak.
So it can become difficult.
This chapter allows you to center yourself on
2 things 3 thing 4 things. Number 1,
iman. What does it mean to have iman
with Allah? We talked about it in the
basmara.
But in general iman with Allah means to
affirm his transcendence
that he's not like anything and nothing is
nothing is like him.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, beyond time, beyond space,
the creator of all things, independent,
one in everything he does.
Everything that happens is because of his command.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala
has to first.
Ihsan,
to live a life as though I see
Allah. Even though I cannot see Allah I
can see the rulings that Allah has put
in front of me as we'll talk about
in a second.
The second is ramal.
Amal is not part of iman this is
the mistake sometimes that TikTok occs make.
They see that people
people do something, say, oh, that person is
kafir.
Very rarely, there are a few actions that
will make someone kafir. One of them is
like if someone said, I am
a disbeliever.
Right? Like, yeah, Imam Abu Hariphah said no
one leaves Islam except the way they became
Muslim. And we saw in Mali, in particular
what happened in Mali with these Hawadiji groups
that came out of Saudi Arabia
that had weapons and went into Mali and
committed cultural genocide on the people of Mali.
They had women who used to sing praises
of the Messenger of Allah. They killed it.
They said, singing about the prophetess.
What's wrong with you?
There's a great book movie called Timbuktu. It
documents sort of how all this happened that
oftentimes religious extremism is also about cultural appropriation
but in a way that's disgusting. It'll take
the culture, it will tear it apart, destroy
it, wreck it in the name of religion,
sanitize it, and live the people with nothing.
That's why now we see the influence of
specifically
extreme iterations of certain Muslim groups.
What happened to Muslim art? Go to Andalus.
You still see their art there.
You go to West Africa. Salazar, my teacher
from Salazar used to always sing, you know,
the the poetry of Ahmed Rubamba for hours
about the messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam. And Yemen.
Right? In parts of especially East Africa.
Muhammad Wirdi. No offense to anybody. Right? Lot
of,
artistic expression. The farther away you get from
Saudi Arabia, the more you find Muslim art.
And this is not to be anti Saudi
or anti Salafi. This is just a fact.
Wherever you find, quote, unquote, hyper literalism,
wherever it is, you find that its attack
was to make Takfir to people over things
like music. Like someone's a kafir because of
music?
Like la hawda waraquatillabbilla.
We'll have inshallah hopefully in the fall contemporary
issues class one of the things we'll talk
about is music.
But subhanAllah
usually
is made over iman,
not Amal. How do we know that iman
and action aren't the same because of that
wow?
There's a difference between being sinful and being
a disbeliever.
And Imam al Tawawi says in his famous
aqeeda, We don't make takfir of anyone over
their sinful beliefs.
We don't say they're not Muslim anymore but
now everyone's so And one brother told me,
I wish Muslims were more invested with people
being Muslim than they are invested in Muslims
not being Muslim. Like the world will be
a better place.
And we say
the conjunction in Arabic
to feed it and muhayara it means that
these things are different. If you say suhayb
wa Muhammad
Am I Muhammad?
Is Muhammad me?
Of course now. We're 2 different people. That's
the purpose of that wow. If you say
shayti
walqahwa
or t. Here they say qahwa for e.
It's not the same thing. So
iman
that's why the majority of ahlasun,
they say that there is a difference between
faith
and actions.
Actions
are the fruit of faith
but they're not faith.
And that's why we should be very, as
we'll talk about in our own space,
careful with ourselves.
Oh, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing
that. I'm out of Islam. Don't make takfir
of yourself.
Oftentimes I notice Islam is more reasonable to
people than they are to themselves. SubhanAllah.
They have an imagination, the imagination, the popular
imagination. Muslims have to be challenged that's why
they hate scholarship because scholarship challenges that. Says
hey wait a minute, what anchor yourself? But
because the collapse of the Islamic system
and colonialism that went after
Azhar,
went after
those Duxis in Somalia, went after the traditional
Islamic schools, destroyed them and wrecked them because
they knew that's what kept people focused and
firm.
I mean all the messengers being bombed out
in Gaza and even the churches, that's by
design.
Here in Washington DC, years ago we tried
to buy a church for center DC and
what they tell us? We changed the zoning
so it can never be a church facility
again. But it can be a casino. It
can be a liquor store. It can be
a gun shop. It can be a dispensary.
But God forbid God's house is used for
God.
Because they know
that if you take people away from this
it's hard to navigate.
So 'eman' is not 'amal.' 'Amal' is not
'eman.' But we say, of course, 'amal' is
important because a tree without fruit
it doesn't bring
benefit and we'll be asked about how we
translate our iman into 'amal.
So at an individual level once I repent
and I check my iman let me look
at my practice.
Allah says
those who repent
and those who reform. They do.
They approve themselves.
Let me look at the friends I keep.
Individually, if I were to scale my faith,
let me look home around.
When I first became Muslim, Sheikh Abdulrahman told
me, the guy from Brooklyn, he said to
me bring your friends. I said, nah, Sheikh.
I can't bring my friends to Masjid.
He's like, why?
I said, they're not Masjid compliant, you know.
They're not like us.
They're not like us, Sheikh. I just can't
do it. And he was like, grab me.
You know, it's good to have more of
be we don't like that, but it was
good for me to have someone grab me.
He said, you show me your friends. I'll
show you who you are. And if you
show me your friends, I'll show you where
you're headed in the akhirah.
I was like oh my God, I'm in
trouble. You know what I mean? Then my
friends became Muslim, alhamdulillah.
But like
our friends are who we are and they
don't have to be Muslim or non Muslim.
Sometimes non Muslim is better than Muslims. To
be honest with you, we're not that simplistic.
People around us who reinforce good values, good
behavior,
center us on who we are as people
and as Muslims. That's the friends we should
keep.
Secondly,
let me check my resilience and resilience at
an individual level is expressed as mentioned by
Sheikh Zakaria Ansari
in 3 ways. Number 1 is to be
resilient in doing good.
And now we see videos of people beating
up protesters and the police like helping the
people beating up the protesters. Like there's a
level of resilience that's needed there. We see
what's going on in Sudan and the Congo
like there's a level of resilience to push
in
but
salatul fajr
one of my teachers used to say how
you gonna push the oppressors
off the Muslims
if you can't push to blanket
off your body for fajr?
Like, how are you gonna push back all
the evil in the world
if you can't lift a little sheet?
One brother said to the Sheikh the sheet
feels like a £1,000
Sheikh.
He's like get strong
but the point is
let me look at my amalasariha,
my obligations.
Filk isn't necessarily law.
Filk is what allows us to make sense
of existential chaos.
Filk is what guides me to stay
on the haqq
when things around me are pulling me apart.
So where am I in that? Am I
am I? And then do I have a
supporting cast around me that helps me? And
then am I resilient
on obedience?
The second aspect of resilience individually is to
be resilient from the haram.
I had a very close friend call me
yesterday, been married for 25 years, said his
wife kicked him out of the house
because he has a * addiction.
I said to him, how long have you
had a * addiction? He said, 35 years.
I said, you never you never dealt with
this, bro?
I'll call you your mom. I said, you're
not even Muslim. Yeah, but I know you
got some of that sagius.
I said, bro,
the only sagius wisdom I got is you
need to like check yourself get into some
therapy maybe there's some underlying childhood issues he
said absolutely there was something happened to me
as a child was that ever addressed no
so you never put in the work to
fix it man
And I'm not blaming you, but your wife
just threw you out of the house.
Then I asked him, what kind of people
are around you? Oh man. We play pool.
You know, we go to the bar. Some
of my friends from Oklahoma, we do this.
We go shoot guns.
Like, I mean, it's not, oh, I'm probably
shooting guns, but I'm saying that the bar
and pool and gambling
is obviously not going to reinforce
you staying away from this kind of bad
behavior. That's what one of my teachers used
to say, if you really repent, you repent
from what triggers the sin not just the
sin.
So I think about, like, what leads to
that evil?
Then I begin to weed that out. So
now I've created a layer between me and
the sin
and one of those important layers is
my partners.
Imam Sheffi said there are that he lived
at a time where he was at that
time he traveled a lot you know he
lived in 10 years he was like an
anthropologist he learned Arabic from the Bedouins Ben
al Hawazin but then he would travel he
said I was in a city where there
were no good people so I just talked
to myself.
Then I said after that I talked to
Allah
just to you know have the proper scaling,
to have the proper supporting guests. And sometimes
it's hard. Like, we have to be honest.
You know, we may be in situations where
it's like the lesser of 2 evils. Sometimes
it's hard. You're not gonna find Sheikh Abdul
Karat Jalani at DCIU Street 14
on Saturday night. It's not gonna happen. The
Ghazali walking down the street in Silver Spring
or Takoma Park. You're not gonna run into
them there.
But let me
choose the less
of the evil meaning.
Wa ta'ala sabi sabr
so to be resilient
away from
evil
and that implies that I've created the scaffolding
ministry right before it that allows me to
do that.
The third form of resilience is whatever Allah
has decreed. We talked about this in the
hikm a lot.
What Allah has decreed
whether good or bad.
Good is easy. Bad is hard, man.
Bad is tough.
Every morning I experienced this man. My 4
year old, I want I make this thing
called pizza egg. Buh, buh, I want pizza
egg. Alright. Try to do a pizza and
try to keep some time for my wife.
Soon, you will learn to get some sleep
because it's hard. Then the 2 year old
comes, I want berries. I want this. I
want that. I want this. I don't want
pizza. I want this. Here I am in
the morning. You Allah give me patience.
Brazilians can play out in different ways. It
doesn't always have to be a catastrophe.
There are micro moments like that
with our parents as they get older. Come
actually less understanding sometimes,
right? Demands resilience
and also resilience within yourself.
Every single one of us has like evil
that resides within us
and we have to be resilient and push
that away
And we ask ourselves. Al Ghazari says Allah
decreed that evil for you to test you
so you can measure yourself and know where
you really stand.
That's like your one rep max.
Where are you in this?
So being patient not only with resilience,
with the good,
but with the evil. Why all this stuff
is happening in the world? If Allah was
here, why is it happening? Stay resilient.
So at an individual level the chapter focuses
on what? Reminding me how do I use
this time?
That's why Imam Abu Saud, one of the
great great scholars
he said that the whole idea is like
a person
who didn't
use their time correctly in the transaction that
Allah has given them the blessing of their
life.
They failed to profit
because they were more worried about prophets for
the S than prophets for the PH.
They got caught up.
How do I rectify this?
Repentance,
faith,
good works.
Let me look at the things around me
that orbit my life.
And then let me see and examine my
resilience.
At a community level,
this chapter also is very important
because we are here to help each other
be resilient in what?
I guess time.
Like I actually wanted to do that like
a check-in like how everybody's feeling because it's
a lot of stress man.
It's a lot of pressure if you're away
from your family. I was away from my
family for years. I know how hard it
can be. But time maybe next time.
But I felt like we should do that
because we need to be here for one
another.
Yeshu Du Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du
Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du
Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du
Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du Baad Du
Baad Du Baad Du Baad. The prophet said
you support one another you strengthen against what?
Against
difficult issues in time, difficult struggles in time.
Without community, it's very difficult to scale religion.
It's very hard.
Yes?
I have a question kinda related to that.
So when we were talking about, like, mutually
working together
on truth,
we talked a lot about
a lot of the examples we talked about
were
how do you get to a place where
you're kind of, like,
living by the laws of Islam, like, in
that,
you know, scale? But at the beginning, we
talked about how sometimes
either individually or maybe in our friends or
family or, you know, our community,
someone doesn't seem to be ready for that.
Right? Like, they're not ready to maybe be
in compliance with the laws of Islam.
So how do you
what's your benchmark for, like, either individually
progressing towards that or, like, helping someone, like
a loved one, a friend, a family member,
like,
progress to that?
Get to that in a second.
I'm a get to it, and I got
you. Good question. Thank you.
So the community level, we want to think
about the time we have together
and Badrul Bilamal,
raised to do good,
the the good that we can do as
a community, the good that we can do
in bringing,
you know, the light of Islam to people
as well as helping people. Not everyone became
Muslim in the time of the prophet because
of Islam.
Some people became Muslim because the prophet fixed
a marriage crisis.
He got rid of interest which was a
form of oppression.
He did many things initially some people became
Muslim to get married even. Some of the
Sahaba of Wata'ala he became Muslim to get
married to Umsulay.
She said I can't marry you you're not
Muslim he said okay
he did in fact she said to him
that's your Mahar SubhanAllah
And the Sahabi say,
The Sahabi said the best Mahr ever was
the Mahab Umsalim.
Mahroha Islam.
Her Mahr was Islam. Nobody went there and
said, stuff Allah, sister. How you gonna bring
this brother to Masjid trying to hook it
up? Look look how we are. We're because
we're we're ratchet now. We're infected with ratchetness.
But back then, they were infected with light.
They saw that there's potential in him.
And Abu Talha became one of the great
Sahaba.
He became because Islam is the process of
becoming it's not an event
and when I look at it as a
process of becoming
that sort of helps me answer the question
I can become now a pharmacist
not simply a judge
How much dose do I give that person?
Even Tamia said
call to good to what leads to good.
Don't call to good to what leads to
bad. If you break someone and destroy them
what did you get out of it? So
you gotta you answer that question. I can
answer that question for you. We all have
our own
weights and measures when we deal with individuals
in our own life and our family. You
know better than me,
and I trust that you will give the
proper answer to because you know the situation.
Babatul Talha became Muslim to marry salaam the
mother of anti Semitic he became his step
daddy and he became a great companion of
the messenger of Allah. Assalamuala Allah everybody about
to run out now and try to find
somebody don't do that man don't give me
in trouble brothers but but seriously
they saw potential.
Sometimes we look for the final call,
right? Final call
for those who know instead of like the
production, the process
there's potential, you know, subhanAllah, I don't think
I told you the story.
I used to go to this flea market
in Oklahoma, sell mixtapes. I was I was
a temp to DJ. It's a disaster,
but I was a good producer. I used
to produce for people. There's records online. Don't
look them up. It's very bad.
And,
I used to go there and sell music
you know and there was a man the
man from Brooklyn that I told you about
big turban sudan he told you know I
think he like he even gave salaam like
this like you know he was very influenced
by Sudan and the scholars of Sudan even
know he's from here
and so I would go by there on
the way to sell the music
the worst music you could imagine like crazy
stuff
and he would see me and he was
he was hit so he's like yo what's
up I was like what's up but he
had a turban and the throw ones big
beard with henna
and
and I'm like how does he know how
to talk like that I thought no he's
from America
he had like the big cane you know
and everything
he was selling incense oils of course
And so finally I went up to him.
I was like, man, like, who are you,
man? Like, how do you know how to
talk like us young people?
He was like, I'm from Brooklyn. I was
like, oh, I thought you were from like
the motherland or, you know, I didn't offer
Oklahoma. I didn't know a lot of countries
back then. I was young night, 16 year
old kid.
He said, no, no, I'm from Brooklyn, but
I'm Muslim. I was like, oh my God.
You're Muslim. Don't you hate white people? Don't
you believe that there's a God in a
spaceship and like the mother ship has landed
and George Clinton? And I started going crazy.
And then he told me, no, no, no,
no, no. Read this. He gave me a
little pamphlet called Islam at a glance. So
I read it I went home I was
like this is the truth
like I read I was like man this
this actually would like we believe in all
the prophets so like yeah I don't want
to like not want to believe in a
prophet you know like that's not a cool
thing so I
I read that, then I would go back,
like, every few weeks, and he would talk
to me in our slang of the nineties
kinda slang, you know, Oklahoma street slang if
that exists, like a howdy with a what's
up.
And
and, like, he worked on me, but I
didn't know it. Then I took Shahadah with
him. When I took Shahadah and he started
crying. He said, the first time I saw
you, I made God for you.
The first time I saw you, I said,
this kid can do something
so you got to believe in people too
you got to believe not in them and
Allah
as he told me
bring them to Allah Allah will clean them
up
that's not your job
so
How do we help each other as a
community?
We encourage each other to be in the
truth. Maybe some people need it tough. Maybe
some people need it soft.
Maybe some people like their coffee with, you
know, coconut milk, whatever that beta is.
And me, Irish, be it Irish. I just
like it black. No sugar. Nothing.
Right? Europeans,
you know, they they got that issue.
But here
that's that's different some people like get bitter
some people like get sweet how do you
how do you treat people differently what a
well sobel haqq
but our goal is Allah
that's why I worry about all the isms
within America now Neoconservatives have got young Muslim
boys militarizing women.
Neoliberalism got Muslim women militarizing men.
We forgot the word ummah. No doubt we
should be critical of one another where we
need to be held accountable. But I don't
need to use a kafir
psychology or philosophy or framework
to impose it on the Muslims and bring
disunity based on that.
If a man is foul he's foul because
Allah clearly mentions the role of a man
And the prophet said, men should be good
to women.
And on the other end, also, if you
upset with a sister, what are you upset
about? Do you know her? You have relationship
with her? Are you sure you're not acting
on some kind of machismo thing? Is there
really silly, seriously, something wrong? Actually, Islam will
force us to be honest to our critique
of each other, but the isms lead to
schisms
that's been my experience look at America now
it's destroyed
I mean we have a president who celebrates
an infrastructure
bill
shouldn't I be able to go down Georgia
Avenue without popping a tire and you celebrating
that?
Should it be p shouldn't people in Anacostia
and Southeast not worried about being gentrified with
a j?
Because you put the right amount of money
in the community, but we're gonna celebrate what
is the basic obligation of a leader is
to take care of its people but you
can send $18,000,000,000
to kill babies in Gaza and you tell
me that you're pro life.
Like look how messed up this place is.
We want to take their stuff and no,
we can be critical. We should be critical
by using our hack. Now it's what to
also be. I don't know.
So first is to learn and build and
be committed to one another. Even if we
make mistakes, we're gonna make mistakes. I'm gonna
say things that are wrong. I'm gonna say
things wrong. People make mistakes.
I had a heck of a long day.
I got jet lag with 2 crazy kids.
Change more diapers today than, you know, they
changed tires at the local automotive store. This
is his life.
We come here we come here with baggage
we come here with experiences
and we want to help each other to
the truth and then we want to help
each other be resilient.
We don't have cancel culture we have redemption
culture
that's that's where we differ specifically neoliberalism.
It doesn't give the person the opportunity. It
says it does. It's a carrot in certain
communities in America.
Neoliberalism
as the brilliant theologian Vincent
Lloyd, brilliant black theologian from Vanderbilt now I
think in Notre Dame, he said neoliberalism
is the promise to the black community
of becoming
and he speaks as a black theologian he
says it's a consummate lie the projects were
a project
and now for us too poor people in
Oklahoma half of Oklahoma's on welfare all of
them got no T's meth my family meth
addicts
the constant promise of becoming from neo conservatives.
I have a relative that told me the
ocean should turn to fire because in the
book of Revelation
our preacher told us in church that until
the ocean burns, Jesus won't come. What?
Okay. Then you jump in the ocean, brother.
We're gonna bring that into this light.
So what Tawal so but Haqq and that's
what we find sometimes you see the red
pill Muslim guys
are upset about militarizing Muslim women have been
the object of colonialism for the last 400
something years they've been beaten down by this
especially Muslim women largely are women of color
so you add that layer to it and
now you want to turn them into your
enemy
and you're being used and then you give
white neoconservatives
a free pass who pulled me off of
airplanes in 2003 to 2,008 who had me
banned from Canada for 10 years, quote unquote
the Tim Hortons friendly country,
who subpoenaed me in cases when I was
in Egypt that I knew nothing about
and now you're not mad at them?
Isn't that selling out?
But instead you wanna go and attack Muslim
sisters.
Really?
No. I'm married to a Muslim woman. I
have 3 children. I'm a I'm a dad's
I have 4 children. I have 3 girls.
I'm a dad's I'm a girl's dad, man.
You think I'm gonna let anyone like that
or not to be around my family?
One of the most important things I try
to instill in my young children, especially my
daughters, is confidence to make decisions.
And I worry about the Muslims that they're
around who take that from them.
So today when I was reviewing the Quran
and wash I told my 4 year old
correct me you show up in the Quran
I'm a correct papa.
Right? That's a mistake.
Mistake but she's gonna order me Right? But
the point is, I want her
to to have that confidence.
And now we got a group of young
Muslim men and old Muslim men that are
boasting about tearing down Muslim women.
So with
the Haqq
And we can hold each other accountable with
the truth but if we don't know it
we can't do that.
So the first in scaling community is to
learn what is the truth. What is the
truth? What Allah has said in this messenger?
7% of that is unassailable,
immutable we'll talk about our class on Islamic
law hopefully in the fall 7% of the
Quran and sunnah is uninterpreted.
It cannot be interpreted.
Pray pray
Hajj Hajj
be good to your parents.
That's pretty clear. Be good to your family.
Pretty clear. No one's gonna say I think
there's a difference of opinion on being good
to my mom.
Zakah, Zakah.
But all of them are thaiheed.
That's differences.
Scholarly difference. That means there's leeway.
Imam Ahmed had 13 opinions on one issue
throughout his life. He changed 13 times
because his life changed. Imam Shafi has 2
med habs. Why does he have 2 med
habs? Because he's a genius.
He understands, man. Life changed. He got new
evidences, mostly new evidences,
but also certain social circumstances.
He say, you know what? Imam Malik took
40 something years. Some say more to edit
the Muwatha. Why?
But we've inverted it. There's no flexibility on
issues.
So the truth,
The pillars of iman, pillars of Islam, basically
we don't argue about that.
Other stuff we can differ.
What Tawaz sabas sabr? How do we help
each other be resilient? Why don't we have
I did this when I was an imam,
Alcoholics anonymous in the masjid because we're embarrassed.
But shouldn't we be helping each other? That
guy that called me, I said, doesn't your
church have some for * addicts? Nah, man,
I'm embarrassed, bro. Go to church. Tell him
I got a * addiction. Dude, where are
you gonna go?
Doctor
Phil? Like, where are you gonna who are
you gonna turn to?
Right? And so now you have this new
class of celebrities pushing in. Right? So you
have, like, you know,
Marilyn Manson giving advice on * addiction.
Yeah. That's the guy to turn to for
that.
Right? So if celebrities now because of the
celebrities to shine, I've taken the role of
even preachers and ministers and Schu and psychiatrists
and telling us to do stuff to our
bodies that all of our medical professionals still
don't do that.
But we do it because
they did
it so what Tawal soba's sobr how do
we create within our community access and partnerships
this is an interdisciplinary
challenge with people who may bring about economic
assistance to people, finding jobs, training. When I
was an imam in Boston you know what
we did? MashaAllah we opened up a center
to give people their GEDs because we had
a lot of brothers that caught up in
the system never got the high school degrees
And we knew one of the greatest causes
of recivity was what not having to education.
And also to give them confidence themselves.
Yeah, man. Look at you. You did your
GED at 52, bro. That's incredible. We had
a party for a brother at 52 years
old, did his GED. And then he went
to junior college.
That might not seem like a big thing
to you and me, but that means I
care. That means I'm invested
in my community, not just about the wealthy
donors who write the checks for the nonprofits.
That's a lack of sincerity. That's why I
left that work. It bothered me.
All the board is the rich people. Where's
the rep where's the community representation? Everybody ain't
rich,
but most of the people in Fajr ain't
rich.
Let's be honest. They're rich in their soul.
They're rich with Allah. They may not be
rich in their pocketbook.
So how do we scale new Muslims like
Senator DC is a great job of this.
The iftar leagues. That's how you do resilience
being together. Some people told me that they
love iftar leagues because they find a sense
of community and connection
with one another.
We should have things for expecting mothers. My
wife was terrified, man. First time, it was
a terrifying experience. We have a lot of
OG moms in the back right there. ChaChi
Sahib is here.
She can give you, oh, no. I experienced
this. Do this. Drink this. Whatever. Go get
a massage. Blah blah blah. Whatever needs to
happen. Right?
How do you scale resilience? Not just be
strong.
In fact, what a therapist say you tell
someone be strong that basically means you're copping
out. You don't wanna get
involved. Yeah. Be strong. Go to a therapist.
Bye. Nice to see you.
So at a community level, Sotay Asar is
telling us, how do we create programming that
will help iman? How do we keep programming
that will help Ahmad? How do we keep
programming that will help Ahmad? How do we
keep programming that helps us work together to
the truth and not divide and destroy ourselves?
We can be mad at each other. We
can be angry. I had a very cathartic
conversation with evocative conversation with the sister last
time I was here. She was like, I'm
sorry. I'm like, stop saying you're sorry.
If you if you're upset with me, upset
with me. Okay. I'm not taking it personal
unless unless it's personal.
No. No. I'm really bad about this issue.
Okay. Okay. Right.
And then last, how do we create systems
within institutions and nonprofits
that are going to empower? Where's the services
for divorcees, man?
When you talk to Muslim divorcees, it's like
they feel like they're on an island all
by themselves,
somewhere with Lauryn Hill,
all by themselves.
Nobody there. Seriously.
They're very down. And then, you know, they
start to to they'd see their value. I'll
never get married again. No. Don't marry me.
What all that I see in your head.
Where's the system of support for people with
children who struggle, for example, with physical limitations?
How many masjids
have become compliant with Sayyid Mwasin to ensure
that?
In Boston, another thing we did, we started
signing the khutba. People started coming.
We never thought that we had to create
a section for people who would listen, see
the Khubba,
be assigned to them. And one of the
parents came to me and said, This is
the first time in his life he went
to Jawa
since he was diagnosed with this hearing issue.
So how do you scale resilience? It's not
just be strong, have you man, hamdulillah, pray.
Nah. If you really want to be resilient
and resolute,
institutionalize
it and scale it and bring the talent
that you all have here at this role.
The imams can't do that. That's not my
job.
And then you'll see a difference.
Till now we haven't done that. That's why
a lot of us, we go to masjids,
we don't feel something's missing. What's missing, man?
We need that support a little bit that
that the issue I may be having I'm
not trying to make myself selfish, but this
is hard.
People that have been sexually abused and emotionally
assaulted and physically assaulted in the Muslim community,
where are the services for them in the
institutions?
They have to carry that until they get
married a lot of them and it pops
up in the marriage.
How do we support
new Muslims and their parents and relatives and
spouses who aren't Muslims?
When people used to become Muslim on our
Masjid, we used to say, how old are
you? On Monday 18, bring baba and mamma.
Their parents will come to the masjid terrified
and we should tell them we are a
partner in education with you and your child.
They say I like
you even though I hate your religion. I
like you. Right? Now we're a partner. What
do you want for your child? I want
to see this. We're here to help you.
We're here to help you.
Where's that kind of services?
Where's our position on what's happening to black
people in this country, man? Outside of lip
service and it being a fad and being
about that. You know what? I was let
go in one of the masjids I was
in. You know what they told me a
board member?
You're making it a black masjid.
I said, I'm out, man. I quit.
What the heck is this shayton Jim Crow
BS man
shayton and Athobe David Duke and Athobe bro
I'm out and I quit
I quit then I said what neighborhood are
we in he said well yeah there's a
lot of Habeshees
a lot of Sudanis
I said yeah where do you live the
board member will I he said I live
20 miles away from the masjid then why
do you even care?
Right if you're going to be an ally
for people you got to feel a little
bit of the pain and suffer yourself
to be resent with them.
New Muslims.
It's so funny that we all love these
celebrity new Muslims, but we got new Muslims
right in our Masjid nobody paying attention to
because we love dunya.
But if we really were happy that people
became Muslim,
we will be there with those that aren't
even heard, al Akhfiya from the Jannah.
So when we talk about Surat Al Asr
now, it gets deep.
How do I scale individually my iman and
my aman
and my contribution to community
and my persistence in the face of personal
sin and struggle? And then at a community
level,
how do I do this? And I make
it such a habit
that it's consistent, that it's like it's in
the past?
I know Suaib is good for this. Man,
he did this before.
I know Suaib is good for this. He
did this before. I'm not like that. I
wish I could be that way.
So sota asr is a reminder, man, and
it gives us the foundations of how to
live our life
faith, good deeds,
community organizing around the truth,
and helping each other stay strong when difficulty
happens.
That's why in Surat Alukman, If you look
at the advice of Luqman as we finish,
my apologies,
what does Luqman tell his son? The first
thing, don't
associate partners with Allah.
We have to remind these kafirs in America
that if you die like this you're going
to * and Muslims are scared to do
it. You know why? Because we're no longer
a prophetic community.
We're something else.
But those of us who became Muslim, we
got no problem telling people that
You better you better get it together, you're
cruising for a bruising.
And what did the prophet say?
I'm
scared for you, the hellfire.
Because when we unlocate ourselves as prophetic
then our concerns are no longer prophetic concerns.
We don't care about people's hereafters anymore because
we're not gonna talk about the hereafter.
So what's our purpose?
What did the prophet say to the Quraysh
when he
ascended
that Safa? He was concerned about the social
issues, the political. He dealt with them, but
also he told them
he told them, I'm fearful that you're gonna
go to *.
For I I I know if we say
that now, Muslims probably get more mad at
you than non Muslims.
One time there was a brother that came
into the Masjid in Brooklyn.
He was a drug dealer in Brooklyn and
he sat down in front of the imam
Suraj and imam Suraj told him, if you
don't stop selling drugs, you're gonna go to
*. And you know what he said? I
needed to hear this.
I never framed it in this way. I
always framed it in what I get, what
I don't get.
Sometimes people need to hear that it's in
their fitron.
Second thing that we want to talk about
quickly and we'll finish is what are the
qualities
and forgive me
of the color this kind of touches on
what you ask me. There are 8 of
them mentioned in the Quran I'll elaborate on
them in the future but just give them
to you now the first our mission is
to Yusuf the second our mission is to
to Naha We talk about what tawal sobihak,
what are the conditions of working for the
truth. Number 1 is sincerity.
I don't see a difference, a separation between
ima, Islam,
and
being engaged
in healing a fractured world and a fractured
society that's secularism
I see it together as one
but I have to be sincere in it
it has to be for Allah
number 2
group work
I have to be able to function with
people people have to be able to function
with me we're not always going to make
each other happy we're not always going to
say what we want to hear oh I'm
out of here you know what I'm saying
person says something I like I'm never coming
back again really like how are you going
to get married
Like honestly I offend my wife at least
every second you know what I mean? Like
it's just water life.
You know how much I love you? I
said how much I love you so much
I'll put up with you. Allahu Akbar that
means you love me right? That's love.
So group work is very important and the
dynamics of that's why MSA was very important
for many of us because MSA trained us
to kind of learn to work with people
and engage and differ and argue and fight.
Now we see Masajid every year there's new
director, new leader because someone got mad and
walked away.
That's not the sign of a mature community.
Omar and Abubakar didn't necessarily get along
but they loved each other
and when we make mistakes in a public
setting we make mistakes one imam told me
I'm scared to talk I'm scared to say
something wrong people are going to cancel me
But you shouldn't feel like that.
They should be able to come to you
and say, I don't agree with what you
said. I think you could have said it
better. Maybe you should work on this. You
might wanna say, I didn't do it the
day way. Can you differ?
Okay. So what we differ? Peace out.
The imam can also say I heard you
say something, also I don't agree with you.
It doesn't mean we're not we're not connected
anymore.
The third quality after that, after group work
is
to focus on ourselves was subhanAllah
the 4th quality mission is Shul to Yusuf
like I pray at night I fast I
have my moments with Allah
I have my moments with Allah
I have that deep connection to Allah
the last in this verse the
way I call people I don't have to
be like evil people to call people to
good
goodness has its own unique beauty its own
aesthetic
that's why whenever you see it's crazy when
you go to Spain right
you go to the masjid
Alhambra
you see all these non Muslims man
they look like they're being charmed
what are they looking at la hardi va
illallah
There's no victory except for the Allah. Like
just the most beautiful thing I've ever seen
man. Like yeah what does it say? It
says, welcome.
You know what I mean? Like like they're
looking at this stuff right here they're like
this is just incredible
like what inspired them? Islam? They start to
ask why why are these rivers still running?
Why is this sister like well they thought
about Jannah Tajiri Min Taqdis so they made
this park like this like wow the Quran's
awesome I gotta read the Quran man right?
Like they're amazed at our beauty
why do we need to be like them?
We we should have our own light
doesn't mean also that I mean there's certainly
customs that we're gonna be like the people
around us for sure but I'm talking about
morality
foundational issues
principles
standards
We have our own prophetic standards,
and our religious education has failed you.
It's not your fault.
You have access to teachers. After 9/11, everything
was external. In the nineties, we had teachers
and all the Masjid. After 911 most of
them got kicked out of the country we
couldn't we didn't have lawyers to defend them
and keep them here. Lawyers in Canada couldn't
get me in Canada. Guess I drank American
coffee and Tim Hortons got mad. I don't
know. It wouldn't let me in for no
reason. Then they told me were you a
gang member?
I said when I was 14. They're like,
that's why you can't. I'm like, I'm 27
then.
Like, obviously, I'm not I'm not in trouble
now. Like, well, well, it doesn't matter. You
know, we don't like gang members. I'm a
former
gang member. It's too shahada
and went to college,
finished his degree took care of my parents
paid for my children's education
so they don't care it was all an
excuse but at that time we couldn't scale
so all the Uddaman teachers weren't allowed to
travel that's why Mufti Mink can't come to
America. Mufti Mink is dangerous
I don't read Mufti Min can't get in
the U. A. E. I'm like, oh, man.
Life is good.
Man, what do we Mufti Min was like
in Cottonball, man. It's like, ah, dang. It's
like getting a mask. It's like getting a
mask. You feel good.
Almost a sudden man can't get in the
UAE
or whatever country Doctor. Yasukhadi was banned.
Why? What would they do to people? Yasukhadi
is why?
So
we have to be different. The last qualities
were mentioned very quickly. I went too long.
Forgive me, but I miss you guys so
I just, you know, I'm in a mood.
I'm in a rhythm. Forgive me.
You know?
And their mission is Sultan Nahal. And this
is also part of your question. Next quality
is wisdom.
Be wise
don't break people, don't destroy them if you
know because you can't say to yourself well
if I don't do this Allah's going to
hold me accountable that's nonsense you're not accountable
for anybody.
People tell me if my daughter's dressed bad
Allah is going to throw me to *
that's your daughter, that ain't you, my son's
dress, that's your son, that ain't you, after
they're grown, leave them alone.
Same thing with our family members, well if
I don't sell the truth to them Allah
is going to put no, you ain't that
important
and they're responsible for don't take people's utility.
God bless you guys good luck. Alhamdulillah.
May Allah bless your future child like in
Sayyidah Mariam
The last two qualities,
when you talk, talk in a nice way.
When you talk, talk in a way that's
evocative, that impacts people. It may need to
be strong, may need to be soft.
It may need the message may need to
be firm, may need to be nice.
And the last
the last
is that when you push yourself into the
argument
you're prepared for it. I saw this white
supremacist these people are shayateen.
At White Muslim Conference we need to press
these people like black Muslims
pressed this country from their end. White Muslims
are kind of quiet on this front. Now
we need to be holding these Kafir's feet
to the fire on this white supremacy stuff.
This is a form of shirk.
Like you are Firoun.
You're the embodiment of Firoun and wear Moses
in your house. But if Moses doesn't talk
nothing happens.
But I saw this guy, he's a white
supremacist, he said he personally goes
to places where woke people are and he
reads for hours and then he goes in
debates.
He said it's obvious most of the people
they're not ready for it. What does it
mean?
The last quality is that I'm prepared correctly
to step into a situation.
I have the knowledge needed to articulate positions
clearly.
So these are the conditions of calling to
the truth: sincerity,
group work, focusing on my heart my spiritual
growth, private moments with Allah,
being distinguished and honorable and having fidelity in
my dua,
the last wisdom.
Then communicating effectively, being an effective communicator in
my appearance,
how I talk, all that is there. And
then finally, when I argue, Netanyahu,
may Allah curse him.
Netanyahu.
You know what he said in the interview?
I go and read
Sayyid Putub
I go and read
Muslim stuff back in the days of AOL
and he said I will go on AOL
Muslim chats and box
with an anonymous name he already has anonymous
that's not his real name anyways we know
that right his real name was like Greenwood
or something he changed his name nothing yeah
it was not his real name he's from
Philly
but
he
prepares so Surah Asar is deep
man how you use your time how you
scale your time in a way that allows
you to be faithful
beautiful
part of community
and resilient
So may Allah
bless you, we'll pray and if there's any
questions we can take it after.
My apologies for taking too much time.