Suhaib Webb – Staying Righteous In Ratchet Times
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AI: Transcript ©
So the topic that I actually was given
was sort of maintaining uprightness in the face
of a challenging world and some of the
difficulties that we may face.
We're born into difficulties and the dunya is
a place of difficulty.
So before we start, I think it's important
that we understand how we look at the
dunya, that the dunya is not a place
which is Jannah.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ, he said
to Sayyidina Khadijah that you will, Angel Gabriel
has said, you will be in a place
that nothing will bother you.
That you'll hear no loud noises, that you'll
not be disturbed, he was talking about Jannah.
One of the challenges of European enlightenment and
then the expansion of American power within the
world is that it promises people Jannah.
That's why everyone in America is always screaming
about something.
Because the expectation here is perfection.
And while certainly that should not undermine our
ability to work for improving a fractured world,
we have to appreciate that it will always
be fractured.
Because if it wasn't broken, then we would
not long for it to be whole.
And that wholeness, wallahu yad'u ila dari
salam, is Jannah.
So the challenges, the difficulties, the hardships that
we face in this world are a reminder
of the perfection and the bliss in Jannah,
la khawfun alayhim walahum yahzanun.
And the materialist who tends not to have
an attachment to the hereafter will live in
this world expecting that this world will give
them an experience of Jannah.
And that's impossible.
That's impossible.
The second thing that's important is, and I've
seen this recently within the context of the
Palestinian genocide that's happening there, as well as
what's going on in Sudan, is that, I
saw it today actually, there was a Christian
minister on some Instagram reel boasting about how
he has a 40,000 square foot house.
He actually says, I have the biggest house
of any Christian minister in America.
Then takes a, there's like a shot of
him in front of a jet, he has
a private jet, and then he translates this
into God's love for him.
And so I've heard people say like, well,
why is the ummah taking so many L's?
Like why is the ummah taking so many
L's?
And even some young teenagers, it makes sense,
their minds are maturing and maturing.
Parents have contacted me and said my son
and daughter are worried that they're on the
losing team.
But, it's important to realize that Islam has
never seen God's love for you as being
indicated by you having a model Y, or
living in a mansion.
And this is something which is part of
the Joel Osteen, who has no formal training
in theology whatsoever, but that's the era that
we're living in now.
To be trained as a theologian means you're
boring.
To be an alim means that you're jahil.
And to be a jahil means you have
millions of followers on social media.
And you can say whatever you want about
religion.
That's why Abu Ala al-Ma'ri, he
said, فَلَمَّ رَأِيْتُ الْجَاهِلَ فَأَشْيَاً تَعْلَمْتُ حَتَّى يُقَالُ
أَنِّي جَاهِلٌ Abu Ala, this is nothing new,
he lamented about this in his time, he
said, And when I saw that the masses
had adopted ignorance as being popular, I learned
until the masses started to call me ignorant.
Because if the ignorant are calling you ignorant,
it means what?
You're learned.
So Joel Osteen, who peddled this sort of
idea, and there were even Muslims like buying
Joel Osteen books, and like he always smiles,
and you know, he just talks about good
stuff.
Well, prophecy is not only to talk about
good stuff, prophecy is basheer and nadheer, right?
To remind us of our responsibility and to
encourage us to stay committed.
وَدَاعِيًا إِلَى اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِ سِرَاجًا وَنِيرًا صَلَى اللَّهُ
عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَمًا To love the Prophet is not
only to love him when he says what
I want to hear, but to love the
Prophet, peace be upon him, when he challenges
me to be a better person, and compels
me to audit myself, and look into myself.
And one of the outcomes of this, they
call it the prosperity gospel, is that I've
unfortunately had people ask me like, well, the
Palestinians, this is what they deserve because they're
not good Muslims.
What a disgusting thing to say, where in
fact we believe the opposite.
That sometimes the beneficiary of material bounties is
the one who is the object of fitna.
And the one who has been kept from
material bounties is the one that Allah loves.
Because they are being protected from unhealthy attachments.
That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
about the people of Mecca, أَفْدَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ
الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ سَنَسْتَدْرِجُهُمْ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ We
will continue to give them what they want
until we punish them.
فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِيرُوا بِهِ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ
كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا عُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ
بَغْتَةَ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ Allah says that, and
when they forgot what we sent to them,
we gave them everything they wanted.
استدراج Until they became, you know, joyous with
this.
أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةَ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ And we seized
them and we punished them from where they
would have never imagined.
So, opulence and security in the material world
is not an indication of Allah's pleasure.
What indicates Allah's pleasure is no matter the
situation, no matter the circumstance, no matter what
is happening, I'm worshipping Allah.
I'm observing the fara'id.
Because I may be the wealthiest person in
the world, but my wealth causes me to
mistreat my family, to be arrogant, to miss
acts of worship.
That's why in fiqh they say that marriage
is mandoob, marriage is recommended, unless it will
take you away from ibadah.
And it became haram.
That's why one of our teachers used to
say, the greatest sign of your wilayah is
the first fajr, the night of your marriage.
Did you both maintain the discipline, right?
To make sure that you prayed.
On the other end, I may have very
little, but I'm with Allah.
I may not have the same material possessions
that other people have, but I'm with Allah.
That's why Ibn Ata'allah, he says in
the hikm, خِفْ إِحْسَانِهِ إِلَيْكِ Fear Allah's goodness
with you.
مَعْ إِسَاءَتِكَ مَعَهِ As long as you're being
bad to Him.
Because sometimes people get deceived.
Well, you know, subhanAllah, I'm not that good
of a person.
I haven't been observing the faraid.
I haven't been fulfilling the responsibilities of my
family and those around me.
But alhamdulillah I got this promotion.
خِفْ إِحْسَانِهِ إِلَيْكِ مَعْ إِسَاءَتِكَ مَعَهِ Be careful
of the goodness that Allah gives you, perceived
goodness.
If I am reciprocating that with sin.
Well, I got into this grad school, I
got into this program, I got the professor
I wanted.
Someone swiped right that I hope would.
Alhamdulillah, everything is going good, mashAllah.
But if I'm not coupling that with ibadah,
shukr to Allah.
Then it could be against me, not for
me.
Even the Qur'an itself.
The Prophet ﷺ said, القرآن حجة لك أو
عليك The Qur'an is either going to
be for you or against you.
It's the greatest na'ma.
So it's important that we address sometimes some
of the common misconceptions.
And maybe even on the alternative side.
Someone's sick in our family, some catastrophe has
hit us, some difficulty has befallen us.
And we think, Allah hates me, Allah doesn't
care about me, why am I going through
this?
No.
In fact, the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ
related by al-Hakim with a good isnad.
Said that some people they make du'a,
make du'a, make du'a for something
so much that even the angels will say,
Ya Allah, have mercy on her.
Ya Allah, have mercy upon him.
And Allah ﷻ will say, the only reason
I refrain from giving it to them is
it will corrupt them.
SubhanAllah.
وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ The Qur'an
says Allah knows and you don't know.
So what's important for us is not to
get caught up in the hors d'oeuvres
of the dunya, but to focus on the
main course of the hereafter.
And that's an emancipated personality.
It can be difficult.
It's not easy.
We all, myself, every one of us have
that struggle.
Anyone who says that they're free of the
temptations of the dunya has fell into the
temptation of that temptation.
They've been deceived.
Sayyidina Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, who lived a
life dedicated to good, to serving the community
of the Messenger of Allah, to suffering for
the truth.
His religious liberty was threatened.
He was imprisoned.
It's strange.
You find liberals in the Western academy.
You know, Muslims should become more like the
Mu'tazilites.
The Mu'tazilites are so tolerant.
Okay, ask Imam Ahmed how tolerant the Mu'tazilites
were.
Ask Yahya ibn An-Nuh, who died in
prison next to Imam Ahmed in his jail
cell, how tolerant the Mu'tazilites were.
Just say you have a problem with Islam.
You don't have to use this fancy language.
But Sayyidina Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, he suffered.
And as he was dying, his son said
to him, Say, La ilaha illa Allah.
And suddenly he began to say, No, no,
no.
Say, La ilaha illa Allah, ya bati.
La, la, la.
Then he regained his consciousness.
And they said to him, you know, you
said something very strange.
We were asking you to say the shahada.
You were saying no, definitively saying no.
And he said, yes, because shaitan, he came
to me.
And he said, mashallah, mashallah.
You served Islam.
You served the ummah of Sayyidina l-Akwad.
You gave so much.
You can relax now.
Ahmed, you defeated me.
Ahmed, you won.
And he said, every time he said this
to me, I said, no, no, no.
And then Imam Ahmed said, If I have
one foot in paradise and one foot in
dunya, I will not lose my passion.
I will not lose this dedication to the
hereafter.
Wa anna ila rabbika al-muntaha.
The last station is with Allah.
So what we want to talk about briefly,
in just a few moments, is what are
some of the things we can do to
stay arataatila.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, wa
maa khalaqatu al-jinna wa insa illa liya
'budu.
I didn't create you except for ibadah.
Not ibadah in the restricted word.
Everything can be ibadah if it's done correctly,
walhamdulillah, and it's not sinful.
But that's the purpose.
And that's something we should ask ourselves everyday.
What is my purpose?
My purpose is ibadah.
That's the umbrella.
Then under that, how do I serve this
purpose?
How do I live this purpose?
We see Muslims, mashallah, across the country, whether
it's teaching young children English, which I saw
in Boston.
Whether it's opening a GED program that I
saw in a city.
Whether it's operating clinics for people.
Whether it's serving in our neighborhoods.
Helping people who are coming from overseas to
settle and to make sense of what's going
on in their new environment.
Volunteering in the masjid.
Serving our parents.
Serving our spouse.
Any of those things, walhamdulillah, fall under that
broader understanding of ibadah.
كل ما يحبه الله تعالى ويرضاه Everything that
Allah loves is ibadah.
والله يحب المحسنين And Allah loves the people
who do good.
And people who strive to do good, Allah
will open up opportunities for them.
والذين جاهدوا فينا لنهدي أنهم سؤولنا Those who
strive, work hard to do this.
It's not easy.
We open the doors for them.
So what are some things we can do,
walhamdulillah, to allow us to locate ourselves and
stay consistent on the worship of Allah subhana
wa ta'ala no matter the situation.
No matter the situation.
Whether we're going through good times, through our
perception, or difficult times through our perception, what's
important is ibadah, is worship.
That's why subhanallah, you know, when you read
the hadith about the end of times, Sayyidina
Isa alayhi salatu wasalam, and Masih al-Tajjal,
and Yajuj and Majuj and all of these
things, if Ramadan happens at that time, we
have to fast.
If salah happens at that time, we have
to pray.
The ibadah doesn't stop.
When the ibadah stops, the dunya is done.
Because the purpose of dunya is over.
That's why the hadith in Sahih Muslim of
the Prophet ﷺ in the section on al
-fitr, and we have to be careful.
Sometimes people quote these hadith and say it's
for now.
Like right now these hadith are happening.
Like when people said, you know, during COVID,
there's no hajj, it's the end of times.
That hadith doesn't apply to this time.
That hadith applies to after the time of
Isa alayhi salatu wasalam.
When there's no believers left on the earth,
and there's no hajj.
Because there's no one to make hajj.
This hadith also applies to that moment, where
the Prophet ﷺ has said, لَا تَقُومُوا سَعَىٰ
The hour will not start until no one
remembers Allah.
Why?
Because remembrance of Allah is the easiest form
of worship.
And the purpose of creation is worship.
So when there's no one there to remember
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the creation is
done.
Its purpose is done.
Subhanallah.
So what are some things we can do?
Alhamdulillah, to build this capacity.
Especially for students, who are facing some challenges
already on campus.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it
easy for them.
Alhamdulillah.
And then of course many of us are
worried about this election season.
You know, all kind of strange things being
said now.
If you have a cat, I'm sure you're
under tremendous amount of stress.
Or a dog outside of your house protecting
you.
In the Maliki Madhab.
But, it's a stressful time.
And then myself, I have family that are
Lebanese.
So there's this extended stress that happens.
We have relatives, I'm sure all of us,
who since October 7th, 10 hours of their
day, are following what's going on, talking to
people in the area, you know, in the
village.
Finding out who's who, who is now.
Astaghfirullah.
14 year old boys in Lebanon are martyrs.
You know, being bombed.
Subhanallah, at the age of 14.
These things exercise a lot of stress on
all of us.
If you're from Bangladesh, Alhamdulillah.
You're worried about what the future holds.
But Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave
you this victory.
Alhamdulillah.
So what can we do to stay strong?
The first, we need to be brave.
And bravery is not something that we talk
about enough.
But Sayyidina Anas al-Umarik, this is the
month, you know, now of the Mawlid of
Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ.
Ash-Shauqi says, وُلِدَ الْهُدَافَ الْكَائِنَةُ الْضِيَاءُ وَفَهْمُ
الْزَبَالِ تَبَسَّمُ وَثَنَابُ Sayyidina Imam Shauqi says that,
in this month, you know, all of the
universe illuminated.
And the time that the Prophet was chosen
to be born in, he smiled.
He said, Alhamdulillah, I'm this Asr.
I'm this moment for the birth of Sayyidina
Muhammad ﷺ.
But the Prophet ﷺ wasn't just like, soft.
Right?
The Prophet ﷺ, Sayyidina Anas al-Umarik says,
I never saw anyone braver than the Messenger
of Allah ﷺ.
Another narration, he said there was, we were
in an encampment one night, and we heard
this incredibly terrifying loud noise.
And all of us woke up, and we
came out.
And suddenly from the direction of that loud
noise, came the Prophet ﷺ on his mount.
We understood like the Prophet ﷺ was the
first to go.
And here of course, the Prophet is brave
and wise.
Right?
It's not just bravery.
It's bravery with wisdom.
So for example, when he makes hijrah, it's
brave, but he goes the opposite direction.
To throw off the people of Mecca, he
uses a non-Muslim guide, to throw off
the people that were looking for him ﷺ.
It's not just unbridled bravery that creates more
trouble than good.
It's bravery that's rooted in wisdom.
That's why Muttanabbi said, الرأي قبل الشجاع الشجعان
هو الأول وهي مهارت ثاني.
Muttanabbi said, to be smart before you're brave,
is two braveries.
To think before you're brave, is two braveries.
But if I look at the world today,
it certainly needs bravery.
And we're seeing, especially Generation Z, and some
of my former academic colleagues, making incredible sacrifices.
Some of them are tenured professors, who've been
threatened for speaking truth.
We see young students, whose academic careers are
just starting, being threatened that they'll lose everything.
We've seen this country reverse itself, on all
of its promises of freedom of speech, freedom
of assembly.
All of that has been thrown out the
window, and fascism has been adopted, to protect
the Zionist state.
What does it tell you?
We see the Palestinian people.
Today, subhanallah, you and I think we got
problems.
My wife called me today.
You know, my two year old, is trying
to go through the phone to me.
Like physically launch herself, through the phone.
You know, and then she asked me, make
the unicorn face.
Khalas.
After the unicorn face, I think she made
it here, actually.
You know, she really lost it.
I was like, man, this is hard.
This is crazy, right?
My wife said, enjoy your vacation.
Bye.
But then, subhanallah, I received a series of
questions, from some of tulab al-ilm and
mashaykh, in Palestine.
And I realized, wallahi, I have no problems.
Here's the questions that were sent to me.
I remember some of them, because they're on
my phone in my hotel room.
The first one is, how do I make
wudu, with an amputated limb?
Subhanallah.
How do you observe wudu, or purification, with
an amputated limb?
Imagine, the dedication to still want to be
pure.
Not to make an excuse for themselves.
In the face of hukam, who completely sold
them out for thaman and bakhs.
And an ummah who would, at any second,
had the chance to help them, would help
them.
The only thing holding, damning us back as
a community, from helping Palestine, are these sell
-out leaders, who are not there for the
interest of the ummah.
They are like, the equivalent of the person,
who watches people on the plantation, and make
sure they're doing their job.
That's who they are.
And until the ghusl world, throws them out,
we will continue to be like this.
We cannot, allow ourselves to fall into the
idea of, خروج عن الحكام.
You can't go against the leader.
It's not خروج عن الحكام.
It's خروج عن الشعب.
خروج عن الأمة.
When can we talk about, not uprising against
the leaders, but the leaders are uprising against,
the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ.
No one cares about the ummah, and we're
gonna sacrifice ourselves, for 15, 16, 17 people,
who have done the worst, in the history
of the ummah, of the Prophet ﷺ.
Consistently, since the time of colonization.
So, the ability, to stay consistent, to worry
about your wudu, to worry about your ghusl,
when you lost a limb, that's consistency.
The second question is, how do we distribute,
the inheritance, when the entire tribe, is gone.
Not just the family, not the aqarim, and
the ba'id, the whole family is gone.
The name of this family, is gone.
And they're debating, if it's a genocide.
They're debating, if it's a genocide, and you
have entire families, that have been erased.
So the question is, what do we do
with their inheritance?
Number one is the fact, they left a
will.
People living opulent lives, don't leave wills.
But they left a will.
And then they made sure, that someone would
be there, to distribute their wealth, Islamically, after
they're gone.
That's the consistency, of people that are brave.
And what do we mean by bravery?
Not like, you know, action movie bravery, and
false, you know, machismo, that sometimes is, shallowly
packaged to men.
You know, you got to be hard, you
got to be tough.
The Prophet ﷺ was the bravest person, but
Anna said, he was the softest person.
Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Said his hand was like silk, and he
smelled like musk.
And he never yelled at me, he never
abused me, he never said, why did you
do this?
But he's the bravest person.
We have to be very careful, as men,
and colonality is also, to pigeonhole our idea,
of masculinity, through the archetypes, of western society.
But we should find our masculinity, through the
Prophet ﷺ.
The other question I was asked is, if
we can't find food, is it okay to
make waslah with siam?
We know that the Prophet ﷺ, it's makruh,
right?
To fast continuously, like days on days on
days, without any iftar.
But they're saying, we don't have any food.
So at least, as we're starving, can we
starve for Allah?
At least we will feel, that we are
gaining some nourishment, by obeying Allah, by worshipping
Allah.
Now subhanAllah, you come to iftar, 10 course
meal, every continent in the world, is on
the table, and if one spice, is a
little bit off, people will complain.
But subhanAllah, that's consistency, on the ibadah of
Allah.
As-Samud, that our Palestinian, Liwa ul-Ummah,
the flags of the Ummah, Abtaal Ummati Rasulillah,
the heroes and sheroes, of the Ummah of
the Prophet ﷺ.
So to be brave, but to be smart,
and to think about, how you can support
the light, in a world full of darkness.
How can you contribute, in this time, to
the Haqq, in a way that's smart, of
course law abiding, intelligent, and is strategically beneficial.
The second, is to aim high, to have
high ambitions.
And sometimes we make this mistake, right?
We love our boys, and we raise our
girls.
So one side is, sort of untethered, and
they can run, and go out with their
friends, and you know, sew their crescents.
But the other side is, ayatul rabbiya haqqad.
Gonna raise this one, and love this one.
But what we should do, is raise and
love both.
The Prophet ﷺ said, whoever has two daughters,
ask Allah to make me, and whoever has
two daughters, from these people.
He said, whoever has two daughters, and raises
them, and treats them right, and educates them,
they will be hijaban min an-nar.
They will be a protection, sitran, between that
person, and hellfire.
ﷺ And he said, the best thing we
can teach, our boys, is husnul khuluq.
How to have good character.
But we inspire our children, to be brave,
and often, especially with the backdrop of America,
which is a terrifying place, to raise children.
It can be very difficult.
But we have to be careful, that the
paranoia, as I'll talk about in a second,
doesn't lead our strategy.
Paranoia should never, should never lead my strategy.
It's like salt on the food.
Because if I parent, in a paranoid state,
I'm going to create, a bunch of wimps.
And I'm going to create people, that are
sort of, they're not able to mature, in
a healthy way.
So it's important, that we live, with high
goals, in this world, and the next.
And that we, translate that to our children,
and to those around us.
A few days ago, my daughter, she goes
to a water school.
So that means, she likes to pick up
bugs, and you know, she's like a Texan,
not a Oklahoman.
Like to pick up bugs, and you know,
all kind of critters, right?
You'll call them critters.
She likes them critters, man.
I'm not a fan of critters.
I left Oklahoma, 20 years ago.
And so we went to the creek, you
know, Baba, take me to the creek.
I'm not comfortable there.
I'm now a northeastern carpet beggar.
So I said, alright.
And then she's like, watch me jump on
these rocks.
Next thing I know, homegirl's in the middle
of the creek, man.
And then my, my, you know, reflux, because
converts, we're very, sometimes strict on our children.
Because we feel like, we have to preserve
this, we gotta go full, and sometimes we
end up doing more damage than good.
Too much heat, you burn things.
So then, I held back, I said, yalla,
yalla, habibti, imshi.
And she did her little thing, you know,
then her two-year-old sister fell in
the water.
But then that night she said, thank you,
Baba.
Even though she's five, they understand, when you
believe in him and you trust him, enough
to fail.
But if I haven't taken risks, to become
Muslim is a risk.
Ask anyone who became Muslim, the price they
pay to embrace Islam is a risk.
To come to this country, I remember when
I went to Egypt, I got off the
plane, and I wanted to get a taxi,
and I was like, laqad jittum min makanin
ba'idin, fahal min munkin tuwassiluni ilal funduq?
And the guy was like, da ragam magnoonim,
ee, da kalam da ee, right, what's he
saying?
Because we know that in 1887, one European
wrote a book on how to replace fusha
with ammiya.
No one should be proud of ammiya.
We should work not to speak ammiya.
We should work to speak fusha.
I speak to my children in fusha, more
than I speak in English.
We read Ambatut, Donald Duck.
Why?
Because Al Nahba in Egypt, that printing group,
they did it to preserve the Arabic language,
so all their cartoons are in what?
In fusha.
But we should understand, how did ammiya come
to us?
And that's another conversation.
It starts in the late 19th century, you
have four Europeans in Cairo, who say, you
know what, Arabic is hard, it's holding them
back, it's muaqada, saaba.
But what they really wanted to say is,
Arabic is the language of liberation.
So how do we distance them from that?
And they wrote, imagine one white boy man,
one white boy, you write a book, just
like now, one white boy can tell you
how to be a man, and he's a
kafir, who doesn't even know how to wash
himself, and you'll follow him.
Why do we do this?
Why is it that American Muslims can only
emulate what white people in America like?
For example, if manliness as modeled by incredible
intellectual giants like Joe Rogan, was done by
the people in, for example, you know, Mali,
no Muslims would follow them, because they're black
folks.
Let's just be honest, man, because we're colonized.
Ammiya is the greatest sign of istihmar, the
athar of istihmar, in the heart and mind
specifically, of not just Arabs, but people who
speak Arabic.
But I should shoot high.
I should have great ambition.
Why?
Because Allah is my Lord.
يقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق Sayyidina Muhammad ma
kan yaqra.
The Prophet can't read, but he can read
bismi rabbik.
Some ulama said, باء هذا باء سببية يعني
اقرأ بسبب عون الله سبحان الله Read with
the help of Allah.
انا بقارض I can't read.
But you can do things with Allah that
you can't do on your own.
وهو معكم اينما كنتم Allah is with you
wherever you are.
I remember when I memorized the Qur'an,
I was terrified.
I'm from Oklahoma.
We barely speak.
You know that we say dagamit.
What does that mean?
I don't know if you say in Texas.
We say words that don't even like, no
one knows what they mean.
Right?
And I remember the Sheikh told me memorize
the Qur'an.
I said, what?
First week I was Muslim.
He said, you're going to memorize Qur'an.
I was like, Sheikh, I don't even know
my name, man.
Suha, what?
I couldn't get my name down.
He said, you will memorize Qur'an.
If you don't, I'm going to be angry
at you.
He spoke to me like that.
I said, whoa, this big guy, man.
Okay, let's go.
And I remember I couldn't do it.
I said to him, Sheikh, I can't do
it.
He said, let Allah take you places.
Let Allah take you places.
Just work hard.
Mutanabbi.
He has a great, great line about bravery.
He says something very powerful.
He says, إذا غمرت في شرف المرومين When
you set out to do something, فلا تعضى
Don't stop.
أو فلا تقنع Don't be content فيما دون
النجوم Like, don't be content with anything but
the stars.
Like, don't stop.
Push yourself.
The challenges and the irony of western society,
especially its entertainment world and the glitz of
the curated Instagram life is that it makes
you terrified to try but then demands you
be perfect.
It's hard.
So everybody's shy to put forth effort.
Everybody's worried about getting embarrassed showing up on
Worldstar.
But then on the other end, they're pushed
to be perfect in everything they do.
How can I achieve any semblance of perfection
if I don't try?
If I don't make effort.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ, he said,
what?
If you ask for Jannah, ask for what?
Jannatul Firdausul A'la.
Ask for the highest level.
Ask to be next to me.
ﷺ So when I become Muslim, it's not
arrogance, it's confidence.
Not with myself, with Allah.
I should be more confident with Allah than
I'm insecure with dunya.
The third, don't be scared.
Not naturally scared.
That's very normal.
Sayyidina Musa, Sayyidina Harun, they experienced fear.
We know that the Anbiya can experience natural
human emotions like all of us, but they
were never compromised in their roles and responsibilities
as Prophets ﷺ.
Qala la tahafa inni ma'akuma asma'uwa.
Don't be scared.
You go to Fir'aun, don't be scared.
Why?
I'm with you.
I see.
I hear.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But sometimes we're scared because we fear the
taste of the challenge.
We fear the taste of adversity.
It's not gonna be comfortable.
There were times in my life where I
had one thobe.
There were times in my life in Egypt,
Subhanallah, where I lived off of, you know,
elba kosheri.
You know, small, like, small, I can only
say elba, of kosheri, of pasta.
I had this classmate, and I thought, oh
man, I'm going through it, man.
You know, there's no air condition.
Keep getting sick, first year.
Alhamdulillah.
Then I just ate everything, and now nothing
makes me sick.
Alhamdulillah.
But I had a classmate, he told me
he came from Jazair.
He said he left his home, didn't even
tell his parents.
Got a scholarship to the Azhar, went to
the Azhar, had no money.
Nothing.
Lived in al-Ba'uth Islami, if you
know what that is.
Madinat al-Ba'uth.
Then he told me, on the weekends, I
sell watches in Khana Khalili.
That's how I live.
And he said, when I want to, I
was thinking, oh man, everyday I have kosheri,
this is so bad.
He said this to me, when I want
to treat myself, once a week, I have
enough money to get kosheri.
I was complaining about getting it everyday.
I met a brother from China, East Turkmenistan
now, which has been, you know, occupied by
the Chinese government.
His mother sold their house, so he go
to the Azhar.
And they moved to Misr.
Subhanallah.
Many of you here, you make great efforts,
which are all commendable.
Doesn't have to be just to study Azhar.
No, no, for your school, for your family,
for the work you do, for the masjid,
all of that.
فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًۭ يَرَىٰ Whoever does
good, this much good, we'll see it.
Even staying away from sin.
Maybe some people tonight, you're like, man, I
don't even do good.
My good is just not being out on
Friday night.
MashaAllah.
Welcome, alhamdulillah, to the Noor party.
Mutanabbi says, in the same poem, after he
says, إِذَا غَمَرْتَ فِي شَرَفٍ مَرُومٍ فَلَا تَقْنَعْ
فِي مَا دُونَ النُّجُومِ فَطَعْمُ الْمَوْتِ فِي أَمْرٍ
حَقِيرٍ كَطَعْمِ الْمَوْتِ فِي أَمْرٍ عَظِيمٍ He said,
the taste of death for something small, and
the taste of death for something great, is
the same.
So when I live your life, in the
right way.
But fear is a powerful thing, man.
And it's very normal.
But what we want to try to do
is to translate our fear so it's fuel,
instead of in front of us and stopping
us.
فَلَا تَخَافُوهُمْ خَافُوْنِي إِن كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ Don't fear
them, fear me, Allah says, if you truly
believe.
So it starts first with a reverence of
Allah.
And knowing that everything is controlled by Allah.
يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ مِنَ السَّمَاءَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ Everything is
under His control, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
لِمَنِ الْمُلْكُ يَوْمْ لِلَّهِ وَاحِدُ الْقَهَارِ To believe
that.
وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ الْأُمَّةَ Know that if the whole
world came together and they wanted to harm
you, they cannot harm you without Allah.
They wanted to benefit you, they cannot benefit
you without Allah.
قُلْ كُلٌ مِّنْ عِنْدِي اللَّهِ Everything is from
Allah.
This is functional tawheed, not theoretical tawheed.
قُلْ لَن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا
شُفْتْ لَنَا مُشْ عَلَيْنَا It's very interesting in
Arabic.
Say, nothing has befallen us except for what
Allah has prescribed.
It doesn't say, عَلَيْنَا.
عَلَى means like against you.
لَع means for you.
القرآن حُجَّةٌ لَكَ أَوْ عَلَيْكَ So laam usually
has the meaning of like a benefit.
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةً أُخْرِجَ لِنَا She's the best
community set for the benefit of people.
It's lost in translation.
So here, قُلْ لَن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ
اللَّهُ Say, nothing has befallen us except, and
here's the thing, except what Allah has prescribed
for our benefit.
Because they have حُسْنُ ظَنْبِلَا They have a
good understanding.
Whatever Allah has written for me, الحمد لله.
Whatever Allah has given, الحمد لله.
That's a different type of person, man.
That's a different type of human being.
That's a high level of emotional maturity with
Allah.
So, سبحان الله We want to keep fear
as a means of motivation, not as a
means of controlling our strategy and directing everything
we do.
Ahmed Shawqi, sorry a lot of poetry tonight.
But an Azhari should know poetry.
And the قراءات, and the لغة.
وَإِن كَانَ مِنْ أُكْلُهُمَا أَوْ كِيلُهُمَا أَوْ كُلُهُمَا
Oklahoma is أَوْ كُلُهُمَا in Arabic.
أَوْ أَكُلُهُمَا Eat both of them.
You're gonna do that this October to us
because we don't look good.
Oh my gosh.
But, Ahmed Shawqi has a great set of
poems we should teach our children.
I was working on this.
I know Joe Bradford, Sheik Joe Bradford, he's
an amazing scholar, incredibly brilliant brother in Houston,
master of the economics and more.
He's not just an economics scholar, he is
a scholar scholar.
He was also working on the hikayat of
Ahmed Shawqi.
Ahmed Shawqi has some poems we should teach
to our kids.
He called it hikayat.
But we should also learn them.
They're so nice, you know, and they're actually
very funny, but there's always a good lesson.
You know, he says, أَتَى نَبِيَ اللَّهِ يَوْمَ
ثَعَلَبُ One day the fox came to the
prophet, and the fox said, I'm pious, I
repent.
مُخْتِئُنَ مَنْ ظَنَّ يَوْمَنْ إِنْ لِي ثَعَلَ بِدِينَ
Idiot is the one who thinks one minute
that the fox has religion.
Don't be deceived by how someone looks.
They said the fox was dressed like an
Azhari sheikh.
We should teach that to our kids.
Not every sheikh is a sheikh.
Not every thawb is a thawb.
Not every niqab is a niqab.
Watch yourself.
But this poem is interesting.
It's about an ant, a small ant, on
the Muqattam.
Muqattam, if you're from Cairo, you know the
Muqattam, the Darul Jinn.
Now it's not Darul Jinn.
Now it's like, Whoa, you live in the
Muqattam?
Mashallah.
But when I lived in Cairo, it was
a place you never went.
And there were some Sufis there, they used
to live in caves.
The goofy Sufis, not Ahl as-Sunnah Sufis.
They used to live in holes and stuff,
and do all kind of weird things, man.
Called the Jinn.
But now, mashallah, it's been gentrified.
I had to say it.
It's been gentrified, and there's nice houses there,
you know.
Literally and figuratively, it's been gentrified.
Ahmad Shawqil dies, you know, almost a hundred
years ago.
He said there was an ant.
كانت النملة تمشي مرة تحت المقطتم فارتخ مفصيلها
من هيبة تود المعظم He said the ant
was walking on the hill, and then it
realized, I'm an ant.
Why am I on a hill?
Ants don't belong on tall hills.
A lot of times we do this to
our young girls, man.
One of the best things, brothers, we can
teach our daughters is to be brave.
Not to surrender the utility.
Because the society will eat it up.
And we can teach our young men how
to.
That's why Allah says, مارك الناس قل أعوذ
برب ناس ورب ناس أطفال مارك الناس سن
مراهقة إله الناس كبار السن من الشر والسواسخ
الناس الصالحين You know what Anasafi says about
Surat An-Nas?
Why say Nas, Nas, Nas?
Humans, humans, humans, humans.
Say I seek refuge in the Lord from?
Of mankind.
Here it means children.
From the controller of humanity.
Let me say humanity, sorry.
Is teenagers and young adults.
Why?
Because when you're a teen and you're a
young adult, you start to أملك الأشياء You
start to find your autonomy.
So at that moment we should remind young
adults and the emergent adults that Allah is
your ملك and you have no escape from
His قوة إله الناس for old people because
towards the end of their life Oh, I
lived a horrible life.
I'm such a bad person.
Don't forget you have إله Turn back to
the إله من الشر والسواسخ الناس The one
who whispers in who?
This is the righteous people because Shaytan as
Denzel Washington said about Will Smith after the
infamous assault Shaytan is worried about people who
are living right.
I don't know who's living right in that
equation but it's a good quote.
So here we see the ant.
He said the ant became so terrified and
it said, I don't belong on this hill.
Ants don't belong on many mountains.
I belong on the ground.
No, you know, sense of همّة No حماسة
No bravery.
So what does the ant do?
It listens to its fear and it begins
to run.
And as the ant is running as fast
as the ant can سَقَطَتْ فِي شِبْرِ مَاءٍ
هُوَ عِنْدَ النَّمْلِ كَالْبَحَرِ He said the ant
fell in a puddle.
And a puddle to an ant is an
ocean.
Ya Allah شوق مخ نظيف سَقَطَتْ فِي شِبْرِ
مَاءٍ هُوَ عِنْدَ النَّمْلِ كَالْبَحَرِ A puddle to
an ant is the Titanic.
It's a wrap.
And then the ant began to drown.
يَا لَيْتَنِي سَلَّمْتُ فَالْعَاقِلُ مَنْ خَافَ فَاسَّلَّمْ Why
did I listen to this?
Fear.
Why did I surrender to the fear?
Because now I'm in a greater predicament.
شوقي says صَاحِنْ لَا تَخْشَعْ عَظِيمًا فَالَّذِى فِي
الْغَيْبِ الْعَظَمِ شوقي said exactly.
Don't fear what's great because what you may
inadvertently run into is greater.
So don't let fear.
Certainly there are times where fear needs to
drive us but not to completely overtake our
utility in our agency so that it is
exclusively driving the strategy.
The next, and I'll stop, is to have
a good supporting cast.
There's no great...
We have Dr. Sammy here.
I hope everyone is utilizing Dr. Sammy.
That's my man.
حبيبي مصري كمان That's my man.
We go and get Egyptian tacos together, you
know, in Austin.
Who knew?
Ta'amiya tacos, man.
But I love him a lot and he's
a scholar.
You take advantage of his presence here.
Alhamdulillah.
But he can tell you nothing great is
written without editors.
Right?
Nothing great is written without editors.
Even with Chad GPT, especially for university students,
I'm so glad I'm not a professor now.
Nothing is great.
Nothing great is written without an editor.
What about our lives?
Who are our editors?
I love my wife, man.
My wife told me today, you know, because
I'm the one on vacation.
She's dealing with her two babies, man.
You think we're struggling?
Our families are the ones that are sacrificing,
honestly.
Especially if you got them katakits at home,
man.
Them babies.
And she told me, use your time well.
I said, dang, why'd she say that?
I'm going to go with Dr. Sam and
have tacos.
I'm going to stay home and review some
tobacco.
But who are your editors?
And especially when you're young.
You know, I've been there.
Sometimes we don't like to have editors.
Because, again, ماريك الناس.
We have that sense of autonomy now.
A sense of growth.
That's why it's important to have a healthy
relationship with your parents.
And parents, very important to have a healthy
relationship with your emerging adults.
To create a resume of editing.
They edit us, we edit them.
My 23 year old, she came to me.
I told her, I need you to learn
ورش أسبحاني.
It's a very rare قراءة.
I told her, I need you to learn
this.
I'll give you إجازة.
You know what my daughter told me?
I ain't no convert.
I'm not a convert.
I said, what do you mean?
She said, I don't have the energy you
have for this, bro.
I'm working on my degree in business management.
And you want to learn أسبحاني and ورش?
I said, you know what, حبيبتي?
It hurt me that you said it.
But I'm glad you said it.
Because now I know who you are.
And you know who I am.
But you're still going to learn it.
One day.
But the point is, a resume of engagement
is important.
Through their childhood, through their teenage years.
You can't just wait until they're 25 to
say, Hi, I'm your supervisor.
Your life is bad.
I never told you this before.
No, you got to start it when they're
young.
Giving them ترغيب ترهيب.
Sheikh Ali Hassan, Sheikh Ali Tantawi, الله يرحمه,
the Syrian.
His granddaughter wrote a very beautiful book, حياتي
مع جدي.
مذكراتي مع جدي.
You know, my time with my grandfather.
She said, I remember, he would take us
to صلاة.
And every time after صلاة, he would get
us بوضة.
You know بوضة, ice cream.
He would say, this is from Allah.
They're kids, they don't know.
They said, Allah أعطاني البوضة.
Allah gave me ice cream.
Then she said, for some reason now, throughout
my whole life, I enjoy صلاة.
I find sweetness in صلاة.
It wasn't like, in English we say like,
you're cruising for a bruising if you don't
pray.
You know, يَا فَقِيدَ الدَّمِيرِ يَا عَدَمَ الْمُلْكِ
صَلِّيْ خَبَرْدَعْ أَلُوْكَ بَتَةَ أُولَى كَبَتَةَ All that
stuff, Right.
I go, I know, I know.
We don't use this kind of terms.
Then our children are gonna relate to صلاة
in a way that's negative.
But Shaykh Ali Tantawi, بوضة, البنبوني.
You know, like candy, stuff like this.
And she said, for some reason, my whole
life, I remember, صلاة is good.
صلى تستاري, the great Sufi, the great عارف
بالله.
How did he become who he became?
Because he had interlocutors, he had editors around
him.
Because when someone edits you, they care about
you.
When someone helps you look good, or assist
you to be better, Lama, I think is
here, always send me good pictures in Jummah.
My camera is always crusty pictures.
I don't know why.
That's a helpful thing.
That's a جماعة, that's assistance, that's نصر, that's
helping you.
You can get an attitude, Oh, you think
I need pictures?
Why?
And تستاري, he said, when I was young,
I was only two years old, and my
uncle used to come to me at night,
and he would grab me, and he would
say, يا ولد, الله يراك.
Allah sees you.
And he said, he would do this until
I became, you know, older and older.
Anytime he was around our home, he would
come to me and say, إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى
يَرَكَ Allah sees you.
Then he said to him, as he got
older, he told me, say this to yourself,
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرَانِي Allah sees me.
وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَشْهَدُ عَمَرِي Allah is a witness
to my actions.
وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَوْفَ يُحَاسِبُنِي And Allah will audit
me.
And he said, he told me this so
many times, so many times, so many times,
I became عارف بالله.
I became who I became.
And the threat of the world today is
that the قبلة of this world is unhealthy,
intoxicating individualism.
Which is incapable of organizing a earth and
a world that will truly reach its potential
and its مصلحة.
Whenever there's a مصلحة فتم الجماعة.
Wherever you find good, there's a group of
people.
من أنصاري إلى الله So ask yourself, man,
who are your friends?
Your spouse.
Don't get mad if your spouse nicely advises
you.
I know, man, I get it too, brother.
I'm there.
I get it.
But later on you're like, you know, that's
the best thing I could've heard, man.
It hurt though.
Sometimes our adult children may come in and
say, Baba, you did this wrong.
Baba, you did this right.
It's alright, man.
The biggest room is the room of improvement.
The friends that I keep, they remind me
of Allah, that they remind me of being
balanced, being mature, being responsible, being someone who
contributes.
The challenge of America now, how it does
race and politics and gender, it's all extremes.
And it lends itself to individualism.
It can't create cohesiveness.
It can't bring in a group of people
that can find, Ibn Hazm says, the greatest
miracle of the Prophet is the Sahaba, because
they were so scattered.
And then Allah brought them together.
Who will heal this country?
Who will bring people together?
We're all angry.
Everybody's mad.
Great.
Now what?
Heal.
And one of the qualities we have in
Islam is to forgive.
Shawqi says, Sayyidina Isa, he brought the dead
to life.
You, Muhammad alayhi salam, by the message of
forgiveness and redemption from Khadr ibn Walid to
Malcolm X, you brought generations of people to
life.
Instead of us getting caught up in the
cultural wars of America, the political wars of
America, we should stay Muslim and say, we
have what will heal this country.
And our major job is not a political
community, but as a prophetic community.
That's a different thing.
But if we don't have people around us
that can inspire us.
I remember, after he told me to memorize
the Qur'an, I got scared and I
went with jamaat tabligh.
That's what you do when you get scared,
right?
You go for 40 days.
So I did one challah.
That's why I learned, I got all that.
On that 40 day, I did like, it
was like a Rosetta Stone course, man.
And I learned to make achar and Kashmiri
chai.
But not the salty one.
And I remember, SubhanAllah, Allah will send you
people, man.
I was sitting at the masjid, and I
was, you know, because you first become Muslim,
you have a lot of hope and ambition.
Plus I was very young, so somewhat of
the irrationality of my youth was there.
So I started to get sad, man.
I'll never be alim.
I'll never memorize the Qur'an.
At the time, I was like, I'll never
be alim, you know.
I'll never memorize Qur'an.
And there was this little young guy named
Muin.
And he was with Abdul Nasser in New
Orleans when Abdul Nasser was in Madrasa Tiasin.
Abdul Nasser Janga.
And he came to me.
I didn't even know him.
I didn't know him.
And I was sad, man.
Plus I was missing my mother.
I had a very close relationship with my
mother.
I'd never been out.
40 days wearing MC Hammer clothes.
And then he came to me, and he's
like, Your face.
I said, what, what, what?
You know, I was still young enough to
be worried about what's with my face.
He said, You're gonna memorize the Qur'an.
And then he left.
Subhanallah.
I remember his name is Muin.
He said, you will memorize the Qur'an.
And he left.
Sometimes Allah will send you people.
Last week, I was with an imam who
was being blasted online by somebody.
He was despondent, man.
He was telling me, you know, he's almost
in his 60s.
Man, I'm done.
I'm through.
You served this community for 40 years and
all they do, as soon as they get
a chance to slam the door in your
face and serve you some wet samosas, they
do it.
I said, subhanallah, sheikh.
I didn't really know what to tell him.
You know, I used to say, man, you
gotta keep going, bro.
You know, keep pushing.
Bismillah is the way.
He's heard this a thousand times.
He knows more than me.
Then he was looking at his phone, which
offended me, but I don't want to say
anything because he's already upset.
And then he looked at me, he said,
subhanallah.
I said, what?
He said, look, this message on YouTube.
What did it say?
Keep going.
Subhanallah.
He said, you know what?
This is from Allah.
What's wrong with me?
I said, yeah, I mean, what's wrong with
you?
Here's some Kleenex, man.
Stop.
So the people around you, the last, and
I started it with this, is center your
life on ibadah.
Make everything orbit around the fard.
When the fard are in order, things tend
to fall in play.
Especially the communal acts of obligatory things because
that implies I have the necessary maturity to
work within the group, which is an essential
component of changing the world.
The world is not going to be changed
by individuals, no matter how much they tell
us.
The world is going to be changed by
a cohesive group of people who may have
variant opinions about things and see things in
a very different way, but something has brought
them together that compels them to put those
to the side and work for the greater
good.
Abu Bakr and Umar r.a, they're not
really the same kind of people.
They're not the same kind of people.
Sayyidina Ali, Sayyidina Abu Bakr, Sayyidina Umar, Sayyidina
Uthman.
They're very different in their personalities, but they're
able to work together.
That is the miracle of the sahaba actually.
So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us the bat.
As you can see these cards, this is
the school that I operate.
I hear people all the time complain about,
we need independent scholars, we don't have scholars
for dollars.
Well then, sign up here.
Right?
Take out your phone.
We need like 3,000 people to subscribe
tonight, mashallah.
Including the jinn.
No, but seriously, subscribe, support the work, support
the effort.
We have our youth program starting with Mufti
Umar, who is amazing.
He has a cool pet bird too.
On Monday, we have our adult education program
starting in a week.
Not this week, the week after.
As well as other programs.
We have around 5,000 hours of courses
you can take that you get a certificate
from us.
One small fee for your entire household.
It's really something unique.
How much you pay for like, to learn
wash, how much you pay?
$800.
$700.
So if you think about it, it's very
inexpensive and an opportunity, more importantly, to learn
and to grow and to develop.
Barakallahu feekum.
I think we have four months, yeah?
So we gotta make the most of these
next four months.
And we'll see you, inshallah, next month.
Barakallahu feekum.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.