Suhaib Webb – The Future of Muslims After The Coronavirus
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Brothers and sisters. Certainly great to be with
you even though it in this way.
Still, you know, the
the right? The souls of people are like
soldiers.
We have mass together in the spiritual as
well as the physical realm realm.
Even though we're not there to see you
in New Jersey and and and and to
be with you,
you know, the
and the the love of that we have
for one another transcends physical spaces.
SubhanAllah.
Before we start, we wanna make du'a for
everyone that Allah will protect us from the
danger of this virus.
That if we are in fact infected by
this virus, it becomes a means of our
forgiveness,
our our our our purification,
and kafarah for Arzanub.
Secondly, we want to think about those who've
already been infected by the virus. Just yesterday,
I heard our Sheikh Hatem Hajj,
was ill with this virus. We ask a
lot to cure him and bless him and
all of those. I spoke to a young
man yesterday, Anise
in Birmingham, England, who also is is ill.
So we wanna keep those people in our
hearts and let them know that we are
praying for your shifa.
As the prophet said,
Allah has not sent an illness except he
sent with it its
dua, its remedy. So we ask al keshif
to uncover for us the mystery of this
illness and help us to be inshallah a
means of remedying
this illness in society.
The the the discussion that I was asked
to address is one which is extremely important
because it's one that will not stop until
the end of time.
And that is what is the future of
Islam.
We know that one of the remarkable,
intrinsic qualities of the deen of Al Islam
is that it is the last deen, Din
Kharida.
It is the last last deen. And because
of that, it has to
constantly
maintain a commitment to foundational
beliefs and fundamental practices,
while at the same time being able to,
if you will, adapt
to certain environmental realities and circumstances.
And that's why Allahu he
said in the Quran
that you were sent for all creation
that the Quran is sent to Sayna Muhammad
so that he can be or that it
can be there's 2 interpretations, either the prophet
or the Quran or both,
a reminder
for all creation. So one of the beautiful
components of Islam
is that Islam,
And I
And I heard this from many of my
teachers and especially Sheikh Mohammed Khadr Hussain who
was Sheikh Al Azhar almost 70 something years
ago. He wrote a very beautiful essay that
Islam
is
appropriate for every time, place, culture, situation, and
people.
SubhanAllah. If we if we look now, right,
at the the reaction
of the world to trying to
to, as they say, you know, slow the
curve, if you will, to to flatten out
the curve.
Their reactions are practices which we do every
day.
Washing themselves.
People now are saying we shouldn't be using
toilet paper, it's harming the environment. And then
we have water, we can clean ourselves with
water. I recently saw a non Muslim man
say that if you were to get dirt
on your shoes, would you use water or
would you use toilet paper? People use,
toilet, water. He said, subhanallah, what about your
body? We're seeing people now having to restrict
their consumption.
We're seeing people now have to restrict their
social engagements. These are, subhanallah, all practices to
a certain degree which are balanced and nuanced
by our deen. So for us as Muslims,
the first thing that we should think about
is that in the face of a catastrophe,
we see the entire world
moving towards things which perhaps we may have
taken for granted.
And Allah
says
remember my blessings upon you. So the first
is to think deeply about how if you
wanna think about the future of Islam and
Islam being something which is constantly,
you know, important to people's lives, this is
perhaps the greatest
human health catastrophe
in the last 100 years or so. And
people are now in order to to,
if you will, quell the curve, if you
will, or or or or increase
the inability of this virus to harm people
are adopting
practices
of Al Islam.
So that's the first thing that we should
become confident in our future,
not simply because non Muslims are doing what
we do. That's that's a dangerous game. But
because we're seeing people applying our practices to
remedy
a
a formidable
enemy that is not even seen
The second thing is that there is a
historical precedent for many of these things and
I'm not someone who believes that for everything
that happens in this modern age, we have
to find a historical presence. I think that's
a problem. I think that becomes very dangerous.
Generally, we can find it in the Quran
and generally, we can find it in the
sunnah. But as Sayna Imam Mas Shafi'i said
that the earlier generations didn't do everything. Right?
They didn't accomplish everything.
And as he said,
right, that the sacred texts are limited,
but the actions of people are not limited.
So there has to be the job of
the
and the Adam to come and marry what
we call
to marry the heavens and the earth.
But in the time of Sayyidina, umr Abu
Khutta, because
we think about the future of Al Islam
and
specifically in the context of white Islam which
is doing
just transformative work. I became Muslim actually
reading a pamphlet Islam at a glance from
Jamaica, Queens, which was from ICNA. So ICNA
shares,
in my Islam.
Right?
Whoever guides the good, they get the reward
of the one who followed them. So I
imagine all those uncles and Ikhna and aunties,
you know, are getting the edger from my
Islam.
And I ask Allah to amplify their edger.
But
there is a number of historical precedents
that we can look to for inspiration for
the future.
And we have to be honest
about our application
of those historical precedents.
What I tend to see is that Muslims
fall into 2 extremes.
Number 1 is they romanticize
history to the point that
it renders them incapable of living for the
future. So the future will never be like
the past, so there's no need to try.
So the past simply becomes a relic
for not critical thought, but for romanticized thought.
So Andalus, you know, people always talking about
Andalus. And the well, if Andalus was so
great, why is it gone? You know, people
should read how did Andalus fall because the
Muslims fought each other and paid non Muslims
to fight their fellow brothers and sisters. That's
why they're gone. They were wiped away from
the face of the earth.
Southern Italy is is something that Muslims very
seldomly talk about. Sicily was,
you know, predominantly Arab for many years.
Why are they gone? Well, very different than
Spain. They're gone because of opulence. You know,
they just melted into the opulence of Italy.
We ask a lot to help the people
of Italy now, of course.
So instead of romanticizing
history,
we should think critically and strategically about history
as Allah says in the Quran. Allah says,
Let them traverse the earth and
deep,
means to look and ponder
as to those strong nations that came before
them. What happened to them? Where are they
now? He doesn't say, you know, look back
and just be be, you know, romanticizing
history.
In history there is
a, means something that travels.
So it travels from the mind to the
heart to the limbs. So it becomes a
strategy.
On the other side, we saw people who
we see people who just reject
our Islamic history and our scholarly tradition. Even
though they may claim to be religious,
they may have been infected by secular professions
where they believe that those secular professions being
a doctor, being an engineer, being a computer
scientist
automatically qualifies them to be more intelligent and
more knowledgeable than ulama
in deen. They may be more knowledgeable in
other things and that's where we'll talk about
today moving forward what needs to happen is
partnerships
Both need each other,
but they tend to use the the colonial
education system which they have experienced or the
post colonial
educational system, which is rooted largely in Eurocentricity
and white supremacy. We'll use that as an
excuse to ignore
the voice of the ulama.
The third problem is that untrained religious content
providers,
untrained
imams and people that are functioning in these
fields
don't really have a depth of study.
You know, I studied for 17 years
and still I I really feel like I
have a lot to accomplish.
I feel sometimes shy
when I see great ulama
like, you
know, Sheikh,
Hatem for example, or Imam,
Sheikh Yasukadi or these these powerful voices, Right?
Sheikh
Zaynab al Aweni, who her father was my
teacher. You know, I feel shy
to to speak in front of these people.
Even though I did 10 years in madrasa
and 7 years in Al Azhar.
Then I see someone they they're just like
very very belligerent
and they have studied very little. So for
example, we see some people now telling people
it's far to go to the Masjid. You
have to go to the Masjid. You can't
close the Masjid. And we're seeing now across
the world some areas
in western democracies
where the neighborhoods where the Muslims are is
where the coronavirus
is spreading.
So we have 3 challenges when it comes
to history. Number 1 is romanticized notions, neo
traditionalism
where it's like wearing certain type of clothes,
having a certain type of cool language,
the authority of the sheikh is kind of
imbalanced. Right? Then we have those who've rejected
history in the name of a secular education
and the utility and agency which secular education
has given them. And then in the middle,
we have
oftentimes incompetent
Is there a historical precedence that we can
think about in light of corona which may
also give us some flashlights to shine onto
the future so that we can maybe think
strategically
about the future of Al Islam. And I
especially want those young brothers and sisters to
listen because you are, masha'Allah,
really the future of Al Islam.
And that happened in the 17th, 18th year
after the death of Sayna Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
There was a plague that
took place,
in an area between,
Rambla and Quds.
And this was called the Tu'an of of,
Imwas, I believe. And this happened in the
time of Sayyidina Amr ibn Khattab radiAllahu anhu,
who actually was on the way to B'laddisham,
on the way to Syria,
on the way to the area of Palestine,
Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
And as he got to the border of
the Arabian Peninsula,
and Sham, he was informed
that this plague has started. And according to
the imam, ibn Hajar, this was a plague
that would actually corrupt people's blood,
and they would die, from, like, serious infections
in their blood. May Allah protect us.
And Sayidna Amrul Khattab,
he did a number of things that I
think we should think about as we move
into the future. Number 1, he acted on
one of the major principles of Islam
is that, Darul Mufasa yukaddim arajab almosaleh.
You know, this is one of the axioms
of Islamic law that is almost agreed upon
by everybody which is rare. Which is that
preventing harm comes before benefit.
Preventing harm comes before achieving a benefit. We
find this in the Quran. Allah says,
yes,
Allah says they ask you about gambling and
alcohol. Say in them is a great sin
or a considerably large sin and in them
is also benefit. So in alcohol and in
gambling,
there's there's a benefit and there's harm.
But the harm is greater, the sin is
greater. So we see here that murat
and mafasid wal musaleh, the tafakih, the mufti,
the scholar, the sheikh, the Islamic movement, the
Islamic organization,
the student organization, whoever. The first thing that
should be in front of you is not
how do you achieve benefit, how do you
prevent harm.
So that's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
he says, That's why they're haram because the
harm is greater than the benefit. So when
Sayyidina Umar Ibn Khattab radiAllahu anhu
arrives at the border of Sham and Zirta
Arabiya, he goes back.
He puts preventing harm in front of achieving
a benefit. And by the way, this take
takes us to the second point. There were
Sahaba who differed with him. Like Abu Ubaydah
ibn Jarrah, like Mu'ad ibn Jabal. Although they
were already in sham, they differed with him
on this issue.
And there were Sahaba who agreed with him
like Amr al Ma'as and others.
And that's the second thing is that if
Islam is going to function in the future,
we have to tolerate differences, man. Often times
I see elders and even young people, man.
The most difficult communities I work with are
young, not old. SubhanAllah.
You know, thinking that their youth somehow gives
them the ability to be right. You ain't
live long enough to know right and wrong,
bro.
But subhanAllah,
we see that Sayyidina Umar, he tolerates differences.
So the first is we put
harm, preventing harm in front of benefits. So
now when when I wrote a fatwa for
for closing masajid and I mentioned the statements
of Sayidina Iziabdin Abdulsalam in.
You know, in his book where he talks
about the foundations of Islamic law,
he has. He says in this book, there
is a chapter called where you are able
to engage in dispensation.
And
he said, for example, when you can suspend
the prayers in the masjid or
We saw a number of people when Amjad,
they wrote a very great fatwa on this
issue bless
them. People reacted, we're not closing the masajid.
We're not gonna listen to anybody. They put
in
front of Darul Mefasid. And look what happened.
And look what happened. You know, subhanAllah,
there's a beautiful statement that I'll talk about
in a second of Sufi and Athawri
that I want us also to think on.
I'm gonna mention it in a minute.
The second thing is that we need to
tolerate differences and we need to listen to
one another.
Even though
He is who he is.
Still people differ with him and he doesn't
take it personally. Now people take every time
someone differs with us. It's a personal issue,
and we find how many great Islamic organizations
in America have splintered into 20, 30 different
organizations.
How many masajid have splintered into little masajid?
For Islam to function in the future,
Allah said, if you divide, your strength is
gonna leave you.
So the second is we need to tolerate
differences and not work on conflict resolution,
worked on conflict transformation.
The third thing that he did is he
took shura.
So he asked people, what do you think
about this?
Some people agreed, some people didn't. That's the
3rd key for the future of Islam in
America. We have to communicate effectively.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Allah commanded Sayyidina Nabi to
engage in shura even though he's Masoom.
As Sayyidina Marzuki says,
Even though they have a isma, the mbia,
still subhanAllah,
the prophets are protected from sin, still the
prophet takes shore with the sinners.
The 4th thing I think that's very important,
and and this is key,
is that
Muslims,
if we're going to succeed in the future,
we cannot simply be a reactive community,
especially our ulema,
our scholars.
And what I've noticed sometimes in our fatawah,
our fatawah and our answers are living in
the past, not living for the future. But
look at Sayyidina
when he puts preventing harm in front of
benefit as a strategy,
as a as a major ethos of Islam.
When he says to say
that if it wasn't that your people just
became Muslim, I will order the Kaaba to
be destroyed and rebuilt on the foundations of
Sayna Ibrahim.
After they conquered Mecca, we know that the
Quraysh, they messed up. When they rebuilt the
Kaaba, they rebuilt it on the wrong foundations.
It wasn't on Kawah Ibrahim or Ismael.
But still,
the prophet
after conquering Mecca, he could have immediately
ordered the Tadmir Kaaba.
He could have ordered the Kaaba to be
destroyed,
but instead he
he knew that if he were to do
that, it would create more harm
That
that those people,
they would react in a way which in
the future may be harmful for for for
the community.
So he says, if it wasn't that your
people had just became Muslim. Now the narration
of Malik and the Muwata. I will order
the Kaaba to be destroyed and rebuilt on
the foundations of Sayna Ibrahim. Look how he
thinks for the future,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam. When Sayidna Amr ibn
Khattab wants to cut off the head of
Abdullah ibn Ubay, a known munafiq,
the head of the hypocrites, the prophet says
no because he knows that people say the
prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he killed his
Sahaba. When Allah says,
don't insult the gods of other people because
they will insult Allah. This is a strategy
for the future about protecting harm. And, of
course, in protecting harm is the achievement of
benefit.
Why I say this is especially for our
scholars who are doing a great job. As
I mentioned, North American Fair Council, which I'm
I'm a member of,
AMJA is doing incredible work, and our ulema,
you know, really trained people
are really thinking deeply about these issues.
One of the things that we have to
consider is, are we going to be reactive
or proactive? Are we going to take on
the risk of strategy
or stay cowards
in a reactive way? Listen to the statement.
I was gonna mention it earlier, but I
wanted to save it for now. Of satanah
Sufianath who had his own madhab
although it's gone now.
He said
He said that if a trial happens,
everybody knows it. Like, if it already happened,
right, everyone now can be reactive.
But if it it's in front of people,
that if it's in front of people, the
only one who will know how to deal
with it is the faqih.
So that's why now as we move into
Ramadan, as we move into the summer, I
wanna challenge our brothers
I said, that's a lot. He gave our
thought a very balanced
way
to unpack it. How do we excuse me.
I have a daughter who seems to have
put her
string on my glasses. Masha'Allah.
Sheikh Walid Bassouni who talked about, you know,
can we pray tawaweeq, virtual tawaweeq? Can we
have virtual jumat?
These are things I I hope that deaf
councils in Ulama at least will engage.
We know the answers tend to be related
to ancient opinions about distance
and being in the same place as the
imam.
Whether whether
the opinion is no or yes, it's great
to see people like Sheikh Walid and others
actually engage in this because this is what's
in front of the community.
What about down the road? What's in front
of the community?
So
the next is that you have to have
enough
guts
and support
to keep up with the future.
Not just be reactive.
The future, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The
last is that I want us to understand
that there are going to be times when
things happen to which there is no pessimism
and that there are differences on the philosophy
of Islamic law. For example, Imam al Wazni,
Imam al Isnawi, Jamaduddin Isnawi,
the writer of the entire school.
And others, they said that in the Maqas
in
sharia, actually the first
objective of sharia is is
to protect people.
And they put this in front of him
to be in and I agree with this
because
This is an issue in Islamic law. Do
means come before the go or the go
come before the mean? Does wudu come before
salah or salah before wudu for
men? So we find, you know,
this discussion that
actually those ulama like Imam Khidmatinya,
Imam
Isnawi,
Imam Al Razi, they say that heb or
nafs, nafs, excuse me,
people.
Now we saw most people when they want
to keep the Masjid open, I read yesterday
in the newspaper that there was a country
where people, non Muslims, were saying, what is
wrong with Muslims? We're not supposed to be
gathering. We're not going to bars. We're not
going to clubs. We're not going to cinemas.
We're not doing this, but they're going to
the mosque to pray. All the churches and
synagogues closed what's wrong with them and they
called the police on them subhanAllah. And we'll
find some Muslims. The Masjid has to stay
open then if the Muslims are dead. It
doesn't matter how many masajid are
there. So,
the last point is that we have to
return to the Maqas in Sharia.
When we're calibrating answers for which there is
no historical
precedent. And we also see this in the
time of Sayyidina Umar al Khabab radiAllahu anhu,
who for example creates jails,
right, out of the nuts nuts to protect
people.
We see that Sayidina Amal Al Khabab, who
initially
disagreed and then agreed with hadwina Quran, right,
Compiling the Quran.
We say Sayyidina Umla Khafab so many what
are called fatwa malqasibi,
where he gives fatawah which are based on
the and we need
the lame people who are not well versed
in Islamic law. Islamic law is an 8
year
degree. Who are not well versed in that
to trust ulema and trust the masheid, to
trust the scholars, to give a tawa, which
sometimes doesn't necessarily make sense to me. It's
okay to ask and engage, of course. But,
you know, don't fire the imam because he
gives a fatha you don't agree with.
The the the organization shouldn't ban an imam
from a conference because he or she may
say something that they don't agree with. Again,
respect means differences. That's why when someone came
to say that Imam Ahmed has said, I
wrote a book called the book of differences.
They said, no call it the book of
mercy.
So the last point is as we move
into the future, we are going to have
to create independent
minded jurists and thinkers who are able to
answer questions that at times have no
historical presence. That goes back to the statement.
Abba who
said that, you know, there are going to
be times and moments where the texts are
limited.
Number of legal texts in the Quran around
500,
but the actions of people don't stop. So
there has to be a way to create
a relationship between the two. That's why Sayyidina
Imam al Niroi,
You know that sometimes the scholars sit in
his relationship with the people like the Sharia
is in relationship with someone. That's why there's
an accent in the tip.
You know that the statements of the scholars
to the non trained people are like the
like the Sharia to the scholar,
that is to the people, the statement of
scholar. So, I I I want us to
think deeply about these things as we move
through corona,
you know, outside of kind of the romantic
reflection.
We need to think, we need to move
beyond entertainment to education.
That we need great scholars in to
to be able to be free. Sometimes the
masses of the Muslims people.
So
as
we
move,
we're
gonna
go to the also because sometimes Allah has
to teach the people.
So as we move
forward inshallah, we ask Allah to remove this
bala,
this trial for us and this swabat,
we should think about what I said. Number
1 is
that we put preventing harm in front of
bringing benefit in most situations.
Number 2, that we tolerate differences. Number 3,
that we communicate effectively
with all people.
Number 4, that we think about the Maqasil
Sharia
and putting
preventing harm to life before establishment of the
religion
in most situations.
And the last I said is that for
us to really move forward, we have to
think about
the the importance of giving scholars the freedom
to work.
You know, one time I was sitting in
a mosque with a scholar, he did his
PhD in also firkhan al Azhar. And he
gave an opinion and a brother came to
him and said, no. I want the opinion
in my book, in my med hab. He
said, well then go ask your book. What's
what's the role of the scholar as Sayyidina
Al Qarafi said, you know,
Just
to quote books all the time is gonna
lead yourself astray and other people astray. That
takes me to the last point. And this
is to my elders and my young brothers
and sisters. We always tell elders to pass
the baton to the younger generation. No. No.
No. No. Instead of passing the baton, we
need to both figure out a strategy where
we're both involved.
What I see is that the youth want
power and the old folks want power.
No. No. No. No. There needs to be
a nuanced approach that respects everybody
and listens to everybody
and figures out a strategy that employs the
youth to be best in what they're good
at and the elders to be best in
what they're good at.
Because who doesn't respect our elders and our
youth is not from us. There's both.
So, subhanallah, you look at Sayidimusa, Abu Nasheikh
and Kabir. Those girls, they said our father's
a old man. Sayidimusa, he helps them. He
uses his youth and physical power to help.
And this old man facilitates marriage
to Sayid and Musa. Look at their relationship.
So I I I was thinking by saying
for Islam to truly in the future,
there also has to be not a passing
of the baton,
but a nuanced strategy
that employs youth to do what they're good
at and gives them the freedom to rock
it.
And also empowers our elders to stay a
part of the community. Something that they've invested
in for 30, 40 years. People just don't
wanna be turned out and fired. People that
built massages, built institutions, donated their time and
wealth. They have a right to be part
of this process.
May Allah bless you. I wanna encourage you
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