Success or Slavery – Motivational Speech

Brothers and sisters in Islam we praise Allah subhana wa tada who has given us this opportunity to gather again though with the limited capacity but it is truly a blessing to be able to see the Muslims returning back to the house of Allah subhanho wa tada after a time period where many of the houses have a loss of habitat around the globe were closed. And this is truly something that we should thank Allah Subhana, who was added for today, I want to talk about a topic. That is something that is very common on the tones of people is something that we all want. We want it for ourselves, we want it for our children.

But they have different ideas of what it constitutes. And that is the concept of success. And if someone asked me, What do you what do you want to be successful? We all want to say yes, I want to be successful. You want success for your family and for your children, we would all say yes. But if we were to ask people point me to somebody who is successful, show me somebody who is successful. Most often times in this society, we're going to point to someone who was rich, or someone who was famous or someone who was both. And so our idea of success revolves around somebody having worldly possessions or material prosperity, and that is actually one of the definitions in the dictionary of

success, that is to attain prosperity or affluence or so forth. So this is one of the definitions of success. The problem is, and herein lies the issue

is that as Muslims, we should not allow our minds to be enslaved by the dominant culture of whatever society that we live in instead, our mind should be shaped by revelation, it should be shaped by the book of Allah Subhana which Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and this word success that we would have to back translated into Arabic it comes throughout the Quran. In fact, in over 40 hours Allah subhana wa tada mentions the word for lack or F lack or they are the lovely home right they are the people who are successful that is he lays out these qualities and then Allah subhana wa tada says oulanka human must be home they are the successful or loss of

habitat, it says that when they do a certain thing, they are successful because the FBI is active for example, okay, the one who purifies himself is successful cuz

right or aligns with Joe tells us endocrine ly you flew above the moon for example, that indeed those who are wrongdoers will not be successful, they will not attain for life and you just heard it the other day, hi, yeah, let him come to success come to fly. So, what is success, success means, when the Millennium is calling for like I said, Come get a whole lot of money come Come get famous, right. So, our idea of success needs to be shaped by what Allah subhanahu wa tada has said, and what his messengers have aligning with someone has told us if we truly want real success, the success that has been defined by lots of hands over time. So, if we take a step back, and we look at there

are other actual dictionary definitions in English, right, that say that success is the attainment of an aim and objective that you have. So, you you have reached that aim. And so, therefore, you are, you are successful, this is also a dictionary definition. And this is actually in line with though not as complete as the definition of philosophy. When it comes to the book of philosophy, hands out in this one of his messenger, some of it was something that is that fella is made of metal, when the gentlemen in my room, so that is that we attain a goal and aim that we have, and that we are spared from something that we fear or that which is fear, and that which is undesirable.

So this is this is success. Ha. Okay, that's a broad definition. How do we now envision that and put that into practice as Muslims and this is important, because the last pantalla did not mention this throughout the Quran, except that it is intended for us to pay attention to them.

So what we're going to focus on today, we did the lantana is one I

just won I and hopefully we'll do a series on what it takes to be successful because we will not enter gender unless we are moving home. And we really won't get what we want out of this life success in this life unless we are from the mostly home from the people who are successful. And that's important for us to know because this

term success, as some of the scholars mentioned, is the most comprehensive term in the Quran that deals with attaining the good of this life. And the next is no term throughout the Quran that is more comprehensive when we talk about the good of this life and the good of the next slide, then the word adfly. Okay to attain success alarm, says and sorta to North, which is the 24th soda in the brand. And the 51st is Eliza Joseph in Americana, meaning either Rue de la la he was suing the Kuma baina him at a Hulu summit. Now I'm fine. Listen to a lot of fans, it says that the only response that the believers get when they are called to Allah and His messenger to judge between them is that

they say submit and now what apartment we hear, and we obey what leg eco home will roughly home, it is only them who are the successful.

Nobody else is successful. It is only them. That when they are called

to Allah and His messenger to judge between them.

And they say we hear and we obey.

This is the crux of Islam. And we have to keep coming back to this issue of hearing, and obeying. Because we are not taught that in this society.

We are taught that we are supposed to be free thinkers, whatever that means. And believe me, believe me, when they tell you free thinkers, they still have a they still have a box that they want you to think inside of when they say that don't just think that being free means that you can take any old kind of way that you want. No, they still have a box for you. So we're taught that we actually should, you know, rebel against certain things rebel against religion. You don't really need God in your life, What has God done for you?

I mean, this is the engineering of the American mind from a very young age. So the concept of Islam and Islam, meaning that we submit, when Allah subhana wa, tada tells us something and we don't fight against it. This is an obligation, this is what you're supposed to do. Okay, I'm gonna assume it's Amanda wattana, we hear we obey. They are the only ones who are really going to be successful. I asked you, is it not? We're all looking for peace in this life, happiness in this life. All of that is part of success. We're not going to get any of that until we say we here we are, until we start fighting against the revelation.

And some handle on this goes across the board. I mean, this goes across the board. And it's something that we have to constantly ask ourselves, because this is how we get in the frame of mind of being successful. in any situation that comes up in my life, I need to ask myself, is this something that is pleasing to Allah?

If it is that I go forward with it, I'm going to be successful. I asked about my role as a husband, as a father, as a son, as a brother is what is this the role? That what I'm doing here? Is this what Allah subhana wa, tada wants from me?

And if I do that, then I'm going to be successful. I may not always come up with the right answer. But I need to ask the right question. And we can always ask the right question. That's very important, because sometimes you'll ask the wrong question. And even if you get the right answer, you're on the wrong path. But if you're asking the right question, then be in the land to either you are showing that you want guidance from a loss of habitat.

And alone will give you that, and you may fall short from time to time, in fact, and believers, a lot of parents out it says at the very end of sorts of buckling, and this is something that we should be reciting every night. In fact, I didn't know the alone time and who says I don't think that there's anyone who understands the slang and doesn't recite the last two eyes or shoulder to buckler before going to sleep

a long time and I don't think that is anybody who

really understands Islam, and they leave off reciting the last two suitors, or last two is what sorts of buckler whether the last time he said, and those I will call him talking about the believers will call loose and man that well,

who from the top banner, when you make a Muslim, they say the believer say we hear and we obey, who find and what? And it is your forgiveness, we seek robina yet our Lord and mercy unto you, we will return. Another words, we know that you have commanded us for something and that you have prohibited us from other things submitted that requires that the believers look for and this is why I'm saying we have to ask this question of ourselves.

All the time. What does the Lord want from me in this situation? semana. So we're actively listening for what it is that Allah subhanho wa Taala wants from us. And then once we hear it upon Him, we obey. And we don't say like the people lash out at describing the Quran, call them summit. And now I seen it.

We hear and we disobey. What was the movie believable in Malaysia, and then they in their hearts, they were drowned with love of the calf, you can go back and look that up. So the point is, Allah subhanaw taala. Here, we are saying every night before going to sleep harmsen man now what a partner will fly. So we here and we'll bet. But at the same time, we're human beings, we have shortcomings, we're going to fall short. And some of those commands are fulfilling some of our obligations. And a loss of helmets, Allah knows this.

And He created us in this way as human beings with these faults. So we say who front and then Forgive us, our Lord, it is it is your forgiveness, we seek because we know we're going to fall short. And we fall short, sometimes in the fulfillment of those obligations, what he Lincoln must see it and we recognize that what that you are going to return and we're going to be held accountable for submitting that.

We're going to be held accountable for what when we say we heard, we heard what you said, What did we do that we obey or we disobeyed. And so that's why it's very important that as believers and people who are looking for success in this life, that we realize that success is not always in having a whole lot of material things. What did you have to do to get those material things

that you miss a lot, so you can finish a business deal.

If you're not come to Juma

felt like staying at work.

If you leave off the obligation, how did you get the money that you got? Are you selling things that are wrong?

How did you get what you got? If any of those answers are Yes, I did this thing you're not successful. It doesn't matter what it looks like from the outside. It's about being successful with the love. So Panama was at a call center while they sent me here and we obey, we hear and we obey and some people may look down on this. And so when you you don't think about no we thought about it up in lanisha. Do we have any doubt about a lot? No. There's no doubt about Allah subhanho wa Taala every human being who takes a simple minute to just think we know that we were created, we know that we are created by Allah subhana wa Jai

do we doubt in the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala we know that that can come from a human being. So even if we have a little bit of doubt about a ruler, why did Allah Subhana Allah commanded us to do this? That's that's not the answer. The answer semana upon this is a believer, because we want success. And then we ask the last pantalla to show us to show us through His mercy and through his kindness, the wisdom of why he may have decreed some of the things that he decreed, or commanded some of the things that he had come in, we don't doubt a loss of habitat. And so for people who say, Are you shutting off your minds that the opposite is actually the truth, the opposite is actually

the case, I'm using my mind. Because I know that I have created, I know that he has created me with wisdom, and that he has commanded me with things and therefore I'm going to obey, whether I understand in detail the commands or not.

And we don't want to be like those people who are opposite when they are told to follow with the messengers of Mario Salaam has come with his allies, who describes him in the core, I call him

the evil man within the nanny and

the tibial man within an hour and he at the end, they say, we just want to follow what we found our forefathers doing. And this is what so many people do, even people claim to be free thinkers, they just follow whatever is going on in society, whatever is the dominant culture, they just follow them. And so they leave off following what Allah Subhana Allah and His Messenger have commanded. Or as Eliza gel says, If equal to being Model M is terrible,

and you have una Engie, for love while in the mother's womb, or is in their heart some some disease?

Or do they doubt? they doubt that this has come from a loss of habitat? Or do they fear that alone His Messenger would make some unfair judgment? That what we've been commanded with or prohibited from is unfair.

So we have to look at what is it that is causing us not to be those who obey Allah Subhana who was Allah and His messenger? Again, the point is, and is that we begin this process of reprogramming our minds and not allowing ourselves to be enslaved by dominant culture and just totally think with that.

inside their paradigm of what success is, if we truly want success, we have to be amongst those who when they hear what Allah subhanho wa Taala has commanded or when he is prohibited, they say semana brothers and sisters in Islam.

Today is June 19.

It is the 27th of Shadwell.

And it is approximately six weeks from our

either love six weeks Sharla.

And as Muslims, we only have two weeks.

So man, our final message is the same. So we're not going to invent any new weed. But today, June 19, has been declared a city holiday.

And that holiday is known as Juneteenth. And I think it's pertinent for us to understand as Muslims, what is going on around us in society. We don't turn a blind eye we're not, you know, we're not red marks and you know, live inside the nation. We don't know anything that's going on outside.

So it's important for us to understand, and in fact, put value on some of the things that we value as Muslims. Juneteenth is what this holiday is called. And it's a celebration of or a commemoration of the emancipation of slaves in this country.

So on June 19 1865, the Union troops came from the north, and they entered into Texas, and they informed everybody that slavery was over, even though slavery had been abolished by Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln over two and a half years prior to that.

Or approximately two and a half years prior to that. But in the south, I mean, because they made so much money off of the slaves, they weren't just going to give that up without any kind of force. So Texas was on the was on the outskirts of those states that had been overcome by the Union troops. And so there was still hundreds of 1000s of slaves in Texas. And it wasn't until June 19 1865, that the troops made it to Texas, and declared their freedom.

And so

immediately after that, the next year, those who were formerly slaves in Texas, they began to celebrate this through the churches, most of them, which is ironic, because the West Africans who were taken

from West Africa, as slaves and brought to America were not Christians.

And up to a third of them were Muslims. So it is important that people actually go back and look at their and look at the history. But the point is, that they through their churches, they began to organize different ways to celebrate their freedom.

And this is something that as Muslims, we also recognize, a loss of data throughout the Quran, is telling us to free our slaves.

Obviously, the Quran was revealed in a society where slavery existed, that doesn't apply to us today, because slavery in that sense does not exist. And the American form of chattel slavery was not something that existed in even pre Islamic Arabia.

So it's important for us to understand why people are celebrating, especially in light of COVID 1619

COVID-19 that's one pandemic COVID 1619 when the first slaves arrived here, and that whole, this whole society, which is built on an idea and an ideology of white supremacy, so we have to understand that the racism that exists in this society is systemic. It has been here for very long time, and it is embedded within the systems. And it's not something that as Muslims, we can

just sit back and watch and pretend like it doesn't exist,

or because we may benefit from it some way or another. No, the reality is, is that we stand for justice as Muslims, however, we're not going to go out and parade in the streets and, and these types of things when Juneteenth because we have two holidays, I suppose, even futsal. And

and the other point that I'd like to make, because this is not a history lesson. And it's important for us to understand this from an economic perspective.

who's really free

and what does freedom actually mean?

So just because these, they went and they said, These people are no longer slaves, that your relationship with them is not slave and master anymore. But your relationship is that of an employee and or an employer and employees

that really mean that they were free really mean that they were free to go wherever they want to go. And what do we say when we when we think of freedom, freedom of speech, as opposed to censorship,

or freedom of my body as opposed to being enslaved.

But the reality is, is that we gone from one form of slavery to another form, our minds are still controlled by other men.

And until the mind is free,

until we are truly because this is the thing, this is the irony of, and it sounds really weird, we are never going to truly be free until we become true slaves of Allah, your freedom from men, is in your servitude to Allah.

And we have to understand that because we want to celebrate the emancipation.

But the reality is, is that we remain slaves. And basically, it's like this.

It's, it's think about somebody who's in prison in solitary confinement, and got them this six foot, you know,

container cage.

And so there is a lot of, you know, you can tell that this person is, is in a cage. And then they just say, you know, what, you're out, we're gonna let you go free.

All his life, that's what he thought that he thought that that's where he had to be inside of that cage. So they say you're free. And so now he's moving around. He's, he's around a lot of all around the prison, walk around the block, and he can go outside, and he can play and it feels like freedom than him. But for the people on the outside, they look at an exit inside of a prison, he doesn't even realize.

And so for a lot of us, that's what's happening.

You get freed from a cage, which is still inside of a prison, and doing your sigil movement at the end of the day is this dunya is the prison of every believer.

But until we become slaves of Allah, and we do what we do for Allah, and we only fear Allah, and we only hope in his reward, and we're not seeking validation from other people. And we're not doing what we do, because we want the praise of other people. And we're still slaves.

slaves to popular opinion,

slaves to manmade societies.

As they say, You're free to buy whatever you like.

We're gonna because we have a society that runs on consumerism, so will allow you to buy purchase whatever you like, but then is that real is that freedom?

And so it's important for us as we think about these concepts, because it is really a cut. We we as Muslims, we believe in racial equality. Our profit is Salatu. Salam told us that

over 1400 years ago, but there's no father, there's no virtue that a black man has over white men or white men over a black man, or an Arab over nine or nine Arab over an Arab except for tough. Well, we believe that. And as people who believe that we should institute that as much as we can, we should help those who are fighting for that as much as we can within the parameters of it.

But at the same time, when we think about today's holidays, specifically Juneteenth, that emancipation of the slaves, we really need to start thinking about those concepts of freedom and slavery. And do we really want to be free? If we want to be free? We have to say some man, Spider Man, we hear and we obey, you have a lot in every situation that we're in every role we play, we aim to please Allah subhana wa tada in that in that is true, free