Tammam Alwan – The Role Of A Just Ruler

AI: Summary ©
The responsibility of individuals to ensure everyone is the most important person in their culture and avoid consequences of actions is emphasized. The importance of taking responsibility and being a shepherd and responsible for personal lives is emphasized. The devastation of people across the world is discussed, including people who are killed and murdered due to actions and the loss of family members. Subhanous behavior is discussed, including people being killed and murdered due to actions and the loss of family members. The importance of peace and prosperity is emphasized, and the need for peace and prosperity in the situation of insha' spirit is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
People, fear your Lord, who created you from
one soul, and created from it its wife,
and spread from it many men and women.
And fear Allah, whom you ask about, and
the Most Merciful.
Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.
And fear Allah from the evils of ourselves
and the sinfulness of our actions.
Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide.
And whomever Allah misguides, none can guide.
I bear witness that there is none worth
worshipping but Allah, alone, with no partner.
And I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is
His servant and His final messenger.
Allah ﷻ reminds us in the Qur'an,
in Surah Al-Imran, He says, O you
who believe, have taqwa of Allah with the
taqwa that is due to Him.
And don't die except in a state of
Islam, except in a state of submission.
And He also says, Subhanahu wa ta'ala
in Surah An-Nisa, He says, O people,
have taqwa of your Lord, who created you
from a single soul, and created from it
its mate, and dispersed from both of them
many men and women.
And have taqwa of Allah through whom you
ask one another and the wombs.
Surely Allah is ever over you an observer.
From Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with
him, he says, I heard the Messenger of
Allah ﷺ say, All of you are ra
'im and all of you are responsible for
his ra'iyah.
The Imam is ra'im and responsible for
his ra'iyah.
And the man is ra'im in his
family and responsible for his ra'iyah.
And the woman is ra'im in her
husband's house and responsible for her ra'iyah.
And the servant is ra'im in the
wealth of his master and responsible for his
ra'iyah.
And all of you are ra'im and
all of you are responsible for his ra
'iyah.
Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him
and his father, Umar ibn al-Khattab, he
says, I heard the Prophet ﷺ say, in
a famous hadith, I'm sure we all know
it, we're all familiar with it, and he
says, every single one of you is a
guardian or a shepherd.
And every single one of you is responsible
for his ward or his flock.
And he says, the Imam, the ruler, here
it means the leader, the governmental leader, is
a shepherd and will be asked about how
he took care of the people under his
care.
And a man is a shepherd over his
family and will be responsible and asked about
that.
And he says, a woman is a shepherd
as well and she's going to be asked
about her husband's home and also her flock,
the children in the family.
And he says, even a servant is a
shepherd and is going to be asked about
how did you deal with the wealth that
you were entrusted with from the person who
you're serving.
And he repeats ﷺ in this hadith that's
in Bukhari and Muslim both, he says, every
single one of you is a shepherd, every
single one of you is a leader, every
single one of you is a guardian, and
every single one of you is going to
be asked and be responsible for your flock,
your ward, those who you've entrusted to take
care of.
And it's a hadith, subhanAllah, that many of
us have heard plenty of times, a reminder
of course that every single one of us
in this masjid, outside of the masjid, we're
all shepherds, we're all leaders.
And every single one of us has a
responsibility over a group and also has to
answer to someone.
And so we've laid out some of them
and I'll give more examples inshaAllah throughout the
khutbah.
The employer, if you have a business, then
everyone is under your care, you're responsible for
them.
If you're a manager, you're responsible for the
people who you're directly supervising.
If you're a teacher and you have students,
well what about the children or the youth
right now in the masjid?
You might be asking, me too?
I'm not an adult, I'm not a manager,
I'm not the leader of a government, I'm
not a father, I'm not a mother.
You too have responsibilities.
You might have a younger sibling who you're
responsible for, who you can't mistreat, and we'll
talk about that.
You might have just younger people, subhanAllah, in
the community, you come to the masjid, you
see someone else.
You might have someone in your classroom who's
physically smaller than you, physically weaker than you,
and you have the upper hand.
But the point of this hadith is to
evoke this sense of responsibility that every single
one of us has this amanah.
I'm a ra'in, I'm a guardian, I'm
a shepherd.
And I want to contextualize this hadith and
add three more reflections inshaAllah for the khutbah
within what just happened in Syria.
Many of us heard the news from just
a few days ago, alhamdulillah, over the downfall
of a dictatorship that lasted over five decades.
A father and son, whose names I don't
even want to mention on the minbar because
I respect the sanctity of this space, subhanAllah.
Who destroyed so many families, so many believing
Muslims, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, elderly
and young, children as well.
And now after this downfall where Muslims are
rejoicing, and they should be, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, the
world is rid inshaAllah of one more dictator
who was evil to the believers.
Evil to them, why?
Because they said, la ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah.
Evil to them, why?
You see some of the reasons they were
imprisoned?
Because of praying in the masjid.
Because of not taking other than Allah as
a god.
I mean, this is the stuff, subhanAllah.
This is still happening in the world today.
We read about it in the Qur'an,
we read about it in the hadith, and
we think, oh, those times are...
No, they're still happening now, subhanAllah, in parts
of the world.
But as we rejoice, we can take this
as a time for reflection so that it
can actually help us, help me, help you
in our personal lives today.
And the first lesson of these three, after
we're all responsible, is take the amanah of
just leadership seriously.
Now, we established inshaAllah that every single one
of us is going to be asked.
Doesn't matter if you're young, it doesn't matter
if you're old, and if you're younger, train
now, so that when you become a father,
and a mother, and a manager, and a
business owner, and a teacher, and someone maybe
who's an elected official in the masjid, in
the local government, in national government, that you're
going to be ready to take that responsibility
seriously.
You know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches
us through the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ that
there are seven shaded on the day where
there's no shade except his, subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And the first one mentioned in this narration
is imamun adil.
Imam, the same word, imam, a ruler who's
just.
What does that mean?
That means you're in a position of power,
you're in a position where you could crush
your opposition, you're in a position where you
could destroy people's lives, but you say, no,
I'm going to do what's right, because I
fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so as a result, you become one
of the seven people who are shaded on
that day, which is a shade, may Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us all and
our families and loved ones with it.
Allahumma ameen.
We think of different situations, subhanallah.
How many times have employees complained about things
like wage theft?
I'm working for this person, and I'm by
the hour, and I worked extra hours.
And now they go to their boss and
they say, hey, you know, I know you
paid me for 20, but actually I came
in for 25.
And they say, no, no, that's nonsense, get
out of here.
That's an example, subhanallah.
It's like, hold on, just a second.
This person's complaining to me now, I'm going
to be asked in front of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, let me just verify, okay,
if this is your haq, bismillah, here you
go.
How many times, because the last example was
about wealth, we were given too much change
at the grocery store or in some sort
of business transaction.
Alright, you know, I have this amanah over
this money, I'm a guardian of it, I'm
a shepherd of it.
Here's the extra back.
And, you know, one of the greatest examples
we have from the sahaba is Sayyidina Umar
ibn al-Khattab.
And in this hadith, and I just want
to tell you that it's a weak narration.
There are many weak narrations with this wording.
But because there are so many, they strengthen
one another.
So it's not a sahih, you know, athar
or anything.
It's weak, it has weakness in it, but
it's been narrated so many times that insha
'Allah ta'ala we authenticate it that way.
Where he says, radhiallahu anhu, he says, He
says, radhiallahu anhu, and he's ameer al-mu'minin,
he's the leader, where?
In Medina.
And he says, if a camel, or he
said, if a sheep, or if a lamb,
if an animal, were to fall into the
banks of the Euphrates River, right, that we
know in Iraq.
Very far away, but he's still a ruler
over that.
He's like, I'm afraid that Allah is going
to ask me about this.
And there's a common one that's mentioned about
him, but I couldn't find authenticity about it,
but it's very often mentioned.
Where he said, radhiallahu anhu, he said, if
an animal were to trip in Iraq, an
animal, not a human being, an animal were
to trip and fall in Iraq.
Because I, as ameer al-mu'minin, as the
ruler, I didn't pave the roads, you know,
no potholes like we see these days.
I didn't pave the roads, I'm afraid that
Allah is going to ask me about this.
Subhanallah.
I'm afraid that Allah is going to ask
me about this.
Just a reminder to us all, like every
single one of us, let's do muhasabah right
now and think, who am I a shepherd
of?
What have I done maybe?
Maybe I rubbed someone the wrong way.
Maybe I'm in charge of someone in my
family, in my workplace, and I said a
remark.
Just a word.
Not even a word.
Forget a word.
Just a movement of my eyes or my
hands.
I was recently reviewing and getting more in
-depth on the tafsir of surah al-humaza.
Al-humaza, we read it all the time.
And did you know that the root of
humaza, ha, mim, zay, it comes from destruction.
And this ayah refers to, in addition, symbols
like rolling your eyes.
Simple things, like someone says something and you're
like, ugh.
Something with the eyebrows, something with the nose,
something like that, something with the hand.
Even these symbols and signs with the hand,
with the facial expressions, are included in that
surah.
And then in the end, what is it?
Al-hutamah.
Al-hutamah, right?
One of the names of Jahannam and places
in Jahannam.
And hutamah, ha, ta, mim, comes from destruction.
So it's like, if you're destroying people in
the dunya with your words and your hand
symbols and your facial expressions, then beware of
being destroyed yourself.
Nas'alu Allah al-afiyam.
May Allah protect us all and our families.
Like, amazing the parallel in this surah.
And here, what is it saying?
What am I responsible for?
The second of the three.
Allah will expose your wrongs, so make things
right now.
SubhanAllah.
We're seeing the news again.
It's amazing.
We live in a time where someone pulls
up their cell phone, takes a video and
uploads it to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, whatever
it may be, throws it on WhatsApp, Telegram,
it's suddenly forwarded within an hour.
People across the world are seeing this.
As they're opening up the prisons, subhanAllah, in
Syria, the devices used for torture, like even
if you hear about them, you don't even
see them, it's traumatic.
It's traumatic.
Like, you're traumatized just hearing the stories of
the people who were there.
Nonetheless, seeing the people who are escaping and
they're saying, you're free to go, and they
can't believe it.
They said, what do you mean?
What do you want from me?
So traumatized.
Some of them can't even speak.
Some of them are just in another world
because they've been so psychologically traumatized, so emotionally
broken because of these barbaric, heinous, disgusting acts,
subhanAllah, that they've been exposed to.
And now our brothers and sisters can finally
bury their dead who were lost.
Can finally free their family.
Can finally find out, I haven't seen my
father in 10 years.
I haven't seen my husband in 20 years.
I haven't seen this family member, that family
member, my cousin, my aunt, my uncle.
And now finally they're getting some closure.
SubhanAllah.
And Allah reminds us.
We know the story of Ashab ul-Ukhdud,
right?
Surah al-Buruj.
Again, another one in Juz Amma.
It's talking about an evil king who destroyed
all these people and threw them into a
big fire.
Why?
Because they said, la ilaha illallah.
That's all.
What was their crime in his mind?
La ilaha illallah.
And it's in a town or a village
or a city.
We would have never heard about it.
But Allah eternalized the story in the Qur
'an.
And now we recite it and now we
remember it.
And we say, we know what you did.
Allah exposed you.
And there's lengthy hadith detailing the whole story
as well.
If you don't know it already, I highly
recommend going back to Surah al-Buruj.
And going back to Ashab ul-Ukhdud and
reading the hadith and the boy and the
king.
Subhanallah, we have to think about what's going
to happen to us.
Recently a murder happened in New York City.
We all heard about it, right?
A top CEO executive of a company was
murdered.
And we condemn murder.
We don't support vigilantism.
We don't support taking the law into your
own hands.
No, we condemn it.
But look, subhanallah, all the stories coming out
about him are negative, negative, negative, negative, negative.
People are saying good riddance.
I'm glad he's not in the world.
I'm not saying that, but I'm saying people
are saying that.
And suddenly everything is exposed about this company
and the evils they do.
Wallahu alam, that's what they're claiming online.
So we have to think when Allah exposes
everything that I do in my position of
power, it's going to happen.
Think back to your childhood.
Was there someone you used to bully?
Was there someone in the playground whose toys
you used to take?
Who used to push around?
Who used to call names?
Now is the time.
Make it right now.
Don't let them go to Allah and say,
so and so abused me.
So and so wronged me.
They were bigger than me.
They were older than me.
They were stronger than me.
And they took advantage of that, ya Allah.
And then we become like the muflis, laqadar
Allah.
The muflis, the bankrupt person.
Everyone is coming and taking their hasanat until
they're left with nothing.
Then they're getting sayyiat.
Why?
Because of wronging person after person after person.
And the last reflection that pertains to us
after the downfall of that dictatorship in Syria
is be the bigger person and forgive mercifully
when possible.
When you're in a position of power, doing
the right thing and being just, we talked
about that at the beginning.
Imamun Adil.
You're a just ruler.
But there's a higher level.
And that level is mercy.
Rahma.
You think back, subhanAllah, to our Islamic history.
Yusuf alayhis salam.
Sayyidina Yusuf alayhis salam.
All the wrong his brothers did to him.
They threw him, a kid, they threw him
in a well.
Imagine, at night, all dark, all alone.
And then he's picked up by a caravan.
Kidnapped, you could say.
And then he's sold into slavery.
And then he's put to work.
And then a lady tries to take advantage
of his position of weakness, being younger than
her.
And he goes through all that.
And then he's falsely accused.
And then he's put in prison.
And then he's forgotten in prison even longer
for so many years.
After all that, he becomes in a position
of power.
And now he has an opportunity.
His brothers come to him.
Allah sends them to him.
I can totally destroy them right now.
I can imprison them.
I can accuse them.
I can take them.
And what does he say in the end?
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive you.
We're good.
Bring your families.
And let's just live in Misr.
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam enters Mecca powerfully.
And he forgives everyone.
Abu Sufyan.
Forgives him.
And he would later become a Muslim.
Hind, who asked for the killing of his
beloved uncle, Hamza radiyallahu anhu, forgives her.
Wahshi forgives him.
Forgives everyone.
This is a higher position.
Salahuddin Al-Ayubi.
Yusuf Salahuddin Al-Ayubi is his name.
When he entered Jerusalem, he let the Christians
who were up to their knees and waist
with blood, after killing the Muslims a century
ago.
He said, go back.
Go back.
You're free to go.
Amazing.
Amazing that these people in power.
And again, we saw some scenes.
I don't know how true they are.
We don't know the situation.
But scenes of foot soldiers who were involved
in this dictatorship and involved in all this
evil.
And they were told, you're free to go.
Allah, He's gonna take care of you on
Yawm al-Qiyamah if you did anything wrong,
but you're free to go.
I'm not talking about the generals and the
leadership.
No, but the foot soldiers, the conscripts, they
said, you're free to go.
SubhanAllah.
How many people would do that in a
position of power where you can destroy this
person, you can do the same thing that
happened to you.
So think about that.
And yes, we can take our haqq, we
can take legal means, press charges, file a
lawsuit, do all of these things, make the,
you know, engage in some sort of action,
but there's a higher level, which is the
level of mercy.
And just to review, inshaAllah, those four lessons
before we wrap up.
One, you're in a position of leadership now.
So take it seriously.
Allah will ask you and ask me and
ask all of us.
Two, take the amanah of just leadership seriously.
Three, Allah will expose your wrongs, so make
things right now.
Don't wait for later.
And four, be the bigger person and forgive
mercifully when possible.
And although we rejoice, alhamdulillah, at the downfall
of a disgusting, crazy, murderous, barbaric dictatorship in
Syria, alhamdulillah, we are still not satisfied as
an ummah.
And we don't forget our brothers and sisters
elsewhere in the world.
Our Uyghur brothers and sisters in East Turkestan,
our Rohingya brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers
and sisters in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Iraq, in Lebanon, in Egypt, in Nigeria, in
Mali, in Sudan and Somalia, and especially our
brothers and sisters in occupied Palestine and specifically
in Gaza, the largest concentration camp in the
world.
We will not be satisfied until all of
these evil dictatorships are removed and until Muslim
brothers and sisters can worship peacefully, until they
can live their lives.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to grant all the Muslims everywhere peace and
prosperity and success and help and nusr from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And ya Rabb, we are connected to them
because of la ilaha illallah, Muhammadun rasulullah, alhamdulillahi
rabbil alameen, qayyumul samawati wal aradeen, wassalatu wassalamu
ala rasulillahi as-sadiq al-ameen, ibadallah, ittaqullah,
wa yu'allimukumullah, wallahu bikulli shay'in alim.
Yaqulu Allahu ta'ala qul amara rabbi bilqist
wa aqeemu wujuhakum inda kulli masjidin wad'u
mukhlisina lahuddin kama bada'akum ta'udun qala
rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi wasallam sab'atun yadhilluhum allahu
fi dhillihi yawma la dhill illa dhilluh imamun
adil alhamdulillahi rabbil
alameen mudabbiril khalaqi ajma'een wassalatu wassalamu ala
rasulillahi as-sadiq al-ameen ibadallah, ittaqullah, wa
yu'allimukumullah, wallahu bikulli shay'in alim audhu
billahi minash shaitanir rajim bismillahir rahmanir rahim inna
allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna ala an-nabi ya
ayyuha allatheena aamanu sallu alaihi wasallimu taslima Allahumma
salli ala muhammadin wa ala azwajihi wa dhurriyatihi
kama sallayta ala ala Ibrahim wa barik ala
muhammadin wa ala azwajihi wa dhurriyatihi kama barakta
ala ala Ibrahim innaka hamidun majeed wardi Allahumma
an abi bakrin al-sadiq wa umar ibn
al khattab al-farooq wa Uthman ibn Affan
ibn Nurayn wa Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn
al-murtadha wa Hamzah Asadillah wa al-Abbasi
wa waladih wa a'in al-sahabati ajma
'een wa a'in al-tabi'een lahum
bi ihsanan ila yawm al-deen Allahumma ghfir
lana wa li walidina wa li al-muslimina
wa al-muslimat wa al-mu'minina wa al
-mu'minat al-ahya'i minhum wa al-amwat
innaka sami'un qareebun mujeebu al-da'awat
Allahumma a'izz al-islam wa al-muslimin
wa a'ali kalimati al-haqq wa al
-deen Allahumma ansur ikhwanana fi suriya wa filastin
wa fi ghazza wa ikhwanana al-mustaba'afina
fi mashariq al-ardi wa magharibiha Rabbana aatina
fi al-dunya hasana wa fi al-akhirati
hasana waqina a'adhaab al-naar Rabbana la
tuzeeg qulubana ba'da idh hadaytana wahab lana min
ladunka rahmah innaka anta al-wahhab Rabbana hab
lana min azwajina wa dhurriyatina qurata a'ayun
waj'alna lil-muttaqina imama Subhana rabbika rabbil
-izzati amma yasifoon wa salamun ala al-mursaleen
walhamdulillahi rabbil-alameen Waqim as-salam If
you haven't silenced your cell phone yet and
you want to double check insha'Allah make
sure it's on silent so it doesn't disturb
the mursaleen I'm waiting for the brothers to
fill in the rows insha'Allah and come
in from the hallways so that we can
all make space for them Pray this prayer
as if it's your last prayer with focus
May Allah accept from all of us Wasawoo
sufoofakum fa-inna taswiyata al-sufoofi min tamami
al-sala wa fi riwayatan min iqamati al
-sala Straighten your lines for straightening the lines
is part of perfecting and completing prayer and
in one narration is part of the iqama
and carrying this out Are we ready in
the back?
Allahu Akbar Alhamdulillahi
Rabbil-alameen Al-Rahman Al-Raheem
Malik Yawm Al-Deen Iyyaka Na'bud Wa
Iyyaka Nastaeen Ihdina As-Sirata Al
-Mustaqeem Sirata Al-Lazeena An'amta Al-Mustaqeem