Tammam Alwan – The Strong Believer Prepared to Serve
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AI: Transcript ©
All praise and thanks are due to Allah.
We praise him and we thank him.
Forgiveness. We take refuge or protection in Allah
from the evils of ourselves and from 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 worshiping
but Allah
alone with no partners. And I bear witness
that Muhammad salallahu
alaihi wasallam
is his final messenger and his servant.
Allah reminds us in Surat Ali Imran,
he says, oh you who believe have taqwa
of your lord with the that is due
to him,
and don't die except in a state of
Islam, except in a state of submission to
him
And he also tells us in Surat Al
Nisa, he says, oh, 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.
Lord through whom you ask one
another and the wombs. No doubt Allah is
ever over you, an observer. You know,
subhanAllah,
in the time of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam,
there was a very well known
wrestler
called Rukana.
And Rukana
wasn't a believer at the time, but he
was known for his physical feats of strength,
of conditioning,
of technique.
No one could drop rukana after all. He
was never beaten.
And when the Nabi salallahu alayhi wasallam came
to him, and this is mentioned in the
books of Sira, like Ibn Uhishel, came to
him and challenged him and told him, won't
you believe in Allah? Won't you believe that
there's none worth worshiping but Allah and that
I'm the messenger of Allah? Won't you believe
in the day of judgment in the last
day? He told them, I don't believe. He
said, let's wrestle.
And let me engage you. Let me show
you that there's something, there's limitations for you.
You have maybe been deluded by your strength
and your success and your confidence,
but Allahu Akbar.
Right?
And so the narrations say that they start
wrestling and almost immediately he drops him to
the floor.
And Rukhana gets up almost immediately and he
says, woah, woah, what just happened here? Hold
on. I've never been beat in my life
and you just dropped me to the floor.
Let's do it again. And some narrations say
as many as 3 times
While the Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam continued. He
continued to say,
bear witness that there is no God but
Allah and then Muhammad is a master of
Allah salallahu alaihi wasallam. And there are different
narrations of 1, he went back to his
his home, his people, and he told them
about what happened. Others that he he later
became a Muslim. And although these narrations come
from Sira, which is a lower gradient than
hadith, we do have one hadith,
that's mentioned in multiple narrations, including in that's
Hasan Gharib. So it's not it's not authentic
to the level of Sahih Hadith, meaning the
likelihood is less. But still we know from
the Nabi that
he was powerful in terms of physical strength.
We know that during the battle of the
trench,
when the Sahaba were digging, right, and were
low on food,
And then Nabi salallahu alayhi wasalam at the
time,
he had a rock rack wrapped around his
stomach because he hadn't eaten in 3 days.
What did they do when they came across
that big boulder or that big rock? They
knew who to call. They said, you Rasulullah,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We've come across this
rock. We can't remove it. And he hops
down, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And with his
spade, he hits it and it becomes dust
because of his strength. And we know also
other narrations in Bukhari about the battle of
the
and a loud sound was heard. Who was
the first one who hopped on a horse
*
and didn't even have time to put the
sword around his waist but threw it over
his neck? It was the Nabi salallahu alayhi
wasallam with his speed and his agility, being
so nimble on his feet.
And we know that even when he used
to go into battle. Right? We're thinking of
modern day, you know, how can we apply
these in modern days lifting up dirt. You
know, now we have our medicine balls. We
have our kettle balls. We have our dumbbells.
He used to wear armor, salallahu alayhi wa
sallam. And as a brother pointed out to
me recently, he was saying, you know, we
have these weighted vest these days that people
are saying, oh my God. It's such an
amazing exercise. Walk and put £5 or £10
on your chest and carry. He also used
to do that. Salallahu
alayhi wasallam. And just to mention one example
in terms of the importance of physical
strength, we have the story of in
Surah Al Baqarah. And it's a long story.
It takes a couple pages. But just to
mention one of them, when he's chosen by
the Nabi of their time by the Nabi
of their time after Sayidimus alaihis salam. When
Bani Israel is told,
your leader, because you said you wanted someone
to defend you and to help you is
and
they object to that. What does their Nabi
say? He said,
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has First of
all,
he's chosen him from amongst you, and he's
increased him in what?
Knowledge
and jissim literally means the body. And imam
al kurtubi Rahimahu ta'ala in his tafsir, he
says that what jissim here means is that
he was physically strong.
He was physically strong and so that gave
him
qualifications
to be a leader as well.
We also know of the famous hadith many
of us have memorized in Muslim and Abi
Hurayrata Radiallahu anhu
That the strong believer
is better and more beloved to Allah than
the weak believer, But there's in both of
them. And so
when he's explaining this hadith in his of
Sahih Muslim, he says he gives many different
examples of what does this mean in terms
of strength.
And this hadith is not only talking about
physical strength. But the first example he gives,
he says if Muslims
are approached by an enemy,
then the strong believer is the first and
foremost
to go out and say, no. I'm gonna
face the enemy.
Bravery. Is the one with physical strength. But
he also gives examples in terms of when
it's time for those especially super erogatory extra
no effing fast, the strong believer is the
one who says, I'm gonna fast that Monday
Thursday. I'm gonna fast those 3 white days.
I'm gonna fast those days of Shawwal and
those first days of for example. I'm gonna
fast the day of.
I'm the one who's gonna fast. When it
comes to salah and extra salah, the strong
believer also has that capacity. It's as if
to relate them both that physical
strength and capacity
gives them the opportunity to then increase in
those individual
and acts of worship.
Now we might ask ourselves the question today,
alright. I understand.
You know,
there's this benefit of being a strong believer,
but all these examples you've given are completely
irrelevant to today. We're not in a state
of warfare. Alhamdulillah. We don't wanna be we
don't wanna be attacked right now. We don't
want bombs falling us or bullets going through
the windows. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect
us and protect all the believers everywhere.
However, there are still lessons in there.
And again, just going back to that individual
worship, many of our brothers and sisters, I'm
assuming some even in the jama'ah today, have
returned from Hajj.
And how difficult is it to perform Hajj
on the body?
How difficult is it is it
to come here every single night in tarawih
when it comes to Ramadan time? It takes
physical strength to stay standing in prayer. How
about Tahajjud when the Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam's feet used to become inflamed from all
the blood rushing down there? When he used
to spend hours, salallahu alayhi wasallam,
that takes physical strength and stamina and resilience
as well. And so having that physical strength
enables you to better worship Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Being in a better physical state allows
you to fast, allows you opens up those
doors of barakat as well.
When we lost power earlier earlier this week
Right? We know what happened with the construction
and every the community came together. Who were
the people who were able to say, you
know what? Brother or sister, I'm going to
put out the mats. I'm going to bring
the speaker. I'm going to carry this. I'm
going to do that. Those who were most
what? Foremost in terms of physical strength and
went and took the opportunity. So
he says that the the reason that the
strong believer is better is because they have
a better and higher capacity to serve the
ummah. They're more prepared
to help other people. In terms of the
security team, I'm just mentioning practical opportunities.
Mashallah, we saw in Ramadan how many brothers
and sisters
volunteered and said, you know what? I wanna
go through the training.
Level 1, 2, and 3. I wanna go
through this. I wanna understand this. Why? Because
I wanna be one of the people whose
eyes are protecting the believers as they're praying.
This is another opportunity. And just volunteer help.
Right? We know brother Tariq in the community.
Before or after event, he says can people
come and lift this up or take this
or take that? If we have that ability
where we're not completely exhausted after work, unable
to lift our heads, unable to be present
with our families, unable to have the energy,
the emotional energy, and the physical energy to
to just be present with our families, subhanAllah,
then how are we gonna do these extra
things as well?
Now we might have some objections to this.
Right? Okay. This is a khutba about working
out, and lifting weights, and exercising, and running.
I already work out.
I'm already set mashallah. I have my routine
and I'm doing it. And I wanna challenge
the brothers and sisters who say that. Because
we have many examples of people who, Masha'Allah,
can lift heavy weights. But when you ask
them to run after a quarter mile, a
half mile, suddenly they start huffing and puffing.
Are you able to run 4 miles and
5 miles and 6 miles and 7 miles
in a row?
Or those of us who, mashallah, are runners
in the community. We have many runners, mashallah,
in our community from brothers and sisters who
can do a half marathon or a marathon.
But when it comes time to lift this
or do that, we suddenly get exhausted because
physical strength is not there. And so really
think about strength
and physical fitness not only in terms
of just, you know, brute strength like power
lifting or in terms of conditioning like running,
but also in terms of strength endurance, are
you able to continue that exercise repeatedly? In
terms of mobility, especially when you hit 30
and older, are you able to stretch and
keep yourself healthy? So that when you're walking
to the masjid, which is one of the
sunan of Rasulullah,
you don't suddenly fall down, God forbid,
on on the steps or or whatnot.
Another thing is some people say, I don't
want to be muscular.
Listen. I I don't want to do that
because I don't want to be all big
and buff. And just know that that's a
direct consequence more of diet
rather than the type of exercise. Although, that
plays a role as well. Look at some
of the strongest physical people in the world,
and they tend to come I'm generalizing. They
tend to come from mountainous nations.
Look at Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Very strong
people in general. Look at Yemen.
Look at Chechnya and Daristan. Many strong people.
They live in mountains, and only until recently
still you have roads. And so what? You're
carrying heavy things, carrying this goat, carrying this
bag of rice, going up inclines and declines.
What does that do to the body? It's
constantly tested. It's constantly tested. And so what?
Suddenly they they have that strength.
And we have to think about ways to
replicate that in this day and this age.
Someone else might object, some of the younger,
brothers and sisters.
I'm just a kid.
What can I do? And I want to
remind you if you if you didn't hear
the news about 6 weeks ago when we
had those tornadoes.
There was a tornado that hit Southern Oklahoma,
not too far from here.
And it was so severe
that a 9 year old boy with his
2 parents were in their truck, their pickup
truck driving. The tornado came, lifted up this
this truck and threw it in the trees.
I saw pictures. It was like almost completely
ruined.
Well, this brave young boy, may Allah grant
him, him
and his family,
he told his parents.
He said, please don't die. I'll be back.
And during the thunderstorm,
he ran 1 mile in about 10 minutes
or less, they estimate.
As he's running, there are downed power lines,
and he's jumping over them, running in between
them. It's pitch black. It's in a rural
area. How was he able to see? He
waited for the lightning strikes. He said, I
waited. When the lightning struck, I saw a
little bit and then I ran in that
direction. Until he got to a neighbor's house
and he told them, my mom and my
dad, they're in critical condition. Come and help
them. They ended up in the ICU with
a broken back, broken ribs, broken neck, broken
arms. His father lost a piece of a
finger.
They would have died if it weren't for
his bravery. So never think, okay, this is
some outlandish
faraway thing. We need in our Muslim ummah
people who are physically strong.
Why? To serve the ummah. To serve yourself,
to serve your family, to serve your community.
This is a community need. Some of us
might object and say, I'm too old, brother.
I'm too old. I'm an uncle, an auntie,
I'm a grandfather, a grandmother. This doesn't apply
to me. And I wanna remind us
of one of the most prominent Sahaba, Ammarug
Nuyasir radiAllahu anhu,
who was 78 years old when he was
wielding the spear in the battle of Sufin.
And that's where he died as a as
a shahid
78 years old, and he still had that
strength. And even of Abu Sufyan who
was in his sixties in the battle of
Hunayn.
They were they were constantly active constantly active.
And need I mention a modern day example,
just a few years ago in 2019,
after the unfortunate
Christchurch massacre that happened to our brothers and
sisters in New Zealand,
and copycats started to say, oh, we want
to also
Muslims and kill Muslims. Well, in Norway,
one of these potential active shooters entered fully
armed. And who was the one who jumped
on him and tackled him? It was a
65 year old uncle or perhaps a grandfather,
Mohammed Rafiq, who was formerly in the Pakistani
military.
He was the one who saved the day
and not a single soul. Imagine how many
lives he saved. 65
years old because he was physically fit, because
he was brave as well. And so again,
these are not outlandish
things that we need to think about. These
are things that are happening now and here.
And we need to ask ourselves, how am
I, through my physical strength, going to serve
the community? How am I going to take
this exercise and instead of just saying, okay,
I'm lifting this heavy weight and putting it
down, and I'm on this treadmill, and I'm
walking around the masjid, which is a great
exercise. I'm walking around the masjid after fajr,
and I'm adding some weight. Change your intention
and make it a spiritual exercise. And say,
you Allah, I want to be strong so
that I can help other people. I want
to be strong for the sake of khidma
of my community, of the Muslim ummah. I
want to be there so when there's a
critical time, may Allah protect us. But when
there's that critical time, I'm gonna be the
one to do it. I'll give you another
example. A personal anecdote that happened to me
a few years ago. I was in a
mall in Plano, and my son, subhanAllah, he
happened to fall down. And the way he
fell down, subhanAllah, it was an accident that
happened. He split open his forehead.
And at the time I was shocked. I
didn't know what to do. So I quickly
wrapped him with with, my outer garment, my
outer shirt. I tightened it as much as
I could. I carried him and I just
ran to the car and ran to the
ER.
But I was thinking later at the time
that if I didn't have at least the
physical fitness to carry a child, and run
through the mall, and run to the parking
lot, and quickly drive. And as I'm as
I'm doing, I'm trying to think where's the
closest hospital looking it up on Google Maps
and taking it there.
It wasn't anything serious, just some stitches. And
he's fine.
But these are things that happen. These are
things we could be hiking a mile away
from our car and suddenly hap suddenly something
happens. Someone needs critical medical attention. Are we
going to be the person who's able to
lift, who's able to carry, who has that
stamina? Or are we gonna be the person
who says, guys, I can't do it. My
knees,
my muscles, I'm huffing and puffing. I can't
do it.
Don't let another day pass without making that
intention of, You Allah, I'm gonna take care
of this body. I'm gonna challenge myself.
I'm gonna devote myself to a routine. And
if I'm already in a routine, I'm gonna
try other things. Obstacle courses, obstacle course races.
We have jumping over walls, rope climbing, different
different feats of strength while I'm carrying this
sandbag. Walking around, hiking, doing this and that.
Why? For the sake of Allahu Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala because I want to serve the community.
And lastly, one of the objections we have
is I don't have time.
It sounds great but I don't have time
for this. What do you mean? I'm way
too busy. And I want to remind everybody
including myself that the Sahaba
had the same 24 hours that we had
today. We just seem to be a little
bit more distracted with our doom scroll scrolling,
with our social media. And even though we
have appliances that make our lives so much
easier, even though we have technology that makes
our lives so much easier, subhanAllah, oftentimes what
do we do? We waste it.
When you look at time like money,
if you have money, a lot of money,
you invest that money and subhanAllah you can
increase it. Similarly with time, if you take
some of that time and you invest it
in your physical fitness, you're gonna feel more
energy. You're gonna be in a better mood.
Your family will be happier to be around
you. You'll be able to handle the challenges
of life more easily. Why? Because you invested
that time.
How much time? The American Heart Association says,
a 100 and 50 minutes
a week. Meaning, if you walk, just to
start out, walk 5 times a week for
30 minutes. After one of the salawat, you
can walk around the masjid indoors on a
treadmill. Go go to a mall. Although there's
a lot of corruption there, you know, as
well. But going to a mall, it's an
opportunity to walk around for 30 minutes. You're
gonna do it. Or vigorous exercise for 75
minutes a week, or both. Meaning, 25 minutes,
3 times
a week. It doesn't have to be a
big thing. And for our children, I see
so many children, it's 60 minutes a day.
They recommend 60 minutes a day. 1 hour
a day where you're running around. Go to
the trampoline park. Go outside. Try to do
something physical and try to get away from
those screens for a little bit of time.
It's so important for us to build our
muscles,
to build our bones, to build our endurance
and our cardiovascular
system. Why? For the sake of Allah. Because
this body is not ours. This whole, theologically
fallacious statement of my body, my choice, I
can do what I want. I can No.
This body is from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And to him it's gonna return. This body
is an amana from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
so let us take care of it. I
don't want Again, I don't want a to
go by without mentioning our brothers and sisters
in Palestine, and in general, and in particular.
When it comes to physical strength, when it
comes to standing up for the duty, subhanAllah,
we have not seen people like them. Where
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala puts some of the
just a a few few situations, a few
anecdotes,
where someone is unemployed.
The father is unemployed, has no income for
his family, and he's there in the hospital,
morning till evening. What are you doing brother?
Go search for something help. He said, what
am I to do? Let me help some
other people who are critically injured. Let me
go out there. Let me do something for
the ummah, where children are helping other children.
You know, I heard the stories from the
doctors who came back from Gaza, that a
child who's 12 is helping a child who's
8. Both orphans.
Why? Because I'm responsible for him. So I'm
gonna spend some of my waking day, some
of my limited energy, some of my limited
food to help my brother or my sister
in need. Take advantage of it. Get moving.
Get active.
May Allah
grant us physical strength
and spiritual strength and all types of strength
and allow us to seize this opportunity to
make critical changes in our lives.