Tom Facchine – Free Gifts & White House Iftars Power & Politics In The Quran
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of building power as a community and the importance of active participation. They use a story of a woman named[Saba] to explain the importance of not being bought and not being able to be bought. They stress the importance of affirming Islam's principles and not denying them, using the example of the gift of Hoping and the importance of being a person with a clear idea. They also discuss the use of " gifts" in Islam and the potential risk of being called on to do so. They emphasize the importance of understanding the dynamics of Islam and not relying on oneself.
AI: Summary ©
Last
week, we discussed
a concept and a story that came up
in the story of Dhul Qurnayn,
About how
building power as a community requires active participation.
It's not a spectator sport.
And in the story of Lululekharunain,
the last group of people that he met,
you know, they had this sort of attitude
like, Lululekhanain, you just do everything for us
and we'll just sit here and watch.
And how Lululekhanain actually educated them
and showed them that they needed to participate
as well.
No. You're gonna bring the Hadid. You're gonna
bring the iron. You're gonna do some work.
Well,
there's a flip side of that as well.
Right? We talked before about
the perspective of the people,
on how the people need to be prepared
to sacrifice, and the people need to be
prepared to get involved.
But there's also a dimension to it that
we can learn from Volkarnayn himself.
Recall
that they offered to pay him money.
They're basically like, we'll pay whatever it takes.
Just let us know. We'll send a check
in the mail. It'll be over. Forget about
it.
And he was basically like,
that's not how this works.
Right?
Now there's a very important dimension to this
that is really super important for leadership,
but is also applicable to everybody else as
well. And that's the concept of not being
bought
and not being able to be bought.
That when you do things,
it is on principle.
It's not because you're getting a favor.
It's not because someone is nice to you.
It's not because you're looking for a position,
or you're looking for a photo op.
Now this principle is illustrated again in the
Quran later in Surat Al Namal,
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us a
story
of Saba
queen the queen of Sheba,
Bilqis
and Suleiman alaihis salaam.
Bilqis is wondering what to do with this
guy Suleiman. He he sends this letter. It's
a very strange letter.
And she turns to her sort of,
her inner circle
of advisors.
And she asked, what do you think?
And they tell her, look, I mean, we're
ready to throw down.
If you wanna fight, we can fight. We're
prepared for that. But whatever you want to
do.
And as a side benefit,
it's a very very interesting part in the
Quran
where she makes a remark about sort of
a lesson from history. It's like anytime 2
sides or 2 groups go to war,
usually
the honorable people or the dignitaries
of one side or the other, if not
both,
become
humiliated.
And so it's almost like a brain drain
that goes on. And Allah In one of
the tafasir, in one of the interpretations of
it,
is almost as if Allah is saying, and
yes, this is true. Now this is an
important principle
because even though she's a kafira and a
mushrika,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala didn't say, you know,
shut up you filthy mushrika.
The thing that she said was correct.
And so
it deserves to be recognized as correct. We
don't necessarily dismiss people due to their identity
or what they are if the thing that
they said is true.
Or
as
Malcolm X used to say, we're for the
truth no matter who says it. Right? Or
where it comes from. That's actually what makes
us unique as Muslims.
So anyway, so she has this attitude. She
she comes up with an idea. She doesn't
wanna go to war.
The idea is, let's send them a gift
Hoping that the gift is gonna ease things
up. Now it's very very interesting to see
Suleiman's reaction to this.
You or I, if we were given a
gift, we'd feel some sort of way. We'd
be kinda warm, fuzzy inside. But
Suleiman is after something completely different. Remember his
purpose when he sent his letter to Bilqis
in the first place. He's doing dawah.
He doesn't care about the trappings. He doesn't
care about the White House iftars,
or the,
the selfies in front of Congress, or what
have you.
He wants to do the work of Allah,
And so he almost even takes offense
that he would be given a gift in
the first place. And the language that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala uses is very very interesting.
Right? Is that he says,
No. You guys are pleased by gifts.
Very, very interesting wording.
You guys are happy when you receive a
gift. You guys are happy when you get
a photo op. You guys are happy when
the administration throws you a bone or crumbs
from the from the dinner table.
That's not what I'm after, that's what Suleyman
says.
I'm after something much, much more. I'm doing
dawah. I care about the truth. I care
about the spread of the truth. And his
ultimate mission, as we find out, is that
he is trying to get Bill Keys to
accept a snap.
And every one of his tactics, and decisions,
and part of his strategy
is all comprehensively
folded into that goal. He doesn't divert
to the left or to the right. Everything
he does
is focused on the goal, which is trying
to get this person guidance.
And what's the best risk that you could
possibly receive
except for guidance.
So that's our first lesson for tonight. And
we'll only keep it to 2 because, you
know, we need to get back to salah.
The first is that,
as Muslims, we need to be people like
Suleyman that we can't be bought. We don't
have a price.
We don't have a price.
If somebody invites us,
we'd rather them come to us than us
have to go to them. You understand? If
you're not politically savvy, you don't realize how
these things work. Or as we say in
colloquial English, there's no such thing as a
free lunch.
If you get an invite somewhere,
there's usually some string attached to it. If
you're given a gift from somebody that doesn't
really have any business giving you a gift
in the first place, guess what? There's probably
a string attached to it.
Probably they're gonna be calling on you at
some point or expecting you at some point
to do something for them quid pro quo.
This is unfortunately how power and politics works.
So power is actually in a stigma,
a degree of self sufficiency and self reliance
that, no thanks, I don't need any of
that.
No thanks, I'm not going to accept your
invitation to dinner or a meeting or an
iftar or whatever when you're slaughtering my people.
And you can continue to apply that lesson
as you will. The second lesson for tonight,
we take from the story of Musa. And
in these sort of,
Surah, Shurah and Namalim. This sort of part
of the Quran
that I'm focusing on tonight.
We have the story of Musa told over
and over again. And it's always fascinating. And
one thing that I try to get the,
I know a couple of the young folks
here, if they're here, study with me in
Legacy study tafsir.
Is to always pay attention when Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala tells the same story
across different chapters, because he tells it slightly
different in each way. Maybe he'll start earlier,
or he'll start later in the chronology of
the story. Maybe he'll emphasize certain things here,
and certain things there. And it's all part
of Allah's
point, what he's trying to drive at and
what he's trying to get to with the
story that he's telling.
Now when it comes to, the story of
Musa, I'm gonna focus in on Surat Ashura
because it's fascinating to me, and it's a
very empowering message, and we'll wrap up the
series with this and hopefully you'll feel a
little bit empowered.
That when Musa is given the duty to
bring the message back to Fir'aun,
in the beginning of Surah Teshu Ara,
his reaction is basically like,
are you serious? Like how am I supposed
to be able to do this thing? It
doesn't seem like it's possible. He has a
whole long list of sort of reasons why
it can't work.
Right? He says,
I'm afraid they're gonna they're gonna give me
the lie,
and that I'm not gonna be able to
say it, and I've got this thing, you
know, with my speech and make my brother
along with me. He keeps on going through
reasons why it can't work.
Now what's fascinating about the story arc
and the sort of character development of Musa,
and I know our sheikh is a literary
major, so you can appreciate I'm sure he
can tell you much more about the the
character development,
is that by the time Musa
is given the signs, and he confronts Firaun,
and he has the showdown with the magicians
and he sees everything happen
in front of his eyes. By the time
they get down to the Red Sea, he's
a completely changed person.
He's a completely changed person. And the language,
he says that his people are still not
sure what's going to happen.
What are the people Musa's people say when
they get down to the sea?
It's like, we're done for. They got us.
It's curtains.
There's no way out.
Look at the Musa now.
Look at how far he's come called
in the mayor of Biyi Adin.
He says, no. No. I know that my
Lord is going to guide us.
And this
is the lesson that Musa learned,
is that in the the old Musa,
thought that he had to do it himself.
That he had to
That he had just to rely on his
ability.
And if you or I rely on our
own ability, we're gonna fail every single
time. And what the mature Musa had realized
was that he's not relying on himself. He's
relying on Allah
That Allah
is capable of anything. Which is why I
say to anyone who will listen, do not
worry if you're 1% of the population or
point 1% or point
0.00001%.
Is that if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
with you, He is the one who's going
to do it. What's required of you is
the intention and the purity of of cause
and discipline and pleasing Allah and obedience to
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and Allah can do
what he wills.