Free Gifts & White House Iftars Power & Politics In The Quran

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

what he wills.

what he wills.