Power & Politics In The Quran #01 King Saul -Talut
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Channel: Tom Facchine
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the controversial topic of politics and power in the Quran, highlighting the significance of "monster" titles in the book and the importance of providing one piece of information to help those who fail to do so. They also emphasize the use of Sy effectiveness in the Islamic community and the importance of keeping it in mind. The speakers stress the need for small groups to stay in power and obey the spirit of Allah.AI Generated Transcript ©
Thank you all for welcoming me into the
wonderful community of Lehigh Valley. It's been a
treat.
Very honored and privileged to be here. I
was asked what I would like to
as a theme, to ex expound upon,
and I chose the most controversial,
unsettling theme possible,
politics and power in the Quran.
And so this is a a a and
a large amount of trust that I've been
given by,
by the sheikh and by the, administration of
the masjid, so I appreciate that. And I've
been told we have a hard stop at
45 minutes, so I'll make sure not to
go over.
Alright. You guys are still awake.
That's good.
Every generation
and every nation
has to return to the Quran and the
sunnah and the salif and the works of
our scholars and our scholarly tradition
in order to not reinvent the wheel, but
to apply
what we have in our tradition
to the things that are going on in
their time and in their area.
Right? To to make it applicable
so that we understand how to move. And
if there's one thing that we've reflected on
in the past 5 months, perhaps with everything
that's going on in Fiddlesteen and Gaza, may
Allah
free our brothers and sisters and give them
victory.
It is that we need to go back
to understand
something about,
yes, politics and power from the Quran. So
without taking up too much time,
should should I be standing somewhere else? That's
good.
I'd like to draw your attention to the
second half of Surah Al Baqarah tonight where
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells the story
of Tawlut, who is known,
in English as Saul.
Now in just 2 pages of the Quran,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
packs lessons
about politics and power into this story. I'm
gonna try to hit on just 4 of
them,
time permitting, Insha'Allah.
The one thing that's really interesting so the
setup here is that this is Bani Israel
post Musa, alayhi salaam. Right? They've been taken
out of Egypt. They have this sort of
cycle where they're given prophets, and they are
sort of trying to fulfill what Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, wants of them. Now there's a
people that's in a situation
where where basically they find themselves having been
wronged and oppressed,
and they ask their prophet that is with
them for some type of leader. They're basically
saying, hey, we really wish that we could
fight in the way of Allah. We really
wish that we could put ourselves out there
and sacrifice.
And the only thing that we're missing is
a leader. Sound familiar?
Alright. They're looking for a savior.
And
the prophet that's with them warns them. He
says, okay,
but if you get a leader, are you
really gonna fight? Are you really gonna uphold
what you said you were going to do?
And they, of course, they swear up and
down, like, yes, of course we will. And
actually they start to indicate by pointing to
the motivation that they have and how they're
on the right side of history that we've
been turned out from our homes. We've been
oppressed, us and our children,
as almost a proof to say, look. All
we're missing is this one piece.
Just provide for us this one piece and
we will do what Allah wants and we'll
fight and it'll be glorious.
Now, of course, what happens
is that they're given that one piece. They're
given their leader,
and they turn away except for a few
of them.
And so we see here that, you know,
as we go through the Quran, especially the
first
10ajza,
and Allah will talk in Surah Al Imran
about situations where you're truly oppressed with no
power whatsoever, and in that situation you're not
blameworthy.
Right? But here is a situation where
they have the capacity,
they have the motive and the motivation, they
have everything on their side, they're on the
side of truth and yet
they fail.
They fail because of their cowardice, because of
their hypocrisy.
And this is the height. This is peak
humiliation.
So
one reflection that we have on this is,
subhanAllah,
we live, alhamdulillah, we live in a country
where we have a lot of freedoms,
and we have the ability
to, to organize ourselves and to organize our
money and to organize our action and do
certain things. There's people living in Egypt or
in Jordan or in other places, Saudi Arabia,
that wish that they had the political freedoms
that we have here in the United States.
So if we're in a situation where we're
a 100%,
our hands are tied and we can't do
anything, okay, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is rafur
Rahim, forgive us and he'll understand.
But
if we're not doing everything that we can
to help our brothers and sisters, all the
means that we have available to us, then
what does that say about you and me?
What does that say about us? What does
that say about the state of our hearts?
Are we too attached to the dunya that
we're not exhausting
our legitimate means tying our camels, so to
speak, and taking the means that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala provided? May Allah guide us to
what he loves.
The second lesson from this is that what's
the type of leader that they're granted? They're
granted tallut.
Okay? Now Talut is not the type of
leader that they expected.
He's not rich. And this is, I think,
very important for us because
especially in a society that's very materialistic
and very consumer based like the United States,
a lot of times we associate
money with power.
And this is actually the same mistake
that they make. They they look at Talut,
he's got, he's strong, he's smart, but doesn't
have a lot of money.
And so they're basically like, this guy's gonna
be our leader? He's not rich. Where's his
Maserati?
Where's his Bugatti?
Where's his, you know, his swimming pool? Where's
his mansion in the suburbs? He doesn't have
it. And the thing that Allah shows them
through this is that you're looking for the
wrong things.
Right? Power is not in money alone,
and we've seen this. We've seen this because
in the United States of America, generally speaking,
the Muslim community is not extremely poor. Not
to say that there aren't pockets of us
that are poor or struggle with this sort
of thing, of course. But overall,
we've got funds.
Look at the wonderful facilities we have. Look
at the programs we're able to do. Okay.
So
if that's not where power is, then where
is power?
Power is in sacrifice. Power is in discipline.
Power is in organization,
and we'll see this in a sec. 2
quick final lessons, and then we'll get back
to the salah.
The next thing that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
brings your attention to in the story is
the Tabut.
Okay? It's the Ark of the Covenant.
And it's almost kind of it's usually a
part of the story that we skip over
because we're like, okay. That's cool, but I
don't really get the significance of it. This
was something that they used to, Benny Israel,
used to carry around from battle to battle
and it was a symbol.
Right?
Symbols are really important,
especially in a struggle, especially if you are
trying to accomplish something, because symbols remind you
of your purpose.
Symbols help you make sense of everything and
what everything means.
Okay? So for them to have the tavut,
to have these sort of this ark of
the covenant that holds the Torah in it,
carrying around wherever they go, it's a constant
reminder
that they are fighting in the way of
Allah, that they're doing Allah's work, that they
have Allah on their side, that Allah graced
them with revelation.
Now if you look at the last 5
months and all the jockeying that's been going
on, right, you see how symbolism is extremely
important. Everybody wants to fight over what does
it mean.
Okay?
Is this a religious struggle? Are we pleasing
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Is this a secular
nationalist struggle? Is this this type of struggle?
Is it that type of struggle?
Symbolism is very important,
and it's very important to make sure that
you keep your purpose in sight so that
you don't forget why you're doing what you're
doing in the first place. And the last
point, and we'll close with this.
By the way, you know, Sami Hamdi used
to you know, he he promised that he
he doesn't do that on purpose. He said,
I'll close with this and then 30 more
minutes. No. No. They're really gonna close with
this very, very short.
Is on the next page,
when we have a sort of Talut and
his army, they're marching, and this is the
well known part of the story.
He wants to separate the wheat from the
chaff, as we say in English. He wants
to make sure
that only the most disciplined and motivated and
purposeful
fighters stay with him, that power is not
a numbers game, and we get this confused
sometimes. We think that we need to have
so many people. We say, oh, we're just
1%
of the population
in America. What can we do?
That has nothing to do with it. If
you have a small group of disciplined people,
if you have a small group of people
who are motivated by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and they understand
and they're able to sacrifice,
so Thadud brings his army
across, and they're thirsty. They haven't maybe drank
water for a long time, and they pass
by a spring or by a river. And
he says the only people who are gonna
stay with me are the people who don't
drink anything or they only take a handful.
And so
most of the soldiers can't handle it. Most
of the soldiers, they, you know, they pig
out. They go crazy. They they're so thirsty
that they just start guzzling water.
And so
the materialist mind
would be afraid to say, how am I
gonna leave all these people behind? We're gonna
get whooped.
But no, Fouloud understands how Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala works and he understands justice, and he
understands a just cause. And so he says,
no. You guys are gonna stay behind. I'd
rather take a crack squad of disciplined believers
that are ready to sacrifice, that know that
Allah
is in control
over anything than to try to just chase
numbers and get as many people as possible.
And sure enough, when it comes time for
the battle,
even those even that group of small, hardened
soldiers that are sort of ready to sacrifice
and understand their purpose,
they're still wavering. They're still in doubt. They're
saying, are we really gonna do it? And
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reassures them and the
ulama among them reassure them how many times
has a small band defeated a larger band
by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's permission.
Then Allah
is in control. So when it comes to
our communities, both here locally in Lehigh Valley
and us larger across North America and the
United States,
don't worry about being
a small minority. Don't worry about being 1%,
or don't worry about, hey, I'm just one
person. Yeah. Change starts with 1 person.
Every ummah started with a prophet, and a
prophet was just one person. And look at
what change was was able to be had
because of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's tawfiq.
If we obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we
rely on him and we obey him as
ta'ala knows best.
ta'ala knows best.