Qatar Lecture Tour 2012 – Mufti Ismail Ibn Musa Menk – Fri, 25 May 2012
Mufti Menk – Unity and Brotherhood
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala de Manila Camilla Niala Heidi healthy, our bad.
All praise is due to Allah subhanho wa Taala blessings and salutations upon the master Mohammed Abdullah Hill Hashmi, Rashi We ask Allah subhanho wa Taala to bless him to bless all the messengers who have been sent from the first messenger Adam May peace be upon him all the way to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam May Allah bless them all and all their companions, and may He bless the companions of the blessed messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him, and may we all be blessed.
Male offspring also be blessed up to the last day, and may they also remain steadfast on the path of purity and cleanliness, the path that will please our maker up to the last day, I mean,
His Excellency, the ambassador of Sri Lanka, who is here this evening,
as well as brothers and sisters, it is indeed an honor to be and a privilege to be standing in front of you. Given the topic of brotherhood and unity, to present before you this evening,
you would obviously expect me to be speaking from the Quran and the Hadith, seeing that as a, as a religious person,
that would be the most appropriate thing to do. So I have chosen
to give a few examples from a totally different angle from the Koran,
which show the benefit of unity and the destruction of this unity.
And which will show you that Brotherhood is so rewarding.
So let's start off with the issue of brotherhood. Because
the child who read the verses earlier, had made mention of a verse of surah in the Quran
in Malmo,
asleep in a hallway, Coca Cola, Lancome.
Indeed, the believers, brothers, in ml mimouna is working. Indeed, the believers are brothers.
So resolve the matters between two brothers who are fighting with one another. That's the literal meaning of the verse.
Which means if there is any dispute, part of brotherhood would dictate all would mean that you need to solve your disputes amongst you, without you solving your disputes amongst yourselves, you won't be able to benefit others.
Just like in the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala says, in Allah Allah,
Omen has
been
forcing him, the Almighty does not change the condition of a nation towards good unless and until every individual changes his own condition towards good.
So don't expect the country to improve if the individuals do not decide to improve
family
to move forward and to progress, if every individual from the family does not make it, his or her own business, to improve.
So for this reason, I say and I encourage myself and yourselves, to introspect within ourselves, what are the bad qualities that I have?
What is it that requires improvement in my own life, by me changing that which is bad to that which is good, by me eradicating that which I'm not supposed to be engaging in, by me purifying my qualities,
from selfishness,
to tolerance,
and to being senseless, I will be contributing towards my own family to start with, and if my family has improved, that is the only time my society will improve my neighborhood will improve. And if the neighborhood is made up of many families that have excelled in their qualities and in their behavior in their character and conduct in their link with their maker, then the entire city remember is made up of neighborhoods.
and thereafter the country is made up of various cities and the globe is made up of various countries. So these verses are very deep showing us that the route to the solution
is to start with yourself. We have a problem of pointing fingers. He is the problem, she is the problem. Don't worry, I'm pointing at the wall. But at anyone in particular, he is the problem. She is the problem, not realizing the three fingers are pointing pointing back to us. I need to start with myself.
And brotherhood will not be achieved unless each one of us has the quality of selflessness ingrained, and we work upon it. And we look at the others. And we wish for them and once for them exactly what we want for ourselves.
And on this note, I paused for a moment on a lighter note. I was one speaking about this issue where we need to love for others what we love for ourselves like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says in the narration. Now, you know, I had to tell you his belly, he might be nasty. None of you can consider yourselves true believers, until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself, meaning love for others, what you love for yourself. So one brother looks at me and says I love for everybody what I love for myself, but they must go out and get it themselves.
What does that mean? That means I'm not prepared to share what I have, they must go and do what I did. When I got it. They must also if that is the attitude, we've lost the plot, we don't know what it means. It means yes, there are certain things you might not be able to share. You know, you love for people to have spouses who will be the coolness of their eyes. But you can't just divorce your wife to say okay, I know that I love her, I need to give her to x, y and Zed so he can have a good home and a happy marriage that is foolish. That is outside the understanding of this certain things you don't share.
But you pray for others that may the almighty help them and when they have a turbulent moment in their marriages, it's your duty to try to help by a good word, by word of counseling, depending on how close you are to them, you might help solving and resolving this is all part of brotherhood. If you see your friend, spending long hours with you in the evening, and you know he is married and he has children. It is your duty as part of brotherhood and the sisterhood in this Deen that we should be reminding the brother Brother, you know what you're married. You're not supposed to be sitting every night with us playing games. And you're not supposed to believe in your spouse and your
children every single night please go home. And we will make sure you go home. That is that is what you can offer them. So now you have sown the seeds of a happy home just like you have a happy home. So they will also be having a happy home at some stage if they take heed and if they don't, you have fulfilled your duty, then there are certain things that you may be able to share with them. One is the knowledge you have.
If you know something, you can actually spend the moment to teach someone the goodness that you know there are two types of knowledge.
That knowledge which is connected to spirituality, what we would term as the deen the religion and the knowledge connected to your life in this world.
What we would term the dunya secular knowledge.
When it comes to religious knowledge, we share it
and we share it completely and wholeheartedly.
The reason is every word you utter
of goodness, you will receive a multiplied reward completely. The blessings we believe in
the blessings we believe in. They are felt in our lives in a very, very big way. And we are in need of blessings. We cannot operate in the same manner in this world without the blessings of the Almighty.
So we need to share what we have in terms of knowledge. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says believer want me to convey from me even if you know one verse conveys, tell it to others share it, so that knowledge can continue and when it comes to the knowledge of the secular nature, we may want to share it perhaps you might want to charge to share it. You have a school teacher who charges but over and above that once you have your fee. You need to make sure you selflessly dedicate yourself to the cause that you have chosen. You cannot have a school teacher who is cutting you know corners and the school teacher who does not arrive on time to the school and since we are talking of
arriving on time, we have a sickness and disease.
I'm sorry to say from my experience, and I might be wrong in other because it's the first time coming here
from
My experience the Muslims have a bigger problem with time, although we are fulfilling Salah supposedly five times a day, on time. But if we are to say brother I will meet you at nine o'clock A lot of us are guilty sometimes myself as well Allah protect us all quarter past nine and we're still getting ready.
Now Allah subhanho wa Taala says goddess, we need to be considerate of one another, in order to be able to harness the Brotherhood in the right direction be considered. If you have given your word,
uphold it.
Do not go against your own words, how will that help your brotherhood it won't.
So as I was saying, if you have some form of knowledge in terms of the sexual knowledge of this world, you would share it as and when possible in a manner that is possible.
And then getting to the sustenance and the wealth and the materialistic items that the Almighty has blessed you, it is your duty to take out from it, and to share it with those who are not as privileged.
No matter what level you are on, you might consider yourself a poor person. But remember, the blessing of a charity is unmatched. Nobody can say I don't have enough to give out in charity.
I have seen with my eyes in Zimbabwe, where I come from beggars, literally who are begging on the streets,
giving out some of what they've got
from people and I tried it myself, where there was a beggar whom I had given something to previously. One day I met him I said, you know today I need he took out an amount. And he actually said this is what I've got today, I will share it with you how much can I give you if you really need it, you can take and be there for your information. To have a currency of our own at the moment, we are busy using everybody else's currency. in Zimbabwe at the moment, we are mainly using the US dollar, those who follow you would know we don't have a currency of our own it was deleted a few years ago. Don't ask me what happened. It's a long story. That's not my topic today.
So the model is to achieve brotherhood, you must be able to look at one another and see the needs of each other. And try and fool wherever you can the needs of one another. Today, you need something, someone will come to your house tomorrow when someone else needs something.
You will go to their house. And this is how the Brotherhood is advanced. There is no point in saying oh, we are taught brotherhood. Whereas it's just a word that we pay lip service to it our tongues come reality, you know you find a brother or a sister in need, and we are the furthest away why that would not be brotherhood.
And seeing that this evening, we are speaking mainly to nationals of Cyril ancol hamdulillah. I'd like to raise what His Excellency said moments ago, you need to have your country at heart as well.
Remember, there are charities and I'm sure there must be plenty charities that look after the poor in your area, it would be wrong for you to live in a villa in the center of Doha. When people around your home pack at home, do not even have fresh water to drink. That is very far from brotherhood.
Remember this, it's your duty.
It's your duty either. Personally, you may want to send back donations to someone whom you trust to fulfill what you have dreamt about what you would like for yourself. A little bit of it, you can share, at least start with the fresh water and perhaps even one home for one person who is homeless. Why I say this? Let's look at what is known as Elmo aha in the Arabic language. Where did the term come from? If you are to ask someone who knows a little bit of Islamic history, what is the term Maha akun means a brother who was one means brotherhood. Maha means to create a link of brotherhood between two people. It was done by the messenger of peace be upon him. When the Muslims were driven
out of Mecca to Medina to manohara. The people of Medina faced a crisis what was the crisis?
They thought to themselves here are so many people coming from Makkah, we don't have enough home. How are we going to put that up, and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam resolve the matter in a manner that if the United Nations were able to fulfill the same today, the global problem of refugees would be solved.
What happened? He got up and said all of you who have a home taking one family
You problem. So, immediately, so each family took in another family. And they shared what they had. And they kept the family as their own. They were given rights over one another. And this was known as, aha, what do I have to learn from it today? Nobody is telling me open your house and start taking the refugees, because today, the hearts of the people have changed. You know, we have prison conditions in some of the first world countries such and I've traveled to some of these countries, such that people tell you, I can't wait to commit a crime to go and live there. Because it's so good. Allah protect us. So because of the dirty hearts of people, some might pretend to be homeless
in order to get into yours. So for that reason, we will not preach that type of more aha today. But what we will preach is, if every one of us who could afford to build one room,
back at home, for a relative who doesn't have a room,
if we did that, that would be brotherhood, Allahu Akbar, that would really be translating something you've read into reality on the ground. Because believe me, there is a big difference between having the knowledge or having read the what it's all about, and translating it into practice, many of us are guilty of knowing Islam, being called Muslims. But in practice, we are far from the teachers
were very quick to label each other, were very quick to distance ourselves from one another. Whereas if we were to stretch an arm of mercy, if we were to stretch an arm of kindness and goodness, to those who need it, the Almighty would indeed, stretch the arm of mercy to us. In our own ways, remember, you help someone in something you could, the Almighty will give you something that nobody else can, and that is contentment, happiness, goodness, success in this world and in the next. So this is just a little portion that we have taken from that of brotherhood.
And this is why the Almighty has taught us through the blessing lips of the messenger, Muhammad May peace be upon him, that on the Day of Judgment, there will be several categories of people,
several categories of people who will be shaded
by the shade of the Almighty on that particular day, when it will be needed a lot needed most. One of those seven categories radula needs a half bath in law. He is utama. Allah He was a former colleague, to people who love each other solely for the sake of the Almighty. They got together in that condition and they left in that condition. What is the connection of loving one another to the issue of brotherhood. It is very apparent, very clear.
If you would like to fulfill brotherhood, you need to love one another. Ask yourself, sometimes we have difficulties with family members with your real brother. There are families who don't speak because of a wife or because of Well, come on, today's the day solve the problem, pick the phone up and say listen to my brother, come what may I love you, we might have our differences. But remember one thing, we are one, when you need some help, please call on me. I am your brother.
But if we cannot afford to talk to the real brother who's born out of one mother and one Father, how do we expect to truly assist those who have brothers of ours in faith and then brothers of ours in humanity as well. Because remember, Islam teaches us not only to assist the Muslims, but even those who are not Muslim.
In fact, it goes beyond that. We need to even be kind to animals.
The undulations of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he saw he had Buhari and in various other books of Hadith, which show that there was a woman who entered paradise because of her compassion to a dog, and another who entered the house because of the way she harmed a kitten.
So imagine if compassion goes all the way to animals? What about human beings? How then will we achieve brotherhood? If we haven't even understood this?
Let us now move to the issue of unity I've chosen to to name the surah in the Quran named after the act.
And I've chosen it in order to highlight a few very interesting points. You see the end. Have you ever witnessed an end? Have you seen what it does?
And is one of the most minute creatures of Allah subhanho wa Taala we see a more mighty creature sometimes that we don't notice but they say a smaller than, that's an English see, you know, a small and as an end that means
very insignificant. But I want to show you the unity in what they have achieved. And this I'm speaking from study, if you'd like to Google it, you can check it. And when an employee comes across a piece of Quran, which is twice or three times the size,
it goes back. Firstly, it goes back to tell people I've seen goodness, man has something to learn from this. When we see goodness, we are so selfish. We want it for ourselves alone.
What is the end,
and the end is about to be unarmed, it first wounds. The other end.
It has
the sense of what we would term brotherhood, we're talking about it and the unit is such that when it goes back to inform the rest of the crowd,
they all come one after the other. Have you noticed they use the same highway
somehow, if there is a crime here, the ends walking would use the exact highway, some would be going some becoming. And you see them bleaching as they pass each other. They're not going through Christmas, see.
And whatever message they are passing each other is amazing.
And they have so much trust in one another and they have a penal code that works very strongly. Try experiment. I have experimented and I'm talking from physical experimenting. When the crumb comes the first and to come there goes back to the information, took up the crime and take it away. The other things will all come and when they come and see no crumb, the incircle
the ends which gave the information falsely and they kill it. And it's a dead day and the rest of them go away.
Have you ever known this?
Because what was missing? He caused harm to our society. I lied to us. He caused harm to our community by printing the entire community giving them hope of being fed. And now we all came here that is false hood. Look at the Unity look at the bond and the Brotherhood. Obviously, we are not taught to go around killing people don't get me wrong here.
But what we are learning from it is the positive message to say look at the benefits the end. Take a look at the BS. There are so many examples.
And this is why when there is harm the whole surah in the Quran Allah speaks about when Suleiman the Prophet Suleiman, who was a king as well King Solomon May peace be upon him.
He could speak the language of the other creatures of the Almighty. Allah says Watashi wa de sola Joon. Oh Mina Jean Newell
Oliva whom you that oh, we get it for Suleiman alayhi salatu wa sallam the armies made up of mankind and jinn kind of various other creatures, and they were all there at his disposal. And then when the Army began to move Allah says, had either Allah wa
when the army was getting to the valley of the end
that's number one. And notice the whole army coming with Sulaiman.
It called out to the rest of the ants. Yeah, I
am Ludo no Massa kena, comme la
jolla Hema no June Oh,
oh and go back into your home list. You are crushed by Suleiman and his army without even them knowing anything.
Go back into your homes. Now Sulaiman heard this. The Quran says he understood it.
And he smiled. And he held back the whole army in order to protect a little colony of ants. Amazing.
And he smiled and he thanked Allah and you can read the verses in the surah known as the pseudo of the Anto pseudo tournament.
But the moral of it is look at the concern that one end had for the rest. This is why the ends are very successful, they move together. They have a feeling for one another. And they literally help one another. They would carry something 10 times their weight with the assistance of one another. And they would move in a direction. If only we learned if only we learned from the example of the end. Today we would be able to modernize and we would be able to achieve and we would be able to advance in a way that really would be so beneficial.
much greater than what we are doing right now.
Now let me give you another one or two examples from the same surah.
If you read the beginning of the 20th part of the Quran, which is also the surah of the end,
Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks about
how he has created the mountain.
What is a mountain, it's made up of a small particles of sand.
One particle effect can be blown away. That's not true.
One particle of sand is considered dust.
But an entire mountain made up of little particles all united clustered together, people fear it, wow, this mountain, this mountain, because when it was singular, it would just be blown. The minute it came together for a united purpose, showing that unity, it now became a mountain of force to be reckoned with. Amazing. And Allah subhanho wa Taala makes mention of this in that store. And he gives us another example how there is a data budgeting, how he has created gardens, which are so beautiful. Look at the flowers, when you have one rose,
it's just the rose.
And it won't attract as much as when you have a whole garden of roses. If you want to have a garden, you need to have a garden have many of the same thing together. And this is why part of Alice's plan is when you have a stim two or three or four roses would probably be on one stem.
Because if we just had one on each stem, we probably would not have appreciated it as much.
But we have a lesson to learn even from the flowers. And the gardens we see look at grass.
When it is all together, it creates the greenery.
But when there is just one little patch of it, people will remove it. The same applies to us as human beings. When we are singular, very selfish, all on our own, not united, each one is fighting the other. We are plucked by those who want to pluck us and they will throw us away. But together we create the greenery.
Together we create the greenery. Together we build a nation. Together we build a family. Together we build the entire oma
and together we make the globe a happier place.
You look at another example given in the same surah Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks of the oceans.
Two things of the oceans. One is
the ocean, if you look at it is also made up of little droplets of water.
singularly, they would evaporate in the heat of Doha, you know that and I know it
is more like we're about to evaporate sometimes that's how hot it gets.
But singularly a droplet means nothing together, it makes a glass of water.
And if you add many
more glasses, you would get a swimming pool
of buckets should I say and thereafter you get a whole ocean at some stage, that's where the water came from.
So one really would not achieve what a whole group would achieve that is clear in all creatures of the Almighty. We have seen that why is the man is the last to understand this. Why is it
and then to show you that we need to help one another. And to show you that we need to tolerate one another with our differences. We have a powerful example in the Quran of the oceans. When Allah subhanho wa Taala says
who will lead the Maharaja Alba halloweenie It is Allah who has
kept the two different oceans
and created a barrier between them such that one does not transgress or go beyond the other. Each one up hold the other and the Quran says
the water on the side
is sweet.
The water is drinkable. That which people would like and on the other side it is salty. If you look at the ocean today, one side is blue water the other side is green. One ocean has hot water the other side has cold
to the degree that there are different types of fish on either side with some fish being common for both. And the Quran says that we have created a barrier between
mean the oceans such that one will not cross the other day you are. So each one knows his rights. If we are to translate it for ourselves, I know my rights you know yours, they are two different oceans. But without the other, the one would flop. Imagine if one ocean was blue, what would happen to the other one it would drop no longer an ocean, we normally give this example when it comes to husband and wife to absolutely different people
brought up totally differently, but without a wife, my beloved husband, you will not be called the husband, you need a wife to be known as a husband. Because you hold up one another as different as you are. And do you know what one of the most powerful points we learn.
One of the most powerful points we learn is to be united, you do not have to be exactly the same. You do not have to be identical in your thinking, you do not have to be identical in your mannerism, you do not have to be identical in every like and dislike of yours. In order to be united.
I prefer different things you prefer different things I would eat something you may not eat, and you may eat something I don't eat. But believe me, we have so much in common. We are united.
I might have difference of opinion with you regarding the color, my favorite color that's minor that is small. How can I create this unity because of a color I have chosen over dinner.
Today we are doing that, let's be honest, small thing we are looking for why we are different instead of looking for why we are similar. And this is why we cannot benefit as the oceans help one another. Take a look at what the Almighty says about the oceans
wamena coo coo lunala Hello body. What does dufry June
tell belzona you want to make an effort, you will be able to achieve fish from both oceans. You want to fish this side you're going to catch you want to fish that side you're going to catch what is the common factor, make an effort,
make an effort and go out to fish, then you will catch the fish. So the fish is there. So we need to make an effort to understand each other, make an effort to come close to one another, make an effort to have the dialogue that will result in US becoming better united than we were before
with the idea of understanding and promoting and teaching.
And then after the West continues to say, you will also extract Jim, the
you will extract jewels. deeper down.
What does that mean? If you are prepared to make a bigger effort,
a bigger effort, you will be able to benefit yourself and others by something far more valuable than you had imagined.
If you want to fish, it's going to go down to a certain extent you can catch the fish if you prepared to die. And if you're prepared to risk sometimes your life you might go so deep that you will then extract a pearl.
What I'd like to raise from that is in our lives. Sometimes we don't even make an effort to resolve our marital problems, let alone the other problems. Small problem I want out I don't know what is, you know the scenario here. But in some of the countries I have noticed the smallest thing. People are saying you know what? Wrong tourists I'm going home, but it's been two days. So what I found out early, early in the marriage, and later on, well, what was the point? Have you matured? Have you understood what marriage is all about? And then let us continue further to our lives as brothers and then societies and then entire cities and countries. Remember one thing, in order to have a peaceful
world, we will need to start with the peace in our own homes.
And in order to achieve peace in your home, you need to be at peace with your maker. And you need to be a person who is calm. A person who learns a person who learns from the Koran, the Sunnah, and the person who looks at the experiences of others, and sees what was beneficial, what is detrimental. If we're not going to do that, how are we going to be able to benefit one another.
I've said a few words today or this evening, connected to brotherhood. I hope the benefit firstly would be mine and then everyone else's have also touched on unity and show new and reminded myself as well, that the other creatures of the Almighty those that we consider living creatures as well as various other creatures of the Almighty they
have achieved through being united?
Where are we? Are we going to make a greater effort to be united? Are we going to make time for one another? Are we going to be genuine towards one another? Not everything we do, should we just do it because we want something material out of it.
search within yourself, for that charitable node in your body. Look for it and make use of the blessings of the Almighty for Indeed, the day you close your eyes, whatever you leave behind. Maybe people will be fighting over it. Whereas had you given it in a charity. It would remain as a blessing for you. Up to the day you meet your Lord, may Allah subhanho wa Taala meet us on that day with goodness. May He grant us every form of Baraka and blessings. Once again, it's been an honor to be here. Now end by saying sallallahu wasallam obata Carlota Vina Mohammed Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. So mu lectures, visit sl hub.com.
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