Usama Canon – Reflecting on Muhammad Alis Life
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AI: Transcript ©
We praise Allah and we thank him and
we seek his aid and his forgiveness.
We seek refuge in him from any bad
within ourselves and from any inconsistency in our
deeds, any bad in our deeds.
I bear witness openly that there is no
god but Allah, that nothing is worthy of
worship except Allah.
And I bear witness openly without hesitation that
our beloved Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
is his servant and his messenger whom we
pray that Allah infinitely and eternally bless along
with his noble family, his rightly guided companions,
all of the people who follow him and
us with him.
Oh believers, I advise myself and all of
you to have taqwa of Allah and I
also advise myself and you to be mindful
of Allah wherever we may be and whatever
we are doing and I pray that Allah
bless us and make us from the people
of taqwa.
Some years ago on a Friday just like
this I was walking out of a Juma
khutbah at a masjid where I had been
asked to give the khutbah and I met
a gentleman at the door and he asked
me a question that many of us are
asked by nature of the makeup of our
community and he said to me brother where
are you from and having been asked that
question so many times as an American convert
to Islam I was prepared for what was
likely going to be an interesting conversation because
I had been asked that question so many
times by so many different people both here
and abroad.
So he said where are you from and
I said to him I'm an American he
said no but where are you from and
I said I'm an American he said I
know but where are you from and I
said I'm an American he said but where
is your father from and then I knew
it was going to be interesting because I
didn't think he knew where Shawnee Oklahoma was
but I told him he's from Oklahoma he
said where is his father from I said
he's from Tyler Texas I didn't know how
far he wanted to go but he said
to me oh so you're an American and
I said to him yes I'm an American
he said no brother you're Muslim now and
he didn't mean bad he didn't mean to
hurt my feelings he didn't mean and frankly
he didn't really hurt my feelings he did
bring up a lot for me he did
not mean bad he was speaking from his
own experience and from his place of perspective
and so he said no you're Muslim now
and we have all every one of us
here have had to wrestle with the idea
of identity we have all had to wrestle
with how our faith informs our identity we
have all had to wrestle with the difficult
questions of how we balance between condemning bad
that is done whether it's by America or
by other than America and reconciling that with
the reality that we live here many of
us here today have probably experienced feeling somewhere
between here and there not really feeling at
home here in America and not really feeling
at home from the countries that we may
hail from but I share the story that
I share with you today to highlight something
that is very very important for us all
to think about as we sit here and
observe our Jumu'ah service a local leader
who needs no introduction by the name of
Imam Zayd Shakir is facilitating the memorial service
for none other than Muhammad Ali and some
may say and frankly I don't typically mention
names of any person other than the people
who are mentioned in the scripture or in
the hadith in Jumu'ah I just have
a commitment to not do that because I
don't feel like it's really appropriate for the
pulpit but today is an exception.
Imam Zayd is facilitating the memorial service for
Muhammad Ali and he is introducing reverends and
introducing senators and probably as we speak or
soon or not long ago will be introducing
President Clinton along with many many other notable
people who are commemorating the life and celebrating
the life of Muhammad Ali and some may
say why would we even care about a
boxer why would we even be mentioning in
the context of this situation in the context
of everything happening in the world the suffering
happening for our brothers and sisters globally in
the Muslim majority worlds the suffering happening here
in many corners of this country for our
brothers and sisters in this country why would
we be talking about the life and legacy
of a boxer and the answer to that
is because he is a Muslim and we
are Muslims and in his life and legacy
there's a lot that we can learn and
there's many lessons most of which time will
not provide the opportunity to reflect on but
the fact that Imam Zayd is facilitating the
memorial service for Muhammad Ali and led the
janazah yesterday means just in quantitative terms that
millions and millions and millions of people are
thinking about listening to and are forced to
to see Islam center stage and to think
about and to reflect upon and and wrestle
with whatever they mean to may need to
wrestle with what that means for them and
the reason that is happening is because of
an individual who was good at a particular
sport that was a gross understatement who was
the greatest of all time in a particular
sport and because of his excellence in that
sport put him in a position to share
with the world his own struggles around identity
his own embrace of his beautiful identity and
his transition toward Islam and his sharing that
process with the world in unapologetic terms and
because of that millions and millions of people
are thinking about and talking about Islam and
millions and millions of people whether they like
it or not are mentioned in the name
of our beloved prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
i was in a grocery store some years
ago and it wasn't trader joe's a trader
joe's you're kind of expected to kind of
like help them bag i don't know if
you know that but you're kind of expected
to help them fill the grocery bag as
part of like shopping at trader joe's but
it was at a regular grocery store and
the lady was packing the groceries and my
oldest son was with me who happens to
be named muhammad and i said to him
help the lady pack the groceries so he
wouldn't help the lady pack the groceries and
she said oh you're a nice boy she
said what's your name he said muhammad she
said oh like muhammad ali it was just
immediate her visceral response was to identify that
name with that individual and in that moment
i thought about verse 4 from chapter 94
of the quran where allah says to the
prophet we elevated for you oh muhammad we
esteem for you oh muhammad your remembrance we
have risen we have we have esteemed your
very mention and i thought about that because
there are a lot of ways how the
prophet's name will be esteemed and be elevated
and muhammad ali was someone who allah used
to raise the name of our prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam so that it was in
the conscious of the people in a positive
light so that my son identifying as muhammad
can identify not in a way that many
people will unfortunately associate that most beautiful name
with negativity but will associate it with something
that is beautiful and something that they see
as part and parcel of their very selves
and their own identity and i thought to
myself subhanallah allah used this person to elevate
the mention of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam and to the degree that when they
wanted to put his star on the hollywood
walk of fame he refused to have them
put the star on the ground because he
said i don't want anybody putting their feet
on the name of my beloved prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and it's the only star
that's in the wall out of his respect
for the name of our beloved prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam so we find ourselves in
this very very significant moment historically where people
from our own local community are on center
stage and islam is being talked about and
this individual is being celebrated and his life
is being reflected upon and there are a
multitude of lessons we can take from that
one of them is this allah and his
infinite wisdom guides people and uses people to
guide other people not necessarily on the basis
of their knowledge or piety allah and his
infinite wisdom uses people to guide other people
not necessarily on the basis of their knowledge
or their piety because of people's social capital
and because of people's social influence allah will
choose them to be the means of other
people embracing islam muhammad ali is arguably the
most famous american muslim ever and will probably
go on to be the most famous american
muslim ever and one of the most famous
muslims in the world ever but that's because
he was a boxer and how many people
know about islam because of that i myself
came to islam people say to me all
the time brother how did you convert how
did you embrace islam and sometimes you think
that people want you to tell some miraculous
story how you had some dream and then
you walked outside and then the person who
you saw in the dream was standing at
the door at the pamphlet and said repeat
after me or they want to hear some
miraculous story how you were alone in the
library and opened up a book and there
was the answer the reality is i like
many of the people who embraced islam in
america embraced islam through the legacy of the
nation of islam and through the legacy of
people like muhammad ali and malcolm x and
imam murthy dean muhammad and many other people
and specifically through hip-hop music i can't
tell you how many times i've had these
interesting conversations like the one that i started
telling you about with my beloved uncles who
say to me brother how did you embrace
islam i say through hip-hop they say
through what and then i have to give
an explanation of what hip-hop is before
they think it's some type of dance we're
about to start doing the first time i
heard the name of allah was in hip
-hop music the first time i heard the
name of prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam was
in hip-hop music the thing that turned
us on to looking into the nation of
islam and ultimately led us to embrace al
-islam was hip-hop music and was social
resistance and authentic beautiful black protests against white
supremacy in this country and this is another
lesson that we have to think about if
muhammad ali was a contemporary of the times
that we live in if his popularity as
a boxer and his popularity as a person
of resistance was today how many of us
would want to disassociate ourselves with him how
many of us would say to him brother
you just need to keep it calm brother
you don't want to ruffle any feathers brother
you don't want to say anything too upsetting
they're going to put us all in guantanamo
bay or they're going to ship us away
they're going to take away our green card
citizenship they're going to build walls and keep
us out of this country how many of
us would shy away from that very struggle
not realizing that the very ability for us
to congregate here today as muslims with the
beautiful diversity that we represent only came on
the back of those people who struggled and
spoke truth to the very evil power of
white supremacy in that time not realizing that
america and membership in america citizenship in america
and having a place at the table in
america has always been a negotiation and it
has never been a negotiation where the meek
-hearted the weak-hearted the apologetic are successful
it has always been a negotiation where people
who know themselves and understand themselves and no
one understand god and no one understand the
context of the reality that they live in
those are the people who are successful and
that in no way shape or form makes
you radical and if that makes you radical
then i guess it makes you radical it
doesn't mean that you're some type of jihadist
it means that you're somebody who knows himself
and realizes that we like all people have
a right to be in this country and
i say that to you as a descendant
of european native american and black people that
struggle that is america lives in the very
center of my chest i feel it very
real and very present so when people say
you muslims need to go back to islam
we say to them you're right we do
need to go back to islam but it's
not a place it's not a place that
islam is a path it's a reality it's
a practice that we believe in and we
practice but as muslims we're not going anywhere
we are not going anywhere and this is
the second lesson many people on their day
today and in the depths of their soul
think about and have an attachment to and
invest in the places where their grandparents are
buried and in that is a natural instinctual
connectivity to one's heritage and one's lineage that
we think about where our grandparents are buried
or perhaps our parents are buried and we
have a connection to that place and frankly
if i ever moved out of america again
i would have that same thing with america
because my grandparents are buried here and my
parents are likely to be buried here but
as muslims in america the questions that we've
got to begin asking are actually around where
we and our children and their children are
likely to be buried are we going to
go home to a different place or is
there a myth of return that we must
challenge as a community that we still love
and care about and pray for and invest
in and hope for the development of and
work toward the betterment of the societies from
which we hail but as muslims in america
we recognize and understand that we are here
they were going to be here for a
very long time they were probably going to
be buried here and our children are probably
going to be buried here and their children
are probably going to be buried here and
when we begin thinking about that then we've
got to ask a really big question are
we practicing an islam and are we sharing
an islam and are we building an articulation
of islam that the people who we're surrounded
by and dare i say our people are
we practicing in islam are we sharing in
islam that our people might actually embrace and
are we practicing in islam are we working
toward an islam are we investing in an
islam that our children and their children might
actually practice in this place and i'm here
to tell you that there are many things
in the way that we teach islam in
the way that we practice islam that if
we are not careful they're not going to
work they're not going to be sustainable i'm
thankful to allah for this center and the
spirit of this center and the people who
run this center because i feel safe and
feel at home here but we have to
be honest that the bay area is an
anomaly and that even this center is an
anomaly and that so often our youth when
they hear about islam they don't hear an
islam that is telling them you're beautiful that
you're good that you have potential they're hearing
a voice on behalf of islam that is
telling them you're condemned for any number of
things for not being religious enough for not
looking religious enough for not being good enough
and it's something that the reverend cosby said
at the beginning of the memorial service today
uh that i was attempting to listen to
on my way here he talked about the
derby and how you and pardon the metaphor
it's just an analogy i'm not encouraging anybody
bet nor am i saying it's halal it's
just what he mentioned that in the kentucky
derby you can't bet on the horses when
they're already winning then when you bet you've
got to bet why they're in the mud
so when we think about our youth we
can't invest in our youth once they're good
enough once they're practicing enough once they turn
out how we wanted them to turn out
once they behave the way we wanted them
to behave we've got to invest in them
and love them and support them and encourage
them and hold them and lift them up
while they're in the mud and i'm here
to tell you that many of our youth
many of the youth of the people in
this own center you may not know it
you may not realize it you may not
even see it you may be so concerned
with whatever you're concerned with that your own
children are in the mud and you can't
even feel it how many times have muslim
youth come to me and i'm an atheist
and my parents don't even know it how
many times have we talked to muslim youth
that are engaged in illicit relationships and of
course their parents don't even know it etc
etc but for those very youth who may
find themselves in the mud what would muhammad
ali tell them would he tell them i'm
sorry it's too late you're a bad muslim
or would he tell them it's okay there's
potential you're beautiful and we're here to support
you may allah help us all and the
final lesson that i'll share today from muhammad
ali's legacy is that he was a fearless
person one of the reasons we find ourselves
not as successful as we could find ourselves
socially politically economically and otherwise is because we're
afraid of other than allah one time sayyidina
abdullah ibn omar was leading a group of
people into mecca and the caravan stopped and
he said to them why did you stop
they said there's a lion on the road
he said take me to the lion and
he walked up to the lion and he
said to him lion we're a group of
companions of the prophet muhammad we want to
enter the meccan sanctuary get out of the
way may allah have mercy on you and
they said that the lion nodded his head
and did a little lion noise and moved
out of the way no that's an awkward
moment someone's talking to a lion he came
back and they said do you actually speak
to a lion he said i
heard the messenger of allah say indeed nothing
will be given power over the son of
adam except that which he or she fears
and if the human being feared no one
other than allah he would never give anybody
power over them except for him in other
words the only thing that people will be
made subjugate to are the things that they
fear and muhammad ali was fearless and he
was fearless in a time not when america
was lobbying empty threats not when america was
attempting to shake the hearts of the people
through meaningless political rhetoric he was fearless in
a time when america was unleashing dogs on
the people when america was spraying the people
with water cannons in the street he was
fearless and unafraid to say that he was
muslim to identify at a time when it
cost him a lot of money and a
lot of popularity but he never gave up
so we pray to allah in this very
moment that he take fear of everyone except
him out of our hearts you see you
even afraid to say i mean but we
have to say i mean we we pray
that allah take fear of everybody except him
out of our hearts and we don't fear
allah the way we fear a crooked cop
we don't fear allah the way we fear
a crooked boss we don't fear allah the
way we fear an angry person we fear
allah because we're in awe of allah and
we fear allah because allah is great we
don't fear a lot because we think he's
trying to get us on some technicality we
fear allah because allah is so great and
when you fear allah you will not have
fear of other things you won't have fear
of poverty you won't have fear of failure
you won't have fear that your children won't
turn out the way that you want them
to turn out when you have fear of
allah awe of allah love of allah everything
will be all right.
We have to know people that we're in
a very monumental moment historically and a very
monumental moment cosmically and that being Muslim in
America has implications not only for the Muslim
community in America and for the American people
but for the whole world.
So let us invest in this opportunity.
These institutions that we are to support, that
should be something that is a foregone conclusion.
The obligation of sustaining and supporting the Masajid
and supporting the organizations that are doing important
work in America, that should be a foregone
conclusion.
And in that we should see a well
-known right for Allah and our wealth and
our time and in our person.
I pray to Allah that He accept from
us all and that He give us to
rise to the occasion of serving Him and
following His Prophet in this moment.
Alhamdulillahi wa kafa wa salamu ala ibadihi ladhina
as-sofa wa sallallahu wa sallamu wa barak
ala Sayyidina Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
wa min wa ala wa salim tasneemin kathiran
ya ayyuhal mu'minoonil hadhidun inni ussi nafsi wa
ayyakum ittaqw Allah fa ittaqw Allah ta'ala
ma sata'atun wa'lamu anna Allah ta
'ala ma aladhina taqaw wa ladhina hum muhsinun.
We began the sermon today with the story
of walking out of a masjid and a
beloved uncle asking me where I was from
and us going through that process of having
to explain to him that I am an
American.
I'm reminded the reason actually that I share
that story is because Dr. Sherman Jackson offered
yesterday in his comments at the janazah service
that Muhammad Ali put to rest forever the
question can someone be Muslim and be an
American that he said he indeed he KO'd
it he knocked it out and he said
that we should let that idea be in
turn with his remains that might be brothers
and sisters the most important part of the
legacy of Muhammad Ali that he proved to
the people that you can be a Muslim
and you can be an American and let
us be crystal clear that he did that
while being completely independent and self-authenticating in
other words he didn't need permission from the
dominant culture to be who he was it
didn't mean that he had to let go
of his culture and I say to you
as my beloved community that you do not
have to let go of your culture to
be an American Muslim and let us also
be crystal clear that he did that while
unapologetically protesting against foreign policy that was not
consistent with the best of America's values and
he did that while willing to sacrifice his
own wealth and his own prestige because he
was against wars that were unjust so we
as Muslims in America as we embrace the
idea as we hold true the idea that
we are both Muslim and we are American
we do so while unapologetically believing in Allah
and following his prophet and also unapologetically championing
the good that America does and condemning the
bad that she may do but we do
that as citizens of this country loving this
country and if nothing else remember that while
some of us may have somewhere else to
go people who embrace Islam in America they
have no other home this is our only
home we have nowhere to go trust me
I tried I traveled all throughout the Muslim
world thought I was going to find a
utopia thought it was going to be people
just making Salat all day long came came
to realize it is nowhere perfect there's nowhere
perfect but we are where we are and
the only perfect place is a place where
Allah puts you and Allah puts you where
he puts you for a wisdom he puts
you where he puts you for a wisdom
he puts you where he puts you for
a reason there's a hikmah and why Allah
has us here and nobody not any political
candidate not any uh anybody else with an
agenda is going to take away from us
our permission and our obligation to be where
we are and as we are where we
are to glorify Allah and follow his prophet
we pray that Allah bless us and what
remains of Ramadan and that he accept from
us our fasting and our prayer and our
standing and we pray that Allah accept from
us our charity and we pray to Allah
that he continue to make this month a
month of relief and a month of belief
and a month of ease oh Allah we
ask you that you help the ummah of
the prophet and that you forgive the of
the prophet and you show your mercy to
the prophet and that you be gentle with
the ummah of the prophet and that you
make us Allahumma a source of blessing for
the ummah of the prophet and that you
make us Allahumma the most merciful of the
ummah of the prophet to the ummah of
the sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ya rabbil alameen
inna allaha wa malaikatuhu yusalluna ala nabi ya
ayyuhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi wa salimu taslima
allahumma salli ala muhammadin wa ala aali muhammad
kama sallayta ala ibrahim wa ala aali ibrahim
wa barikilahumma ala muhammadin wa ala aali muhammadin
kama barakta ala ibrahim wa ala aali ibrahim
fil alameena innaka hameedun majeed allahumma ghfirlil muslimina
wal muslimat wal mu'mineena wal mu'minat al ahya
'i minhum wal amwat innaka samiun qareebun mujeebu
da'wat allahumma inna nas'aluka ridaaka wa
jannah wa ma yukarribu ilayhima min qawlin wa
amal wa na'udhu bika min sakhatika wa
nnar wa ma yukarribu ilayhima min qawlin wa
amal allahumma inna nas'aluka min khayri ma
sa'alaka minhu abduka wa rasuluka sayyidina muhammadun
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ibadaka salihun wa
na'udhu bika min sharri ma sa'adaka
minhu sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam wa
ibadaka salihun wa anta al musta'an wa
alayka al balagh wa la hawla wa la
quwwata illa billahi l-aliyyi l-azim rabbana
aatina fil dunya hasana wa fil aakhirati hasana
wa qina athab al nar allahumma rabbana la
tuziq qulubana ba'da idh hadaytana wahab lana min
ladunka rahma innaka anta al wahab subhana rabbika
rabbal izzati amma yasifoon wa salamun ala al
mursaleen walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen Al Fatiha.