Yaser Birjas – The Importance Of Unity
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the upcoming holiday season and the importance of unity and support for individuals to avoid negative consequences. They emphasize the need for unity and support for individuals to avoid negative consequences, and discuss the history of the Muslim community and its use in protecting individuals from evil behavior. The importance of forgiveness and patient learning is emphasized, as it can lead to division and cultural misunderstandings.
AI: Summary ©
salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Alhamdulillah Allah Allah sallallahu wasallam Baraka Nabina Muhammad, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa seldom at the Sleeman kathira sumava.
Mother brothers and sisters first of all a Doku Mubarak. I know it's a little bit late, but still, it is always Mubarak and Allah subhanho wa Taala accept your deeds of the month of Ramadan and ask Allah azza wa jal to accept your fasting to accept your Korea to accept your Salah melas accept the recitation of the Quran and all the goodies that you have done during the month of Ramadan and to continue inshallah Baraka to Allah after this. Now, I want you to imagine, I want you to imagine that we live in year 25
years 2025 you turn the TV on, and you're watching CNN and abc news in Fox News, and then there is suddenly a national announcement. They say national announcements, and it's Ramadan announcement. They have Mashallah this bearded guy molana or Imam XYZ, the head Imam of the amounts of America comes out wishing Ramadan greetings to all the people of America in particular the Muslim community. Announcing the next day will be the month of Ramadan and wishing you the blessed month of Ramadan to begin next day prepared for that. And then in your own Masjid, Mashallah. You're going out next day in the morning you say Where are you going to be praying taraweeh so I'm going to be praying this
method so no one is arguing But still, it's not a it's not Ramadan yet. As you know, we had Ramadan 100 announcement yesterday, everybody now have the same announcement. And all the Imams are wishing each other hamdulillah read move on Ramadan, Mubarak and so on. And then a month later, you had the same Imam comes out the national national TV, the head of the Imams of America, and his wishing you all a Nevada imagine this. How beautiful would that look like a new year? 2025 What do you guys think about that? Wouldn't that be amazing?
Wouldn't that be amazing for the Muslim oh man America here to have the same Ramadan from the beginning to the end. And that we fast together. We pray it all away at the same time. And we also finish Ramadan and we celebrate there in the same day. Wouldn't that be amazing and ask them for all of us? I'm sure it is.
It really disheartens you when you go out to start Ramadan the next day, your most your coworker the Muslim maybe next office or just next to you is still eating says
Ramadan says no demand says I'm sorry, it is going to start to more on shallow than and it will be the opposite at the end of the month of Ramadan. You're absent because you're praying aid and your co workers are still fasting. Next day thereafter what happens so Allah read handler today was read Hey, we had it yesterday. So we have different ages different madonn that's really really disheartening. When you see these differences among the Muslim oma and again, when you have this as a national thing for the whole Muslim community would be amazing. I don't know 2025 I'm hoping that inshallah we'll by then, we will have everything ready for the Muslim oma. Some might say ashes were
so hopeful.
We still have a long way to go. Before we get to that point, when this becomes a mainstream and the society and we have these Islamic events as part of again of the national fabric of this community. Why do people really want to have a one on one community? Why do you need that for what exactly we get out of this? I'm sure just like everyone else, whenever you hear the announcements for Ramadan, and you know that everybody's going to be fasting with it you did you feel relieved? When we had an AMA last year in particular, when everybody everybody those who go by calculation by global moon sorry, local mode, they all agreed at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, Al Hamdulillah. Ramadan
is tomorrow. everybody agreed on that. Everybody was happy so hamdulillah and you could see people smiling less, you know, stressed out because Mashallah, we finally got it together.
They were disappointed for the Edo
because we had different settings for it, but still, at least they want to get together. Why do people want to get together first and foremost? Because they want to have that peace of mind that the Muslim Ummah is only one and we all as one unit. So we will celebrate our nationalism
And analytics activities, we do that as one community. The second thing when it comes to these specific national
events, we would like to feel belong the belonging, feeling that we belong to this community. We belong to this deal and this society, the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam said about the believers that they are all al Muslim Muna says Gemma they all one unit, one community, welcome yada yada and so on and they're all together now in respect to others, so you see yourself that you belong to that large oma large community specifically, you know that all those who say Lyla Muhammad Rasulullah they're almost 1.6 billion means one out of five I want to for people on earth, saying La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah and what do you get out of this? You feel the power you feel the
power as one can look at you here sitting in this room Mashallah. It's almost full. Imagine that when you advertise for all this beautiful event? Half of this crowd came to this room. Wouldn't you feel disheartened that half the rest of the room is empty? Absolutely. What do you have everybody in Mashallah, you feel the power and you feel the strength? Allah subhanho wa Taala says well Latinas are fatter shallow waters,
which means do not this do not differ with each other, further shallow, otherwise, you will fail means failed to become united and one oma waterberry hokum annual power your power and strength will go away.
We also you need that unity because the prophets Allah Sam says he had Allahu Allah Gemma, Allah subhanho wa Taala, Allah azza wa jal his hand in a manner that says His Majesty is worth the Gemma with that unity. So when you're together, you would have Allah subhanho wa Taala, would you support the engine, but when you're divided, Allah would leave you for it for yourself. And each group will be working on its own. And we all know how dangerous it is to stay away from the Muslim community in general from the Gemma from the from the from that unit, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said woman shed the shed definitely, if you're just like a loner, then that's how we would go ahead and belong
to Johanna. So staying together as one unit gives us that sense of belonging, sense of unity and you would love to feel that and if you are going just to live among the Muslim community hearing nothing except for disagreement in regard to the beginning of the month of Ramadan, and the end of the month of Ramadan. And when you agree on Ramadan, you have another disagreement over what salata taraweeh
Are we going to be praying eight or 20?
And if you say eight or 20 are you going to finish the whole course on just half of it? And if you do so so you have so many other issues that Ramadan does not pass you know without feeling a little bit you know, disheartened at some point and sometimes feeling so guilty that you're not wishing happy read happy Ramadan other people at the same time.
One time
as a matter of the law of the land, who became the halifa drove across a different drama. He led the Muslim in in the Hajj season and he was in minute leading Salah. First of all, how many of you How many of you went to Hajj, raise your hand if you went to Hajj.
Okay, just few people went to Hajj. If you ever go to Hajj, you will see that when you spend a Yama trip, the days after the day, you will be praying in Mina, though for us or
Asia and serger and you're going to be doing puzzles for boho mistura aka photo turaga for us or turaga for Asia. So being a messiah for a traveler,
then and that's what the prophet SAW Sam did. That's what Omarosa did. That's what was the man rhodiola. And so when when one at the beginning of his reign, actually the halifa then suddenly, one day of that season one season, or if none of the Aladdin decided to play the full number of records. So he stopped practicing because he's now doing the full Salah forager
of dilemmas, didn't like it. And I believe Miss Ruth was another senior Sahabi he didn't like that. He says, Well, that's not the son of the Prophet. That's not what the Prophet did. So when Still though, we're not below mustard. He brought his opinion publicly and Othman. He gave his interpretation of the of the event and the incident, it was justified. However, Abdullah Massoud still did not follow did not follow that opinion of Earth man. When it was time for Salah guess what Abdullah Massoud he prayed behind with man
and he prayed the full Salah will with the students of Abdullah Mossad with them. When they finished a lot. They looked at their teacher and they said, What is it? What's going on? You said what you said about you know that he's not
not following the right methodology of the prophet SAW the last element as a frame the cursor, and now we're praying just like he did. So he gave his very famous statement it says Allah, Allah for sure.
These disputes and disagreements, they produce evil, which means we're gonna cut that evil here. It's over. He's the man. He's the leader. He made industry hard. It's justified, even though I disagree with that opinion. But I need to follow him. Somehow Imagine if every Muslim would follow that spirit of Abdullah Massoud, when it comes to dealing of these kind of differences in the Muslim community. See that spirit of the healer of the oma is began way at that time. But they had the etiquette and the manners and the law, to know how to handle these issues. Until Unfortunately, they got into that political crisis that led to what is known as Caleb no Sahaba, that political crisis
that led to that to the Civil War, among the companions of the allowed and on him, but that is on a political level. In terms of fixed issues and practicing of the deen, they were still united and these principles are they allowed to run home or down.
If you get divided, eventually, you end up very weak, and you won't have that power. And that sense of belonging to that community. I guess we all understand. We all know the story of the father who before he died, he had many children. So before he died, he brought his children. And he asked them, What do you guys are going to do after I leave after I die? How are you going to treat each other. So they have their own plans and their own different opinions and so on. So you wanted to teach them how to get together stay together, united. So he brought them a bunch of sticks, basically. And he bound them together. And he has he asked each and every one of them to break it. And if anyone
succeeds, he will get such and such reward.
So everyone tried with his muscles to break it using their knees using their hands, you know, their elbows, whatever they tried, but it couldn't. Each and every one of them from the youngest to the oldest from the oldest to the youngest. They could not they fail, they all failed.
And they said okay, give it back to me. So give him that bunch of sticks. And then now he untied them. Then he gave each one of them. One stick, he says now breaking. Of course it was easy for them to break it. He says this is your example. That's exactly the example of this community. Together. You're so strong. alone. You're very, very weak.
And abyssal illallah wa sallam that meeting he gave another example he said sal Allahu Allah wa salam, Al Muslim, Lil Muslim elbonian you should do Babu Baba. I believer to the believer is just like a structure worship back Sabina Saba and he sallallahu sallam, he used his hands to illustrate that demonstrate this like this. Look at this like a structure. It is so strong you should do baba baba means one finger is very weak, can easily be broken. Two might be three gets stronger. But when you put all these fingers together like this, you creating this unit right now this structure becomes so strong, he says you should do bada bada, you will be one another you will assist and help
and support one another to become so strong.
Now even in our habitat, our Deen is all about spreading that sense of unity and getting together and being one group on one oma see even in our ibadat you see Sato Gemma just right now. You press a lot of motive, didn't you? And you have seen that you prayed together. Paula amazingly, even if you have difference of opinion with the Imam, you're going to still be praying behind the Imam following his lead.
If the Imam says Allah Akbar, you can't you don't dare say I disagree.
If the Imam says go to go through the request, I didn't finish it. You can say that. And guess what even if you didn't finish reading, you still feeling obligated to follow the lead of the Imam and interrupt your citation saying Allah Akbar you go down to the ruku and when the man comes back some Allah Allah Mohammed Ah, you again you follow his lead to stay with what would that Gemma and that group?
Why is that because we were trained by our Dean, that you follow one can you become one unit and one group and one Gema even again, even if you disagree with that Imam on issues that does not mean that you disagree with him on the ibadah and worshiping Allah subhana wa tada look at Friday's Allah salado Gemma Soto Juma I'm sure that all of us we go to massage sometimes you go different massage
You will have some issues with whether the board of that Masjid, the community there, the IMA, whatever, we have these issues. I'm one of these imams as well I'm sure that everybody like everybody else would have some issues with the people. But when it comes to what a Juma would it come to this to listen to the spirit of the whole purpose of the man, you have the the people, I would say the vast majority in this case, because I know somebody will be talking, but you will have the vast majority of the population in the massage will sit down and listen to the Imam and just pay attention to what he says. Or at least they don't interrupt.
Why is that? Because we were taught that this house maybe it needs to be done. You need to be one group one Gemma perform one act of worship.
Even when you travel, and I'm sure in this country you guys you drive a lot in this area, go from one city to the others. So Pamela, even when you travel, the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he taught us the sense of unity of being together. He said Salah last time if you travel alone call our
Roku shaitaan one traveler is just like a shotgun which means he did it there was a great tendency the shaitaan will be with them with that with with him with that person. Why? Because when you're alone, let's suppose of the shadow great might be influenced easily by the shaitaan he said Allah nan shaitana two might be two devils why because each one of them will inspire evil to the other says How about doing that? So Yeah, why not?
But then he said was salata to rock but three is a group.
Three people is a group. That means if two would say let's do this, the other might say come on guys. We can do this.
And other two agree on something else that is wrong. The third will say I don't there do not know what if my parents my mom hears about this, I'm going to be in trouble. Fine little bit about the mother but some holla three will be Gemma will be group. So the Prophet is intelligence even when you travel, you better traveled in groups so you protect yourself. And even he says to the law salon that any group of people who traveled together three when they traveled together, they should assign a leader,
a leader for what reason to maintain that sense of unity and sense of being a gem our group, of course, understand that sometimes our brothers or sisters, whenever they lead these kind of groups, they misunderstand the meaning of being in that position. They think it's an authority, although it is actually responsibility before anything else. So we have to understand it at the same time. Now we also see that from the seat of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. How many of you How many of you read the zero of the profit or loss of the biography or the life of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam Raise your hand if you read the life of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam?
If you've ever read any book about the prophets, Allah Sam's life Raise your hands. Let me see that. Okay, so that's almost everybody. Do you guys remember the hijra?
Do you remember the hydro denigration of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? What does the prophet SAW Selim do? He asked everybody to immigrate to one city for what reason? To create the Gema they own in Mecca were unable to achieve that. Why? Because they were. They were chased out. They were tortured. They were killed. Because they said La la la Muhammad Rasul Allah, if they were allowed to say that freely, they will move out of Mecca. But because they could not do it, the Prophet says, and we wanted to protect this group of believers. So he sent them out to another city who was willing to hurt this faith. Yesterday, Almudena after that. So the Prophet sallallahu
wasallam. He sent everybody to create the gym and then when he arrived there, so a lot of sudden, he started solidifying this system by creating what we know as Al Maha, the system of brotherhood and sisterhood. Do you guys know that when the Mahajan left Mecca, many of them are rich people and they left everything behind and they came to America carrying nothing except for that which is on there by the clothes on their backs. That's it, like a man of an alpha delta and he was a very wealthy man. They survived he was so clever as a merchant, that he would be able to turn the sands of the desert into gold if he wanted to, he can convince you this is gold buy it from him. He was so clever
on the line. But when he went to Medina, he carried nothing with him. So the property assigned one Ansari, one of the of the residents of of Medina to be his brother. So this man is dealing with a complete stranger right now. He said this is my job 100 Allah I'm a wealthy person here in Medina. I have multiple houses choose one I'll give it to you. I have such and such money and how much money are split house split in half. inshallah I have these gardens I can split to give you this garden, this is mine. And even he said, I have more than one wife. If you want choose one of them. I'll divorce her for you. And then after she's done for murder, you can marry her to that extent. But he
said to him, call Avantika Lola caffee Malik of Alico Malik mala bless you in your wealth and your family.
Just Where's your marketplace? Show me your marketplace. He was very clever they allowed around he could take advantage of this man. But he was Marshal a lot of the 11 he was very honest and very the he said just show me your marketplace. So he went to the marketplace after one week the prophets of Allah salon sees Rachmaninov walking in the streets of Medina and he sends Mashallah the beautiful, the beautiful fragments and other from him. And he looked here he died his his his beard, he says, Mashallah, what is this man? Because I just got married
in one week. Now all the buttons say oh my god Mashallah, that's easy. Let's go back to Medina. Gemma. Here it takes ages to get married. But there he just got married in one week. So the property asked him how much did you give her and he says there was no not in
the way of date stone in gold. So that was excess money for him. Meaning in one week, he was able to recover from all the loss that he had because of the Hydra. And he had Mashallah excess wealth, to give them much money and also to show on him. My point here is that the Sahaba, when they went to Medina, they did not worry about things in life because they were supported by that great community, that oma that was established in Medina. Another thing that creates this oma for us is following one example. And there is no example better than the example for sort of La he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there is nothing better than the example of Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, you know, why do
Muslims, let's say wherever they wherever you go, you can tell who's a Muslim and who's not. Sometimes you can tell them. Of course, the sisters are more visible when they wear their hijab than the guys. So whenever you go, you can tell a Muslim from a non Muslim somehow, that's amazing thing, really. And that shows you that there is a sense of unity, when you see the science of Muslims in anyone. And by the way, even myself when I walk around, actually with this beard, sometimes you cannot tell if you're a rabbi or a mom.
Honestly, when you see someone with a with a with a beard, and you say Salaam Alaikum. That actually did happen. I one time I was in one of these airports. So a guy passed by, and he said, Shalom, I said waalaikumsalam.
He was a rabbi, actually, because I saw that clip out of his head after he passed by, I don't know if he thought he thought of me as a rabbi. But at the same time, I thought he was an Imam says Allah komatsuna. Regardless, you have that sense of feeling that you belong to that group or that oma because of some visible traces. Here, you can see that and will lie, you see that this following that tradition of Islam and the addition of the Muslim and the son of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam brings this uniformity and unity in the oma. And it just happened with us. this past Monday, I was driving with my family from the far west side of Texas in El Paso all the way to
Dallas, that's about 10 hours, 11 hours drive. It's a family road trip. So on the way back from Hanna law, after driving for almost two, three hours, the highway was was blocked, there was some sort of trail situation,
train busy situation that they had to close the whole, the whole actually highway and having the children with us. It wasn't that pleasant, you know, for foreclosure at that time in the middle of the day. And it stayed until past Sunset at night. During that time of the three, four hours. We got really tired. So to start, we start taking a walk outside, my friend, my wife would have a job, the kids walking around. And then suddenly after we went back again to the event after three, four hours, someone knocks on the window.
And then I was just kind of worried because it's dark. I couldn't see who's behind that window. But it's open the window. So this guy he just repeats from Brian says Salaam Alaikum brother. I said walaikum salam. He goes, you guys I've seen you. I've seen you know walking around with children. Do you need water or food?
I said well, light is amazing. I said honestly, we run out of water. I wonder if you have some water? He goes, Yeah, of course. He was the truck driver behind us. 18 wheelers that was topping behind us, Paula, the guy was a Muslim. So he came out. He says My name is Mohammed. And he was from another city from Houston. And we start having this beautiful conversation and he shared almost all the food he had in his truck line called water sodas. And he brought her son when he bought the food and he wanted in his in his
in accident and the microwave in his truck. And he said don't worry, it's all halaal brother, it's all held up.
And I said Does that sound like a lot is amazing. It's like an angel coming Subhanallah you are in the middle of the desert. There is nothing anywhere in the area. Nothing the closest town was another actually our drive has to go all the way back. So we run out of water didn't prepare for that event. By
Here's this man coming back. And what really prompted him to do so when he saw my map with the hegemony. So the key Swami says they might need help, because there are other people around holla. But that kind of sense and feeling of belonging of that oma is an amazing thing. Actually, there is so much we could really say about that. And I'm sure that in your mind, and I will close with this and shout out a few quick points on how can you really achieve this, this unity among yourselves as a group as a community, and what really hurts This, this, the sense of unity? First of all, what really hurts the sense of unity among the Muslim Ummah, is selfless selfishness, and any hope of
that? When everything revolves around you. That's when things become divided. One individual thinks his opinion is better than everybody else becomes superior over other people, you cannot get to a common ground, you will never achieve unity with each other. Ignorance is also a factor. Because of their ignorance. People they think that they have the right to transcend transgress against other groups or other people if they have difference of opinion with them. And most importantly, bad habits and bad luck. Which brings me actually to the opposite. Now how can you How can you create this unity among yourselves? First and foremost is to have sincerely to Allah subhanho wa Taala to
the messenger, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his method and methodology and sooner. And also to the fellow brothers and sisters who are around you, when you give them advice. You're giving that advice because you care about them, and you care for them. It's not because they're wrong, and you're right. You just care for them and care about them ally.
Number two knowledge.
The more you know, the more empowered you become to create this uniformity and unity among the oma. And by the way, if you see anyone claim to have the knowledge and creating fitna it's not from our digital Islam even to me Rahim Allah to Allah He said that, that these are these attitudes of Judah, which means disputations and fighting and transgression and so on. This is not from our Deen
a knowledgeable person cannot get to that would not actually do or achieve any of these things. Also, a brotherhood and sister and that's what Allah says in number mithoon.
It just like I don't know, it's like a slogan the Muslim community. But that's the bottom line of the unity of the Muslim Ummah in number minocqua. Muslims are like brothers and sisters. And then Allah says for us, Lee who may not awaken so try to reconcile between your brothers and sisters, which means don't expect the Muslim Ummah or community to always Mashallah be at harmony with each other. You always have some issues. But the methodology Allah is referring us to the principles that we should refer to and here in this ayah is for us, Lee, who try to reconcile that they get to with each other to solve these issues, instead of fighting over these issues, just to reconcile that's
the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and finally the love and manners, your manners, and your love. And I mean by that things like altruism and ethos. Imagine if every Muslim prefer others over his personal or her personal needs. So you always come second or third, in terms of priority in your own mind. instead of always, you first Imagine if you always think that other people have the right like yourself, has the same right for you know, just like everybody else. Also Alamosa means to care about each other. When you know someone's in crisis, you care for them and you care about them. Forgiveness, when someone does something wrong to you forgive them, and a sober
being patient. These last two qualities were mentioned in one of the great writings of immigrant temperamental ly Dalai
Lama. He says that the reason we have these disputations and fightings and quarrels among the Muslim oma says because one of two things is whenever we have a problem in the Muslim community, it always begins with the first party transgression against the other party. Someone says something wrong, something bad, unfair, did something that let's say they did something wrong against someone else. So that's the first thing understood whether it's justified or not, it doesn't matter right now. But then the reason we have a problem, he said, because of the second party right now. They don't show patience.
They don't forgive they don't show patience. Now imagine the first person transgress the other party instead of taking taken the revenge of it. They will say, thank you very much. mela forgive you.
What would happen until a problem solved?
Which is the problem begins when the second party transgresses again, by doing maybe paying back exactly the same thing, if not even worse. That's when we always have these problems. It keeps escalating, escalating. I will never get united. How can we do that? Start with yourself. First and foremost, don't say well, I handle you right? Yeah, it's like a locker and you start looking at the person next to CDC, I told you, I will say look at yourself first. And you begin from within yourself, and then from those who are closest to you and shallow data and moving to the Muslim community, teach yourself the manner and depth lack of sub patience and forgiveness. If you acquire
these two qualities, you have been given the greatest The greatest neuroma blessing from Allah subhanho wa Taala. The Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says in the Hadith mabuti I had an ATA and abdominal solder. No one was ever given a virtue better than patience. Start with this, learn how to be patient. And I guarantee you one at a time and Shannon Muslim Omar, I will solve this problem. We will always be united desert Malacca was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.