On The Shoulders of Giants

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah vida de he was a happy woman, what?

Have any of you ever thought, when the time is gonna come?

When your legacy is going to be remembered? After you have gone or after I have gone and there will be loved ones, there will be family and friends, there will be acquaintances, and they will gather around, and my name will be mentioned after I'm gone and your name will be mentioned after you're gone. Have you ever thought what that legacy is going to be?

Have you ever asked Allah to bless you with a good legacy? Do you know that our father Abraham Ibrahim alayhis, salam, he made a dua to Allah to have a beautiful legacies in the Quran, which I listen to can fill in. And Allah make and give me the tongues that are pure to remember me in the later days. scholars say the tongues that are pure that remember him is the positive legacy that Ibrahim left for all of mankind. Pure tongues from all Abrahamic faiths are praising Ibrahim and Ibrahim made you out to Allah, Allah, Allah, I want that pure legacy. It is a part of Islam, to want to leave a legacy that is positive and productive long after you have gone. Allah says in the Quran,

why not to booma Devo. What's the next phase? What are sorrow, we're gonna write down that which they left behind. And we shall also write down the legacy they have left when they leave. So Allah will record what you've done, and along will record the legacy that you will leave behind. So leaving a positive legacy is a part and parcel it is the desire of every sincere person, we should be thinking right here and now what my legacy is going to be after I'm gone. And to remember the legacy of those before us and to appreciate what they have done is also a part and parcel of our religion of the Quranic do as well Ladies and gentlemen, burden him those that come after. What do

they say? Your Kowloon they say to Allah robina Filipina Wally one in alladhina sobre una de man, Allah forgive us, and forgive our brethren who preceded the way before us, who laid the foundations for us, our love, forgive us, and forgive those who laid the foundations for us. Notice that is not about the future, because you don't know the future. The drive is about the past, those that came before we would not be here had it not been for their sacrifice for all that they have done. And that is why as our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said he who does not thank the people does not thank Allah and a part of thanking the people is to also thank this bit giants upon which the

shoulders of which we stand upon right here and now. And this is something again, from the core of our tradition to remember those who have gone on to remember those that have preceded when there are so many examples I'm just giving right now this series of the Sahaba and we just did the Sahabi Zubaydah vanilla one, one of the 10 promised genda, one of the greatest of the companions, the howdy of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam zubaid, he had 10 sons, every one of his sons he named after somebody who was no longer alive, but who laid the foundations for the Muslim community is in Medina, all 10 of his sons he mentioned so and so who was tortured in Makkah, so and so who died in

this battle, so and so who this happened to and they're no longer here, each and every one of his sons. He wanted to keep the legacy of those that had preceded alive. And as we as well honor those that have gone on, and this is a beautiful point, it's a theological point. Listen to this interesting tidbit. We are required by Allah to mention the legacy of those that have preceded now, as we mentioned their legacy as we praise them, as we honor them. This is a divine sign that Allah is honoring them. Our honoring of them is a microcosmic infinitesimally symptomatic, honoring of Allah subhana wa Tada. What gives me the right to say this, none other than our Prophet sallallahu

alayhi wa sallam he said in that famous

added unto shuhada Allah He filled out You are the ones who are bearing testimony to Allah subhana wa tada in this world once a janazah passed by once a funeral procession passed by, and our prophet SAW Selim was sitting and the people began to mention, oh, this guy, thank God, he's gone. He was an evil man. He did this. He did that. And our Profit System said, What? Yeah, but your verdict is binding on him. Then, after a while, another procession passed by when they found out who it was. The companions were shocked, distraught, this person died. He was such he was a generous man. He was a loving man. This was and he kept on praising him and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,

What Yeah, but your verdict on this man has now become obligatory. And then he said, You are the ones who bear Allah's witness in this earth. When you testify to the righteousness of a person insha Allah, it is an indication that that person is right. And this is a beautiful sign here we are gathered today and we're mentioning some of our pioneers that have gone on and insha Allah who to Allah insha Allah, the very fact that all of us in this room has nothing but love for those that have gone on nothing but admiration we're making to offer these people insha Allah it is a sign that we are honoring them because Allah subhana wa tada has honored them, as the famous Hadith says, had

the footsy had it. The Jubilee in himself tells the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he told the Prophet system that when a law love somebody, Allah announces in the heavens, that I love someone, so you love him as well. So the angels love him. And when the angels love him, then love is written for him in this earth. And it is a goal of Islam, that we want that love for ourselves. We want a love, love, we want the angels love. And yes, we want the people's love as well, because that is of the goals of a Muslim, to be beloved to our Creator and to his beloved ones as well. So the question arises, how should we aim to be of those who are beloved, what do we need to do to

establish a positive legacy, and again, much can be sudden as usual time is of the essence. I will mention three characteristics that are mentioned in the Quran and in our traditions, in order to establish an everlasting legacy, three characteristics that insha Allah, our pioneers that were honoring they had, and it is my advice to myself and all of you here that we also imbibe that we also absorb those values. Number one, the most important characteristic, if you truly want to leave a legacy, then everything that you do needs to be done for Allah subhanho wa Taala there must be sincerity, there must be a loss. Allah blesses sincerity for more than he blesses anything else.

Allah says in the Quran with regards to the Prophet Yusuf and Yusuf has a great legacy in home and everybody you know, listening with the custard here he is of our servants who had a class he had sincerity. He is our servants who was blessed with sincerity. When he was blessed with sincerity, his legacy became eternal. Mr. Malik, the famous scholar of Medina, he wrote the first book of Hadith called more thought, and when he wrote it, everybody began copying, and everybody began writing versions of Hadith as well. One of his students said, Oh, Mr. Malik, what's the purpose of your book now? What's the purpose? everybody's done it? Nami, Malik said, makanda de la Bahia. What

is done for Allah shall remain, and what is done further than Allah will not remain. After 13 centuries, when you say more thought, you don't think of the other 100 people who wrote them, what do you think of only one and that is Mr. Magic. What is done for a law shall remain. Think about that. When you think of legacy, when we're thinking of our pioneers, when we are remembering, even though they have long gone from this earth are no longer amongst us. Why are we recognizing them? Because insha Allah, they had sincerity. Number two, you want to leave a legacy. You want to be great after you're gone. You want to make sure that people remember your name and praise it. Then

you need to eliminate your ego and be humble.

Humility is what will gain you that legacy. And Allah subhana wa tada mentions the greatest of the great they had humility. When Solomon when King Solomon when Solomon had all of these blessings that the Quran tells us about when he looked at his kingdom and he saw all of these blessings. What did he say he called them in fog little bit.

This is not my ego, I didn't earn this. This isn't my talent. Allah has blessed me with this, instead of tilaka have a lot of talks about the rich man and his brother who was advising him. And Allah says, on the tongue of the righteous, Allah says, when you entered the garden, why didn't you say Walla Walla in the hunter genetical culture? Masha Allah, La quwata illa Billah. Thank Allah praise Allah, don't ascribe it to yourself, and our Prophet peace be upon him. So Lola who it was seldom, he said, standing on his Limbo, and this is a beautiful headed, look at me because I'm going to imitate exactly what the process of did this isn't the student and the salary that the Sahabi

said the process and was standing on the member. And he took his left hand and he lowered it. And he said, Manta Wald law, the law that he took the right hand or off the whole law, he literally said, whoever humbles himself for the sake of Allah, Allah shall raise him up. He demonstrated, you want to have a legacy. You want to be remembered by the people? Well, then your desire had not be the people. You had better eliminate your ego. You had better eliminate your Kibera and you had better be genuinely humble. Humble yourself, for the people, for your Lord, humble yourself. And this is the irony of ironies. If you truly Humble yourself, the people will respect you. But if you want the

people and you want their praise, and you want their desire, you will never be respected. It is not the pompous, it is not the arrogant, it is not the egotistical that the community loves. It is the humble who sacrifice their egos and the community loves them and raises them up. So eliminate your ego and do what you're doing for the genuine sake of benefit for the sake of Allah. So sincerity and humility. And point number three, the Quran mentions you want to establish a legacy legacies are not built overnight. you require patience subber you require patience. Allah says in the Quran was an imitation. Yeah, do wanna be emelina lama sabado. And we made from amongst them leaders that are

guided leaders that guide others we made from amongst them ima Mr. Doe serve established a legacy, Mr. Those that are looked up to how did they become leaders, Lamar sabado, one day demonstrated Patience, patience, not just in the face of adversity, but patience in the face of seeing the fruits of your efforts, patience in terms of working behind the scenes outside of the spotlight, patience in working with the youth in working with small communities in digging the trenches and not expecting to see the limelight not expecting to bask in the glory, patience at doing things that you think are under appreciated or never appreciated, because true appreciation comes from him. And when

he appreciates you, mankind will appreciate you after that.

legacies are not built overnight, legacies require dedications of decades, and look at the people who were honoring tonight, all of them have served in the trenches in their communities. They have not been basking in the glory, they've been working the dirty trenches in the mud in their communities for decades. And it is only after they do that, that Al Hamdulillah Allah blesses them with that level level of legacy. And that's why as we come here today to honor these particular people in sha Allah, Who tada we see what happens when you're sincere when you're humble. And when you're patient, as we honor these past giants, and we appreciate all that they've done. It is very

true to say that we would not be standing here had a law not blessed us with those predecessors. And unfortunately, brothers and sisters, unfortunately, and allow me to be a little bit frank and honest here. What has happened is that the success of this generation

has been so amazing. our predecessors could never have predicted it. That success has also led to potential dangers. That success has also led to an underbelly, a dark side, because here we are, and some amongst us wherever we go. We are surrounded by throngs of people. Today, I have been told they're 850 people at an annual banquet here in Los Angeles at other conventions we go there's 1000s of people. Some of us have millions of followers on Facebook, hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. With that fame, unfortunately,

Comes the potential underbelly of infamy of corruption of voice. And that is why and I speak now to the second generation. I speak now to those my age and younger than me. That is why it is so important for us to honor and to connect with those who preceded us. I was coming here to speak at your convention. I called up my father many of you know him, Dr. Dr. kasi, who's the founder of the MSA in Texas. 1962. also the founder of HGH is now 85 years old male Eliza would you give him a long and healthy life? I called him up. I said, Can you tell me some stories about Dr. Ahmed Sacher about others that we're going to honor today? And Subhanallah he just told me one anecdote, one anecdote.

He said Dr. Ahmed sucker The first time I met him 1971, we invited him to Houston I was even born back then I was not even born back then. 1971 we invited him to Houston, Texas, for our annual convention. This was the largest gathering of the whole state of Texas, people would come, we would have an annual gathering. And we'd invite one keynote speaker, one, you know, scholar out of the country, and Dr. Muhammad sucker came, and all of us were mesmerized. We'd never seen someone with so much knowledge. We'd never seen someone just so knowledgeable of Islam and so eloquent. And then he said, and he said this very frankly, to me, because he knows who I am and what I'm doing. He

said, you know, yes, sir. In those days, in those days, the thought of giving speakers honorariums, never even crossed our minds.

And he said, in those days, speakers would live with us. I hosted Dr. sucker, my father told me, Dr. sucker lived in our apartment when he came, I said, you never got a hotel for any speaker. And he thought for a while he goes, the only speaker we ever got a hotel for was she called Ah, we when he came in 73 or so as an honor for an external speaker, the first time we budgeted a hotel, otherwise, we would never budget hotels for speakers and SubhanAllah. What we see now brothers and sisters, is that with this Limelight with this fame with this glory, unfortunately,

the fact of the matter is sincerity is are challenged. And we find a new breed. Not all of us, not everyone, but we have to be careful about this. And I spoke with Dr. Jamal Badawi, one of our pioneers in this country about some of his stories as well, and will law his stories and moved me to tears. Dr. Jamal Badawi told me back in the 60s, he would take Greyhound bus from city to city. And he would not even know sometimes which Muslims were in the city, he would get to the bus station and open up the yellow pages in the phone book and call up somebody with last name or somebody with last name Han. And then gather the Muslims there literally 234 Muslims at somebody's house and then have

a hat up, then move on to the next city and to listen to his stories. He would say in those early years that we thought it was a big deal. If 2030 people came in a community, this was a very big deal. And we would all sleep together in the same apartment, the concept of hiring a hall the concept of a banquet, he told me doctor, by the way, he told me we would cook our own food in the graduate dorms at conferences, we would all go to the dorms and cook food to one another and Subhanallah look from where to where. And of course we thank Allah that Al Hamdulillah were so large now we have these fancy dinners and banquets. We thank Allah subhana wa Tada. But we also have to be

frank here and say that, unfortunately, with that fame, and that prestige, corruption can also occur. And there are people we need to be careful about that there are people who they seem to have forgotten the sacrifices of those before the methodologies of those before. They seem to have neglected the simple Quranic commandments of sincerity of humility of his loss for the sake of Allah subhana wa Tada. And I have to say this as somebody who's kind of straddling that, because even when I went to the University of Medina in 1994, when I applied even in 1994, there was no fame in Islam, there was no money or career in Islam, I thought I'd have to go work as an engineer or something,

the concept of being a full time paid a mom or dad didn't really happened even in the 90s. And all of this is changing in this generation. There's good in that we do need full time moms and dads, don't get me wrong, but there also is a potential negative. And as we see the good we need to warn the next generation of the bad because what we are seeing, unfortunately, is that some people, they are not craving the legacy of our predecessors. They're craving the attention and not the legacy. They want to be in the spotlight without having given

When anything, they expect to be served without ever serving, they expect to be catered to without actually contributing. And it is to that generation we say, that is why you need to know your predecessors, you need to know the people who walk before you, you need to see what they did. You need to listen to their interviews, because when you see their lifestyles, you will understand why Allah bless to them if you truly want to be blessed, then take from their characters and manners. And as we stand here today, remembering the likes of Dr. Ahmed sucker doctor had truth and others that of course, I don't have time to mention all of them. It is healthy and necessary that we

remember that these people so panela like them, Oh Ha Joon. And I'm not comparing them exactly to the Maha Joon, but the people who migrated from Mecca to Medina, there was never hypocrisy amongst them. There was never an effect.

I mean, there was no you couldn't be more than mcca there was no glory to be a Muslim in Makkah. And that's why me personally, I wouldn't be frank here. I swear to you, there's an element of jealousy that I have of that generation of positive jealousy, and Islamic jealous, you're allowed to be jealous for good. There's an element of jealousy. And that jealousy is that I really and truly am jealous of the fact that that generation, whatever you want to say about them, you cannot doubt their sincerity.

They did what they did, not for the sake of this dunya there was no dounia to be gotten via Islam. They didn't do it for paychecks, they didn't do it for the limelight, they didn't do it to stand on stage in front of 800 people that's not their Nia, because that didn't exist, they did it for the sake of a law. And when they did it to preserve their religion, when they did it humble, sincere, without any ego than a law, raise them up to the level that they are. And so here we are decades later, honoring their legacy, because of their sincerity and shallow data. That is one of the main takeaways that I have. And one of the reasons why I genuinely and truly I feel that element of

jealousy for them positive jealousy. Because these days of us in the generation that I'm in and the younger generation, we have to battle the fame, we have to battle the prestige, we have to battle all of this. It's our internal struggle. Those generations Allah bless them in their own way. And that's why they are so raised. And of course, I have to mention as well that at hamdulillah we still have Living Legends amongst us and I don't have time to mention all of the names some of them have already been mentioned. But in particular, Dr. resemblance to the three definitely is somebody who's impacted me personally on a very, very profound level. And I asked it Allah subhana wa to Allah

bless him for for many many years of productive service, inshallah tada as well. imaams sphere, an icon of the African American community and somebody who really has been working in the trenches working in ways that only he knows and Allah subhana wa tada knows, these are the types of living legends. These are the types of people we want the next generation to be connected to them. We want them to benefit from their character from their loss from their humility. So that insha Allah, Allah, these dangers that I'm talking about are not repeated. They're not shown in that generation, brothers and sisters. The baton is going to be passed on that is the reality it is being passed on

right here and now. The light of Islam shall always shine and Allah subhanho wa Taala will always choose people who are worthy to carry that torch to the next generation. We should never be worried that the torch of Islam will be extinguished because that's never going to happen. For will la whom would dim uno de Allah will perfect that torch and the light of Islam will shine east to west as our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said the danger is not to Islam. I'm not worried about Islam. The danger is to ourselves, are we qualified to carry the baton from the previous generations? Are we worthy to hold the light of Islam that has been protected by them that has been honored by them

that has been lit in this land? Are we the ones that are going to be able to take it from them and pass it down? Or will Allah subhana wa Taala find us unworthy? In which case we're into well low? Yesterday there's a woman from Somalia, Kunal, the torch will be passed down. That's not the problem, but will I be carrying it? Will you be carrying it or will we be found unworthy of that honor and responsibility in which case we will be gotten rid of and another people will be brought forth to carry that torch. The danger is not to Islam, it is to me and it is to us of this generation. That is our time.

test that is our trial that is our responsibility. May Allah subhana wa tada give us the sincerity, the humility, the courage, the tofield to take on that challenge May Allah subhana wa tada honor our pioneers bless them with all that they have done. May Allah raise their ranks and gender to fill those May Allah subhanho wa Taala protect their children and grandchildren after them May Allah subhana wa tada keep our hearts united May Allah subhanho wa Taala grant each and every one of us the true sincerity to do deeds for him and only for him May Allah subhana wa tada causes us to walk in the sun of the prophets of Allah who it was setting them so that we are reunited with him in June

netofa dose of Allah which is Akuma la hi Ron what's said Mr. Muhammad sallahu wa barakato