Free From What – Free To do What – Reminders and Reflections

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

So today our hotbar was about

what we might some of us might have heard during the Salah, the fireworks and the upcoming Independence Day.

And as you know, a lot of talk is going to be taking place about what freedom is and what independence is.

And Subhan Allah there is one aspect of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam part of his mission that is rarely mentioned amongst us. And that is seeing the Prophet peace be upon him as a liberator, Mahara. And these are not my words, these are the words of the Quran, towards the end or somewhere close to the end of Surah Al Aarav. Allah Subhana Allah describes the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was nine different descriptions, a Latina of your own or Rasulullah, Nabil, me, those who follow the Prophet the unlettered messenger, Allah de su do know whom October Ananda home Fidel Rottweil Injeel, whom they find mentioned in the scriptures, the gospel and the Old Testament.

Yamato who will model her in her home and in munkar he commands them of that which is good and forbids them of that which is evil. You're Hello how are you? But are you Henry Murray he will cover if he declared lawful for them things that are pure and wholesome and declared unlawful for them things that are impure and evil.

And then Allah Subhana Allah says, wild or unknown Islam and he relieves them of their burden. Well Allah Allah latika and Allah him and the yolks that were upon them.

And this is the port where we see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam as a liberator, although a lesser Hawa Matt to set but to be his fina, feminine Mohammed Al HighRock. SR is some people say it's a ballast, but it's something heavy that is used to keep the ship from moving. Similarly, Allah said upon them, they were these heavy burdens that kept them from moving. And then the Quran speaks about yokes as well or chains that kept them from moving. So the Prophet peace be upon him part of his mission is to relieve people of this burden and liberate people from the yokes and the chains that were upon them.

But now the question is,

when we speak about independence and liberation,

liberation from what, and having the liberty to do what, freedom from what and the freedom to do what, and to most of us, you know, Freedom means that when I go to the store, I can buy wherever I want, I have the freedom to buy wherever I want, that does not make you a free man or a free woman. That just makes you a consumer who has options, but that does not really make you a free man or a free woman. So now the question is, what is it that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is freeing us from and what is the ultimate freedom per the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet peace be upon him? You know, on this idea, one thing the Quran stresses and also the teaching of the

Prophet of the Prophet peace be upon him is that freedom and independence is a personal responsibility. You're holding the view sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Kulu Nasir who further are NAFSA? Who for more buco ha Oh, Marathi, whoa, ha. He said at the very, very beginning of the day, everybody is a vendor at the beginning of the day everybody is a vendor, making a trend is action. Everybody is a vendor of their soul can do nursing. Everybody is a vendor of their soul. And then they will sell their soul. And when they sell their soul, it will either be a transaction that is going to liberate that soul or it is going to be a transaction that is going to bring ruin upon that

upon that soul. And here the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam speaks about this concept of

liberating or or freedom. And then of course we all know the story of Abraham and when he was visiting kiss Ron Kisara said What is it yet you are Muslims are calling people foreign, very natural gifts for qualities about what Islam is all about. And he said generally in regular bad men, everybody, everybody in our built in everybody, Trump Hillary, bad woman, Joe will at the end in Anglin Islam. When we look at dunya it has it dunya will fail. He said we are here inviting people from to

venture away from worshipping the creation to worshiping the creator of the creation from the

injustice of the religious beliefs into the justice of Islam from the narrowness of this life to the vastness of LIS, life and the hereafter. So share three things that the Prophet peace be upon him in the Quran wanted us to be liberated from. Number one is to be liberated from ignorance. And remember Subhan Allah. That's why the first word that was revealed in the Quran is a Quran read. And interestingly, the first word in the Quran is not think, because they say if the Quran had the Quran told us to think, given the same tools, you'll produce the same ideas that you've always been producing. But when we read something happens, it broadens our horizon. It gives us new tools. It

introduces us to concepts and things that we've never heard before. Now we actually have tools to produce better thoughts than the thoughts that we have been producing.

The Quran also came to liberate us from having this unrealistic, unhealthy ties to history. Specifically, I do this because our ancestors do this. I believe this because where I come from people believe that I do this because my grandparents or my parents told me this. This is the same argument that the people of Qureshi used against the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And that is the cold what they use what we call historical consistency. We've got to be consistent in accordance to history. History is important, so long that it is parallel to the truth. But the minute history and truth collide, our allegiance is to the truth. Our allegiance is not to history. Please remember

the law here and this is really really vital. Although an S Motul. Ye. Well, they said, Look, Daria, infallibility is an attribute of Revelation. It is not an attribute of history. History is not infallible. Revelation is infallible, but not history. So the Quran came to liberate people. Look, historically this may have been the case. But historically, this is wrong. So now the believers are given this idea of I really my allegiance is not the history, my allegiance is to, is to the is to the truth. And that is, you see, this happens

a lot.

And, and I think I might have told you the story of you know, just going back to the whole idea of knowledge

of Frederick Douglass, remember that it was illegal in the United States to teach slaves how to read and write, you actually went to jail. If you taught a slave how to read and write, you went to jail. Because the more ignorant people are, the easier it is to control them. And even more ridiculous than ignorant is the illusion of knowledge. You know, you give people and people think they know. And the reality of it is that unfortunately, at this point, intellectual laziness is the most prevalent type of laziness in our, in our planet. Today, as somebody so nicely put it, and especially with young people, with all due respect to young people, somebody said, you know, you see

young people today, what do you see Calvin Klein on there behind and nothing in their mind. Okay, and said, That's not that's just not, that's not good.

So now what happens is Frederick Douglass is one of these slaves, and he really, really wanted to learn how to read and write, but it was illegal to be taught how to read and write. And I invite you to read his autobiography, if you have not so smart kid, as a child, he would, you know, see why little kids going to school and he would stop them on the way and he would say, I bet you cannot spell your name. Of course, I can spell my name. Let me tell you what my name is. My name is Jimmy Jefferson and David is a CJ i and he starts paying attention to the alphabets, memorize the alphabets, taught himself how to read and write. And then he makes this profound statement and he

said, A man with knowledge is unfit to be a slave. A man with knowledge, is unfit to be a slave.

And then the last freedom there are many but just this is the last one for the sake of time, is the freedom to think our God given gift of intelligence, sink, and you know, subhanAllah every freedom, very few freedoms are absolute, even freedom speech is not absolute. The only absolute freedom is the freedom to think it's an absolute freedom. You can think whatever you want, whether this is true or not, that's a different story. But you actually have that ability. You can think what ever it's an absolute freedom. So up

Salut, you can think that Allah has a child.

It is so absolute, that you can think that Allah does not exist. It is so absolute that you can think that the universe made itself. Now, it's not about what you think is true or not. It's the ability, the freedom that you have to think is an absolute freedom. Unfortunately, this freedom is seldomly practiced. We live in a culture and we live in a time where everything goes,

everything goes, this is where we are, oh, I'm so open minded, and I'm just willing to accept and respect everything. And you know, this, this is, this is that does not make you tolerant. It is silly. It is beyond silly. The idea of I'm so open minded, everything goes. Somebody said, some people are so open minded. Their brains fell out.

Like literally, too many people, this is the case. They're so open minded, that literally their brains fell out.

That is not somebody that is actually thinking. So the Quran invites us to practice these freedoms that that we have, you know, let's also teach our kids to practice freedom responsibly, and to practice that there's so many freedoms that we have that we don't even think that we have to the young people, you know that you have the freedom to choose your friends.

Choose wisely.

We have the freedom to eat, eat healthy. We have the freedom as to how we want to spend our time spend your time wisely. When people do this, we will say that is truly really really a liberated man or woman. ultimate liberation is being a servant of Allah and Allah only. The minute you do that, you can say I am a free man, and I am a free woman. The last 100 increases in understanding our Bill Allen Salalah