Yusha Evans – Dawah Program – Masjid Salahadeen
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AI: Transcript ©
Videography skills. They have all these other things.
But they don't have time to give,
nor do they have the capabilities.
And these 2 brothers don't connect with one
another. Because believe me, if you sponsor someone
who is involved in,
like I suggest one of my one of
my even though I am a partner for
1 Ummah charity, which is one I think
one of the greatest charities in the world.
I've dealt with them for a long time.
Another charity I highly
push people to is, Ira.
Ira is an organization in the United Kingdom.
I've known that since its inception. It was
started by,
Yousef Chambers
and,
Abdul Rahim Green. Some of you may know
him. Abdul Rahim Green, if you're an OG
in the dua, you remember him looking like
Jesus,
standing in, in, what do they call it
in, London?
Speaker's Corner. Speaker's Corner. He literally looked like
Jesus. He would always be wearing a white
robe. He had long hair, long beard.
Insception.
Their entire
organization is based on Dahua. They're doing Dahua
in in 100 and 100 of countries. I've
gone on trips with them to Africa. We've
gone and gave we've gone and given
to remote tribes in Africa that literally was
the most awkward situate
like awkward you can imagine because we're giving
to naked people basically. You know, the women
just are not wearing anything. The men literally
not wearing anything and giving them dua, and
we've seen entire tribes come to Islam. Masha'Allah.
I remember the Maasai in Kenya, a group
of, a tribe of the Maasai in Kenya
accepting Islam.
And it was because one young man from
amongst them had accepted Islam and become a
Hafiz of the Quran. And I remember at
the ceremony for the for the for the
Hafiz, this is when the rest of the
tribe came into Islam, the chief came with
the rest of the tribe, and you have
to just imagine this. We're having a Hafiz
ceremony and here comes, you know, a tribe
of the Messiah that are that are half
naked or whatever.
After he, you know, recited from the Quran
and and and was given his ijazah,
the the chieftain of the tribe stood up
and and he said in in in their
language,
but what's translated to is that
the world has come to an end. The
world is coming to an end. We better
all become the religion of this young boy.
You know what I mean? When one of
ours has memorized his entire book, that's it.
The world is ending. Let's be whatever religion
he is, and they all accepted Islam, and
then there there there were some people left
behind with them to teach them the religion
from Kenya because that's where they're native from,
the Maasai tribe. And they even accepted me.
I was caught they they even gave me
an official title as, Masai Mazungo,
because Mazungo is Kenyan for for for white
people. They have some bad, worse words, but
it's a nice way to say white guys.
It's gonna say Mazungo. So they called me
Masai Mazungo, and they even gave me one
of their,
their Izadas. They have a particular Izadas, the
the Messiah wear. I still have it at
home. So
it's all and and I I I encourage
brothers to support them because if you go
and donate to their charity, guess what? You're
getting the rewards of all the that's going
out in the world. All the the the
hundreds of thousands of people that are taking
Shahada because of their efforts every year, you're
sharing in them even if you're asleep in
your bed. So finding your talent. One brother
told me the only talent I have is
making money. I said that's one of the
best talents that we could use. If that's
your talent, then let's have a conversation, because
we need it. We need these things. So
find your talent, find your niche, and find
what it is that you're passionate about,
And and use that in the dao, insha'Allah.
And you should have this on a list.
When we go through this again, I'm I'm
actually re editing this because this was written
many years ago. So I'm kind of revamping
this. I'm having a copyright go through it
and write it properly because I wrote it.
So I'm having a copyright redo it. But
if you'll see these are actually workbooks that
you'll all get the next time we go
through this. You know, like writing down things,
like what are my talents. So that by
the end of the next time we do
this course, you'll have all of this with
you so that you can you can be
prepared when you're ready to go out and
give the
How can you build upon those insha'Allah?
The next quality
is
the jama'ah.
This is important and I've been actually talking
about this for years years now just aside
from dawah, but in community building.
Means sticking together.
Teamwork. As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
hold on to the rope of Allah.
All together. Allah doesn't say a few of
you hold on to it and the rest
No.
All of you hold on to the rope
of Allah together.
And do not become divided amongst one another.
And Allah is so serious about this that
he goes on and then remember upon
you that you were once enemies to one
another, and I have united your hearts. You
were once enemies to one another, and I
have united your hearts, and you became my
his favor brothers.
And you were on the edge of the
brink of the fire, but I saved you
from it. And Allah makes clear to you
his verses that you may be guided. So
this is a very serious verse if you
look at the things that Allah is speaking
about. Because when we hold on to the
rope of Allah together,
then we are powerful. We are very, very
powerful. The jama'ah is the most powerful part
of our ummah.
It is sticking together.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he said that,
if one of you goes off on your
own and you try to do your own
thing, then you are eaten you will be
beaten like Shaytan, like the wolf
gets the sheep that leaves the herd. When
you step away from the herd, the wolf
doesn't attack the herd. If you've and I
know this because I was growing up in
the country
and I've hunted and things of this nature.
A wolf does not go after the herd.
It won't just jump into the herd.
And or drift off or be far enough
away.
And then it's gone. This is the way
Chaitan gets us. And he tricks us into
these ideologies, in these -isms, into these, into
these, hasbiya
methodologies where they break apart parts of the
ummah and then they are just destroyed. And
we've seen this happen time and time again
throughout the history of this ummah, is that
when you see fraction segments break off from
this ummah,
they end up fizzling out or they end
up destroying themselves. And we've seen it too
many times, too, too many times. So we
have to stick together with the body of
Muslims for the sake of the unity of
this ummah. There might be things we disagree
upon. That's fine. That's fine. I don't agree
with my own wife on a lot of
things. There are things we do not see
eye to eye on. How many of you
are married? Raise your hand. You've been married
for more than 10 years. Raise your hand.
Yeah. You Do you agree with your wife
on everything?
No. Right? No. But we live together and
we love each other. We learn to to
to to sometimes live with our differences.
Sometimes you just agree to disagree and you
move on. It's just the reality.
We have to learn to do this as
an ummah, to agree, to disagree. There are
certain principles, yes, which we cannot budge upon.
The principles of tawhid are immovable. Right? The
principles of the Quran being kalamullah,
that's immovable. The principles of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam being the last and final
messenger, immovable. These things
But the other matters, in reality, with everything
that's happening in the world right now, I'm
just going to be frank.
And I'm probably gonna there's somebody's gonna clip
this on the Internet and and and cancel
me for it. And I don't care.
These other matters, right now, who cares?
Who cares? We are being eaten
left, right, and center.
Literally, like the wolves that just are feasting
on us as an ummah. And the prophet
said it would happen that the
nations of the world would invite themselves to
you like people invite themselves to feast at
a dinner table.
And that's what we see.
And he said
and and and Allah will place on
you,
and you will not be removed from until
you go back to your religion. The core
principle of this religion is that we are
a jamaah.
We are a jamaah.
We are a body. The prophet salallahu alaihi
wasallam
once took a stick and he snapped it.
He said, this is the lone Muslim, the
one who goes off to do his own
thing. Shaitan snaps him. Then he put a
bunch of sticks together
in a bunch and tried to break them
and showed that, look, this is the jama'ah,
this is the strength of this ummah. If
you are united,
you can't be defeated. You can't be defeated.
So the principle of
the Jama'a is very important.
And and and that is the term that
we stick to. We are the people of
the sunnah. A lot of people get caught
up in these terminologies.
They start thinking weird things.
It's just we are the people of the
sunnah. That's it. If you're not a person
if you say that you're not a person
of the sunnah, you're not a person with
the umma, clean, clear and dry. We are
the people of the sunnah and we are
the people of the jama'a. We are the
people of the sunnah and we are people
who is attached to the large body of
Muslims. And the prophet said
this
on his farewell sermon.
He said and there's 2 ways that he
related this. 2 ways that it has been
related to us, and they both have authentic
chains. The first he said is that I
leave behind with me 2 things. If you
hold fast to them, you'll never go astray.
He said the
first is the book of Allah, and he
said it is a rope. It is a
rope. When Allah speaks about the rope, he
said this is the rope. It is a
rope that extends from Allah and the other
end is in your hand. That is the
rope you hold on to. And he said
the other is my sunnah. Hold fast to
these and you never go astray. And in
another hadith, it is also authentic. He said
the second is my family, the
which is the same thing. The To me,
I have no qualm about these 2. The
Ahlulbayt
or the Ahlul Sunnah. They are the people
of the sunnah. There would have been no
people who would have held more fastly to
the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam than his family.
People like his daughter Fatima,
people like his cousin Airee, people like his
grandson
Hassan al Hussein, and his wives, and the
rest of his house. And his house is
is is part of
part and parcel of our deen. We are
not even
Even Imam Malik
said that Allah honored the family of the
Prophet so much that our salah is invalid.
It is not valid unless we pray for
them, and ask Allah to send his salah
and and salaam upon them like the family
of Ibrahim. He said that much honor that
Allah gave the family of the prophet
So these 2, this is our connection to
our religion. We stick to it. We unite
upon it. We united upon it.
Abdullah ibn Masud and Abdullah ibn Abbas
Abdullah ibn Masud and Abdullah ibn Abbas were
known as the greatest of the mufasireen of
the Quran after the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. If people wanted to know what was
Allah saying or what did this verse mean,
they would go look for Abdul ibn Abbas
or Abdul ibn Mas'ud because the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said that this would be
from them.
The ibn Mas'ud commenting on this verse
said that the meaning of
is by saying that the rope mentioned on
the verse was the Quran and the
and the duration of can be made from
the following verse in Surat Al-'Al Imran. When
Allah says, on that day you will see
faces turn white and some faces will turn
black. And for those faces who's turned back
black, it will say, did you disbelieve after
your belief? Then taste the punishment for what
they used to reject.
Ibn Abbas commented on this verse
saying that the followers of the sunnah and
the follower of the jama' are the people
whose faces will be radiated with whiteness
on this day. So this is why it's
also important to go back to our scholars.
And the scholars
have to go back to the scholars before
them, before them, before them, and then the
greatest of the scholars were the companions. We're
the companions. You know, it should all trace
its way back to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, which would,
first chain would be a scholar. If there's
no I mean, excuse me, would be a
companion. If there's no companion,
then we take it with a grain of
salt. If it's in line with what the
prophet and his companion said, then we leave
it at that. Because the prophet
also said
that my ummah
will never unite
upon falsehood.
My ummah This is why we say the
jama'a, the large body of Muslims and the
consensus of the Muslims. He said, my ummah
will never unite upon
falsehood.
This is a honor that Allah gave the
ummah. That the scholars together as a consensus
When scholars are at a consensus or something,
then it is the right thing because Allah
will not allow his ummah to
unite upon falsehood.
I remember sitting in a course with 1
of the I did a course 1 summer
in Medina
with one of the students of Ibn Uthayim,
RaheemAllahu ta'ala
book because I actually wrote this book in
Madinah. He said that, his teacher, Ibn Uthaimin,
one day summarized what the mean. What did
that mean? What does that terminology mean?
Is it some new ideology? Have we created
some new sect? He said, it is those
who adhere to the sunnah and unite upon
it, not by turning to anything else, whether
it be in matters of belief or in
matters of action which are subject to Islamic
rulings.
Hence, they are called
because they hear to the sunnah, and they
are called
because they are united in following it. They
are united in following it. That's the only
reason this terminology
exists like this.
1 of the great, great scholars, one of
the greatest scholars
of Islam after the companions. This is why
he's known as Sheikh al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
In his
he wrote a letter to the people of
Wasat.
The people of Wasot sent a delegation.
They sent, someone to Ibn Taymiyyah and
asked him
to tell us the creed of Islam. Like
they wanted to know what is Islam. They
had accepted Islam and they knew that Ibn
Taymiyyah was the most knowledgeable person of his
time. So they sent someone to him and
said, give us a a a a summary
of the religion.
And he wrote a book to them. He
actually wrote a book to them which there
is actually huge,
commentary volumes on and it became known as
Al Akidah Al Wasotiyah,
because it was one of his first
complete,
like, writing downs of the creed, the Akidah
of the Muslim based upon the Quran and
the authentic sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. If you haven't read it, I
I I would advise you to do so
inshallahahu ta'ala.
He wrote in Al
he said their creed is the religion of
Islam,
which was sent to the world by Allah
through the Prophet, but
the Prophet, subhanahu alaihi wa sallam
said, my ummah will get divided into 73
secs, and each one of them will go
to * save the one that is the
Jamaa. Save the one that is the Jamaa.
Also in another hadith, he said,
they are those people who will follow this
path which I and my Sahaba are on
today. So basically he said out of all
73 sects Islam will break into,
72 of them will end up in *,
and the only one who won't will be
the people of the Jama'a, and the people
who are upon the same thing that me
and my companions are upon today. This is
why there are many, many scholars
who have made this statement from the past
and the present,
reiterating
each other,
that the scholars of the salif, and when
we say salif we're not talking, we're not
saying Salafi.
These names have really no meaning. Right? A
lot of times they're literally just badges that
people put on their chest and half of
them don't even know what they mean.
But when we say the salif, the Prophet
sallam alaihi wa sallam
spoke about the salif. Right? When we say
the salif, we're talking about the first three
generations of Islam, because the prophet sallamomore alaihi
wa sallam authentically said that the best nation,
the best nation,
Arni, mine, my nation, the ones who are
with me,
Then those who come after them, then those
who come after them. He said, after that
will come exceeding generations that will get worse
by worse by worse. After that will come
people who will be worse than them. So
he gave praise the first three generations of
Islam. And if you do some history study,
like, doctor. How many of you know doctor
Hetem al Hajj? He just spoke at EPIC
not too long ago. Masha Allah. One of
my dearest teachers, I spent many years with
him in Minnesota.
He spoke at EPIC not too long ago,
and I'm trying to get him to come
here for us, insha Allah.
Doctor. Hatem
is
He also used to correct me on my
Arabic grammar way too much, and that used
to really irritate me because he was born
and raised in Egypt. And he knew Arab
English grammar way better than I did. But
anyway,
he did a history
of the first three generations
and what was accomplished. Right? Like what was
accomplished in those first three generations that we
still depend on today. You know,
all the Imams of the fuqaha,
the books of hadith, etcetera, the codification of
the Sharia. He's like, all of this was
proof positive that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was correct when he said that these
3 generations would be the best generations.
This group includes
no excuse me. He said, therefore
they have caught hold of Islam
unadulterated from every adulteration,
and these people are the people of
This is from.
This group includes
the
the truthful
ones.
The the martyrs,
and
the the righteous. He said these are amongst
the It includes the minarets of guidance,
lamps in the darkness. I did my best
to translate the
If you if if any of you have
studied the the, like, the writings of the
scholars, they wrote very differently. Like, they they
wrote with such high
balaga, such high rhetoric that it's very, very
hard to kind of translate it properly into
the English language.
It includes the minarets of guidance,
lamps in the darkness,
and owners of such superiority and virtues
that we have already mentioned. It includes
the auliya of Allah, and also those imams
upon whose guidance the Muslims are unanimous,
meaning the the the 4 imams of of
Afiqh. The Muslims are united upon their guidance,
even though we may differ in in in
our in in some issues. Right? The Hanafi
did differ with the in some things, etcetera,
and so on. But we will all say
that they were all upon true guidance. None
of us, even if someone is the most
staunch Hanafi, right, staunch Hanafi
would never say that Imam Malik was misguided,
or Imam Shafi'i was misguided,
or Imam
Ahmed was misguided and they were
off the deen. No.
Nobody with half a brain and common sense
would say these things. These are the imams
of guidance.
It is a successful group about which the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, one group
of my ummah will always remain upon the
truth. The prophet did say this as well.
He said, there will be a group of
my ummah until the day of judgment whom
Allah will keep
on the truth. There will be a part
of this ummah. They are known as the
saved sect, the guided sect. They are the
ones who will stay upon the truth, and
they will
remain
dominant on the truth, and their opponents will
never be able to harm them nor afflict
them into the day of judgment.
We're almost done with this, and then, insha'allah
will go on next week. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam
also said, he was asked which group was
on the right path.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said, the jama'a.
He was asked at his time, which group
is gonna be upon the right path? And
this is recorded by ibn Majah. He said
the jama'ah. That's it. Look for the large
body of Muslims and stick to them. You'll
be okay.
The prophet
said,
and this is also Abu ibn Majah,
that without my doubt, without a doubt, my
ummah will never be gathered and united upon
misguidance.
Whenever you see a disagreement, then hold fast
to the majority. If you see a disagreement,
hold to the majority.
He also said
follow the largest group of the Muslims for
he who deviates
from this group will find himself in *.
Whoever deviates from this group will find himself
in *. The prophet
said,
the devil continuously
pursues humans as wolves pursue sheep. I just
paraphrased this earlier.
He said, the wolf only adares to attack
the sheep which have separated from the rest
of the flock and are standing alone. And
so my followers,
save yourself from being caught in the traps
of misguidance and firmly remain with the large
and most well known group of Muslims. And
this is narrated by Imam Ahmed, which this
is known. This is you separate yourself, you
will be destroyed. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said, Allah will never allow my ummah to
unite upon misguidance and incorrect beliefs. Allah's mercy,
blessing, and protection are with the and
who he deviates from it will be thrown
into the fires of *. And lastly,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, he
who deviates from the jama'ah,
even as much as a hand span, he
has cut off his connection to his religion.
Even
he who separates himself from the jama'ah
is a hand span, meaning just just barely.
He just barely broken off. Then he has
cut ties with his religion.
The religion, the sanctity, and the safety of
it is in the
That is something we need to learn from
not only in our dua because we're not
calling to a hizb. Right? We're not calling
to some certain group. We're calling to Islam
in its entirety.
In its entirety means in its entirety. What
is understood to be from the Quran, the
sunnah, through authentic sources and and and and
chains. And there are differences within those sources
and within those chains and within those scholars.
They had difference of opinion upon things.
That is okay. There's nothing wrong with that
because we are not robots. We are not
robots.
Islam
evolved and codified itself
at time and places and needs. If you
look at, for instance, the the the the
school of Imam Malik, it's the school of
the people of Medina because he was born
and raised in the city of Medina. He
studied from Nua'im who was one of the
a student of one of the companions of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He was
babysat as a child by one of the
wives of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. So he is closely connected to
what the people of Medina were doing,
at the time of the Tabi'ayn.
Then you look at the the other scholars,
you know, the scholars who were Ajami, who
were non Arab. You have the scholars like
Imam,
Shafa Imam
Abu Hanifa. They came from different lands, etcetera.
So
Islam evolved to be a worldwide religion. It
was designed to be a religion for all
of mankind.
If it was just an Arab religion, then
we would all be still following Arab customs,
etcetera, so on and so forth. It was
never meant to be that. It was never
meant to be an Arab religion. The only
thing that is Arab about it is the
language of the Quran. That is it. The
only thing Arab about Islam is the language
of the Quran.
Everything
else
is direct from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
his messenger.
Even our prophet, salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
embraced other cultures. People would bring him things
from other cultures, and he would like them,
and he would use them, and wear them,
and and etcetera, so on and so forth,
and partake in them, and and and see
their customs, and see that they were not
haram. So he would say, okay. Yeah. These
customs are fine and enjoying them. So we
Islam was meant to be a worldwide religion.
Islam should fit into any society,
and it should make
that society
the best of it. Right? We're not trying
to make the whole world
out of us. Like that that's
that's what a lot of people have in
their mind when you're giving dua that we
want to make them to put on a
thought. Like this is not even necessary. You
know what I mean? We wear it because
it is the sun of the prophet out
of love for him. It is a modest,
easy dress. It's comfortable, by the way. Very,
very comfortable. And when especially here in Texas,
when it's hot. But in Minnesota, when it's
30 below 0, you think I'm running around
in a Absolutely not.
You would freeze to death under this thing.
Unless you got like 6 layers under here,
then there's no point to it. Unless you
got the big camel bish, which I do
have tucked away in my, attic and,
but it's never seen the light of day.
But Islam
enhances every culture that it touches. Every culture
that touches. Look at the Muslim world. Go
to Indonesia.
Do they look out up to you? Do
they do they but do they act out
up to you? No. The same Malaysia, Singapore.
You go to India. You know, you go
to Pakistan.
Islam is an all encompassing religion.
It takes the worst parts of society and
eradicates them, and the best parts of it,
it enhances it, and then puts it in
a connection with the creator,
the Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is the
only thing that Islam seeks to do. And
the
I'll finish close with this. The,
the
The Maqasid, which means the
what's the word Maqasid mean in English?
The overall aim, the goal, the point, the
whole reason
for Islam
is to reconnect people to the one who
created them
and to enhance their lives so that they
can have peace in this world
and they can have peace in the next
world. That is the entire Maqasid of Islam.
That was what was explained to me, one
summer when I was sitting with, sheikh Mohammed
Muhtar
Ashantiti, which many of you might know is
very He used to have some very famous,
lectures on YouTube, some very powerful and emotional
lectures.
He used to give dourous after fajr in
the masjid of the prophet. And I just
asked him one day, I said, as we
were leaving, what is the maqasid of Islam?
He said to connect people to their creator,
to connect people to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and to create safety in this world and
the next. To create salaam in this world
and in the next. So that's it. That's
Islam in a nutshell. So that should be
the goal and overall
theme of our dua as well insha Allah.
Connect people to their creator
and show them how Islam will bring peace
to their life here in this world.
Even though they might not have the best
life, you know, you might still have struggles
but you'll have takinah
in the struggles. So they have peace in
this life and insha'Allah,
if they die upon tawhid, they'll have peace
in the next life.