Br. Yusha Evans talks about the importance of making Prophet Mohammad (we ask Allah to send HIS peace and blessings upon him) as every Muslim’s role model in life.
Yusha Evans – Muslim Identity – Part 1
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AI: Transcript ©
Santa Monica Monica de la hora capital
Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah
wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah he was happy as main woman whether la yomo Dean, when a shadow en la ilaha illAllah
Muhammadan rasul Allah who was a turban amin Rafa Mottola enemy with Diane Lola be Isn't he was set edge and monniera. And
Dr. Ohio for the invitation, I first of all have to thank Allah subhanho wa Taala for the opportunity for all of us to be here in sha Allah to Allah to benefit from anything that may come forward from what I have to say or what we collectively have to talk about. And secondly, I would like to thank the brothers from George Mason from gmu, MSA. Because our halls are more Hollywood, Selim has authentically said that if you are not thankful to people, then you're not truly thankful to Allah subhanho wa Taala. So I think that people, and it's been a long time, since I've been here at George Mason, I think is going on three years now.
The so called most famous video, where I think I cried on the stage for about 10 minutes, we'll try not to do that this time in sha Allah. And
I can't give you the promises. But we'll try because the topic today I really can't give you any promises.
When they asked me to speak about the Muslim identity,
there was a few ways
that I could have handled the subject because I think this is a lifelong journey that has defined for me
the identity of a Muslim? And not only does it define the identity of a Muslim, it is a question that I have been posing to myself, ever since I've had the consciousness and awareness of a personal identity for myself. And that question is, who am I? Who am I? Really Who am I? And
this is the question that I seek to give you today is is the question I seek to answer for you today is Who am I, Me, personally, me usual, who am I, and hopefully, through trying to define myself for you, I will give you a little bit of insight into who you are, and to the identity that is at the core root of every single Muslim, whether they
are aware of it or not.
When I was in Ireland, a couple of years ago, I began this thought process because I gave a lecture.
And the lecture was entitled,
who was Mohammed bin Salman, the law, how he was setting them.
But I made a huge mistake. And that's one great benefit that I have learned through traveling extensively throughout the United States, almost every single state in every single major country, or a major city and through many countries all over the world, is that you really learn a lot through experience. And you learn some of the greatest lessons, maybe it the hard way, but you learn them very clearly. And my lecture was about the Danish cartoons, in in retrospect of all of the confusion that was happening after the Danish cartoon incident.
And my entire lecture was trying to rebuttal and rebuff some of the
descriptions that were being given to our beloved messenger of a loss on below her and he was sending them and they need not be repeated on any stage, and nor will I ever repeat them ever again.
But I was trying to rebuttal some of these characteristics of Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, they were being ascribed to him that had nothing to do with who he was.
And this was the component and the entirety of my lecture. So afterwards, you know, I'm here thinking that I've done a good job. And I'm like, Yeah, I think I did pretty good. You know, I made a lot of people angry. So apparently, I did something decent. So I left the stage and a lady came up to me. And she asked me, well, first of all, she told me, she said, you know, you spent a lot of time telling us who Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam was not. But you did not spend any time telling us who he was.
And at that moment, I realized the immense pneus of my fallacy.
That day, I realized I made a huge mistake. So she asked me, so who was Mohammed, then some mobile Hollywood send them if he's not all of these things that you said he's not then Who was he?
And she put me on the spot. Because here I am now, you know, apparently she's wanting something quick and concise, you know, we're standing in front of a table. It's not like I can sit here and give her, you know, a long
Mahavira, whatever you want to call it. So I had to give her something clear, quick and concise. And I was at a loss for myself. And and this just shocked me that I was really at a loss how I could define this great man Mohammed, so below how he was sending him, you know, in paraphrase, how could I do it? So I gave her a few things.
descriptions that I know that Allah subhanho wa Taala had given him and things of this nature.
But she didn't really seem satisfied. She was like, Okay, thank you. And she walked away.
On the seven hour flight back.
This was stuck in my mind.
And a question came to me. And I said to myself, I said, You shot you've been Muslim over a decade now.
You should be able to answer this question. So I'm asking myself now, who is Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam? Who was Mohammed? Who is he? To me personally, as an individual is just the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam and that's the definition. Mohammed Kurosawa. Is it just cateva Naveen Rahmatullah Island.
Raja Maria Reza, all you can come up with, those are
characteristics of who Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam was as defined in the Quran. But this does not get to the root of Who was he.
So I began pondering upon this for this seven hour flight and and for many, many months after an end for the past two years.
And when it finally
came to a head for me, I not only realized who Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam was to me,
I found out who I was, I found my own identity within that search, and to me, that is one of the greatest blessings
of knowledge that Allah Subhana Allah has bestowed upon me, the definition of me, who am I, for someone to be able to ask me now just walk up to me and tell me who are you? I have not a clear picture in my mind. And that clear picture in my mind, comes from me defining who was Mohammed, some mobile honey was sending them. So this is the definition I seek to give you today, who was Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. Because the subject of identity, the subject of personal identity, awareness of who you are, as an individual, who you are within society, who you are within your social realms is a broad subject. I mean, you could spend an entire doctorate
here at George Mason, just working on those types of subjects. And we could go on and on and on and on which psychology is my major in
secular studies.
But we're not going to go that route. Because I think the essence of the issue begins with this great man, whom we named Mohammed Salim, who we call the Messenger of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So what I'm going to give you in the next 30 to 45 minutes,
is something that I hope changes you, as it's really changed me, it's really really, at the heart and core of my soul changed me. It has made me more aware of who I am. It's made me more aware of my responsibility in this life. And it's made me more defined in respect to what should I be doing every single moment when I wake up every single moment when I wake up in the morning now I now know how to conduct my affairs based on just answering this question. This is why I think it's such a gift that Allah subhana wa tada had given me and I wish to share it with you.
Who was Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam
we're gonna go through his life and probably a 15 to 20 minute period. Because I also want to give you something that if someone is to come to you and ask you who wasn't? You can tell them give him give it to them. clear concise. Sure.
This in no means takes away from the greatness of this man's life. So Bobo Holly who seldom it by no means mean it by no means gives you the illusion that I am telling you everything. No, no, I'm not gonna tell you everything. I am going to give you the defining points that for me define his life and who he was.
Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam
And we're going to begin at the age of 14 charlotta. If there are things we can give before that, but we want to get to the crux of the definition, you need to be able to give it to someone clear cut concise, short, at the age of 14.
And many of these stories, you know, most, most probably all of them, you know, but see, there's something about stories that we've always known and there's something about Heidi's that we've always heard all of our life and there's things about is from the Quran that we've heard all our life is that I think we as Muslims now failed to connect the dots, this is a big problem for us is we failed to connect the dots and realize what these things are alluding us to or what these certain morals or characters or stories or commands or prohibitions are leading us towards we fail that we take them out and each look at them individually, but we fail to be able to connect the dots. So
this is what I plan to do for you today inshallah connect the dots. At the age of 40. Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, was meditating in the cave of Hira spending time contemplating his life contemplating the world around him, and contemplate use the position within that world, as was his custom.
Which we now know this
mountain as the mountain of light.
And he describes it, I'm going to paraphrase it for you just for the sake of the breadth and depth of time. And I'm sure everyone here understands English.
He said that an angel appeared in to me a figure, a person, a man just just showed up.
He just appeared in the cave. And what was the command given to Mohammed silverball? Honey, listen, you can respond. I'm going to ask you questions. What was the command?
recite?
recite? Re, he doesn't say that he was showing him anything to read. So he said, recite. Just like if you stand up and tell somebody to recite what is the first response is going to be what to what do I recite or whatever he said, and I'm a party, I don't know what to recite. I don't know how I'm not those who can do this. I can't do it. So he said the angel grabbed him again and squeezed him said Cora, and we know the story that played out. And then he gave him it for this miracle, ad hoc, read or recite in the name of your Lord who created you. And he gave him the first few verses of sudo to echo yes or no, true or false.
He introduced him self to Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam told him and really, I am Gabriel, the Messenger of God to the messengers. He introduced him to Allah His Lord, telling that Allah is your Lord, and has commanded you to worship only but him.
And then he introduced Mohammed Salah Maha to send them to himself. And he says you owe Mohammed Salim has been chosen by Allah to be his last messenger to humanity. Allah has chosen you to be the person who delivers his final
way of life to humanity.
And now after dropping this huge load on him, he said the angel just just the same way he came, he left he was gone. So here is Mohammed Salim with this great event that just happened to him.
He only had
a follow up and a few verses that followed it. He only knew who he really was. And he said he only knew who Allah subhanahu wa either was, and he understood that Allah had chosen him to be a messenger to humanity.
But he said this was something that perplexed him. It was something that gave him a sincere list of stress that he could not imagine he he had no idea. Okay. Okay, well, now that's dangerous left. He's like, what are you gonna do with this? What am I supposed to do with this? So he said he left
an angel to be released and I'm on his way home appeared to him again, he said he was standing across the entire skies, to remind him and to show him that it was not a dream. It was not a vision, it was not an imagination. He said, I saw him standing across the horizon saying to me, I am jabril. And you are the Messenger of Allah.
Having this huge burden, he went home to his wife, Khadija, and there is some vagueness of opinion of how some of the events may have played out next, but I'm not going to give you the paraphrase of the most authentic of them.
He went through his wife had these are the loss of his
solace in this life. At that time, his cancer, the person who he knew that whatever stresses, whatever problems, whatever troubles he had, there was one person he could turn to this was his wife.
So he went home and he told her what happened. He told her exactly what happened as it played out.
And what did his beloved wife
say to him? She said that Allah has never disgraced you. Allah your Lord has never disgraced you. Nobody ever disappoints you. She told him, don't worry, don't worry, it'll be okay. And she took him to work on her ankle, he confirmed what it happens.
Whatever says you have been in the presence of debris, the messengers to the messengers of a loss of Hannah went to Ireland, same one who visited Moses, the same one who visited David in Jesus and Abraham, the same messenger has you have seen him, he has come to you, and has chosen you as to be as less messenger.
And water said, I wish that I was a young man that I could be alive when they throw you out. Muhammad's on mobile, send them said what a throw me out. He said, Oh, yes. Without a doubt. For surety, no one has come with what you have come with, except the people there people have tossed him out.
And so he said he went home with this.
And the revelation he said for a period just stopped. It just stopped. And he had no absolutely idea. What am I supposed to be doing with this message? What what what do I do with it? All of this is boiling in his mind. And he said one day he was out in a barren place. And he saw the same Angel again, sitting on a chair in the sky. And it frightens him. It frightens him Oh my goodness. You know this is getting out of hand. So he went home to his wife these are the law and honey told her what? them you know me, cover me up, cuz I'm serious. I think I'm losing it. I think I am losing my minds.
And in this state of being wrapped up, I want you to remember now that the only thing he has so far, for a basic karate, karate holla those few verses, he understood who jabril was, he understood who Allah was, he had confirmation from from what aka This is it in this state of being wrapped up? Under this blankets? Allah revealed to him the next verse, incomplete surah in the Quran, anybody know what the first ayah is? of this verse or this surah there was revealed to him What did Allah say to him in this condition?
Yeah, you have a modus tear.
Yeah, you have Modus. Oh you who was wrapped in the mental what happened next,
for India or wise and warn the people will come here and glorify your Lord.
This was the imperative they came to the Messenger of Allah solvable body was sending them all you who is wrapped in the mantle, whom an imperative command for NDF and go on.
Now that you have this knowledge for me, there is no more time for sitting around. There is no time to be lying around or even sitting under a blanket trying to figure out what to do know
a wise and warn the people about me, or Becca Kabir and glorify magnify your board to the creation.
This is the inception. This is the inception of what we now have as our dean. It began with many ceram but the final completion and revision, the absolute perfection of it started right here
for nd arise and move on.
And although fools seldom did what, what did he do?
What did he do? He obeyed, he obeyed. He began his 23 year mission of telling people about Allah subhanho wa Taala warning them of the punishment that Allah that waits for them in the hereafter for rejecting Him, advising them of the bliss of Paradise that lies for those who believe and do righteous deeds. He started calling his newest of kin, his friend Abu Bakar his his cousin, Ali, his wife, his newest family, invited them to a dinner where they laughed at him called his people from from from a high mountain high human Mecca. They laughed at him. But he began home for Embraer and from this point from this moment, and until the moment Allah subhana wa tada removed him from this
earth. This is what he did for India. If I stopped here, this is a definition of who Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam was. He was someone who lived a life fulfilling this obligation for endear He is someone who lived the life
freeing himself from the burden of this command home for under this became his concern. This became his every waking moments concern was to discharge this duty given to him by his creator, to warn the creation, about Allah subhana wa to Allah and to advise them about his obedience and to severely severely deter them and warn them from his disobedience. This is Mohammed sambava hari wasallam boys.
This is what kept him up at night, discharging this duty. This is what made him faithful
about cause gathering in the distance discharging this duty. This is what made him so worried about every single thing that he did or said or acted upon or agreed upon, was because he knew everything that he did from this moment has to be in discharging this duty. And I challenge you, any of you go find for me, any book of authentic or heavy, any book of authentic, a heavy and read for me, any one of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I will show you how they are in fulfillment of discharging this duty home for India. This is how he lived his life. This is what he did. This is who he was.
If that wasn't enough, I want to make sure I don't leave any gaps for doubt or any gaps for confusion in this issue. Let's fast forward a little bit. But I wanted to I could keep you all night and give you stories after stories after stories of how he lives his life discharging this duty.
The conversations with his uncle the conversations with this 111 on the conversations with it with the people, the conversations of the Jews in Mecca, like all of these things that could go on and on and on, about how he lives his life in fulfillment of this very verse. And he understood it well that this is his job. His job was calling for India. This is why when he was thrown out of faith, not going to tell the long story when he was thrown out of tie. Going a little farther now. When he was thrown out of faith.
He went outside of life after the people that rejected him and banished him. His uncle avvocato died, Khadija had died he had no support. Physically, he had no support emotionally. He went too far even said maybe they will support me. No, they laughed at him. They laughed. They laughed in his face, and threw him out literally threw him out of the town, beating him on the way out.
And when he was standing outside of the venue into
his blood, blood filling his shoes,
he made a draw. It's almost kind of what the elevator is one of the most heartfelt instances that have ever come out of the mouth of any human being. If you have never memorized the dog, I thought this is one that is for the record books. This door reached a loss of kindness
above the seven heavens, and it was so sincere and heartfelt. That immediately Allah subhanho wa Taala responded to it immediately responded.
How did allow these funds? Two ways we normally only
speak of the one, the angels coming with the angel that is in charge of the mountains we usually like to cover that one. Something else happened right before that. There was someone who owned the venue who saw this man in this deplorable condition and since a slave and said go give him some food and drink the slave when the slave happened to be from Nineveh. The slave went and gave the message of a loss of mobile selling food and drink and all those who sold more of it was seldom said Miss Miller and drink smilla rahmanir rahim in the in the the slave asked him what did you get these names from? But where did you get this from? He said this is this is what has been taught to me by
my Creator. I am one of the messengers of homeboy. Yes, the man he said wait you from? The man said I'm from Nineveh. He said then you're from the home of my brother, my brother Yunus. Who was a prophet just like me. I've been sitting with the same message. Laila, hi mama worship nothing but Allah sincerely, Mohammed Kurosawa. Look at the condition of this man at this moment.
This is eyeshadow Anna said that the day of our eyes was the worst day of the messenger of a loss of mobile Hollywood celebs life the greatest human being to ever walk the planet. This was the worst day he ever had in his life. But yet, here's a man
standing in front of him often and ready to hear the message. So he discharges the duty
For me, this is why I'm here.
And the man fell down at his feet, and said, Man,
a bear witness, there is nothing worthy of worship except the law, and you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.
This is who he was. And he realized that he knew what was his identity, and what was his purpose, and there was nothing that could detract him from that. Even the worst day of his life, could not detract him from that.
I fail to say that on I have a bad day, or a halfway bad day for us. How remindful of Allah are we? How much do we remember to remember almost the kind of what the interest on him and, and discharge the duties even if we're having a rough day, a tough day, we might not even remember to make the law on some occasions.
This was the worst day of the greatest man who ever lived. But he knew that he had a purpose.
And the man accepted Islam and his feet.
And then the angel to be released to them appeared to him, and said that Allah subhanho wa Taala has heard you.
And he has sent me with the angel that is in charge of all the mountains of the earth. And Allah has said that if you wish, you can command this angel to take off surveying the two mountains surrounding the city, and you can smash them together and just destroy all of them.
In an essence, Allah has made it halau for you, Allah has given you a permission because of how bad these people have treated you to retaliate. Allah has given you permission, it is permissible for you to act upon it. No blame
for us.
For us, I feel sorry for those people were ready to kill someone, if they cut us off in traffic, will chase them down for for two miles and try to run them off the road. Somebody cuts us off on the subway on the metro. We're ready to football. We're talking about it all day long.
So for those people, it would have been the end. And we might have even gone further and said you know what? There's another city right now. We
can, you know, don't don't destroy the city, but maybe take care of the people with we would have just done away with all our enemies at once. We're gonna stretch the limits. That's us. That's us.
Now, today, the enemy not allows mercy into creation? No. He said, I hope he said no, no, no, this is not necessary. For I hope there's someone from amongst their progeny. Someone from amongst a progeny can worship Allah alone without a partner.
I hope someone from the progeny can worship alone without a partner because he knew he was discharging the duty to
warn the people about Allah. So hopefully, maybe if somebody comes out of them, that worships Allah. It's it's worth all of the fitna that I have dealt with on their behalf today.
And as a small side note, I know I'm deviate a little bit, but Is anybody here from the subcontinent? Anybody from the subcontinent?
You raise your hand Come on, I got about you. Okay. I'm making fun. Any of you know the name of the man who took Islam, to the subcontinent? Mohammed in passing? I thought of anybody know where he hails from? Where does he traces lineage back to I thought he he traces his lineage back to the same people who rejected the messenger of Allaah sallallaahu Selim on that day. This is the vision of the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam in discharging his duty to the creation.
Let's fast forward just a little bit more.
A lot more actually. Because I want I don't want to keep you forever.
Let's go to the last few years of his life. And this is you know, if we're making a dessert, you know, I've got for you the the layers. Now we're gonna put some icing on top of it and the charity comes later.
The Messenger of the loss of mobile how to sell them over the last year of his life,
decided to make hudge he started to make five this would be his first and only hunch. He decided to make hives and gave the command out to make hedge. And over it is said that over 40,000 people accompany him on this Hajj.
And this has was special. It's very special. That's why it's known as the farewell pilgrimage. And some of the incidents that happened in it are extremely famous in Islamic history. But I don't think that a lot of Muslims have connected the dots. I don't think they've connected the dots all the way through and I'll tell you why.
The messenger
after this
Hi guys standing it Yama standing on the day of Yama, arafat.
He delivered at the end of this day
he delivered
his most famous speech, his most well known speech, what is it called?
Given
the farewell sermon, he delivered the farewell sermon, sitting on his panel.
After the day of arafah, he delivered what is known as the farewell sermon.
We all know it's famous, I'm sure you've all heard it. But, again, I don't think we've connected the dots to how important is the reality of what he said.
The olema have said that the farewell sermon is like a synopsis of Islam. It's like a snapshot of our entire Deen. You can look at the lines of this sermon and see what Islam is really all about. In reality, if you really study these commands, and you really study, the statements of the farewell sermon was not going to go line by line. for time sake, you will see that it is a snapshot of our Deen
and the Messenger of Allah began it but and he knew he knew when giving this, that this needed to be something weighty. This needed to be something that was heavy, because he began by saying, I do not even know whether after this year I will ever be amongst you like this again.
And he gave us the synopsis and a snapshot of Islam. And how important was this sermon, it was so important to the messenger of Allaah. Somebody was a limb that after every couple of sentences, he would look at the people in front of him. And what when he questioned them? Anybody know? He would pose a question to them.
Anybody know?
He said, There will come a day when you won't be questioned about me. There will come a day when you will be questioned about me. What will you say? What will you say? They said, We will bear witness that you have indeed conveyed the message of a lot to us and given us the advice.
A few more sentences, he would say they will be coming day when you will question the question about me What will you say? They said, We will bear witness that you did indeed convey the message from Allah and gave us an SI advice. Why would he question them over and over again, to make sure that every single person there was comprehending what he was saying. That's how important it was. He was questioning them.
And at the ends, he made a statement
that I would give it the weight as being one of the most important things that would ever come out of his mouth. And one of the most important things that would ever come out of the mouth of any of the messengers of love, one of the most important if not one of the greatest things that will ever come out of any messenger overlords mouth.
What was the last sentence of the farewell sermon?
You got to give me an answer. What was the last sentence?
See, this is this is why we don't connect the dots. This should be something that you can readily respond to it should be such a part of your identity to understand this, that you should immediately be able to respond to me. He said, those that are here.
convey this message to those that are not here.
Yes or no? Is this not the last sentence? Those that are here convey this message to those that are not here. For very it may be on another narration. I hope that the final people to hear my message may understand it better than those who are here with me today.
Why is this the most important thing he will ever say? I'll get to in just a moment.
This was a command that was never given to this creation ever before. The command to convey the message of a loss of animals either after the messenger has list has never been given to any online. Never. How do we know Allah says
when I O'Meara Buddha meclizine Allahu Dino kunafa while you're pretty much solid when you get with our legal Dean and
the other nations have not been commanded except but to worship Allah and make the religion fuel for him to establish the law paisa and that was the notify EMA that was the right deal for them.
No nation was ever given the command, convey.
convey what you hear from me. Convey for me to those that are not here.
This gives this like no other oma, this gives this under the entire met to be able to say that even though we are the last, on the day of judgment, we will be the first. This is what gives us the entitlement, quantum higher omit an opera javelinas. Tomorrow on how to animal cover to you the best nation ever for mankind because you enjoy what is right for good, what is wrong and you believe in Allah.
This is a that we have failed to connect. This is the Dow we fail to connect because the Messenger of Allah sallallahu wasallam alluded the beginning that this may be the last time I'm ever with you like this. So the toys that has been passed from profit to profit from messenger to messenger, it has only ever been in the hands of messengers. This torch this responsibility of conveying the message of a loss of humanity has only ever been in the hands of messages. On this day, the Messenger of a loss of the Mojave was said for the first time I hand it to you. I leave it now with you.
I leave it now with you to convey this message.
How important was this? If that's not enough to let you know how important it was this better? If not, then I I wasted my time could have stayed in Minneapolis.
After saying they're also here, pass this message on to those that are not here for very it may be the last one to hear my message will understand that better than those who would meet today. What did he do? He raised his fingers to the heavens and said Allah whom mission or mother witness all of the witness, Oh Allah bear witness, I have indeed convey your message.
And then the creator of all that exists.
decided at this moment, at this precise moment in time.
All the way from the beginning of time to the last of time to allow will destroy even time itself.
Allah decided to precisely pinpoint this moment to say what what was revealed as a by Omar Al Khattab on this day after this statement
are your XML To
this day, have I protected your religion for you? what's meant to it
and have completed my favors upon you?
What's next?
Yes, and have chosen for you. Islam as you do.