Zaid Shakir – Jummah 30-08-2024
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
All praises due to Allah, the Lord of
all the worlds.
All praises due to Allah who has blessed
us, guided us
to this way, to Islam, and we would
not we would not have been able to
guide ourselves had not Allah
and His infinite grace and mercy and wisdom
chosen to guide us.
Alhamdulillah.
All praises due to Allah who has revealed
the scripture onto his servant
and make no crookedness therein.
Alhamdulillah,
Allah ta'ala has blessed us with Islam.
Unfortunately,
sometimes
we,
not necessarily anyone here, generally speaking,
we can tend to limit
Islam
to what we understand to be the outward
actions
of Islam.
I know people not here.
I've been here once. It was at night,
so I've never been here for Fajr.
But I
know in other places,
people who have been not in the front
row at FADJOR,
they'll be so sad to think their mother
died.
Say, what's wrong brother? Your mother died?
No. I I didn't make it to the
front row of Fajr.
But they'll leave
the front row of Fajr
in the masjid
and they'll get in their car
and they'll drive to their liquor store
and they'll open the store
and sell poison
to people that destroys their lives, their families,
and their communities.
Dear brothers and sisters,
our Ibadah is, of course, absolutely critical.
The first thing of our actions will be
taking the task on is our salah, our
prayer.
But equally critical
is our character.
If one doubts that,
consider the following hadith related by
Aisha
That the a believer
the believer in Al Mu'min.
The believer will attain
through his good character,
the rank of one who perpetually
fast
and
stands for prayer
a significant portion of every night
through his or her good character.
So our good character
is extremely important.
Our prophet
is described.
You are on an exalted
standard of conduct.
Why is his
his character so exalted?
Another hadith related by Aisha
gives us an answer.
Part of the answer, not the whole answer,
part of the answer.
Quran.
She was asked about his character,
and she said
his character
was an embodiment of the Quran.
His character was the embodiment of the Quran.
All of the
character traits
that we find in the Quran
were epitomized by the Messenger of Allah
And in this,
he was continuing
not the legacy of Ibrahim alaihi wa sallam,
not just
in Tawhid.
No. Ibrahim alaihi wa sallam,
the the patriarch of Tawhid,
but also in his character.
Ibrahim
was
an ummah in and of himself,
devoutly
obedient to Allah.
One of the explanations of an ummah, he
embodied the good care the character trace you
find
in an ummah.
So in an ummah, in this jamaah,
we know you know you know the community
better than me. You know this beautiful community,
this beautiful
expanding community better than I
do. So you know one person
so honest. You say, brother so and so
is so honest.
He saw them.
Masha'Allah.
Sister so and so,
she's so faithful.
She gives her words. She never breaks her
promise.
Brother so and so, he's so courageous.
Masha'allah.
He's a lion.
Ibrahim
had all of that embodied
within himself.
All of those traits in the Quran were
embodied within him.
He's our example.
You have
You have in the messenger of Allah most
excellent example for anyone
who looks forward to succeeding on the last
day and remembers Allah abundantly.
He's our exemplar.
He's our standard.
He reminded us
He was asked
which two things enter people into paradise more
than anything else.
He said,
mindfulness of Allah,
specifically,
mindfulness of his commandments and prohibitions
and good character.
He joined them together.
So the commandments,
prohibitions,
mindfulness of those,
and good character, he didn't stop
Taqwala,
which
embodies
mindfulness of Allah, which embodies
implementing his commandments,
avoiding his prohibition. Stop. He didn't stop there.
May Allah bless us to bring those together.
What is
involve?
Imam Ghazali,
he mentions in the uhya
4 fundamental
character traits.
Courage,
wisdom,
and atlu, justice,
alitha,
self restraint.
That's the foundation.
The greatest that says courage.
Your courage
gives birth to more qualities
than any other. So so for example,
courage is a foundation
of charity.
So the person who is generous and gives
is not afraid of the consequences of poverty.
These two characters are mentioned concerning the messenger
of Allah.
Courage and charity
on the death who name.
He gave a man by the name of
Al Aqra bin Habis,
who's known from other hadith.
He gave him
a valley of livestock,
a valley full of livestock.
A a a gift, a giving,
one who doesn't fear poverty.
So his courage
his his courage, his not fearing poverty
was a foundation
of his charity,
his matchless charity.
As he's described,
salallahu alaihi was alaihi wasalam
ejwad al nasi.
He salallahu alaihi wasalam was the most generous
of people.
He was the most courageous of people.
On the day of Hunayn where this incident
happened after at the beginning,
before the Muslims prevailed,
they're marching into the the territory of Bani
Hawazin.
That was their territory.
And Bani Hawazin,
Halim Mas'adiyyah was from these people. Bani Hawazin
Radhi Allahu Anhe, the wet nurse of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
They were archers.
They were like the the Ottoman, the Turks.
They were archers.
And when the Muslims came in,
they rain down
a hail
of arrows upon them.
Everyone flee.
They fled.
A lot of them were new converts,
brand new, not to criticize new converts. I
was a convert once.
A lot of people converting now,
but they they ran.
On the old lot of the older Muslim,
they they fled, but the prophet kept marching
with his mule and,
and,
and, Abu, Abu, not Abu,
Abu,
the popular one, Abu,
And the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, he was saying,
and an and Abdul Abdul Muttalib. I'm a
prophet. That's no lie. I'm the son of
Abdul Muttalib.
And he marched into the arrows.
And seeing his courage, the Sahaba and the
Muslims rallied around him, they prevailed, and then
they got all of this,
war booty that he distributed,
a lot of it to this.
So we have to be courageous people.
We're Muslims.
We we take pride in the we're the
descendants of courageous people
who brought Islam to every continent. They didn't
fear the wilderness. They didn't feel the jungle.
They didn't feel the any fear of anything.
Even when they were vanquished, they didn't fear
the Mongol hordes who vanquished them. They didn't
have an inferiority
complex.
Within 3 generations, they brought those Mongol hordes
into Islam
because they didn't they didn't fear them.
The initial wave,
that was one thing. But once the dust
settled,
the Muslims stood up and they picked their
heads up,
and they said, we have faith.
We have the sunnah of the of Muhammad
We have the way of Muhammad, uswatu Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That makes us better than you.
And their their confidence
and their courage,
they brought those people into Islam
within 3 generations.
We have to be courageous.
We we shouldn't back down
intellectually.
We shouldn't feel all is lost.
Sometimes, we we become so
timid
that we we forget
even recent history.
We look at the this genocide in Gaza
and expanding into the West Bank now,
a difficult garbiyah,
And then we look at the the hypocrisy
of this country and we look at the
way AIPAC is defeating
the politicians who stand against them
and we think they're all powerful and we
forget
and we see
the leader of the Zionist
going to the congress and the congress people
jumping up and down the clearing like they're
his personal yo yo.
You put it down, pull it up. Pull
it down, pull it up.
You say, oh, there's so power. We forget
the last time
that leader came to the Congress
to advance a Zionist policy
specifically
to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, he lost.
We forget that. Oh, they're powerful. There's nothing
we can do.
They control the congress.
What happened in 2015?
What happened to APAC?
What happened to the the leader?
They lost.
They're not all powerful.
Allah is all powerful.
Allah controls our power. He gives it to
people that test them.
And nothing's permanent in this world.
The power of this or that regime is
not permanent. Where's the power of the Roman
the mighty Roman Empire?
Where's the power of the Greeks
who's expanded from Central Asia under Alexander the
Great across the Mediterranean?
Where's that power today?
Where's the power of ancient ancient Egypt,
built the great pyramids?
Where is that power
today?
As the poet said, the movement of the
sun
belies the illusion of permanence.
It sets from a play it rises from
a place other than it sets in the
evening.
There's no no permanent Allah says he gives
it to test people.
Allah says
these fortunes,
victory, defeat, strength, weakness, we alternate between the
people
in order that Allah will show which truly
believe
and to take from your ranks martyrs.
And Allah doesn't love oppressors.
That's the reality.
The constant
is
worshiping Allah. The constant is manifesting good character
in all of our situations.
That's the constant. Political reality changes.
Economic
fortunes change.
The world changes,
but the deen is a constant.
Islam is strong.
Look at your community. Islam is vibrant.
Islam is growing growing.
And if we as Muslims
become the moral standard
by which good character is judged,
we will inherit this land.
This is a sunnah of Allah.
So keep your head up. Be courageous.
Be courageous.
Be wise.
Wisdom. Try to understand the situation that we're
in.
Try to do the thing most appropriate
for that situation.
Try to do it in the best possible
manner.
Doing the right thing in the right way
at the right time.
We need wisdom,
not emotion.
We need to think deeply about our situation
so that we can act in the best
possible manner.
We need we need wisdom, a lot of
new converts.
They have to be treated wisely.
I know I know sisters.
I know sisters.
It took them maybe
10, 15 years
to go from,
a kufi like something like I'm wearing, stuffing
their hair up in there,
then a scarf,
then a fuller scarf wrap around,
and maybe 10, 15 years later to the.
The same sister will go to a brand
new convert. Sister, you need to cover your
face. You're very beautiful. You're gonna be a
fitna for the brothers
who should be lowering their gaze. Anyway,
is that wisdom?
She's
discarded her own life example.
If someone told her on day 1, she
had to be where it took her 15
years to get,
she might have ran away from Islam,
but she's going to turn around and tell
this new sister on day 1 she has
the wearing cap.
She's figuring out she was trying to wrestle
with how she gonna tell her family.
Now she said, you gotta go home with
your face covered.
Al Shaja Al Hikma, wisdom
in all of our affairs.
Al Adu, justice.
Alhamdulillah.
We have a lot of
social justice warriors,
but Islam is not just social justice.
You know what social justice is? Social justice
is atheist
atheistic justice. I'm not saying this, in all
instances, bad.
So don't tweet that out.
Some people doing it now. They're you're not
supposed to be tweeting.
But if you wait till after, don't tweet
that out. I didn't say social justice is
bad. It can be bad,
But social justice is part of a larger
picture of justice.
When the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, sent
Mu'adhim nijabil
radhiallahu an
and Abi
Azar
To Yemen,
he said,
Be mindful of Allah wherever you are.
And any misdeeds you do, follow it up
with a good deed, that being waiter will
wipe
it
out. And treat people on the basis of
good character, within where we started. Good character.
Those are the 3
That's the whole picture of justice.
Justice in our relationship
with Allah. And the one who's not adil
what? Is a valim.
The opposite of justice is oppression.
What's the greatest form of oppression?
In the shirkah lavulman adhim.
Shirk is the greatest oppression.
So we have to be just in our
relationship with Allah for our sake, not for
Allah's sake.
Social justice doesn't account for
because the atheist architects of what we know
as social justice, generally speaking, they were atheists.
They didn't they didn't acknowledge, care about, think
about Allah and
the rights that Allah has over us which
if we violate, we're a Volim.
We're oppressors.
And justice with ourselves.
And any
sin or misdeeds you might commit, follow it
up with a good deed. Being weightier will
wipe it out.
So the ones who don't repent and are
unjust in them themselves and they meet Allah,
yomukayama,
with a mountain of sin,
They've oppressed their souls.
Whoever whosoever does not repent, they are the
oppressors.
Again, the architects of what we know as
social justice, they're all thinking about that.
And then the 3rd realm, wakaliqen
nasih biquluqen hasan deal with people on the
basis of good character.
Justice in society at large.
But there is no justice in society
that involves injustice
in our relation to Allah and our soul.
There is no justice in sinful activity.
There's no justice
in things that involve a violation of the
rights of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We have to always remember that.
So we don't want, I don't want, you
might want. I can't speak for you guys
or you gals.
But I don't want
social justice warriors. I want justice
warriors
who approach
issues in society
with the full scope
of the teachings and foundations
and principles of this deen.
You Allah.
You Allah.
You