Zia Sheikh – jumuah khutbah 10212016
AI: Summary ©
The importance of living in non- declared Muslim countries for Islam's sustainability is discussed, including the need for participants in elections to participate in the process and the importance of belief in actions. The history and social activities of Islam are also discussed, including the influence of the Prophet A.S. and the importance of providing information about local candidates. The speakers emphasize the need for everyone to register and vote for a candidate in the upcoming election and suggest educating the community about the policy.
AI: Summary ©
My dear respected elders, brothers and sisters.
A lot of difficult situations are going on
for Muslims nowadays and people sometimes speculate as
to whether living in a non-Muslim environment
is feasible for them anymore.
And some come to the conclusion that we
are not supposed to be here and some
even, scholars even give fatawa that it's not
permissible for a Muslim to be living in
a non-Muslim environment.
However, if we look at the adillah, the
proofs from the Qur'an and the Sunnah,
we will find there is guidance for us
and we can come to a conclusion in
which we can be residing in the non
-Muslim country and also practice our Islam and
it will be completely permissible for us to
do so.
So there are certain situations and certain guidelines
that have to be kept in place for
that permissibility to come into place.
So today's fatawa will be about the dis
-permissibility to live in a non-Muslim environment
and the second by extension would be the
issue of participating in elections and so on.
Obviously, if a person is living in a
non-Muslim environment, he should be part and
parcel of what's going on.
He should have a say in what's going
on, especially if it comes to things that
are going to affect him, things that are
going to affect the ummah, things that are
going to affect his immediate family and the
Muslims in general, then obviously he should have
a say in it and he should speak
up about it.
So in any case, I recited for you
a couple of verses from the Qur'an
in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He
tells us, قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ O Prophet
of Allah, tell the people, سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ
Wander around in the earth.
Go and travel.
ثُمْظُرُوا كَيْفَ بَدَأَ الْخَلْقِ And look how Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He started the creation.
ثُمَّ اللَّهُ يُنشِئُ النَّشَأَةَ الْآفِرَةَ That same Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, who created this creation
the first time, He can recreate it another
time.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ سَيْنِ فَدِيرٍ Indeed, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He has power over
everything.
So what we understand from this is, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is instructing us as
Muslims that we should go around and see
the marvels of the creation of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Look at the mountains that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala created.
Look at the oceans that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala created.
Look at the huge trees and the beauty
of the forest, the beauty of the flowers,
the beauty of the animals.
Ponder over these things and understand that there
is a creator who created these things and
it doesn't limit us to staying in a
country which is only so-called Islamic.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He tells us
to wander over the earth, the whole earth.
And it was with this understanding that many
Muslims, Muslim explorers, they travelled, they made discoveries
and there is an opinion that even Muslims
were in the Americas prior to Columbus reaching
here.
So there is an opinion, if you go
into history and especially there is a historian,
his name is Sheikh Abdullah Hakeem Quick.
He specializes in Islamic history and especially the
Islamic history of the Americas, how he believes
according to the proofs that he has, that
Muslims were here much longer than people understand.
So this was one ayah.
Another verse, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He
tells us, قُلْ سِرُوا فِي الْأَوْبِ فَانظُرُوا كَيْفَ
كَانَ عَاقِبَةٌ مُجْرِنِينَ And according to another ayah,
عَاقِبَةٌ مُكَدِّدِينَ Wander around on the earth, travel
over the earth and see what was the
outcome of the criminals, the people that denied
the message of the Prophet, alayhi salatu wasalam,
the prophets of their time, how Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala dealt with them.
So again, looking at the ruins of previous
nations and seeing how they were so mighty
and powerful and had everything, they had wealth
and gold and silver and palaces.
Where are those kings now?
And where are those rich people now?
Where are those people that had everything and
even claimed to be gods?
As Fir'aun used to say, أَلَيْسَ لِي
مُلْكُ مِسْرٍ وَهَذِي الْأَنْهَارُ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِي Because
I have the kingdom of Egypt and these
rivers are flowing underneath me.
So those kings, what happened to them?
What happened to their kingdoms and their palaces?
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is telling
us to go around the earth and see
these things and take an ibrah, take a
lesson from them.
And again, it doesn't specify whether it's only
Muslim countries that you should visit.
Those ruins can be in Islamic countries or
non-Islamic countries and we need to take
a lesson from all of them.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He describes the
people who have made a good trade with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ اِشْتَرَىٰ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ
الْجَنَّةِ Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says about
these people that these people have made a
trade with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Why?
They want Jannah for that trade.
And what are their qualities?
Allah says later on in the ayah.
They are people that repent.
They are constantly, perpetually in the worship of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
They constantly praise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And this is the point that I wanted
to make.
They make siyaha on the earth.
Siyaha, one of the opinions of Masih.
Masih meaning Isa A.S. He was called
Masih because he used to make siyaha.
He used to wander.
He used to travel around.
And again the purpose was not simply to
travel and just have fun.
Rather to travel and see the creation of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and understand the
greatness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala through
that travelling.
People that make ruku, they make sajda.
They make amr bil ma'ruf and nahi
anil munkar.
They order people to do good and forbid
them from evil.
And they guard the hudud of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
The limitations that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has put upon them.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes these people
who they are.
And again it does not specify where they
live.
Rather wherever they are they have these qualities.
And it is from this verse we can
derive the qualities that we are supposed to
implement in ourselves.
And specifically the quality of amr bil ma
'ruf and nahi anil munkar.
Meaning calling people towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala.
Calling them towards good, forbidding them from evil,
inviting them towards Islam.
And people that have strayed from Islam, calling
them back to Islam.
These are the qualities that believers are supposed
to have.
And in a non-Muslim environment these are
the qualities that we should have.
This is the intention that we should be
living in a non-Muslim environment.
We also see in the seerah of the
Prophet A.S. on two occasions, not just
one.
On two occasions the Prophet A.S. who
sent the Muslims to live under non-Muslim
rule.
Where did he send them?
To Habesha, to Abyssinia.
At that time the king was a Christian,
a Najashi.
And the Prophet A.S. he told the
Muslims that go to Habesha.
In Habesha there is a just and a
fair king who will give you refuge.
He instructed the Muslims to go there.
And this Najashi he went on to become
a Muslim.
But at the very beginning he was open
to listening to their stories.
The whole story is mentioned in the Sahih
al-Bukhari.
How the Muslims went and took refuge in
there and wanted to go into there now.
But the point is that the Prophet A
.S. not only allowed people to live in
a non-Muslim environment.
He actually, in this case, he encouraged people
to live there.
Why?
Because he knew that the people would be
able to practice their Islam in that particular
country.
There is another hadith narrated by Anas bin
Malik R.A. He says that the Prophet
A.S. he used to go to a
lady whose name was Umm Haram bint Malik
Han.
And she was his aunt.
And there are a couple of opinions as
to how she became his aunt.
One that she was actually a blood relative
of his and she became his aunt through
that relationship.
Another opinion is that she became his aunt
through Rabaa.
Meaning one of the relatives of the Prophet
A.S. had been breastfed by her.
And because of that the Prophet A.S.
became related to her through what is known
as Rabaa.
And Rabaa, the ruling of that is that
whatever relationship it happens, it becomes like a
blood relationship.
So basically if a woman gives her milk
to any child, that child actually becomes just
like her child.
So the rulings of her child apply for
her.
So this woman's biological children cannot marry this
child that she suckled.
So this is the relationship through Rabaa.
So there is one opinion that the Prophet
A.S. was related to this woman Umm
Haram bint Malik Han through Rabaa.
So the Prophet A.S., this riwayah says
that the Prophet A.S. used to go
to Umm Haram bint Malik Han's house.
She used to feed him.
And she was married to Ubad Ibn Samir.
So once the Prophet A.S. came to
her, she fed him and she started looking
for lice in his hair, mitts in his
hair.
So this was, there is actually a huge
discussion in the books of Fiqh, in the
books of Sira whether the Prophet A.S.
actually had lice in his hair or not.
And the conclusion is that he did not
have lice in his hair.
It is not something that he was worthy
of having.
This is something that is not really regarded
as something socially acceptable.
But the reason that Umm Haram did it,
that this was a social activity of the
time.
And even in our countries, this is very
common that the older ladies, if they see
a child sitting next to them, they will
bring him close and then they will just
start looking through his hair to see if
he or she has any lice.
This is a very common social activity that
takes place.
So the Prophet A.S. was lying there
and Umm Haram, his aunt, started looking through
his hair.
So in this state, the Prophet A.S.
went to sleep and then he woke up
again.
And as he woke up, he was smiling.
He says What is making you smile, O
Prophet of Allah?
And this is the point that I want
to make.
The Prophet A.S. expressing his happiness at
what he saw in his dream.
He said People from my Ummah were presented
to me in my dream.
Making Ghazwa, travelling in the path of Allah
SWT.
Riding the waves of this sea.
Like kings sitting on thrones.
Or the Prophet A.S. said, like kings
sitting on the thrones.
So Umm Haram, she says O Prophet of
Allah, make dua that Allah SWT makes me
amongst these people.
So the Prophet A.S. made dua for
her.
And then he put his head down again,
went to sleep.
And then the whole thing repeated itself again.
He saw again in his dream the same
thing.
And then she requested dua for him again.
And he said that you are from the
people that have already been accepted.
Your dua has been accepted.
And now the strange story is that Umm
Haram ultimately she did travel with her husband
on expeditions.
She did travel on expeditions and she actually
was martyred until when her donkey or horse
slipped.
She fell off the horse and her head
hit a rock or she broke her neck
and she died in that state.
But where did she die?
That's the question.
She died in a country in Europe called
Cyprus.
So Cyprus, the country is actually split into
half if you are aware of the history
of this country.
It is split into Greek Cyprus and Turkish
Cyprus.
Half of it is controlled by Turkey, half
of it is controlled by Greece.
And obviously the Turkish people are Muslims, Turkish
speaking.
On the other side Greek Orthodox Christians and
they speak Greek.
And the strange thing is that her grave
which has been very well preserved and it's
a landmark, it's a tourist attraction, people go
there.
There is a mosque built there and it
has been well preserved by the Greek government.
So it is, people can visit there and
it is the grave of this Sahabiya that
requested the Prophet ﷺ to make dua for
her that she becomes amongst those people that
travel for the sake of Allah SWT.
So this is real proof that the Prophet
ﷺ did not disapprove of people travelling towards
non-Muslim countries.
So then the question is, what is the
condition?
What are the conditions that we are supposed
to have where we are allowed to live
in a non-Muslim country?
We need to step back a little bit
and understand the three different categories of place
or state that we could be living in.
One is called Dar-ul-Islam.
Dar-ul-Islam meaning an Islamic country, Islamic
kingdom or a Khilafah which is basically based
on Islamic rules, all the laws and everything
are according to Islamic teachings.
This is one thing.
Then there is the opposite extreme which is
called Dar-ul-Harab.
Dar-ul-Harab is that country in which
Muslims are not allowed to practice their religion
and basically if somebody stands up to try
to practice his religion then they will be
persecuted for it.
That is a place which is either called
Dar-ul-Kufr or Dar-ul-Harab.
So Dar-ul-Kufr or Dar-ul-Harab
where a person is a Muslim and cannot
practice his Islam and the example of that
would be in a country like Russia under
communist rule they did not allow any type
of religion including Islam.
And in China, in some parts of China
where Muslims are not allowed to pass this
would be regarded as Dar-ul-Kufr or
Dar-ul-Harab in which Muslims are having
a hard time to live and they should
either try to change the situation there or
they should leave from that country because they
are not allowed to practice their Islam.
So in between these two there is something
which is known as Dar-ul-Amm.
And this is where we are living in.
Where Muslims by law their religion is protected,
their practice of religion is protected and as
Muslims we are all allowed to, we have
freedom of religion.
We are allowed to build our masjids.
We are allowed to build our Islamic schools.
We have individual cases here and there that
due to bigotry and due to hatred of
Islam people have had problems doing these things
but by law, if you go back to
the law and if it goes to high
courts you will find that the Muslims they
would constitutionally be allowed to practice their religion.
So in this situation Muslims are allowed to
live as long as they can practice their
Islam and secondly they are making every effort
that they can to give Dawah to people
and invite people to Islam.
And that doesn't even have to be a
verbal Dawah.
It can be simply a person practicing his
Islam and being a good example for others
to follow.
So this is how we are allowed to
stay in a non-Muslim environment.
And we have heard ample proofs from the
Quran, we have heard ample proofs from the
Sunnah and we have heard again the three
categories of state that are found throughout the
world and we are in Dawah Al-Amin
in which we are allowed to practice our
Islam.
Now the issue of voting in this country,
it seems to be still a controversial issue
among some people and people they rely upon
some Fatawa that had been given that it's
not permissible to vote in a non-Muslim
election and the reasoning given is that the
politicians they will be propagating non-Islamic rules.
And the problem with these Fatawa, with all
due respect to the scholars that give these
Fatawa is that they are given by those
scholars that are not living, they are not
residing in this country, the majority of them.
The scholars that reside in this country and
they have been familiarized with how the system
works they will realize that there is no
way to change the laws, there is no
way to change the system unless and until
you become part of the system by being
part of the voting block, by voting for
your candidates and by making them know that
we voted for you and we need for
you to do things for us in local
government or even at state level or federal
level and this can only and only happen
when Muslims are active in the voting arena.
So it's very important and particularly in this
election in which we've been hearing anti-Islamic
rhetoric from one particular candidate, we know who
that is, it's important to give a message
that we as Muslims will not stand for
this, we will not accept this and we
need to go to the voting booth on
Monday actually the early voting starts, don't delay
it until the last day.
From Monday we need to go to the
voting booth, Irving City Hall, you can vote
there, you don't have to go to any
other area you can simply go to the
Irving City Hall during early voting, vote there
and that's the end of, you've fulfilled your
responsibility.
Also each one of us needs to find
out that which local candidate has been supportive
of Muslims and which local candidate we need
to vote for.
This is very important too because all politics
is local as they say, why?
Because the local politicians are the ones that
are going to be influential in your day
-to-day life when it comes to getting
permits, for example to build the extension of
the mosque, who do we go to?
We don't go to Washington, we go to
the local city hall.
So those politicians that we stood up for
and we voted for, they will vote in
our favour.
So local politicians we need to find out
who is in our favour, who has been
sympathetic to Islam and Muslims and we need
to vote for that person.
And there are organisations within the area that
are working to make lists to make sure
that people are going in and voting on
an educated basis and not voting blindly for
the person that they're not even aware of
what his principles and values are.
So the summary is that we need to
make sure that in this election we vote,
we make our voice heard.
If we're not registered, make sure you register
to vote, it's too late for this election.
But once you're registered, you're registered forever.
So you need to do that as soon
as possible so that at least in the
next city elections and so on, you can
vote for the next election inshallah.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us tawfiq
and understanding and practice of what has been
said.
Allah, Allah,
Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah and
keep in touch with their relatives in other
countries.
The Islamic school annual fundraising is going to
be on November 19th.
Please put that in your calender.
And In Sha Allah, saturday, November 5th, ICI
is hosting an open house for teachers.
So the teachers are the first step for
educating the community at large.