Zia Sheikh – Jumuah Social Justice
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Hayya ala al-falāha Hayya
ala al-falāha Allāhu akbar
Allāhu akbar Lā ilāha
illāllāh Inna al-ḥamdu liLlāhi
naḥmaduhu wa nast'a'inuhu wa nastaghfiruhu wa
nu'minu bihi wa natawakkalu alayhi wa naʿuzu biLlāhi
min shururi anfusinā wa min sayyi'āti ʿamālinā
man yahdil lahu falā mudhilla lahu wa man
yuzlil falā hādiya lah wa nashahdu wa lā
ilāha illāllāhu wahdahū lā sharīka lah wa nashahdu
anna sayyidinā wa mawlānā muḥammadan ʿabduhu wa rasūluh
Ammā baʿak qal Allāhu tabārak wa taʿalā fi
kitābi l-ʿazīz wa ʿaʿuzu biLlāhi mina sh
-shayṭāni r-rajīm wa min āyātihi khalqus samāwāti
wa l-ardhi wa khtilāfu al-sinatikum wa
alwānikum inna fī dhālika lā āyātin liqawmi yu'minūn
wa qāl yā ayyuhannās inna khalaqanākum min dhakarin
wa unfā wa jaʿalnākum shuʿūban wa qabā'ila
li taʿārafu inna akramakum ʿindallāhi atqākum inna Allāha
ʿalīmun khabīr sadaqallāhu l-ʿazīm My dear respected
elders, brothers, sisters most of you are aware
that the coming few days on Monday we
have a commemoration of one of the forerunners
and the flag bearers of social justice in
the history of this country and February is
also what is known in the US as
Black Awareness Month so to talk about this
issue of social justice it is something that
we should be reflecting upon and thinking about
because this is not something which is alien
to Islam and Islamic teachings one of the
main things that the Prophet ﷺ did when
he became a Prophet was to make sure
that the oppressed were taken care of and
the differences between black and white were eliminated
and racism was also taken out of the
system completely to such a degree that sometimes
during the course of the Prophethood there were
instances where racial differences or tribal differences threatened
to blow up and result in differences between
people but the Prophet ﷺ stumped it out
completely there and then an instance comes to
mind where one of the Ansar or the
Muhajireen one of the two hit the other
and this person he started calling his brothers
Ya lal Muhajireen Oh Muhajireen come and on
the other side the other person started calling
Ya lal Ansar Oh Ansar come Muhajireen meaning
the people that had migrated from Mecca to
Medina and in Medina the people who took
them in and took care of them known
as the Ansar so they called each other
with these labels Ya lal Muhajireen Ya lal
Ansar so the Prophet ﷺ he became very
upset and he said A da'awul jahiliyati
wa ana feekum calls of jahiliya calls of
ignorance while I'm still amongst you so basically
the Prophet ﷺ he emphasized and keep in
mind that both Muhajireen both the Ansar not
they were not even Arabs they were all
Arabs different tribes maybe different localities maybe but
just imagine if the racial disparity was between
people of different colors how the Prophet ﷺ
would have been upset and he himself through
his own actions the Prophet ﷺ he put
on a pedestal people who were downtrodden and
the very clear example that's always given is
the example of Bilal r.a who was
he?
what was his history?
a slave and a person who was oppressed
from an Ethiopian background the color of the
skin was dark which was again something frowned
upon in that society the Prophet ﷺ made
him the Mu'adhin and he was the
first Mu'adhin and the last Mu'adhin
until the death of the Prophet ﷺ to
the extent that when he when the Prophet
ﷺ passed away he could not take it
anymore the memories of the Prophet ﷺ were
in his mind at all times every nook
every cranny every corner Bilal r.a who
used to remember the Prophet ﷺ and he
could not take it anymore so he left
after a while it's mentioned that Bilal r
.a who he saw in a dream that
the Prophet ﷺ was talking to him and
telling him that what is this Bilal?
what is this betrayal that you never come
to visit me anymore so he got up
in the middle of the night and he
was sweating his wife asked him what's the
problem?
he said I saw the Prophet ﷺ next
day he packed up his bags and came
back to Medina the grandsons of the Prophet
ﷺ they saw him and they requested him
to make Adhan so one of the most
moving episodes in Islamic history he made Adhan
and this Adhan was associated and attached to
the time of the Prophet ﷺ to the
life of the Prophet ﷺ and when the
people of Medina heard this Adhan they came
rushing out of their houses asking has the
Prophet ﷺ come alive again?
so the point is that the attachment of
Bilal with the Prophet ﷺ was such that
the Adhan of the time of the Prophet
ﷺ was connected to the Prophet ﷺ the
Adhan of Bilal was connected to the Prophet
ﷺ to a degree that even people felt
that maybe the the Prophet ﷺ has become
alive again because we are hearing the same
Adhan that we heard during his lifetime this
was the connection that Bilal a freed slave
had to the Prophet ﷺ and it was
it wasn't just Bilal you have Suhayb al
-Rumi Salman al-Farsi Sahaba from Yemen all
gathered around the Prophet ﷺ and it came
to a point that the Kuffar of Quraish
they said look we are Arabs and if
you get rid of these people all from
around you these slaves and these workers these
people that have no status in society they
are non-Arabs we are Arabs they are
Ajami then maybe we can come and sit
with you and listen to you and listen
to your message the Prophet ﷺ refused said
this is not going to happen so the
Prophet ﷺ taught us unity he made the
people unite that is why Allah ﷻ he
says in Surah al-Rum وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ
السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ it is
from the miracles of Allah ﷻ the creation
of the heavens and the earth and it
is from the miracles of Allah ﷻ that
each one has different languages and different colors
this is a miracle of Allah ﷻ not
a deficiency in people it is a miracle
that he created us in different forms different
shapes different colors different languages a clear miracle
whenever we say the word ayah in the
Quran it refers to a miracle of Allah
ﷻ so it is not something that should
be taken as a deficiency as an amongst
the people to have a different color from
oneself or speaking a different language from oneself
and we hear another verse all the time
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقَنَاكُمْ مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَىٰ
وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلًا لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ
اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ O people we created you from
one male and one female everyone was created
from Adam and Hawa and we made you
into tribes and nations so that you could
get to know each other if everybody was
the same if everybody had the same diet
if everybody wore the same clothes if everybody
spoke the same language then the world would
be a pretty boring place so Allah SWT
within the Ummah of the Prophet A.S.
he created so many different different kinds of
societies different kinds of colors different kinds of
cuisines different kinds of food different kinds of
dress so that we could appreciate each other's
cultures and realize that this is these good
qualities are found amongst certain races we need
to take those qualities we in our race
we have these qualities which are not so
good we need to get rid of these
qualities and adopt the good qualities of others
and so on so this is what is
meant by Ta'aruf getting to know each
other means getting to know each other's cultures
and implementing the good from each other's cultures
and Allah SWT in the eyes of Allah
SWT colors social background finances they are irrelevant
in the eyes of Allah SWT the thing
that Allah SWT judges us by is our
Taqwa our awareness of Him indeed the most
closest to Allah SWT is the one that
has the most Taqwa indeed Allah SWT He
is Alim and Khabir He is all knowing
and all aware one of the last things
that the Prophet SAW did was the issue
of the last Khutbah the last Khutbah there
are so many things that the Prophet SAW
mentioned in this Khutbah if we read the
text of that Khutbah maybe it is going
to take us 5 to 7 minutes 5
to 7 minutes but the teachings of that
Khutbah are so valuable in the sense that
each and every minority is mentioned in this
Khutbah and each and every step that we
are supposed to take in in our lives
it is mentioned in this Khutbah first and
foremost even to this day one of the
most oppressed groups in our society is the
women West East Muslim Non-Muslim women are
oppressed and they are treated unfairly so Islamically
what did the Prophet SAW said he told
us in this last Khutbah to take care
of the women so basically again social justice
is being explained by the Prophet SAW in
this Khutbah the second thing he said guard
your Salat guard your Salat and the slaves
that you have take care of them fulfill
their rights treat them like humans not like
animals and of course Islam taught us to
free those slaves to a degree that slowly
slowly the whole institution of slavery was abolished
in Islam by this encouragement of Islam by
setting the slaves free and then one of
the most profound things that the Prophet SAW
he said was that no priority no superiority
of an Arab over a non-Arab or
a non-Arab over an Arab except through
the Taqwa of Allah SWT this is mentioned
again in the last Khutbah of the Prophet
SAW so the reality is that we do
not adhere to those teachings that the Prophet
SAW left us with and yes we claim
to have no racism and we claim that
there is no amongst us but the reality
is that we are very far from the
teachings of Islam we do look at other
races in a different way someone who is
different to us someone who speaks a different
language to us we treat them in a
way that is not appropriate and not according
to the teachings of Islam we look at
the lifetime lifestyles of the Sahaba SWT and
one of the famous stories that we can
reminisce about is the story of Umar SWT
and his slaves that when they are coming
to Jerusalem to be given the keys of
the city and to conquer Jerusalem and to
rule over Jerusalem the slave is riding the
camel and Umar SWT is walking on the
ground and it's to such a degree that
people think that the one riding the camel
is the Khalifa and he in fact is
the slave can you imagine how powerful a
statement that is and who amongst the leaders
in so called Islamic countries has that same
attitude it is mentioned also that at that
time Umar SWT as he is walking and
coming into Jerusalem he had patches over his
clothes you know like when your cloth rips
and you put a patch on it there
were 12 patches all over his thawb all
over his jalabiya that he was wearing as
the Khalifa you don't think that he could
take some money from the Baitul Mal and
he could he could take and buy a
new set of clothes especially as a dignitary
as a ruler as a Khalifa as he
is going into a new country could he
have bought some new clothes or not he
could have but he didn't I'll finish off
with another story which again talks about the
justice of Abu Bakr SWT social justice is
what we are talking about today it is
mentioned that Abu Bakr SWT when his Khilafah
started he set about in the marketplace to
do his business he used to sell cloth
so he is taking his cloth and heading
towards the market Umar SWT was stopping him
telling him what are you doing you are
the Khalifa now you have to take care
of the government you have to take care
of the Ummah so he said then you
know I have to provide for my family
and a stipend was basically allocated to him
from the Baitul Mal it is mentioned that
his wife made Halwa for him a sweet
dish for him after saving a lot of
money over a few days some money that
was given to her to buy the grocery
with she put some aside and then after
a few weeks a few months she had
enough to get this sweet dish together and
make a sweet dish for him and he
asked this question that where did this sweet
dish come from she said well I have
been saving putting some money aside every single
day and when I got enough money to
make this sweet dish for you I made
it so he said how much money did
you save every single day she said X
amount so he said well that is an
amount that I don't need anymore so that
amount has to be cut from my stipend
social justice where one's own salary is deducted
so that a person is not held accountable
in front of Allah SWT simply because the
wife saved some money and after a certain
amount of time made him a sweet dish
can we imagine the leaders of our countries
and the leaders of our societies that are
thriving on bribes and corruption and not thinking
about the poor man on the street can
they can you imagine them doing something like
this it's impossible so where is our Iman
where is our Taqwa where is our sense
of social justice the reality is that we
have to go back to Islamic teachings we
have to go back to the teachings of
our pious predecessors the Sahaba the Khulafa Rashideen
and put that into practice and then we
will get some inkling of social justice in
our lives I pray that Allah SWT gives
us to understand and practice what has been
said and heard Allahumma
nansur al-Islam al-Muslimin Allahumma nansur man
nasra dina Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa
ja'alna minhum wa khzul man khadala dina
Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa laa taja
'alna ma'ahum Allahumma nansurna wa laa tansur
alayna Allahumma mkur lana wa laa tamkur alayna
Allahumma zidna wa laa tanqusna Allahumma atina wa
laa tahrimna Allahumma rabbana atina fid dunya hasana
wafil aakhirati hasana waqina thaba annar wa adkhilna
aljannata ma'al abrar ya aziz ya ghafar
ameen ya rabbal alameen ameen ya rabbal alameen
inna Allah ya'mur bil adl wal ihsan wa
ita'i dhil qurba wa yinha'an al
fahsha'i wa al munkari wa al baghi
ya'idukum la'allakum tazakaroon wadhkuru Allah al
aliyyul jaleel yadkurkum wadhkuru Allah al aliyyul jaleel
yadkurkum wadhkuru Allah al
aliyyul jaleel yadkurkum wadhkuru Allah al aliyyul jaleel
yadkurkum yadkurkum wadhkuru Allah al aliyyul jaleel yadkurkum
wadhkuru Allah al aliyyul jaleel yadkurkum wadhkuru Allah