Zia Sheikh – Unity
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of unity of faith and religion in unite under the one banner of Islam. The Prophet has given individuals the opportunity to stand up for their own political and cultural status and encourage them to unite under the one banner of Islam. The speaker also mentions the importance of community and religion in unite under the one banner of race or religion.
AI: Summary ©
This is Imam Zia speaking to you from
the Islamic Central Conference in Damascus, Syria.
And I'd like to talk to you today
about a very important topic, which is the
unity of the ummah.
And this is, you know, something that has
been emphasized right from the very beginning.
The Prophet ﷺ encouraged people not to look
at race, color, language, financial status, etc., but
rather to unite on the basis of the
faith.
And this is what Allah ﷻ commands.
Hold fast to the rope of Allah ﷻ
and do not differentiate.
So, this rope of Allah ﷻ, different opinions
of different scholars, but basically the Qur'an,
the Sunnah, the deen, the religion.
So, holding fast to it means that you
unite under the one banner of Islam, la
ilaha illallah.
We see from the actions of the Prophet
ﷺ that how he dealt with people from
different nationalities, for example.
He dealt with Bilal ﷺ in such a
way that he was regarded amongst the community
at the time as the lowest of the
low.
A slave from Abyssinia, dark of skin, and
a person who's in the status of slavery.
This was the lowest status that a person
could have.
Yet, when Abu Bakr ﷺ set him free,
the Prophet ﷺ gave him such an honorable
status that he became the mu'adhin of
the Prophet ﷺ from the beginning right to
the end, up to the death of the
Prophet ﷺ.
And he left Medina because he could not
bear to look at the same places that
he used to see the Prophet ﷺ, and
he moved to Damascus because of that.
There's a long story, but ultimately he had
a dream of the Prophet ﷺ, and he
came back to Medina to visit.
But, you know, the point of this talk
is to emphasize how the Prophet ﷺ took
the status of Bilal ﷺ and put him
to such a high status that he became
known amongst the people as Sayyiduna Bilal, meaning
our master Bilal.
So, Islam teaches this.
He did the same thing with Suhaib al
-Rumi, the Roman or Greek Sahabi who was
white skinned and had blue eyes.
And he did the same thing with Salman
al-Farsi, the Persian-speaking Sahabi who came
all the way from Persia, from modern-day
what we call Iran.
So, again and again, we see this.
So much so that the people around the
Prophet ﷺ, they were arrogant because of the
fact that they were Arabs.
And they said that if these people, if
these lowly people who speak different languages, they
don't sit with you, then we would be
interested in learning about Islam.
But the Prophet ﷺ didn't give any person
any kind of leeway in this respect.
He kept and held fast to this opinion
and to the viewpoint that everyone should remain
united irrespective of which background they're from.
And this is what we need to, you
know, put into our lives also.
If there was any superiority that anyone could
have had because of a language that a
person speaks, it would have been the Arabs
over the non-Arabs.
Why?
Because they speak the language of the Qur
'an.
They speak the language of the Prophet ﷺ.
They speak the language of Jannah.
But even the Prophet ﷺ closed the door
on this possibility by saying in the last
Khutbah, There is no status for an Arab
over a non-Arab except through Taqwa.
And he said the same thing opposite.
So my dear brothers and sisters, we need
to make sure we unite.
And we unite not on the basis of
our languages or the color of our skin.
Rather, we focus under the banner of La
ilaha illallah.
And we love each other for the sake
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We spread Salaam to people that we know
and whether we don't know them.
We invite people towards our houses irrespective of
what language they speak.
And with this inshallah, we will find that
love will increase within the community, within the
ummah.
And we will unite once again under the
banner of Islam and not under the banner
of races or countries.
I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gives us all the ability to understand and
practice what has been said and heard.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.