Ignore the Haters, Block the Trolls - Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda

Ignore the Haters, Block the Trolls - Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda

Opening

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem. Al-hamdu lillahi was-salatu was-salamu ala Rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmaeen. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Foundation: Understanding Our Context

So as a foundation and a basis for our conversation here today about this very important issue that our community finds itself in as a premise and a foundation for this conversation I'd like to use an ayah of the Qur'an - an ayah of the Qur'an that is really remarkable in the sense that it is placed of course divinely and therefore perfectly at the conclusion of a very remarkable surah that has a very great diversity of different topics and discussions within it and it is at the conclusion of a surah and the next surah that basically goes forward talks a lot about turmoil and turbulence and difficulty that ends up occurring within the lives of people.

The Problem of Short-Sighted Perspective

First and foremost, while I'm there at that particular topic one of the things that we do have to grasp and a lot of how we process information and the culture that we are a product of admittedly, you know, a lot of times there's a lot of negativity when we talk about this issue and while there are a lot of negative aspects to it but I don't mean to mention this negatively just we need to at the same time learn to grasp reality. What is the reality of our situation? Who are we? What is our context? What has constructed our psyche and our, you know, understanding of the world that we live in and how we process information and how we process the experiences that we go through and a lot of what has impacted and constructed our psyche and approach to the world around us is a very short-sighted, narrow-minded focus on the immediate what is immediately going on around us and in front of us and with us and almost an obsession with that and there is a disconnect from all the things that have transpired before us and what humanity and society has gone through for centuries and millennia there's a disconnect from that.

The Arrogance of Historical Ignorance

And so what ends up happening is that and this is very common dialogue this is very, very common rhetoric so tell me if it's unfamiliar: "The ummah is more persecuted today than it has ever been before." Sound familiar? Absolutely! Completely false! Absolutely false! It's ridiculous! The arrogance of that statement is so just astounding that just leaves you speechless for us to be so arrogant that it's bad enough that in our own lives socially, personally, psychologically, emotionally we live our lives in a way where I'm the center of the universe but then collectively we've been able to take our generation of the ummah and say all of Islam revolves around us we are Islam as if there was no Islam before us there was no ummah before us there were no Muslims before us and there will never be any after us right here, it starts here, it ends here it is us it is just pure arrogance.

Just read you know like a lot of times jokingly you tell your friend, you're like read a book right we collectively as an ummah need to read a book it's called the seerah, it's called the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

Historical Reality: The Early Muslim Experience

And if you pick up and you read that book you know what you would find? You would find that there were a few dozen Muslims living in the largest most important city in the Arabian Peninsula at that time that had an established culture and religion and political system and power structure and authority and financial system and all of a sudden three, four, five dozen people decided they weren't down with the program no more they were not going to be a part of this anymore we believe in something different we worship a different way we will live with a different set of values we will conduct ourselves differently we will walk and talk differently just 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 people in the biggest, most influential, most powerful most important city and tribe in the Arabian Peninsula at that time and they, that's it there's only 40 Muslims on the face of the planet and they were being picked off one by one by one.

The Story of Zinnira

40 Muslims being picked off one after another after another, after another like Zinnira (رضي الله تعالى عنها) she comes to mind a slave woman who was in Mecca at that time heard the message of Islam it struck her, resonated with her she became Muslim, accepted Islam when her slave owner master, whatever you want to call it found out that she had accepted Islam was outraged so basically subjected her to all types of terrible torture and they tortured her to the point she was an elderly woman they tortured her to the point of blindness she went blind, she lost her eyesight and after she lost her eyesight she could no longer see then one of the ways that they used to torture her and kind of mock her and play games with her is that they would come they would deprive her of food and water for a day, a couple of days until she was at the point of just you know, starvation and they would then bring some warm food or food specifically that had some type of aroma and when they would bring it near her she could smell the food because of hunger so she would kind of come closer and they would hold it out in front of her and she would follow the smell till she got close enough and she would reach out with her hands and try to grab it or jump forward and try to take it and then they would pull it away and she would fall down and then they would laugh at her and this is how they treated her like this is what was going on.

Of course it has a remarkable end where they do this and everyday she tolerates it, whatever until one day they really specifically start talking about Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) that look at your Allah and what can he do and he can't do anything and he couldn't save you and our idols and this and this and this so they started mocking what she believed in and that night she made dua and she said oh Allah they mock me they make fun of me they do whatever they want I don't care, it doesn't bother me but they talk about you in a way that I can't tolerate so Allah you prove them wrong they come back in the morning and they find her untied sitting there eating grapes and drinking water they're like who gave you this and she says what this and they realize she's looking right at them she can see and they're like what you can see how and she said you talked about my Allah yesterday didn't you that's right my Allah did this.

Establishing Historical Context

So my point of telling the story was just to mention the fact there are 40 Muslims on the face of the planet being picked off one after another they are hiding they are trying to escape with their lives eventually they have to leave their homes and migrate to East Africa and live there as migrants as refugees barely surviving so I go back to the initial point that this arrogance that we have about ourselves oh the ummah is more in distress than it has ever been before slow your roll and that is not to minimize the suffering of people no, no, no don't misunderstand me my point is if we're sitting here for the purpose of analysis empathy empathize completely with whoever is struggling but if we're sitting here for the purposes of analysis then please please develop a sense of some context that this is not the first time in the ummah's history that the ummah is struggling or suffering because we can also turn around and say the ummah has never been as wealthy as it is today the ummah has never been as numerous as it is today the ummah has never been in a better position than it is today that is also similarly than a point of contention and discussion so context is very very important.

The Central Verse: A Divine Solution

I kind of felt the need the necessity of mentioning that but what I really want to talk about here is the ayah that's where I started this entire discussion a very remarkable ayah verse of the Qur'an that occurs at the end of a very powerful surah that talks about what we believe in and why we believe what we believe and it is right before the beginning of a surah that talks about turmoil turbulence and conflict within the lives of those people who now believe it is ayah number 199 ayah number 199 of surah number 7 which we call surah al-a'raf right before we have surah al-anfal which talks about war so ayah number 199 of surah number 7.

I'm going to read the ayah for you I want you to marvel at the brevity and the conciseness of the ayah:

Khudh al-'afwa wa umur bil-'urfi wa a'rid 'an al-jahileen

That is the ayah. The ayah has three portions and I'd like to break down these three parts so bear with me inshallah.

Part One: خُذِ الْعَفْوَ (Take the Path of Forgiveness)

The first part is (خُذِ الْعَفْوَ) - two words. The first word is (خُذِ) in the Arabic language means to take something but not just to pick up something but it means like to snatch like almost like take and grab and hold on to something like Allah (جل جلاله) tells the prophets in the Quran (خُذُوا مَا آتَيْنَاكُم بِقُوَّةٍ) so it means to grab something hold something and then hold on to it so Allah (جل جلاله) says (خُذِ) it's the command form which is the Arabic classical Arabic method of commanding or instructing someone to implement something as a policy see when you do something once when you do something once or twice it says a one-off type of thing that's not called (خُذِ) like taking something but taking something holding on to it means adopting it as a policy making it the norm making it the standard operating procedure SOP that's what (خُذِ) means to make something your default your standard operating procedure modus operandi that's what it refers to and so that's what it's saying (خُذِ) take, hold on to implement as a policy what (الْعَفْوَ)

Second word is (الْعَفْوَ) in the Arabic language means to let something go to forgive to overlook to dismiss you know when somebody does something wrong and somebody wants to you know reprimand them and take it very seriously and kind of get on their case about it and you end up telling that brother you say like you know what don't worry about it let it go, it's ok I know he's late to his session but let it go it's ok right so you tell somebody it's ok let it go don't worry about it no problem, no big deal that's (الْعَفْوَ) it's ok don't worry about it so Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) is saying (خُذِ الْعَفْوَ) that type of attitude of letting things go accommodating faults and shortcomings like accepting them dismissing them overlooking shortcomings and faults make that your standard operating procedure.

That should be your default mode that you do not jump on the case of each and every single person that slightly deviates from the exact operating manual and procedure hey, why are you sitting like this? why are you doing that? who told you to do that? why did you send that email? why did you make that phone call? you're not supposed to do it like this why did you put it in this box? no, it goes in that box you don't do anything right didn't you read the email that I sent? don't you guys know how to follow rules? didn't you people learn how to read? didn't your mother love you? it's like, why do you get so personal? that's what happens when you get angry you get angrier that's why it's not good but my point is simply that we sometimes think that we mistake you know, we use these words we talk about professionalism and we talk about being sophisticated and refined and developed and professional and you know, being proficient etc, etc we talk about all these things we want to make what we do better and we sometimes mistake that for we misunderstand that for like absolute perfection that is total garbage absolute perfection in what you do is garbage that doesn't even exist human beings were not created with the ability to be perfect that is a philosophical fallacy.

The Hadith on Human Nature

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in a hadith he says:

(Tirmidhi 2499)

"All the children of Adam are sinners, and the best of sinners are those who repent"

This is what we call in the Arabic language what we call a (جُمْلَة خَبَريَّة) which means it is an informative factual statement the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) saying every human being will must, will always make mistakes every human being makes mistakes there is no such thing as perfection so don't go around demanding perfection from people but when people make mistakes overlook their faults let things go.

Part Two: وَأَمُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ (Enjoin What is Good)

Number two (وَأَمُرْ بِالْعُرْفِ) let's just say you gave somebody a task nine times and all nine times they did it wrong every single time every single time then (خُذِ الْعَفْوَ) right, you're trying to learn so you gave them the task a tenth time with a gentle reminder this is how we do it and they do it right the tenth time the tenth time he or she finally got it right now what is the reaction that usually you want to have in that situation when that person comes and says hey look, I got it right you want to say oh my god that's amazing I was convinced you were a moron but apparently you can be taught something hold on, let me go and call my parents let me put out an announcement you got it right, congratulations after nine times you got it right you want to have that reaction and that probably initially will play out in your head keep it to yourself (وَأَمَّرْ بِالْعُرْفِ) enjoying positively with good what that means is reinforce, recognize, acknowledge the good that people do in a positive manner and fashion recognize them when that dude all right comes back the tenth time finally having done it right after nine incorrect tries and says look I got it, I did it right then at that time you say mashallah, jazakallah khair thank you very very much thank you very very much and acknowledge that person praise that person thank that person say jazakallah to that person for doing it right positively reinforce and that will lead towards building and encouraging more you know, positive behavior and positive achievements.

Part Three: وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ (Turn Away from the Ignorant)

But the last and the final part of this equation is that if that's how you're operating why am I talking about this? this doesn't have to seem to do anything with the topic it does not, I'm just joking, it does but the idea is that look challenges and difficulties have always been there are there and will always be there if you're looking for a place where all of a sudden magically we're all just skipping around holding hands, eating hummus and everybody's happy and Muslim that doesn't exist that's called paradise mine is the hummus, right? so, but that doesn't exist.

The Reality of Medina