The Future
By Abdullah Hakim Quick | 2026-01-15T11:56:24.593837+00:00 | Topic: Iman
The Future - Shaykh Abdullah Hakim Quick
Opening Prayers and Greetings
I bear witness that Allah is one and has no partners and that Muhammad the son of Abdullah is his servant and his last messenger and may Allah always and constantly send peace and blessings to Muhammad to his family, to his companions, to all those who call to his way and establish his sunnah to the day of judgment.
As to what follows my beloved brothers and sisters (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ - as-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh alhamdulillah). It is a great pleasure again to be here in Manchester and to see some of the faces of brothers who I've known in the past and I pray that Allah would bless you and protect you and unite you in these very difficult times.
Greetings from Istanbul
I want to bring to you special salams from your brothers and sisters in Istanbul, Turkey. I recently left them there and by the mercy of Allah there is a group of believers who are now working at the Blue Mosque to help the people who are coming there to understand what they are seeing and this is part of the dilemma and the unique situation of the Muslims. Because in Turkey there is over a million people per year who are coming to this Sultan Ahmed Masjid, the Topkapi Museum in this area and they stand in awe, they stand, they are amazed at the sight that they see. They are amazed at the power that the Muslims once had but they see the building and they don't understand what it is the Muslims are actually about. Who are they worshipping? Who are they following? What was the basis of this civilization that was able to construct buildings on this size and to influence the world in the way they influence the world?
And so this group of believers has begun to take the people out of their confusion and to in a very indirect way, in a soft way, to show them or to help them to understand what is in back of this mighty structure that they see there in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Uniqueness of the Muslim Ummah
And this really is part of the uniqueness of the Muslim Ummah because at this point in time when we look at our past we see that we have a history of respect, a history of power, a history of progress that it is through our scholars who were inspired by the last Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Muslims were able to take the knowledge of the ancient ones, the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Babylonians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, take the knowledge of the old world and bring it into a practical form using Tawhid in order that people could use it in the modern age and so this was a great achievement during the golden ages of Islam. It wasn't the dark ages as many scholars
would like to tell us, the reality was, it was the golden age of Islam and Muslims at that point were on the pinnacle of civilization in the world.
The Current State of the Muslim World
In the present situation that we are in, coming out of the colonial period, coming out of subjugation where our countries were dominated by powers that came from the outside, coming out of a feeling of inferiority, the Muslim world is growing and growing. There is a ground swell that is happening with the rise of Muslims throughout the world. Alhamdulillah, in Canada where I'm living now today, we established a masjid in the North Pole and so you go to the highest reaches of Canada to the highest part of the earth, Alhamdulillah, we took a masjid and carried it up there, we established it and so five salats are being done in the North Pole.
In Australia, recently I met a chief of an aboriginal clan in Melbourne, Australia and his people are coming into Islam in large numbers and so Islam is spreading to people in the far distant peripheries of the world and our numbers are rising and rising in a phenomenal rate. In Toronto where I'm living, Muslims now are officially 10% of the population. 10% of Toronto are Muslims so we have large numbers.
The Contradiction: Wealth and Poverty
We also have some of the richest people on the face of the planet earth. They take a census of rich people and they tell you these are the top 10, these are the top 20, some of our leaders you can't even put him in the census because he doesn't have a bank account, his money is the gross national product of the country itself so you can't even compare our leaders to Bill Gates and people like this because they don't even have bank accounts, they don't even need to have a bank account. And so the wealth that we have is mind-boggling, it is out of control.
We also have large armies, we have intellectuals, we are sitting in strategic positions all throughout the planet, we have knowledge. The great scholars in the past would have to travel hundreds of kilometers in some cases to get one hadith and now we can take the authentic books, we have them, we put them all on a chip, put them in our pocket, we are carrying hundreds and thousands of traditions with us so it's not about knowledge, it is not about numbers, it is not about our potential. But there is something that is happening that I want to share with you, the thoughts that we are having as people who have embraced Islam, as young people who are growing up and looking at the Muslim ummah with this great potential.
There is a contradiction. With the great wealth there is also poverty, some of the poorest countries in the world are Muslim countries and I lived with Muslims in the Sahara desert, in the Sahara al-Kubra where they barely had enough to break their fast. It's the same ummah, the same kalima but some have an obscene amount of wealth and others hardly have enough to survive and so this is a fitna, this is a test.
The Trial of Wealth
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2336)
And the Prophet ﷺ was reported to have said: " - "Every nation has a trial and test and the trial and test of this nation is wealth."
We have too much or we have too little, we're on extremes so it's a contradiction. Our armies are there but they are not coming to liberate the oppressed, our wealth is not feeding the poor, our intellectuals in many cases instead of making achievements for the future like they did in the golden age will argue with each other over minor points.
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3253, Sunan Ibn Majah 48)
And the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said: " - "People would not go astray after guidance till they were given the ability to argue with each other."
Historical Lessons: The Mongol Catastrophe
And so it's a contradiction and it is reaching epic proportions. It has happened a few times in Islamic history where it has reached this proportion. It is said in the 13th century of the common era that the Muslims were divided into nation states, that the Khalifa was a symbolic leader, that the great scholars like Ibn al-Athir in his history book, he reports that during that year there was no hajj group that went from Baghdad to Mecca, they were too busy to make hajj. The ulema were given a tiny pittance whereas the ruling people had a huge amount of wealth and so with this contradiction a major change came about.
A catastrophe hit the Muslim world when the Mongols sent their emissaries into the Muslim world, they were disgraced by the Muslims, their beards were shaven and they were sent back and their leader stood under his guard and he said there's only one sun in the sky and there's only one Khan on this earth and Genghis Khan unleashed his forces on the Muslims and they unleashed them and they created a major catastrophe, a genocide of unbelievable proportions came about until Allah raised up Sayf ad-Din Qutuz, rahimuhullah, he united the Muslims and they stopped the Mongols in Ain Jalut. And following this they gave dawah to the Mongols, Sayf ad-Din Qutuz stopped the Mongols, they were given dawah and some of them accepted Islam and so the people were the enemies of Islam then became champions of Islam.
But the shahid here, the witness here is the contradiction, the wealth, the potential not using it in the proper way.
Looking to the Future
And at this point in time as we are thinking about the future and those who follow the solar calendar are talking about the new year, those who follow the Islamic calendar are also just begun the new year, people are thinking about the past thinking about the future. Allah عز وجل tells us in Surah Al-Hashr:
"Oh you who believe, have the consciousness of Allah and let every soul look to what it has put forward for tomorrow and fear Allah, surely Allah is well aware of all that you do. And be not as those who forgot Allah for He will make them forget themselves, surely they are the disobedient ones." (Quran 59:18-19)
And so we have understood the gem of this verse where it says "(لَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ نَسُوا اللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ - la takunu kallathina nasu Allaha fa ansahum anfusahum)" - you forget Allah, He will make you forget yourself and so your wealth will not come to the assistance of the poor, your armies will not liberate the oppressed, your scholars will not be moving toward progress.
Signs of Change: Environmental Crisis
And so it is a serious time now and Muslims in the different countries, we're waiting for something, it's like we're waiting for something to happen. The whole world is actually waiting for something but there is a rumbling that is going on, there is a rumbling, there is a ground swell that is happening and it is the earth itself. The earth itself is throwing back at us as human beings, for too long we polluted the planet, we destroyed the ecosystems, we cut down the trees, we made extinct so many animals and plants and now it's turning back on us. And the skeptics said, oh no this is a natural thing, this is not a natural thing and everybody realizes it now because the tornadoes and the earthquakes and the floods, the tsunamis, the things that are happening now are usually considered to be the worst on record.
Last year there was a flood in Poland and the Polish considered to be the worst flood in living memory. The flood in Pakistan and the flood in Australia right now, they are calling it biblical, the only word they can use for it, it's a biblical flood. It reminds them of Noah, alayhis salaam, a moving tsunami right now. Australia, there is a section of Australia the size of France and Germany is going underwater. It's happening all over the planet and if you study nature closely you see some strange things.
In Canada, to the north of Canada, the polar bears that normally move across the ice to their feeding grounds, they can't reach their grounds because the ice is melted. There are insects in Canada instead of fleeing south, the insects are going north, the insects are going north and the animals and insects they know something that we don't know. And it is said at the time of the tsunami, when the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, that there was a quietness in the ocean and the animals started to go to high ground because they knew something was coming and so the insects in Canada are going north to a place where they never went before. So there are some strange things that are happening and we were told about this.
The Quran's Warning About Environmental Destruction
This came to us in our book in Surah Al-Rum verse 41, Allah عز وجل has told us:
"Corruption has appeared throughout the land and the sea because of what man's hands have done and we will make them taste something of what they have earned in order that they would return to the path." (Quran 30:41)
And so (صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيمُ - sadaqa Allahu al-azim) it has come to pass, we are tasting it. And it is interesting that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ they talked about this verse. What is (فَسَادٌ فِي الْبَحْرِ - fasadun fil bahr)? They discussed because of the sins of Bani Adam that there would be a decrease in vegetation, that animal life would be destroyed, that fish would be destroyed in the ocean. From back 1400 years ago they were discussing the issues that are hitting us right now.
Failed Global Conferences
But people don't learn and they had a big conference in Copenhagen, they had another one in Cancun, Mexico recently but the one in Copenhagen, that was the one that was supposed to solve the problem and so they said it's not Copenhagen, it's Hopenhagen, there's hope for the future. But when they really discussed the issue and they said one of the basic problems is the inequality between the rich and the poor, that there is a tiny minority of people who are controlling the wealth of the planet, that is the real problem, then everything froze and Hopenhagen became Nopenhagen, no compromise. In Cancun the major countries, no compromise.
The Muslim Response to Crisis
And so we are left at the doorstep of an apocalypse. What we will be seeing in the next few years and Allah knows best is cataclysmic changes that it's going to change the relationship of people forever. Our nation states will change, our economies are going to change and so Muslims, we have a very serious role in this because we are the ones who are carrying the last testament, we are the ones who are carrying the message of the last and greatest of the Anbiya, we have gems of wisdom in our hands, we have solutions to the problems that people are facing.
The people are facing spiritual crisis right now. They are going to magicians, they go to fortune tellers, they try to call on spirit gods, they cast spells, they enter secret societies because there is a vacuum, there is a spiritual vacuum. And Muslims have the declaration of independence in Surah Al-Fatiha with that verse alone we are saying:
"You alone Allah do we worship and from you alone do we seek assistance." (Quran 1:5)
Solutions Muslims Possess
The economy of the world is going into a major recession. You think that because some money was taken shifted from banks into the hands of elite people that this is going to change the economy? It's not going to change because it is based upon a lie. The promissory notes that we have been given do not equal the gold and silver in the banks, people are not trading based upon reality and money fluctuates and goes up and down and so
The Need for Internal Change
So we have great potential but the ummah now, we are in a serious position. We are crying for change, we cry for political change, we cry for the khalifa, we cry for social change, we cry for Islamic banking, we want Islamic halal food, we want Islamic lifestyle. But Allah said Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves, no change, there's gonna be no change.
And so when we look to the future with the great potential that we have, Allah told us do not forget Allah, he'll make you forget yourself, change will not come about until we go into our hearts. We have to seriously, we have to change the template, how we practice Islam, what is the purpose of the masjid, what is our mission as Muslims, we have to change this before it is too late. And when the great cataclysm happens, when the apocalypse begins, we have to be able to think outside of the box using the Quran and Sunnah as our guide to think outside the box toward the future.
Demographics: A Young Ummah
When we look at our community in looking toward the future, there's some amazing studies that have been done and I want to share one study with you and reflect upon it in terms of our own community and how we can do something towards the future. The first change is inside of ourselves but there's another change that our community is facing.
A recent study was done by the United Nations and normally politically they don't favor Muslims but they have an outreach and they went around the world and looked at the situation of populations and they found out that in the 21st century this is a century of young people. They found out that presently 48% of the world population is under 24 years old, 48% of people on earth are under 24. In Africa and this can go for many of the Muslim countries as well, 60% of the people are under 25. They did a study of North Africa, Algeria and some of the Northern Africa, they found this, 60% of the people under 25 years old.
So we are a young nation. If you take all of the Muslims and put them outside on a field, you'll find the majority of the Muslims are young people. But yet when we look at our programs, what happens in the masjid, and I'm not necessarily talking about this masjid, when you look at the masjid, how many programs are for the young people? Most of the masjids and I'm being straightforward to you because we have to be honest and straightforward with each other, most of the masjids are men's club for men over 35 years old. The majority of the people are young.
If you want to sell, you know, encyclopedias, that's what they used to sell, now it's Googles for everything, but if you want to sell products in an area, you take a census of the people, you understand the people themselves and if they are literate, if they're going to buy your books then you sell your books, if they don't read you're not going to sell your books. And so our activities, our understanding has to change. It is the younger generation that will carry Islam in the future, they are the ones who will live in the future, not our generation, the older generation who is here, it is the young people who will live in the future, they will face the apocalypse. How will they function in this world?
Five Crisis Points Facing Young People
There are certain issues, certain crisis points that are shared by young people all over the planet and I want to share these with you as a means of looking at some practical areas that we can begin to focus on. We need activities. The Prophet ﷺ when he established the masjid in Medina it was an all-purpose Islamic center, all types of activities went on inside the masjid, even political decisions were made inside of the masjid.
According to the study, there are five crisis points that the younger generation who are the majority will have to face in the 21st century, five crises:
1. Violence
Number one, violence. The level of violence today of murder and killing is the highest level in recorded history. There is no time where human beings had the ability to kill and destroy each other like we do today and so young people have to grow up in a world of violence and that violence sometimes it starts in their own homes and that is where alcohol and drugs and gambling and other addictions, they naturally lead to abuse. People who leave the sunnah, people who base their religion not on their deen but on their culture, they also have abuse and we have found this in our communities.
2. Erosion of Traditional Values
Number two, an erosion of traditional values. This is an interesting point, young people around the world, their value systems are changing and they are being taught by the international globalization which is coming on the television, it comes in the movies, it comes on the internet, it comes on facebook, on twitter, the social networking, they are being taught to accept values other than their own traditional values.
I say to some of the students that I was born in BC and they say, wow, that means you're a caveman or something like that, BC, you know what BC is? Before computers. It was only in the 90s we started using computers, not a long time ago. I can even say I was born in BFB, I was born before facebook because facebook has changed everybody's mentality. Some people live a life larger than anything on the facebook, he's superman on the facebook and you meet him, he's just a little simple guy, okay? So it has changed everybody's relationship.
But what are we being taught by the media? What are we being taught? What are the images coming to us? Signs and symbols are coming to us so a young person would rather eat instead of eating his own nice biryani or shawarma or kebabs, he wants Kentucky fried chicken or he wants McDonald's. I came into a Muslim country in Ramadan, I'm not going to say which one it was and I came from the airport and as we moved in the dock, the first thing I saw was the golden arches and it said Ramadan Mubarak with the golden arches of McDonald's, that was the first thing in the Muslim country and so our value systems are changing.
What does an erosion of traditional values mean for Muslims? It means they will leave the deen, they will take on another lifestyle. As the Prophet ﷺ said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 3456, Sahih Muslim 2669)
"You will follow them inch by inch and foot by foot until they crawl into a lizard's hole you will crawl in there with them." And they said, is it the Christians and the Jews? And he said
(Sahih al-Bukhari 3456, Sahih Muslim 2669)
"Who else?"
You will follow them inside of the hole and so traditional values are going down. That is a struggle for the younger generation to be able to see Islam in a practical way today. We can no longer give khutbas and put people to sleep, take them 1400 years back and they have nothing to use today. When the Prophet ﷺ used to give the khutba they said his eyes would get red, his voice would raise and it was like an army was right in back of them, he was dealing with al-waqia, reality. So our deen has got to be practical for the younger generation to use in their struggle.
3. Poverty
Number three, of the crisis points facing the 21st century, it's poverty, it's poverty, people are starving, people are suffering. I lived in Southern Africa for 10 years and it was a common thing for us to set up a masjid in an area where there was no running water and no electricity and you go into some areas and you will not believe it, people are still accepting Islam, no running water, no electricity and then you go to another place and you see the masjid, the rug is so thick. I went into one masjid, I said, brothers, this is not a masjid, this is a palace, you're praying in a palace, you're not praying in a masjid. And so poverty, and so we will have to, we will have to mobilize our wealth and think in terms of Islamic relief.
Islamic relief has to be a part of our lifestyle. You have to look at all of, we have to look at our wealth and a portion of our wealth has to be given to the crisis zones in the world. The situation in Pakistan has not gotten better up until now, they are in crisis, the infrastructure is destroyed. So people are going to have to give not only their wealth but give their time, give their skills. If Allah blessed you to be a doctor or an engineer or whatever your skill is, spend some of your time in the needy zones, you have to give back, you can't just take this skill and hoard it to yourself and buy two or three houses, you have to give back to the people because poverty, suffering, this is going to be one of the hallmarks of the century that we are in.
4. Disease
Number four of the crisis facing the younger generation, disease. There are diseases that are spreading now, there are viruses that are spreading which were not known in the previous generations and we saw this in Southern Africa, in South Africa in particular. Allah knows why but what they considered to be HIV AIDS which also includes, it can be tuberculosis, it can be malnutrition, it can be a number of things, but they found that one out of every three people was HIV positive, one in three. That means a Muslim doctor came to where I was in Cape Town and what they told him was just consider everybody who comes in the door to be HIV positive, everybody because if one in three is HIV positive, everybody is.
So the virus is spreading, the diseases will continue to spread and this is where we will have to go back to the sunnah and give of our lifestyle. Our lifestyle will protect people. You will see in the Muslim countries, we saw it in Southern Africa and as you go to the Muslim countries, the more Islam is practiced, the lesser the percentage of HIV, it goes down, the more you practice Islam.
5. Drugs
Number five, drugs, illegal drugs. This is a crisis of the younger generation and these drugs are spreading rapidly and we cannot bury our heads in the sand anymore. The drugs are around us, all types of drugs, given designer names, interesting names, promises that if you take this drug you will be a powerful person. We had a drug in Cape Town they called it Tick and this Tick, they say if you, you know when a person in the American movies when the hero, they win the game and everybody cheers for them, yay yay, you're cheering and you feel so glorious right, you know the Olympics, he got the gold medal and he's crying and he feels so happy, multiply that times ten, that is the feeling you get when you smoke it the first time, okay? But after you go up, you come straight down and you will never find that feeling again, you will search for that feeling for the rest of your life and you need more and more and more. If you smoke it once you are addicted probably for your life, that's how dangerous the situation is.
Ten Priority Areas for Action
And so in this area, and this is interesting that it came through the United Nations international study of young people around the world, the majority of people in the world, we can think about our own masjids, what are priority areas, what things can we actually do?
1. Education
Number one, education. Education is key for us, it is key for us to be able to overcome the problems that we are facing. Islamic education, skills training, development is crucial for the younger generation, they need to learn skills, they need to be educated properly.
2. Employment
Number two, how can we help the younger generation? Employment. Employment is going to be a major crisis and you know what's happening here with education, you know what is happening with employment, it is becoming a crisis. What we can do, those who have jobs, those who have businesses who have skills, give back to the community. If you have IT skills, set up a course where you train young people in IT. If you are a carpenter, if you are a plumber, if you are an electrician, whatever skills you have, give back to the community so the young people can also gain these skills.
3. Hunger and Poverty
Number three priority areas, these are solutions now, we have to deal with hunger and poverty. We will have to deal with this wherever we found it. I was shocked in Canada, we opened up a food bank in the 90s and we had thousands of people in Canada, Muslims coming to our food bank in a western country but they didn't have enough to really live a proper life.
4. Health
Number four, the issues of health. We have to deal with health, we focus on halal things and we need to have halal food but Allah tells us:
"Eat from the earth that which is halal, permissible and wholesome and do not follow the footsteps of the devil for he is to you an open enemy."
And so halal food, wholesome food, we say no it's halal. The Muslims were dropping down in southern Africa, Muslims had the highest rate of heart attacks, they were dropping dead, why? Because when you eat the food, it's halal but it is so greasy that your hand is covered with grease and after he finishes eating the greasy food he
says I want coca cola classic, I want coke. So he eats the grease and then he drinks the coke, it's like cement, it's like you made cement inside of your arteries and so the Muslims were literally dropping down from heart attacks. So we will have to look upon wholesome eating, wholesome lifestyles to give to the younger generation.
5. Environment
Number five, we will have to focus on the environment. We need to hold hands with people of other faiths and conscious people who are struggling to deal with the environmental crisis of this world. We should be leading the world in greening, greening deserts, in dealing with pollution, we should be leading this. The verse is saying we will make them taste something of what they have earned in order that they would return to the path and so the whole issue is to return to the path. So the environmental issue is another focus area that our communities need to get into.
6. Drug Abuse
Number six, drug abuse. We will have to be able to deal with people accepting Islam or amongst our younger generation or older generation who have a drug habit. We buried our heads in the ground for a long time but if somebody has a drug habit, it has to be dealt with. So we will have to set up drug rehabilitation centers using Islam as a means of getting the people off the drugs. It is a really important thing and that is a great blessing or it is a great benefit that we can give to society for the future if we have centers where people can come off the drugs and the spirituality is tawhid because they need spirituality and who has the best spirituality but those who have kalima
7. Juvenile Delinquency
Number seven priority areas, juvenile delinquency. We will have to deal with the problems of our younger generation, you cannot bury your head in the sand. Some of the toughest street gangs right now in the UK are Muslims, it's the same in Canada, it's the same in South Africa, some of the toughest gangs on the street. How will we deal with them? Why do they join the gangs? They don't have identity, they don't get a feeling of manhood, rights of passage to go from youth into being an adult. In our Muslim country there was a way for a young man or a young woman to become an adult. If we don't have this, they get it in the streets. So we're gonna have to deal with juvenile delinquency to provide programs to deal with the youth who are out in the streets who are having serious problems in this society.
8. Leisure Time Activities
Number eight priority areas for the future, leisure time activities. What do we do on Friday night? What do we do on Saturday night? What halal alternatives do we have for the younger generation when the fitna comes to them last night when they're celebrating? What alternative do you have? We have to have an alternative to this
and it needs to be one, we need to think it out properly and not just copy the western society but think it out properly and make a good alternative.
9. Girls and Young Women
Number nine priority areas, this is interesting, this is an international problem, it is girls and young women. It's a priority area, they will have to be dealt with and that does not mean that we will have the sisters in the conference, you have the brothers studying fiqh and aqidah and tawhid and you have the sisters studying islamic cooking, what is the new designer samosa, that cannot happen anymore because some of the great scholars of islam, you will see the great imams talking about in their isnad there are women and the sisters right now in groups like al maghrib institute, al kawthar and some of the new institutes coming up, the sisters are the dominant force in education. It's happening all over the place. So there needs to be a priority where they can gain an islamic education and also be involved in the leadership of the community.
10. Youth Participation in Leadership
Number ten, the full and effective participation of young people in leadership. Young people can no longer be put on the side, they need to be in the shura. When decisions are made for the future, you need to have a young person sitting there. Why do you think the prophet had the five Abdullahi? Abdullah ibn Abbas, ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn al-As, Abdullah ibn al-Zubair, why did he have the Abdullahi? They were young people. Ali ibn Abu Talib, Usama ibn Zaid رضي الله عنهم they were young people and they were sitting with the prophet, peace be upon him, sitting with the companions. So when it was time for leadership, they were able to take it over.
Changing the Template: Essential Requirements
In order to do this islamically, we need to change the template, change our thinking in islam and i want to humbly put forward a few suggestions:
1. Increase in Taqwa
Number one, we need an increase in taqwa. We need an increase in taqwa, it needs to be a real consciousness of Allah, al khawfu al raja, that we really fear Allah عز وجل hoping in the mercy of Allah and this taqwa is a wiqaya, it is a shield, it will protect us in the masjid and outside of the masjid.
2. Proper Knowledge of Islam
Number two, proper knowledge of islam. We will have to seek our knowledge of islam from authentic sources. We can no longer take islam from culture, oh that is what my father did, that is what my mother did, we have to take our deen from authentic sources and everybody needs to spend some time studying classical arabic, fusha. You have to learn arabic, it doesn't mean you master it but the more you learn is the closer you come to the wahi, you are coming closer to the revelation and so at least if you understand to a certain level then you know
when somebody is telling you something which is proper or not, you can at least have dhawq, you have the taste, you have the taste of what knowledge is.
3. Hikmah (Wisdom)
Number three, we need to pray to Allah for hikmah, for wisdom. We need wisdom in this generation. What is wisdom? Putting things in the proper place. It sounds simple but it's not easy to do it. It's not about how much knowledge we have, it is how we use our knowledge that is going to be the key issue now, making the right decisions, not going to one extreme or another extreme, balance. We need to pray to Allah عز وجل for this.
4. Proper Islamic Character
Next, proper islamic character. We need to focus on character. The prophet said in the Muwatta of Imam Malik:
(Muwatta Malik Book 47, Hadith 8)
"I have been sent to complete the best in character."
That is the essence of islam, it's about character. That's how islam was spread, it was not spread by conquering armies, it was spread by interpersonal relationships. That's what we need now, the people around the masjid need to feel our character. Some of the brothers were saying the other day, maybe one of the things we can do if there is a garbage strike then we get muslims in a certain area and we will come out with a truck and we will clean the area, we will not ask anything from the people but we will clean the area up and they will see that muslims are a benefit to society, not just some strange people with clothes on, long clothes and one screaming at the top of the building at 4:30 in the morning. No, what are we doing for the people outside in front of us?
5. Courage and Conviction
Next, courage and conviction. We need to pray to Allah for courage, we have to have shuja'a, we have to have conviction now in this time of the apocalypse.
6. Knowledge of the Environment
Next, a knowledge of the environment, what is happening around us, not just talking about the environmental struggle, we need to know the trends in society, we need to understand what's happening in the world and apply our knowledge to the world so we have to keep up with the trends in the world.
7. Shura (Mutual Consultation)
Next, shura, we need to take shura, mutual consultation in our families. One of the key issues why we have problems in our family, the husband does not talk to the wife, the parents do not talk to the children. When does the family get together and take shura? When does the husband come to his wife and say I want to make this move, what do you think? Each family should have a period of time where they come and in the shura the child or the wife is allowed to criticize the father because the great khulafa of Rashidin, they were criticized by the
people and they were glad that they were criticized. So shura is crucial in our families, in our masajid, in our communities and in everything that we do.
8. A Positive Approach
Next, in this time of apocalypse we need a positive approach. It's a win-win situation for the muslims, either we win in this life or we win in the hereafter. The prophet when he sent his followers out, he told them, he said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 69, Sahih Muslim 1734)
"Give glad tidings, don't drive people away, make Islam easy, don't make it difficult."
Many times we make it difficult. Even if we differ on a subject, there may be two opinions on a subject, both of them made their own research and they have a different opinion. What happens? Do we hate each other? Do we form another masjid because of that?
The Story of Banu Qurayza
It is reported in Banu Qurayza after the battle of the khandaq, the prophet was informed by Jibreel to go to the yahud because they have broken the treaty, that he should go to Banu Qurayza and the prophet said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 946, Sahih Muslim 1770)
"Anyone who believes in Allah and the last messenger will not make Asr except in Banu Qurayza, go south."
So the companions started to go south, as they went south along the road, Asr was going out. Remember the prophet said make sure you do your Asr in Banu Qurayza but now Asr was going out, so do you make your Salatul Asr or not? Some of the companions said no I'm making Salat because Allah عز وجل has said this is Kitabul Muquta, you have to make this Salat on time so I'm making Salat. The other one said no, the prophet said you have to pray in Banu Qurayza.
So when they reached Banu Qurayza, they were arguing with each other, they were fighting with each other, if it was us there would be two different masjids, two different communities, a major split. They went to the prophet, peace be upon him, and you know what he said? You're both right, you see hikmah? Both of you are correct, one was following Allah and the other one was following the messenger of Allah, both of you are correct. It's not black and white, up and down, haq or batil, both of you are correct. So you have to learn to tolerate each other, tolerate differences. 6 and 1 is 7, 5 and 2, 4 and 3, it's 7. So we'll have to learn to tolerate differences and in this we will need to have cooperation and unity.
Working Toward Unity
And at this stage we can have what I call operational unity, maybe the masjids are not exactly the same but at least the Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama'ah, we need to be able to have a shura to cooperate with each other. Masjid al- Aqsa, when they offended the prophet with the poetry or with the cartoons, everybody came up, there's certain issues that will bring all Muslims on the streets. So at least in these issues make shura, have operational unity between us, try to unite. It's difficult, Muslims are doing different things.
It is reported that the companions of the prophet, Khalid ibn al-Walid رضي الله عنه, he only memorized a few short surahs, he didn't have time, he came in at the end and he was a warrior so he just knew nas and falak and whatever. So when it was time for salat, you did not ask Khalid to lead salat, you look for Abdullah ibn Mas'ud or you look for somebody who masters the Quran. But when the enemies of Allah were near, they said where's Khalid? Where's Khalid? Put him in the front. So you see what they did? They knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and based on this your leadership comes.
What did Khalid do? Did he start a new harakah khalidiyah? Or did he have tariqah khalid? Or a new madhab khalid? No, he was just one of the believers, he just has a different quality, a different skill but at the end of the day he stands shoulder to shoulder with the other believers and so we have to work towards unity. There are some things that you might not like about somebody else, you might not like it but 98% of that person may be the same as you, 2% is different but if you think about the 2%, you're not dealing with the person who is basically the same as you.
Outreach and Dawah
And finally we need outreach. We will need to take this message out to the people in society and dawah today is not a debate between one scholar and another scholar, is not muslim versus christian, dawah today is making solutions, islamic solutions to real problems. The problem of drugs, the problem of homelessness, the problem of racism, the problem of disease, the problem of the economy, we have so much to give to society, we have so much to bring forward.
The Strangers
But when you do this you're going to be strange, you are going to be strange, you're going to feel strange. The people are taking off their clothes and you're putting it on, the people are drinking alcohol and taking drugs and you're drinking tea, the people are partying and running around and they think they're happy and you're not involved so you feel strange. You don't eat pork, you don't commit adultery and fornication, you feel strange.
(Sahih Muslim 145)
The prophet ﷺ said: "Islam began strange and it will return to being strange so glad tidings to the strangers."
So they asked him who are the strangers and he told them it is the people who repair things, they repair themselves, they repair society when the people have become corrupted. We are entering an apocalypse and the society is corrupted and it is the ghuraba are the ones that the prophet said glad tidings to those who are strange and who hang on to the rope of Allah.
Closing Dua
May Allah give us the ability to hold on to our deen in these critical times. May Allah give us the strength to stand up for the message. May Allah have mercy and protect the children of the ummah of Muhammad. May
Allah have mercy and protect the women of the ummah of Muhammad. May Allah have mercy and protect and strengthen the men of the ummah of Muhammad. May Allah raise up one who will lead our misguided political leaders from darkness into light and may Allah give us the strength to be with that leadership and to die with kalima لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ on our lips as our last words and our best words.
I leave you with these thoughts.
"I say this statement of mine, and I ask Allah for forgiveness for me and for you."
"And peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings."