Waking the Lazy Muslim
By Abdullah Hakim Quick | 2026-01-15T12:29:50.043844+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Waking the Lazy Muslim
By Sheikh Abdullah Hakim Quick
Opening Praise and Salutations
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praises are due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And surely Allah is the friend and protector of the righteous. And I bear witness that Allah is one and has no partners. That Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, is his servant and his last messenger.
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, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. It is again a great privilege to be with you here today in Melbourne and to be down under.
Unity Among Muslims
We are also down under on the other side of the world, and we have a unity between us. We have a similarity in our climate. We have a similarity to a certain extent in our experiences. And the more you travel amongst Muslims, is the more you find the closeness that we have, and not really the differences. That really differences amongst people are not the greatest issue. But there are more things that unite us and combine us than there are things that separate us.
And so we pray that Allah would bless us and would unite our ranks. Would give us that ability to have one saf, that we would be one united ummah, following our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
Reflections on Muslim History: Malaysia and the Cape Malays
Recently in the month of December, I had the opportunity to visit Malaysia, to visit Singapore, and to be with the Muslims in that part of the world. And I was pleasantly surprised to find when I went there, to see faces of the people who I have lived with for the last 10 years in Cape Town.
Cape Town is the home of the Cape Malays. And it is reported in the 17th century that the Dutch colonial forces brought political prisoners and slaves to the Cape. And they formed the first Muslim community in the southern hemisphere, there in South Africa. And they had a trying experience because they came in bondage, and not only from Malaysia, from Java, but also from Sri Lanka, from East Africa, to make up this new community there in South Africa.
And I was pleasantly surprised to see the faces. It was as though I was in Cape Town when I was seeing the faces of the people. But their experience was not the same. The people in the Cape had suffered. They were
taken away from their homes. They were stripped from their ancestral lands. Their culture was taken away. They had to struggle just to maintain their faith.
And it is reported that there were people amongst the political prisoners and slaves in the Cape who would get up in the middle of the night in chains and pray to Allah that He would bless them to maintain their faith and to pass it on to the generations who would come after them.
Muslims in the Americas: A Story of Perseverance
This was really important to me because my people as well in the Americas were taken as political prisoners, as slaves, from the western coast of Africa, and came into the Americas. And now we have documented proof that over 30% of the political prisoners and slaves who were taken into the Americas were Muslims. We have documented evidence of ulama, of scholars who were taken in chains, who maintained their faith.
And now books are coming out. Whole copies of the Quran written from memory by the slaves. Discussions of the ulama. The Risalah of Ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawani, the great Maliki Faqih, written from the memory of a person in bondage, and a discussion about this and how this has affected him in his condition of bondage.
Also in the island of Jamaica, they found a document that is called Al-Wathiqa. And this Wathiqa called the slaves to revolt, that they should stand up against the colonial forces, they should throw off the chains. And now it is being connected to a document written by a great scholar in West Africa, Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio (Rahimullah), who wrote Wathiqa Ila Ahl al-Sudan, his famous document which was there. It was the call to struggle for the people of the Sudan—Sudan meaning not only present Sudan, but also West Africa as well.
Resistance and Revolution
And so they resisted. They resisted on the shore. They resisted in the ocean, the middle passage. They resisted in the Americas. Slave revolts are documented in Suriname, South America, in Jamaica, in Haiti. And you'll be surprised to know, with the recent Haitian crisis that went on with the earthquake, that the revolt of Toussaint Louverture there in Haiti was begun by Muslims. Maqandal, Bookman—these were great, what they call Marabou, Murabits, who came from West Africa. They were scholars, and they led successful revolts, organized the people.
And then Toussaint Louverture came along with the skills of a general, and he was able to unite the whole of the island. And they threw off the French, and it was the first successful rebellion against colonial rule in the Americas. And they suffered up until today. And that is part of the reason why, when the earthquake struck, that the sanctions that had been applied to them—they were not able to resist. Their houses fell down.
The Letter of Abu Bakr Siddiq: A Voice from Bondage
And I want to read to you a document that has been unearthed. This is a document from the 19th century, written by a scholar of Islam in the West Indies, in Jamaica, a person who is in slavery. And this is something
that Muslims did not know about. We take our religion for granted. We feel that because we blessed our families have the deen, we think it will always be with us. We think that because we come from a certain group, it will always stay. But this is the words of a person by the name of Abu Bakr Siddiq. And he writes:
"My name is Abu Bakr Siddiq, born in Timbuktu, which is a great center of knowledge, and brought up in Jennay. I acquired the knowledge of the Quran in the town of Guna, in which there are many teachers for young people. My father's name is Kara Musa Sharif. Some of Guni's people were obliged to fly to Kong, and on that very day they made me captive. As soon as I was made prisoner, they stripped me and tied me with a cord and gave me a heavy load to carry and led me into the country of Bunduku, from thence to the town of Kumasi where the Ashanti reigned.
They sold me to the Christians in that town. We were three months at sea before we arrived in Jamaica, which was the beginning of bondage. I have none to thank but those that brought me here. But praise be to Allah who has everything in His power to do as He thinks good. And no man can remove whatever burden He chooses to put on us. As He said, nothing shall fall on us except what He shall ordain. He is our Lord, and let all that believe in Him put their trust in Him.
My parents religion is Islam. They are all circumcised, and their devotions are five times a day. They fast in the month of Ramadan. They give tribute according to the law. They can marry up to four wives, but the fifth is an abomination to them. They fight for their religion, and they travel to the Hijaz. They don't eat any meat except what they themselves kill. They do not drink wine nor spirits, as it is held an abomination to do so. They do not associate with any worship. They do not associate partners with God or worship idols or profane the Lord's name or do dishonor to their parents or commit murder or bear false witness or are covetous, proud or boastful. For such faults are abomination unto my religion.
They are particularly careful—now look what a person is saying now—in slavery he said, they are particularly careful in the education of their children and in their behavior. But I am lost to all these advantages. Since my bondage I am become corrupt, and I now conclude by begging the Almighty God to lead me into the path that is proper for me, for He alone knows the secrets of my heart and what I am in need of.
Abu Bakr Siddiq, Kingston, Jamaica, September 20th, 1834."
The Pain of Lost Faith
And so the pain of slavery: mother separated from father, language taken away. If you fasted in Ramadan, if they see you fasting they will punish you. If you read the Quran or if you speak Arabic, they will beat you to death in front of the other slaves. Because of this a generation went by, and Islam was for the most part lost. And it was only just a memory.
But the dua of these people who were suffering, praying for their children, mercy of Allah, that now decades later, hundreds of years later, Islam is the fastest growing religion still in this land. The children, the descendants
of those who suffered, are coming back into the faith.
Two Different Experiences: The Americas and the Cape
Now what was different for me with the two experiences is that on one hand, the people in the West and the Americas lost their faith. Now they are returning. But the people in the Cape, although they suffered in slavery, apartheid, colonial oppression, they were able to keep their Isnad. They kept their chain of knowledge right up until today. And the great scholars—Sheikh Yusuf from Makassar-great scholars developed madrasas, taught the Quran even though they were suffering. And through this, now in Cape Town, there are over 150 masjids.
Verses of Strength: The Awliya of Allah
And one of the traditions that they had, something which they used to do after they finished reading their salat, they used to read certain verses. And I wondered about these verses. And it took me a period of time, traveling and reflecting upon them, to realize how deep it was, that these verses they were reading, how important it was. And I think that we should reflect upon this ourselves.
In Surah Yunus, verses 62 and 63, the slaves, the political prisoners in bondage, they would constantly read these verses. It gave them strength. They turned to Allah:
"Behold! Verily on the friends of Allah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. Those who believe and constantly guard against evil. For them there are glad tidings in the life of this world and in the hereafter. No change can there be in the words of Allah. And this is indeed the supreme triumph."
So in these verses it tells us أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ. And the scholars tell us that this now is dealing with the present and the future and the past, just in this simple verse. When it says لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ this refers to there is nothing for them to be afraid of now and in the future. If you are one of the friends of Allah, there is nothing to fear. وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ and there is nothing to be sad about in the past. So there is nothing to cry about.
Stop Wallowing in Despair
And Muslims today, we have to stop crying and wallowing around in the valley of despair and cry about our future, cry about our situation. We have to stop this, and we have to raise ourselves up to deal with our situation. لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ there is nothing for them to fear in the life of this world now or in the future, and there is nothing for them to be sad about.
When it speaks about Awliya Allah, who does it speak about? It says not a special category of people, not a special group that has a special uniform on or a special name. Allah says الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَكَانُوا يَتَّقُونَ - the description
of the friends of Allah are those who believe and they have Taqwa. So two qualities we need to reflect on: Iman and Taqwa. These are the qualities of the Awliya. Anybody, any Muslim can be described in this. Anybody can fall under the mercy of Allah and fall into the category of Awliya who have لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ nothing to be afraid of. They have nothing to be sad about. It is a win-win situation for them.
Gratitude for Our Blessings
And so when we look at this in our present situation, we need to constantly say Alhamdulillah, because we are not going through necessarily the suffering that those who came before us went through. And I reflect upon this with people who would get up in the middle of the night in chains and pray to Allah to relieve them of their situation, hold on to their faith. They are being beaten to death, and they will still maintain their faith. And Muslims have done this, and looking at different points in history to see what Muslims have done, we take our religion for granted.
The Muslims of Andalus: Maintaining Faith in Secret
Recently we ran across a fatwa of a great scholar from North Africa, the Shaykh Abu Jum'ah Abu Huran, and he made a fatwa for the Muslims of Andalus. And this was in 1504. This is after the fall of Granada. And he made a fatwa for these people who are now known as Moriscos. And the Moriscos were Muslims who had to hide their identity. They had to because of the Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition that was going on.
They would take you in front of the Inquisitor, and if you are not a Catholic, they will burn you at the stake. And that is a terrible way to die. And then there were people who said, "Okay, I'm a Catholic. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Whatever you want I believe." But they still followed them.
And this situation was so trying for these people. They could not display any Islam. And it is reported that there were people who actually took a bath on Thursday night. He just took a bath. He's a Catholic. He took a bath on Thursday night, and they burned him at the stake. Why is that? Because they thought he was making the ghusl of Jumua.
The Spirit of Ammar ibn Yasir
So the Shaykh made a fatwa and he said, "I know that you cannot show your faith. You have testified that you are Catholics now, but you have to hold on to your deen." And in the spirit of Ammar ibn Yasir (radiAllahu anhu) and Ali Yasir in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, we remember their story that they were being tortured in the early period, tortured in a terrible way. And one time the Prophet ﷺ came next to them and he said (صَبْرًا آلَ يَاسِرٍ مَوْعِدُكُمُ الْجَنَّةُ - Sabran Ala Yasir, maw'idukum al-jannah)" (Sahih Ibn Hibban 6927) - "Have patience, O family of Yasir, your place is in paradise."
And sure enough, the mother of Ammar, Sumayya (radiAllahu anha), she was the first person to give her life for Islam. Ammar came to the Prophet ﷺ one time and he said, "I have destroyed myself." So the Prophet ﷺ said, "How did you destroy yourself?" He said, "I said kalimatul kufr—I said the word of disbelief. Couldn't control
Maintaining Faith Under Oppression
Imagine this situation. We take it for granted. We walk around as Muslims. We think there's some pressure on us because they look funny at us at the airport. Imagine this situation that they're in. The Sheikh said to them, "I know your situation. You can't show anything. So if you want to make salat, you gotta make wudu. So walk along the street. Make your intention inside. Tap the wall. That's tayammum. You make salat with your eyes. Pray with your eyes. You want to give your zakat? Then give somebody a gift and make the intention of zakat. You want to maintain yourself, to maintain your deen, but they force you to marry in a church, and so you have to do it. But in the middle of the night, then have a nikah. They bury you in your death. You may be buried with the trinity, but later on in the middle of the night, have your people make janazah for you."
And so he gave them a system of resistance, how they could maintain their faith if they could not escape and make hijrah across to North Africa and into the Muslim world. He gave them a system by which they could maintain their faith. And by the mercy of Allah, Andalusian people now are entering Islam in Spain right now.
Taking Our Religion for Granted
We take our religion for granted. We take it and we become stagnated. We become lazy in our deen. And the great scholars, in looking at these two terms, the first one is taqwa, the great scholars in looking at this said that taqwa is made up of al-khawf wal-raja'—it is made up of fear and hope.
"Whoever hopes for something requests it, he wants it, so he moves towards it. And if you fear something, then you run from it. So there's action involved in this. You're stimulated one way or the other. But whoever asks for forgiveness and continues to do wrong, that person is deluded."
That person is in a state of deception. They are in an illusion. And this is the situation that Muslims find themselves in in many parts of the world. And the evil one, wa iyadu billah, is coming at us in a way that probably he never came to people before, to make us feel satisfied with the life of this world, satisfied with our religion.
The Danger of Spiritual Stagnation
We strive to a certain extent. You will see Islamic movement. We will put on the clothes. We will make the slogans. We will make salat. And we will do what appears to be, you know, our fundamentals of Islam. And
then we relax. And we say, "I'm over. We are the successful ones. We are firqatun najiya. We are the one who will enter paradise." Then we start to relax. We become stagnated.
But the scholars have shown us that your taqwa stimulates you. If you fear Allah, you hope in his mercy. You strive for this consciousness. It's action. You are involved in your action. Once you become stagnated, once you slow down and stop and feel that you made it, then you are deceived. This is the delusion now that we need to consider when we take things for granted.
The Delusion of Lineage and Good Deeds
Some people are fooled by their families, and we see it very often happen. They will say, "Well, I come from a part of the world where there's Muslims. There's great madrasas. I don't have to study. I don't have to give sadaqa. My mother used to give sadaqa. So the earthquake happened in Haiti. So people are suffering. I don't have to give toward this. The United Nations will give toward this. Why do I have to do anything to help the poor? The people are suffering in Gaza. They are surrounded. But why do I have to you know, they'll make it out. I have to deal with my own family because my father was a great struggler. My mother used to give sadaqa." So we think because of our family that it is alright, but we are being deluded.
Never forget the story of Nuh. His own son turned against him. Look at the case of Ibrahim. His father—his father was an idol maker—turned against him. Lut, his wife turned against him. And so your family, this is not enough. Your generation, because you speak a certain language, you come from a certain part of the world—that is not enough now. We are being deluded and should be involved in consistent action.
Some people have good deeds and bad deeds. They think that their good deeds will be enough for them. They make istighfar a hundred times after salat al-fajr, and they think that because they've made their istighfar, they count their things. They go to Mecca and they count, "Okay, now I'm in the masjid. Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, that's a hundred thousand times. And then I'm praying a jamaat prayer. That's times twenty-seven. And then I'm on hajj." And they start multiplying things up. "So I must have about two billion hasanat. So now I can go home, I can do what I want. I can swear, drink some alcohol, fornicate, because I got two billion hasanat. So like my scale is going to be so heavy on one side that I can do what I want because it's still not tipping up."
He is being deluded. He's being fooled. He thinks that he is successful, but the shaytan, wa iyadu billah, has scooped him up and has taken him off the path.
The Knowledge Without Action
Other people, they're even in a deeper situation, and this is something that we need to study, go over it, over and over again. Try to understand what is happening to us in this section. There are some people who study the books and they know about deception. They can tell you, but they don't apply it to themselves. They will tell you all the verses, all the ayahs, but they don't do it themselves. They just intellectually know it. And they forget that Allah says, when He speaks to us about the soul:
"The one who is successful is the one who purifies his soul, and the one who leaves his soul, that is the person who will be unsuccessful, and that is the person who will be defeated." And so it is action. It's not enough to say it.
The Outward Appearance Without Inward Sincerity
Then we have another group that's even deeper than that. We have another group who claim that you should not only say it but you should do it. And they talk about action, and they will do some of the things, but they don't apply it completely to their hearts. They leave their heart alone. They practice Islam on the outside, and you will see them. They will make salat first in line. They will fast in Ramadan. They will have the clothes of Islam. They will have the appearance. They claim to be the successful Muslims. But he's jealous. He's jealous of you. He has this evil spirit. He looks at you, and instead of trying to find some way to help you, he's trying to find out what's wrong with you.
"Brother, your pants are too long. Your beard—Sister, there's a little hair sticking out of your khamr. Sister, this is not right." And they will look for faults that you're doing. And instead of giving you nasiha to support you, you find something wrong with your brother and your sister, and you try to help them. They will use it against you to try to bring you down. This person is also deluded.
A person on the path who thinks that they're 100% Muslim, but they are being deluded. And a person who doesn't even look like them, who may seem like a simple person that person may be the one on the path. The real awliya is not necessarily the ones with the long tobes and the giant hats and turbans and all the things. The real awliya is probably the person who's sweeping the masjid. He's a simple person. You don't even know this person. You walk by him. But that's the person that gets up in the morning and cleans the masjid and makes the adhan and wakes everybody up. That is the wali. That is the person that Allah loves. But we will not look at that person because we want the fame and the glory. We want the hype. And so this is delusion.
The Delusion of Knowledge Without Practice
And this state of delusion can actually reach movement people. It can actually reach people who are on the path, who are striving and spending their time learning about Islam. There are other cases the ulama talk about. There are people who will spend their time. They will spend their time studying and studying Islam, and they will study nahu and saraf. They will study the different details about grammar and tajweed al-huroof and how to pronounce the Quran. And they will read the Quran beautifully, but they don't put it into practice.
And the Prophet said the time would come when people would read the Quran in melodious tones and it would not reach their hearts, would not pass their throats. And so by not passing their throats, it does not reach their hearts. And so this is a state of delusion. It is a false construct, a fantasy world. And this is what is being done to our people now.
The Fantasy World
The younger generation—they want to put them in a fantasy. They send them out in space, and they spend their day fighting aliens or mutant creatures on earth. Other people are in a fantasy world, and they think they're waiting for the Mahdi to come. The khalifa must be marching through down the road. They're waiting for something to come without doing something. They can be deluded because this does not mean that you don't make your salat, that you don't call to the good and forbid evil, because you think the Mahdi is coming.
People said the same thing a thousand years ago. There were some people who called themselves Mahdi, and some were pretty sure about it. There's one person in the Sudan, Muhammad Ahmed. He came from the Ahlul Bayt. He had qualities. He organized the people. He defeated the British army, their greatest general, Chinese Charles Gordon. And he thought he was the Mahdi. He was in a state of delusion, and he gathered the troops. And now he was heading toward Mecca because he wanted to be between the Blackstone and the Yemeni corner. He wanted to take the baya and get the judgment day on. And he dropped dead from typhoid fever. And then everybody realized, this is not the one. And it happened many times. People have made these claims, reached high levels, and they are in a state of delusion.
The Simple Innocence of Faith
And so, it is the simple things. It is the simple innocence of a child. That if you can have love for your brothers and sisters, if you can stand up for what is right, prohibit the evil, unite, and feel that innocence inside of yourself, this is greater than a person who will memorize thousands of verses of the Qur'an but not put it into practice. This is the important thing.
The Second Element: Iman and Istiqama
The other element that we have along with taqwa that our verse has shown us:
And it is reported that the Prophet on one occasion—and this is reported by Sufyan ibn Abdullah al-Thaqafi—that he said,
(Sahih Muslim 38)
So this person came to the Prophet and he said, "Say to me, O Messenger of Allah, tell me something in Islam of which I will not have to ask anybody about this thing after you." In other words, "Give me something which is a gem. Give me something special. I need some special advice." And the Prophet, having a jawami al-kalim, he said
And this word istiqama is another kalimatul jami'ah. It is a small word with a great meaning. And this istiqama is that the person just becomes upright. Just become a good person. That's all. Just clean your intentions. Be a righteous person. And when you have this, you will be in a special category. This is a great blessing from Allah.
The Verse of Istiqama
And Allah tells us in Surah Fussilat in verses 30 to 33, He tells us:
Allah has revealed to us: "Verily, those who say, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then they become upright, believing in the oneness of Allah and worshipping none but Him, on them the angels will descend, saying, 'Fear not nor grieve, but receive the glad tidings of Paradise which you have been promised. We are your friends and protectors in the life of this world and in the hereafter. Herein you shall have all that your souls desire, and herein you shall have all for which you ask for, a welcome gift from the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah and does righteous deeds and says, surely I am from the Muslims.'"
And so this verse is saying to us:
And so your iman becomes al-qawl bil-lisan, wa tasdeeq bil-qalb, wa al-amal bil-jawarih—that you will say it with your tongue, you will confirm it with your heart, and you will practice it. It will become complete.
Coming Out of the State of Illusion
And with these simple steps, we can come out of a state of illusion, out of deception, and into the light of Allah. Angels will descend upon that person, and when that person is in death, they will feel happiness. They will have assurity because of these actions that they have done. What did they do? Was it thousands of verses they memorized? It was simple actions that they took with sincerity. They practiced Islam completely.
"O you who believe, enter into Islam completely, and do not follow the footsteps of the evil one, for he is to you an open enemy."
So on the one side is entering into Islam completely. All aspects we practice. Not only do we practice Islam when we are around Muslims, we practice it when we are in the society. Not only do we make our salat when we are in the masjid, we make our salat outside, at school, in an airplane. Anywhere we respond to the call of Allah. Not only do we have good character when we are around certain individuals, but that good character, it stays with us in everything that we do.
And so we come out of the state of delusion. And Allah says at the end of this:
"And who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah and does
righteous deeds and says, surely I am from the Muslims."
The Essence of Our Mission
And this question that comes in the Quran—whenever the verse comes in a question form, it is not a question in the sense that Allah wants the answer from us. What it is really saying is that the best in speech is the one who calls to Allah and does righteous deeds and says, "I am from the Muslims." And that is the essence of our mission today, that we are called upon not to just be a Muslim in name, not to just come from a Muslim family, but to practice Islam. Not to just say we are from the family of ulama. "There is a madrasa in my area. The imam, he knows a lot. So if I have a problem I go to the imam."
Now we have to study Islam, even if it is in a humble way. All of us have to make actions toward our deen to come out of the state of delusion.
The Dawah of Today: Viable Solutions
And the key issue now-how do we do this? We call to the path. What is the dawah today? It is not necessarily giving speeches. It is not necessarily debating the people of the book, arguing against them. It is now bringing viable solutions to real problems in society. This is what Islam has done historically. Whenever it has come into an area, it has upgraded the life of the people. It has helped the people to overcome racism, tribalism, alcoholism, drugs, crime, all of the problems in their societies.
And we today have inherited this global society, living in sprawling urban areas with people who have now chemical problems, serious chemical problems, serious mental problems are amongst us, families breaking up. How can this—what solutions we hold gems of wisdom in our hands. It is right with us, but we need to now implement this. We need to put it into practice.
The Trust of Wealth
And that wealth that we have with us, this is an amanah. It is not my money. It is not your money. This money belongs to Allah. We have inherited this in this dunya while we are above the earth. But when we leave this, we cannot take it with us. And so when we are in this position, when this trust is in our hands, we need to now implement, be involved in issues in society.
Struggle for the environment now. The environment is being destroyed. People are ruining the water, ruining the atmosphere, destroying animals. Animals are becoming extinct. And one study recently is being done by an Egyptian brother in the UK. And he is finding that there is about 602 languages in the world. It is a new science which is developed of languages, about 602 languages in the world. And about every year 40 of them are becoming extinct, and it is going down lower and lower and lower.
The Arabic Language: A Divine Gem
And you know what he found out? Because they have now studied languages based on sound and based upon the part of the mouth and how it has spread in societies, and for a long time they looked at the languages of the world and they didn't include the Arabic language. And so he took the course just recently in the UK, got his masters, went for his PhD, and now he put Arabic language to the test. And when they put Arabic language to the test, they have found that Arabic language now rates at this point number 2 of the languages that would stay on the earth no matter what happens. The first language they say which has longevity in it is Mandarin Chinese.
But the brother has made a study, and he is now bringing forth his study. He came on a Middle East program. Sheikh Mohammed Hassan—many of you know him—he introduced him on the program. And he brought the study and he said, "When I bring this out, I have proof that Arabic language not only will be the longest living language, but it is the original language. It is the language of Malaika. It is the language of Jannah." And he has scientific proof.
And he showed that because they show phrases—when you say a word it has sounds inside of it. They have a machine which actually shows the sounds. And they put the word "Allah" into the machine, and they were in shock because it is the only word that appears to have different phrases in it. But when you say it, it is only one sound. It is only one. And there is no other word in any language which has different phrases. It appears to have different phrases, but when you say the word, it is only one sound.
And so he is bringing out this study, and we are realizing now what we are holding in our hands. This has caused resistance against us. This has caused us to be demonized. This is the reason why pressure is being applied upon us, because we hold in our hands gems of wisdom to answer the problems of society, gems of wisdom to give a future to the planet, to save the planet.
Taking the First Step
But every long journey begins with one step. And that step that we need to make is to come out of our illusion and to revive our faith, to practice the fundamentals, go back again, do the basics, fall in love with what you are doing. And that wealth that is in your hands—and I say this to you tonight because we have a great opportunity in this community as in other communities to do something to help our children and to help our society.
I was speaking with the Amir just today. We have an opportunity, and we need to do something to save the younger generation. We also need to do something for those people who are coming in to be married, to find a halal way for them to come together to be married, to be able to counsel our community, to provide alternatives. And all of you brothers, we are going to get you a wife inshallah, to find a halal alternative. But that means we have to be courageous, and we have to think out of the box. Stay with Quran and Sunnah, but you don't have to be in a mold. Our cultures are not necessarily this mold. We have to wear certain clothes. We have to say certain things.
The Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ can be adapted, can go to any society, keep the principles, but deal with the society.
The Younger Generation Under Attack
We are now in a society where the younger generation is under attack. And we are one of the groups that the majority of our people are actually young people. A study was done to find the majority of Muslims are actually 25 years and under. If you took all of the Muslims and put them out on one field, you're going to find most of them are young people. It's the majority.
But what is in our masjids today? Most of our masjids, with all respect, it has activities for men over 35 years old. Other people, other aspects of society—there's nothing in the masjid.
The Masjid: An All-Purpose Islamic Center
In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the masjid was an all-purpose Islamic center. That's how you can describe it. It was not a beautiful building with a kubba, you know, in a dome, a mausoleum that you visit like a museum. It was an action-oriented place where people would learn about their faith, where they would be taught principles of Islam. Dawah was being given even inside of the masjid. The people of Najran, the people of Yemen, came to the masjid, entered the masjid. They embraced Islam. Some of them did not embrace. They were still treated with dignity.
When political decisions had to be made, the Prophet ﷺ calls a town hall meeting. Where did he do the town hall meeting? Did he go outside the masjid? In the masjid. So an all-purpose Islamic center. This is what we have been talking for years and going into the community saying, "This is what we have to give to right now. Do something for your younger generation. Save your young people, help them to get married. Help the young children to come out of this fantasy world and be confused about creatures and animals and confused about their own identity. Do something right now."
This is an opportunity that you are blessed to have here in this town. And there are other people now who are standing up and realizing that we have to think outside the box and we have to take this deen in a way which is practical and relevant and stand up in society, whether they hate you or not, whether the society is talking.
Bringing Islamic Solutions to Society
We have solutions, and we can bring something else to the discourse in this society. We can show them the Islamic position dealing with racism, the Islamic position dealing with drug abuse, the Islamic position dealing with homelessness, dealing with depression that people have in society. This is our opportunity.
Closing Duas
And we can only pray that Allah would give us this opportunity, purify our hearts, and take us out of this
delusion in the life of this world. May Allah help us to come out of this illusion created by the evil one. May Allah protect us from all of the forces of evil that are surrounding our children. May Allah protect always and give honor to the children of the Ummah of Muhammad. May Allah protect the women of the Ummah of Muhammad. May Allah protect the men of the Ummah of Muhammad. May Allah raise up leadership in this generation that will stand up for Islam regardless of the cost.
And may Allah keep on our lips the words of the Quran that we would never forget:
"And who is better in speech than one who calls to Allah and does righteous deeds and says, surely I am from the Muslims."
May Allah help us to live and die in a state of Islam. May Allah give us the Kalima of Tawheed at the end of our life. May Allah put this on the lips of all who are here tonight. May all who hear this—may Allah make our last words to be our best words. May Allah give us as our last words:
"I said what I have said. I ask Allah to have mercy on me and on you."