Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Actions Speak Louder Than Words - Abdurraheem Green

Opening Praise and Testimony

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we worship Him and we ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, there is no one to misguide him. And whom He leaves astray, there is no one to guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that there is no partner for Him. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

After that, the best hadith is the Book of Allah.

We praise Him, we seek His help and we ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequence of our evil actions. Whomsoever Allah guides, there is none to misguide. And whomsoever Allah leaves to go astray, there is none to guide.

And I testify that Allah alone is worthy of worship and that Muhammad ﷺ, He is the servant of Allah and He is His Messenger. After that, the best speech is the Book of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst of all the affairs are those matters that have been newly introduced into the religion. And every matter that is newly introduced into the religion of Islam is a bid'ah, an innovation. And all of the bid'ah, all of the innovations are misguidance. And everything that is misguidance from the straight path that Allah has given us, whatever goes astray from that path is destined for the fire.

Introduction: The Perfect Religion

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, may Allah have mercy upon you. Again, Allah in His infinite mercy has allowed me an opportunity to talk to you and to share some of you, to share with you some of my knowledge about this beautiful and this noble religion that Allah has given us. This perfect religion, this way of life, this deen that Allah has chosen for us and perfected for us and completed for us. And surely Allah will not accept any other way of living, any other way of life, any other religion except the religion of Islam.

So whoever chooses a path other than the path of the believers and whoever chooses for themselves a way other than the way of Muhammad ﷺ, then without doubt their ultimate destiny must be the fire of hell.

The Weight of Our Deeds

And what is it, my brothers and sisters, that Allah is going to weigh up for us on the day of judgment? What is it that is going to be the cause after the grace of Allah, after the grace of Allah? After that, what is going to be the cause for us to enter into paradise? What matter is it that will cause people to be at different grades and different levels in Jannah? What is it that will cause us to have this beautiful abode, this eternal place of rest and peace

and happiness, except our deeds, except our good deeds, except the actions that we do seeking the pleasure of Allah according to the guidance that was given to Muhammad ﷺ.

It is actions, brothers and sisters, that Allah has ordered us with. Islam is the religion of action. It is the religion of deeds. It is the religion of doing. And this is what we're going to be reckoned for and reckoned with on the day of judgment. The good deeds in one scale and the bad deeds in the other scale. That is it.

So whoever's scale of deeds is heavy with good (فَهُوَ فِي عِيشَةٍ رَاضِيَةٍ - fahuwa fee 'eeshatin raadiyah) (Quran 101:7) - They will have a beautiful and a pleasant life. But whoever's scale of deeds is heavy with evil, then they will go to the hellfire. This is what Allah is going to reckon for us.

And when the people go into paradise, the angels will say, Peace, welcome to you. This is your reward for what you used to do.

The Danger of Speech

We have a saying. We all know the saying. And the saying goes, Actions speak louder than words. Talk, brothers and sisters, is cheap. Talk is cheap. Because anyone really can flap their mouth and waggle their tongue.

Anyone can do that. It's cheap and it's easy to talk. But in fact, those people who have knowledge and those people who have understanding, they know and they realize that in fact, my brothers and sisters, speech is something dangerous. Speech is something we should take care of.

There is a long narration where the Prophet ﷺ is explaining to Mu'adh ibn Jabal. Mu'adh ibn Jabal, whom Rasulullah ﷺ, he sent him to be the governor of Yemen. Mu'adh ibn Jabal, that great companion. And he was talking to Mu'adh. And the Prophet ﷺ loved Mu'adh. And he used to advise Mu'adh. And he was explaining to Mu'adh ibn Jabal about Islam. About the benefits of charity. About the benefits of fasting. About the benefits of praying late in the night. And that the peak of this matter was jihad. The struggling in the path of Allah.

And then he said to Mu'adh, Oh Mu'adh, Do you know what is the controlling of all of that? Do you know what will control all of that? He said, Allah and His messenger know best. The Prophet ﷺ said, Control this. Control this. And he held his tongue. And Mu'adh ibn Jabal said, Oh Rasulullah, Will we be held to account for what we say? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Oh Mu'adh, May your mother be bereaved of you. Is there anything that topples people on their faces into the hellfire except the harvest of their tongues? (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2616) Is there anything that topples the people on their faces into the hellfire except the harvest of their tongues? Subhanallah.

Talk is not only cheap, brothers and sisters. Talk is dangerous. Talk is dangerous. The Prophet ﷺ said, Speak good or keep silent. (Sahih al-Bukhari 6018, Sahih Muslim 47) Speak good or keep silent. If my brothers and sisters, you don't have something good to say, shut up. If you don't have something to do good to say, close your mouth. Don't speak. Speak good or keep silence. Because your tongue, and what you say with your tongue, Allah will take you to account for it.

The Harvest of the Tongue

And how often have I seen in my life, in my life, and in the life of my family, and in the life of my friends, and in the life of my brothers and sisters, the evil consequences of the harvest of our tongues. That we say things, and we make claims, and we talk, and we talk, and we talk, and we don't realize that we are sowing seeds. And often we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Because your words, they are like seeds, brothers and sisters. They are like seeds. From these words, something will grow. Imagine that. Every word that comes out of your mouth, it is like a seed, a seed you are putting in the ground.

You can plant good seeds, or you can plant bad seeds. You can plant crops that will feed, trees that will grow, and provide shade and shelter. These are like the good words. And Allah, He gives the example of the goodly word. The goodly word. He gives this example in the Qur'an, of the goodly word. It is like the corn. It is just one seed. It is amazing. The corn seed is just one seed. But if you sow it, like a goodly word, and it grows, and it reaches harvest time, what does it bring forth? A hundred, a thousand, or more seeds. Things that people can utilize to eat and to live.

But the evil word, brothers and sisters, is a cause for destruction. It is like sowing thorns and nettles. We should be very, very careful about what we say. Very careful. Because words are dangerous.

The Test of Words

And brothers and sisters, Allah tests us with our words. Allah tests us with our words, and our words have consequences. And we find that many brothers and sisters, they talk a lot, and they criticize a lot, and they claim a lot. But they are not equal to their claims. And they often, while they criticize, have faults themselves that are more severe.

And often you find that when Allah tests someone, and that is a fact, if you criticize a sister, if you criticize a sister because she has a problem with polygamy, or as you may claim, she is not fulfilling her responsibilities to her husband, or to her parents, or she is such and such person, and this and that person. Criticizing that sister may be behind her back. And the same with the brothers. You make an accusation, a criticism. Believe me, Allah will test you with your words. Allah will test you. The very same thing that you criticize them for, Allah will test you. Allah will test you to see if you are true to what you say.

This is the fact. And sometimes, Alhamdulillah, you'll prove worthy. The things you talked about, you are sincere about it, and you are true to it. So, Alhamdulillah, you'll pass the test. But how many people have I seen fall by the wayside? How many tongues waggling and criticizing and so busy looking at the faults of their brothers and sisters? But they didn't look at themselves. They were so busy criticizing. They didn't even look at themselves to see what is in their own hearts, to see their own deficiencies, their own inadequacies. They didn't even know their own strengths and weaknesses. So quick to blame, so slow to take blame.

And then when Allah tried them with their words, they proved wanting. And they fell into the same fitna that they used to criticize other people for. How many times have I seen that? How many times an evil word against your brother reaps consequences for years?

A Personal Example

And I will tell you, I'm telling you something from my own life. Not to expose to you my sins and inadequacies, but to warn you of something I know personally, of a word can have a devastating effect. A devastating effect.

Alhamdulillah, when I first became Muslim, Allah blessed it to make it very easy for me to pray in the night time, to stand for tahajjud. And one day I was invited to go on a walk, a sponsored walk. We walked from Bradford to London, it's 250 miles. In fact the same distance from Mecca to Medina. This walk was taking us two weeks and on the way every night we stopped in a mosque and we were raising awareness about a charity organization.

And this by the way brothers and sisters I want to warn you about. It was an action. And inshallah I hope a good action pleasing to Allah. But sometimes, and this is very dangerous, you can become proud of your actions. You can feel proud of yourself. You think you are so good. You think you are so great. Look what I am doing. Look how much I am doing. And look how little you are doing.

And so one night we stayed in the mosque and in the mosque there were some brothers who were on tabligh. They were on tabligh from Tabligh Jama'at. And I anyway had some issues with them from before. However, we had to get up early in the morning after fajr to start our work. And the brothers from tabligh, what did they do? Instead of getting up and getting ready and doing whatever, they were sleeping.

And I said a word. I said a word, an unjust word about them. I said all these people do is they sleep. Wallahi what an unjust word to say about them. I could have said a just word. I could have made a just criticism but this was not a just criticism. You know brothers and sisters, from that time, for years and years and years, I found it almost impossible to get up for tahajjud.

I really believe from that day, Allah put a fitna on me because of the evil of an unjust word that I said. This is the harvest of the tongue, a foolish word, an unjust word spoken about your Muslim brother and sister. This is the harvest of the tongues.

The Day of Accounting

And if this is the harvest of the tongues in this life, how will it be on the day when we stand in front of Allah? How will it be on the day of accounting? How will it be on the day of reckoning? When we will have to pay for every single thing that we have done, every abuse that we have suffered or caused to suffer our Muslim brothers and sisters, we will have to pay them. We will have to pay them. And we won't be paying them with money because we won't have any money.

It'll be too late to apologize. It'll be too late to make amends. No. We will have to pay with our deeds. Our good deeds will be taken away and given to those people that we abused, given to those people that we backbite, given to those people that we slandered, given to those people against whom we did injustice. And if we don't have any good deeds left, we will have to take their sins.

And then, it's only after that, by the way, the deeds will be weighed. First is the accounting. Words, brothers and sisters, are dangerous. Talk is cheap. If you're gonna speak, if you have to speak, let good come out of your mouth. Let good come out of your mouth. If you haven't got something good to say, be quiet.

What Allah Wants From Us: Actions

What Allah wants from us are actions. What Allah wants from us is action. And action here means actions of worship. Actions of worship. This is what Allah wants from us. Ibadah. Amal. And the amal here means worship. Actions of worship to Allah. This is what Allah wants from us.

But these actions have some very very important prerequisites. In order for our actions to be accepted to Allah, we need some very important conditions to proceed it.

First Condition: True and Complete Iman

Number one is true and complete iman. This is not an action that must be mixed with shirk. It is not an action that must be mixed with kufr.

Second Condition: Sincerity (Ikhlas)

The second thing is we need sincerity. Oh brothers and sisters, we need sincerity. We need ikhlas. Our actions are of no good if they are insincere. Mountains of actions, mountains of deeds of worship will be of no benefit if they have not been done sincerely for the sake of Allah.

The First Three in Hellfire

And we remind myself and yourself, brothers and sisters, of that hadith. We all know it but we need to hear it. Even if we heard it every day, it wouldn't be enough for us. If we woke up and this is the first thing we read of our day, alhamdulillah, it would be good for us. And this is about the first three people to stand in front of Allah on the day of judgment. The first three people to be taken to account by Allah on the day of judgment. (Sahih Muslim 1905)

The first one is a man who used to give charity or the first one is the man who used to fight jihad. Jihad. He used to fight in the path of Allah. Jihad. And we know that is the most excellent of the deeds. And there is nothing that compare to it. If you sat in the mosque and you prayed and you fasted and you gave charity non-stop, it wouldn't be the equivalent. Or that might be the equivalent of fighting jihad. But who could pray and fast and give charity non-stop and be in the mosque while a person is fighting jihad? It's not possible. You couldn't do it. Meaning there is no deed comparable to it.

Focus on Sincerity

So this is the first matter, brothers and sisters. And I think, I think, if we spent time and we spent our energy and we focused our attention on making our deeds sincere, we wouldn't have time and energy to be looking at the faults of our brothers and sisters. Blessed is the one who is so preoccupied with his or her own faults that that person doesn't have time to see the faults in others. That's a fortunate person.

Sincerity, brothers and sisters. Who can achieve that first? That is our goal, to be sincere, to do it for Allah's pleasure.

Third Condition: Correct Action According to Sharia

But that is not enough for our actions to be accepted. The second is, the third is rather, that the action has to be correct. It's not enough that our actions are sincere, but our actions have to be correct. They have to be according to the sharia. They have to be according to the sunnah of the Messenger. They have to be, if Allah is going to accept them as actions of worship, for which we are going to get rewarded, they must be actions that Allah has approved of.

And therefore, it is essential that before any action, we need ilm, we need knowledge. Knowledge precedes action. Before action comes knowledge. We have to study, we have to know what the sharia requires of us, what Allah wants from us, brothers and sisters. What does Allah want from us? What actions does Allah expect from us? What are the ibadat that Allah requires from us? And that needs knowledge.

That means we need to study the book of Allah. That means we need to study the guidance of the Messenger. And we need to look into the example of the companions and the scholars who took from them and learn from them.

Understanding Priorities in Actions

And what is important also in respect to this matter is to know which actions are more important and which actions are less important. We need to know the superiority of the actions. We need to know which one takes precedence over what. For a simple example that I'm sure we are all familiar with, A simple example which I'm sure we all are familiar with is that we all know that the obligatory actions are more important and take precedence over the supererogatory actions.

If we are busy spending our time doing supererogatory actions but we have neglected the obligatory actions, there is something wrong with our actions. There is a deviation and a misguidance in it. A man spends all his night, all his night he doesn't sleep. He spends all his night praying tahajjud. But he sleeps during the day and misses his fard. This is not correct. This is not correct. This is misguidance.

And there are many people who do not understand this issue and they have confused this issue. And they are busy doing supererogatory actions but they have neglected many things that are more important than it. And this could be a cause for our actions to be not accepted. This is why knowledge is so important. And we need to take time and we need to spend time studying and seeking knowledge.

The Trap of Working for Dunya

And the truth is, my brothers and sisters, there are many people, many people, perhaps in this room, perhaps not, but certainly amongst the Muslims, there are so many people who are so occupied with the dunya, with their jobs, with earning money. And this is money that is beyond their needs. It is money that is beyond their requirements. They work and then they do more work. And even though they have money, they work to get more money and more money.

That itself is not a problem. That itself is not a problem. But it is a problem when these people neglect their worship for Allah. They neglect to worship Allah. They neglect to learn the basics of their religion. They don't

know the obligatory from the recommended. They don't know what Islam requires of them. They don't know the fundamentals of their aqeedah, of the belief that the Muslim should have. They are ignorant of the most basic affairs of being a Muslim. But they are spending their time and their energy pursuing wealth.

And they are never satisfied. They have thousands of pounds, but they want thousands of more pounds. They have thousands of dollars, they want thousands more dollars. But these are people who know nothing about their deen. Who have not studied it and have not learnt it. And then they give the excuse. And there are people occupied and so preoccupied in their dunya. And they give the excuse. You see? They say, Working to provide for my family is a type of worship.

Working to provide for my family is a type of worship. And this most certainly is true. Working to provide for your family is a type of worship. But you know what? Going to your wife to guard your eyes and to guard your private parts is also an act of worship. But what would you say of a man who does nothing except spends all his time going to his wife? And doesn't concern himself with learning his deen.

Eating is also an act of worship if your intention is to make yourself strong physically and mentally. But that doesn't mean you can spend your whole time non-stop 24 hours a day eating and eating and eating. It is the same with working.

The Analogy of Work and the Toilet

With work, brothers and sisters, this is the rule. You treat the work like you treat the toilet. Work, you treat it like the toilet. You know, you go there when you need to. You go there when you need to. You have no business making your life there. Spending all your time there. You go to it when you need it. When you finish, you get out. Work is like that. You get what you need and then the rest of the time you do what?

You spend your time studying, learning, giving dawah, praying, reading Qur'an, giving charity, helping the poor and the needy, involving yourself in the needs of the community, helping your family, your mother, your father, your wife, your children. This is what you should spend the rest of your time. And if you need a little bit of time, maybe to relax and unwind, that is fine also.

It is like, however, eating. You do it in order to give yourself more energy to worship Allah. A scholar once saw a man wandering around aimlessly, just wandering around aimlessly. And the scholar said to this man, What are you doing? He said, I finished my jobs, and I finished my affairs, I'm just wandering around. And he said, is this what Allah has ordered for the person who has finished his affairs?

Because you know what? Allah has ordered you with something. When you have finished your affairs and you finished your work, there is something that Allah has ordered you with. And that is to worship Him.

A Hadith Qudsi on Freeing Yourself for Worship

So brothers and sisters, listen to this Hadith Qudsi. Verily Allah says, O son of Adam, free yourself for my

worship, and I in turn will fill your chest with satisfaction and remove your poverty. And if you don't, I will fill your hands with distraction and will not remove your poverty. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2466) Subhanallah. O son of Adam, free yourself for my worship.

If you do that, if you do that, Allah will fill your chest with satisfaction. What is the use of the dunya that never satisfies you? What is the use of wealth that gives you no happiness? You just accumulate it and accumulate it, things that you get them, but they do nothing for you. They bring you no happiness, no satisfaction, no contentment. In fact, you just spend your time pursuing more of them. This is the true poverty.

If you do not free yourself for the worship of Allah, then definitely Allah is gonna fill your heart with distraction. And this is why you see the people who are far from worshipping Allah, they're always distracted.

You never find them really people who are truly happy and content. They are always depressed, and even when they're happy, it is an artificial happiness. And although they may have riches, in fact, they have poverty because the true wealth, brothers and sisters, is contentment.

So free yourself for the worship of Allah. This is what we must do. We work according to what we need. As I said, treat it like the toilets. You go there when you need it. The rest of your time should be pursued in studying, reading, learning about Allah's deen, seeking ilm al-nafi'a, beneficial knowledge.

Beneficial Knowledge

Beneficial knowledge, knowledge that will benefit you. And this is important. What is beneficial knowledge? Beneficial knowledge, brothers and sisters, is what leads to amal al-salih, righteous actions. Ilm al-nafi'a wa amal al-salih, beneficial knowledge and righteous actions. And there is a beautiful saying of one of the scholars. He said, knowledge that does not cause you to weep, is not beneficial. Knowledge that does not cause you to cry for the fear of Allah, is not beneficial. This is the beneficial knowledge.

The knowledge that will benefit you is what is gonna benefit you when you meet Allah on the day of judgment. This is the beneficial knowledge. Knowledge is never to be sought for its own sake. No. Knowledge is to be sought so that we can translate it into action. Knowledge that is not transformed into action will only be a witness against you on the day of judgment.

So we seek knowledge in order to translate it into action. But we cannot do action without knowledge. Knowledge without action is no good. Action without knowledge is no good. No. Knowledge that leads to action. Act on what you know. Act on what you know and seek knowledge in order to act on it.

Acting Upon Knowledge: No Procrastination

When you come to these lectures, brothers and sisters, when you come to these lectures, have one intention in your mind, that you've come here for the sake of Allah to get some knowledge which you are going to act on and you are going to implement it. And do it straight away. Don't procrastinate. Procrastination equals destruction. Procrastination equals destruction.

What is procrastination? Easy. Bukhra insha Allah. That's what the word procrastination is easily translated as. Bukhra insha Allah. Tomorrow, God willing, procrastination. I'll leave it till later. I'll do that later. I'll do that at another time. Procrastination is destruction. It is a deception of shaitan. Act on your knowledge. Don't procrastinate. Don't leave it to say your prayers. Don't leave it to approach Allah and get closer to Allah. Don't leave it to get that obligatory knowledge that you have. No. Act on your knowledge, brothers and sisters.

The Example of the Sahaba

And this is how we found the sahaba. This is how we found the companions of the prophet. There is a narration, I don't remember the names of the companions involved, but one of them, there is a battle, a jihad taking place, a battle. And one of the companions asks another of the companion, Oh such and such, is it true that the prophet said, that if I die fighting in the path of Allah, I will go to paradise? He says, yes, that is true. I heard the prophet say that.

So he was eating some dates, he threw them away, and he went and fought and died. Subhanallah, benefits in this small narration. First of all, he had some idea that there was a saying of the prophet. But you know what he wanted to do? He wanted to authenticate it. He wanted to make sure that this really was from the messenger. Let me see, did Muhammad really say this? Is this really from the deen?

And once he found out, and once he realized, yes, this is from the deen, what did he do? He went and acted on it. He didn't procrastinate. He didn't sit there saying, Oh yes, thank you, that's very interesting. Now let me see what else I can do. Now a lot of people are like that, brothers and sisters.

Acting on Clear Rulings

People want to come and ask me questions. And as I was giving this talk, it came to my mind, and I'm not going to mention anyone specifically, but people come and ask me questions, Oh brother, do you think such and such, and this and that is in my life, do you think I should happen? Do you think I should do this, or what do you think I should do? Now some things, it's a matter of, it's a matter of ijtihad, it's a matter of interpretation. In fact, very often people know their own situation better than I could ever know it.

But sometimes there is a clear sharia ruling, that no, this is haram. This is forbidden. Now, I wonder how many people who come to me and ask me a question, and I say, no, this is haram. A sister may ask me, I have a husband, he doesn't pray, he doesn't practice, he's committed adultery. From the opinion and the understanding what I know, is that a person who commits adultery has to divorce his wife. It is haram for them to remain married. It is haram. Has to divorce his wife.

So now you've asked a question, you got the answer, now act on it. Do I have to wear hijab? The proof is this and this. Do I have to grow my beard? The proof is this and this. Act on it, don't procrastinate. Because if you leave it, you'll leave it and leave it, and believe me, it'll get harder and harder to do it.

The High Diving Board Analogy

Did anyone ever do any high diving? Did anyone? Well, I used to do high diving. When I was young, I used to do high diving. And they used to have this board, I don't know how high it was, it was high. Maybe, I don't know, 20 meters. It was very high. And we used to, me and my brother and my friends, there were actually three boards. There was a little bouncy board, that was easy, bouncy, bouncy, splosh. Then you had the other one. That was about, you know, maybe that was a 5 meter, 12 meter board, I don't remember, and that had a bouncy board on it as well. It was very easy just to jump off the concrete bit. If you had a bit more guts, you'd bounce off the bouncy bit. Okay?

But then the other board, boy, that was high. That was high up. Okay? And you look at it, and you'd spend half an hour looking at it, saying, I can do it, I can do it, I can do it. It's not that far. It's not that far. So eventually, you walk up, you get up there, and then you walk to the edge, and believe me, everyone looks like little ants crawling around.

And then not only do you look down on the pool, because the pool is clear, you look down to the bottom of the pool, which of course is another 10 meters, right? And suddenly you think you're up in space. And you're thinking, if I move this way or that way, my back is going to split open, it's going to hurt for a week, and believe me, the more you look, and the longer you look, the harder it gets.

And the time you usually do it is when you walk up, you know what you have to do? You walk up, you stand on the edge, you look up, and you just jump. Well, you don't jump, actually. You let yourself fall, and you dive. That's when you'll do it. But you know when you procrastinate, most of the time, you'll chicken out, and you know what? Everyone is looking at you. They're all looking at you. Is he going to jump? He's gone up. You know what they're seeing? Everyone's going, is he going to do it?

And then you chicken out, and you walk down, and everyone goes, oh, yeah, yeah. And you have to take the embarrassment of walking all the way back down and bouncing off the bouncy board. In fact, even when you chicken out of the top one, you don't even have the guts anymore to do the second one. You have to go back to the little bouncy board on the bottom. Really. And it's true.

And that's true for a lot of things. A lot of actions. And that's what happens when we procrastinate. Sure, sometimes you think about it, you calculate it, and you still do it. But most of the time, it doesn't work like that. So actions is what we need. Actions which are sincere, and actions that are based on knowledge, that are based on a clear understanding of the Sharia.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words: The Real Meaning

Now, there's one final thing I want to talk about. There's one final thing that I want to talk about. And that is really the actual title title. Actions speak louder than words. I want to spend just a little bit of time reminding ourselves of something. That it is much more often the things that we do rather than the things that we say that

affect people. And the history of Islam bears testimony to that, brothers and sisters. The history of Islam from Rasulullah ﷺ to his Sahaba, to those people who spread Islam, our pious predecessors who spread Islam across the face of this earth.

And it still holds true today. We find that actions speak louder than words.

The Jewish Woman and the Prophet ﷺ

Remember the incident? We all know the story of the Jewish woman who used to throw rubbish on the Prophet ﷺ when he lived in Mecca. We all know that story. How the Prophet ﷺ, every day he went out of his house, she would wait for him and throw rubbish, throw rubbish and throw rubbish. One day Rasulullah ﷺ walks out of his house, goes down, wait a minute, I didn't get my usual delivery today. Maybe that's not what he thought. But something like that because he didn't get thrown with rubbish.

But this is Rasulullah ﷺ. What did he think? Now I know what we would think. Dirty, Yehudi, kafir, dog. Khabith. I hope she's dead. It's us. This is us. Rasulullah ﷺ, he wasn't like us. Rasulullah ﷺ was concerned about his neighbor. And we know what Allah revealed and told us about the rights of our neighbor. In fact, Jibreel used to tell Rasulullah ﷺ about the rights of the neighbor so much, he thought that Allah was going to reveal that the neighbor should share in inheritance. (Sahih al-Bukhari 6014, Sahih Muslim 2625)

And Rasulullah ﷺ was a person who cared about people. Even his enemies, he cared about them. And he loved and desired and hoped and prayed that they would be guided to Islam. So what did he do? He went to inquire about this woman to see whether she was well, to see whether she was okay. Is there anything that he could do for her? He is her neighbor.

When she heard about this, she said, This is truly the character of a prophet of God.

- I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. This is actions, speaking louder than words. This behavior, this character, this nobility of Rasulullah ﷺ did something which preaching and words and talking could never do and could never accomplish.

The Companions' Respect for the Prophet ﷺ

And believe me, if we study the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, it used to impress people so much. One man said, he said, I have been to the court of Caesar and I've been to the court of the Persian emperor. I've seen rulers but I've never seen people respect someone as Rasulullah ﷺ was respected by his companions. And this moved him and impressed him so much.

The Generosity of the Prophet ﷺ

And the generosity of Rasulullah ﷺ was overwhelming. He used to give and give and give. He used to give as if there was no such thing as poverty. He would give as if there was no such thing as poverty. One day a man came

to the Prophet ﷺ and asked the Prophet for something. The Prophet said to him, you see this valley of sheep? There was a whole hillside filled with sheep. He said, it's all yours, take it.

The man went back to his people. He said, oh my people, embrace Islam. Because Muhammad gives and Muhammad gives as if there is no poverty. (Sahih Muslim 2312) Actions speak louder than words.

The Justice of Umar

We see how Muslims showed the example of justice. There is the famous story how Amr, the general who opened Egypt, struck an Egyptian Copt with his whip. Because he was in the way, he was riding on his horse. He's just a Christian. He whipped him out of the way. But this man, he knew and heard about the justice of Umar. So he traveled from Egypt to Mecca to seek an audience with Amir al-Mu'minin.

And he himself stood in front of Umar. Subhanallah. An Egyptian peasant standing in front of the ruler of the whole of the Muslims and complained to him about his treatment of his general. And Amr happened to be there at the time, making tawaf. And Umar ibn al-Khattab called him. He said to him, is it true what this man says? Amr looked at him, yes, it's true, so what?

Umar took his stick. He gave it to this Egyptian Christian. He said, hit him as he hit you. The man said, no, Amir al-Mu'minin.

- I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Actions speak louder than words, brothers and sisters. This is what we mean.

Islam Spread by Example

And I'm just selecting a few examples. Islam is full of examples. We know that Islam was spread. In the countries where Islam is today, most of Islam was not spread by conquest. Most of it was spread by example. Yes, by dawah, some by preaching, but mostly people saw these Muslims, saw the way they behave. They arrived as traders. And how did they trade? Like us today? Cheating, stealing, see how much we can rip them off?

As one brother said, he's going to give me a hard time for this, but I can't resist it. As one brother said, his job is to fix things, I won't say what might give it away. His job is to fix things. What did he do? Put out the plug, put it in, $120, please. I mean, it's the normal rate, fair enough. Okay? But, okay. It's not the type of thing that spreads Islam, right? Seriously.

Look at the traders. If you look at them, their action, their behavior, their honesty, their truthfulness, their trustworthiness. Subhanallah. Subhanallah, this is the thing. And there was enough, the people didn't need to hear, what is your religion? They said, I want to follow your religion. I want to follow your religion.

Personal Example: Ibrahim the Cook

I tell you an example from my own life. Where actions spoke louder than words. I could give you many

examples. Many examples. I remember my cook, when I used to live in Egypt. I remember my cook, Ibrahim, may Allah have mercy upon him. I used to see him as the kindest, sweetest man. Subhanallah. And being Easter, it's quite appropriate, this story. Okay?

At the time, it was very difficult to get western things in Egypt. When I lived there. And my mom had bought these Swiss chocolate Easter eggs. And they're all these little Easter eggs, and she put them in this big basket in the kitchen. Big mistake. Okay? And she put them in the basket near the door. Me and my brother, me and my brother, of course, you know, we'd just take one and think, it wouldn't make any difference, and we'd take one.

You know, and like, just before Easter arrived, there was like two left. We had totally demolished them. I don't know how my mom didn't see it, but one day she came in and said, where are all my Easter eggs? Anthony, did you do it? No. It wasn't me. Duncan, did you do it? No.

So my mom went to talk to Ibrahim, the cook. This is Ibrahim. He loved us so much. I don't know why. We were horrors. But he loved me and my brother so much. You know what he did? He took blame for it himself. He took blame for it. Subhanallah. This kind, sweet man, stuck in my mind. He's Muslim and he's the guy I used to see praying. Subhanallah. Actions speak louder than words, brothers and sisters.

A Sheikh's Good Manners

And subhanallah, I could give you many examples. Brothers that I've, and I tell often brothers this, or sisters, when we're having a discussion. I remember many years ago, I was having a discussion with someone. We were having a debate about Shia Sunni, Sunni Shia debate. So the brother was very, very insistent. No, the Shia are this and such and such. And I was saying, no, they're not. And you shouldn't say that. And they're Muslims and such and such and whatever.

So he took me out to dinner. And he brought this Sheikh from Saudi. So he was going, the brother was going, go on Sheikh, tell him, tell him. Go on Sheikh, tell him. Like this. Okay. So the Sheikh is just saying, Mustafa, calm down, calm down. So the Sheikh starts, brother, so he says a few words. Before it, you know, I'm just saying, blah, blah, blah, this and that, this and that. This is actually, alhamdulillah, it's no problem. Let's just enjoy our food.

Subhanallah, I was so impressed with his adab, his akhlaq. I was so impressed. I thought, subhanallah. You know when I read the Quran, and I read what Allah said about the believers, how they say peace to the ignorant, subhanallah. I was so impressed, that I thought, no, now I want to know what this guy has to say. I want to know what he has to say. I wish I listened to him. Because I was so impressed with his manners. Actions speak louder than words, brothers and sisters. That is something that we have to understand.

Be Careful of What We Say and Do

Let us be very careful about what we say. Alhamdulillah, let us also be careful about what we do. But let us concentrate our efforts, brothers and sisters, on worshipping Allah. In directing our attention to learning Allah,

to learning his deen. Let us reduce this criticism of each other, this backbiting of each other.

Clarification About a Previous Talk

And I have to mention something. I feel I'm sorry, I have to mention this. I gave a talk yesterday. And some people seem to be confused about my talk. And of course, I was mentioning, as you know, those of you who listened to it. I was trying to point out the fact, that Islam has encouraged and honored the woman as a mother and as an obedient wife. And I mentioned, and I stand by it, that it is very sad to see, that some brothers and sisters have this attitude, we're gonna have one or two kids. And that we're gonna leave it at that.

And then some information came to me today, that there are some, almost immediately, one sister started receiving criticism. Oh, you sister, you see you just got two kids, why are you having more? Yet this sister, this sister is doing something, which no other sister can do. She is teaching tajweed. And the reason that she doesn't want to have more kids, is because if she gets morning sickness, and she's looking after the kids, she is not gonna be able to teach tajweed.

Are we on the same planet here, brothers and sisters? I'm not quite sure. Because what we were talking about was, being defeated by the mentality of the kuffar. Their mentality is, that we have one or two kids, why? So we can enjoy the dunya. Because we as women don't want to be oppressed by that. But this is something from the deen. How did you get confused about what I was saying?

And then I thought about it, and I realized that what the real reason is, brothers and sisters, is this sickness in our heart that we've got. We love to talk a lot. We love to criticize others. We love to pick at their faults. But I wonder how those sisters who criticized that sister, I wonder how their actions are. I wonder what things they are doing themselves, to help Allah's deen, to make the word of Allah the highest.

Because I don't think that if someone had sat down and thought about my talk, they would have got confused about that. But this is symptomatic, brothers and sisters. And by the way, this is a sickness that so many of us have. And it's not just, you know, the sisters. No, it's very widespread.

Focus on Self-Improvement

So let us concentrate, brothers and sisters, on worshiping Allah. Let us concentrate on purifying our hearts. Have you reached khushu in your prayer? Do you stand in front of Allah, as if He's seeing you, as if you're seeing Him, although you can't see Him, you know He is seeing you? (Sahih al-Bukhari 50, Sahih Muslim 8)

Can you pray two rakat? Tell me honestly. Can you pray two rakat, as if it's your mi'raj? Have we even learnt the fara'id? How is our emulation of Rasulullah ﷺ?

Brothers and sisters, these are the things I want all of us to think about. Myself, it's not a criticism of anyone. First, it starts with me. And inshallah, I hope these words are for me first, before anybody else.

Love One Another for Allah's Sake

And finally, brothers and sisters, I want to mention something. I'm not going to pre-empt Abu Hamza's talk. He may talk about this, he may not. But one final thing that I want to mention is this. I want to encourage all of us to love one another, brothers and sisters. Let us love one another. Because you know what? That's something we're really missing. It's there, alhamdulillah, a bit. We need it more. We need love. I know it sounds like some hippie, whatever, this and that.

But really, believe me, the more I think about it, the more I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, all of you. Everyone here today, everyone who came, you know I love you for the sake of Allah. I love my Muslim brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah for Islam. And believe me, if I love you for your Lebanese cooking, okay, it's very good by the way, and I love you because you're good looking people, and I love you because you're friendly Aussies, okay, believe me. You know what? It's no good. It's no good. It's actually useless.

We need to love each other for the sake of Allah. We love each other for our Islam. Because we're upon this noble, beautiful deen that has been given to Prophet Muhammad. We need to tell each other we love each other. We need to be brothers and sisters in Islam. We need to support each other. We need it so bad. Especially living here in the West. We can't afford to be any other way.

So this is something else, brothers and sisters, we have to work on. We have to work on it. We have to work on reminding ourselves how we should be to our Muslim brothers and sisters. How we should love for our brothers and sisters what we love for ourselves. And you know, we know the hadith. We all know it. That we can never truly have true iman until we love for our brother and love for our sisters what we love for ourselves. (Sahih al-Bukhari 13, Sahih Muslim 45)

Spend our time and energy working on that, brothers and sisters. And let us advise each other in the best way. In the way that we would accept it. If we wanted someone to talk to us, just think about it. Think. If you want to talk about someone or talk to someone, think first, how would I like that person to talk to me? How would I like that person to approach me? How would I like that person to advise me? Love for them what you love for yourself. Deal with them the way you would like them to deal with you. This is the essence, brothers and sisters, really of what it's all about.

Extend This to Non-Muslims

And that doesn't stop there. Let's take it another stage. Let's take it to the stage of the kuffar. And I'm not saying we love them, but we love for them to be guided to Islam. Let us treat them the way that we would like to be treated if we were them. If you were a kuffar, how would you like to be treated by a Muslim? How would you like to be approached by a Muslim? Whether it's the police, whether it's the normal person in the shop, whether it's your work colleagues, think about it.

Because really, brothers and sisters, the other action we need to occupy ourselves with here is dawah. Is dawah. And I truly believe, if you really occupy yourself with dawah in this country the way you should, most of our problems, 99% of them, I believe, would dissipate. You wouldn't have time. We would not have time for most of the nonsense that goes on between us.

And that's what I found. When I look back in England, and I see some of the things the brothers are saying over there, and the criticisms they are leveling, and calling people who have been on the sunnah for years, and calling to the sunnah for years, calling them mubtadeen and stuff like that, and innovators, and accusing them of this and this, and I know you have the same thing here. I look at them and most of the time I find that these brothers are not involved in giving dawah to the kuffar. They are not. 90% of them are not. Because believe me, if they were, they would not have time for that type of stuff.

Final Advice and Closing

This, my brothers and sisters, is my sincere advice to myself and yourself. I love all my brothers and sisters in Islam for the pleasure of Allah. Inshallah. And I want to say also, that if I have said anything to upset my brothers and sisters that was unjust, then I ask for your forgiveness. I ask for your first Allah's forgiveness and then your forgiveness. We don't want to have any problems between us on the day of judgment.

And finally, brothers and sisters, may Allah accept from us all our good deeds, and may Allah forgive us our sins and our shortcomings. May Allah unite our hearts upon the truth and upon His worship. May Allah make us sincere in our actions and correct in our understanding. May Allah guide us to that which pleases Him and keep us away from that which angers Him.

Wa sallallahu wa sallam 'ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in - And may Allah send peace and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his companions.