Embracing the Inner Struggle

foot, even a thorn pricking your foot, that is good for you. And this is only for the believer. This is only for the believer, subhanallah.

Embracing the Struggle

So if we understand that true happiness in life comes from struggle, we believers should embrace the struggle.

Let's accept it happily, willingly. Because this is the problem: the things that make you truly happy, they take an effort, and the big problem is that initial effort. The initial effort is what we have to overcome. But when you embrace the struggle, when you look forward to the struggle, when you realize that the struggle itself is what is going to make you truly profoundly happy, you accept it.

Life is a Test

You know that life is a test. You know that life is a test, as Allah told us:

"(That Allah, He created the death and He created the life, that He may see or He may know or He may make known which of you is best in conduct, and He is the Mighty and He is the Forgiving.)"

So life is a test. Accept the struggle and you will be successful. You will be happy in this dunya and you will, inshallah, you will get paradise in the akhira, subhanallah.

Allah Tests Those He Loves

And this is the secret of understanding something that again may seem very strange: Allah tests the ones He loves, and the ones He loves the most, He tests the most.

Most people would say, "If God loves me, He will make my life so easy. I will have lots of money, I'll have everything easy," you know, that's what people will think. In fact, there are many, many people, Christians, many Christians, they think like this. This is what they think: "The more easy my life is, this is a sign of God's favour."

No. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Allah tests the ones He loves, and the ones He loves the most, He tests the most. So the people who are tested the most were the prophets, then the ones like them, and the ones like them." (Sunan Ibn Majah 4023)

The Benefit of Tests

So being tested is a sign of Allah's favour, because if Allah tests you and you are patient, you will become a truly happy person. Allah is teaching you self-control. Allah is teaching you self-mastery. When you are the master of yourself, when you are the master of your desires, when you are in control of your inner condition,

whatever happens around you will not affect you. It will not affect you. There is your connection with Allah, whatever happens around will not affect you.

And this is how the sahaba, like, used to be. The dunya was nothing to them. If they had it or they didn't have it, it made no difference. If they didn't have it, alhamdulillah, because their happiness was not connected to these externalities. Their happiness was an internal, inner condition, something inside.

Developing Inner Control Through Tests

So how do you develop that internal condition? It's through being tested, through learning self-control, through learning self-mastery.

The Beauty of Fasting

This is the beauty of fasting. You know, it's an amazing thing. Fasting is an amazing thing, and what a beautiful example this is.

Our three most basic desires: to drink, to eat, and to have conjugal relations—very powerful, very strong, primordial desires, basic desires that motivate a human being.

Understanding Hunger

So what is hunger? What is hunger exactly? It's very simple. Biological process. When your body is not receiving the nutrients that it needs, chemicals start being sent in your body. They send chemicals, they send signals to your brain, and the feeling that you have in your mind, that's what we call hunger. It's just your body telling you, "Feed me, I need food." The same with thirst: "I need to drink."

Overriding Our Desires

But you, mashallah, you've done something amazing. You have decided not to accept those signals. You have decided consciously that "I am going to ignore these signals being sent to my brain." This proves, by the way, you are not a creature of instincts. You are not an animal. You don't just behave according to whatever feelings come to you. No, you are learning control. Your mind is learning to override your passions, override your desires. You are learning self-control, self-mastery.

No, and for what? Subhanallah, for something totally abstract. I am not fasting so I get a thousand pounds at the end of the day, right? I am not fasting so I get a nice new house or a nice new car. No, I am fasting to please Allah.

Of course, for those of us who believe in Allah and know Allah, Allah is not abstract, but from the point of view of the people who are not Muslim, it's like, how do you do that? How do you not eat and drink? How? And you just choose to do it for what? What do you get? They can't—it just doesn't compute.

The Lesson of Self-Mastery

But this is a lesson in self-control. And think about it: if you can fast in this heat and not drink and not eat for the whole day, really you can do anything, anything you put your mind to. This is what Allah is teaching you. You do not have to let the world, your body, your own body dictate how you behave. No, because you have niyyah, you have intention. Your intention focuses your behavior.

The Power of Intention and Thought

You are what you think, brothers and sisters. You are what you think. And this is why we need to think a lot about Jannah, we need to think a lot about An-Nar, we need to think a lot about Qiyama. We need to think a lot about Paradise, the Hellfire, the Day of Judgement, the reality of what is going to happen after we die. We need to think a lot about Allah. We need to think a lot about Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Because the more we think, the more we intend good, this is what our mind becomes preoccupied with. What you think, you become. That's it. That's why, if you listen to music and you watch movies, you become—you think money, money, money, TV, TV, TV, car, car, car. That's it. What you think, you become. What you strive for, what you think about, you become it. That's it. It's that simple.

So Ramadan is teaching us self-mastery and self-control. This is a test. This is a test from Allah, subhanallah.

The Hardest Test: Being Called a Liar

Now I want you to think, and this is something, subhanallah, this is something, and I think maybe this is the first time I'm sharing it. I'm going to share these thoughts I had when I read this hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about that Allah loves the ones that Allah loves, He tests, and the ones He loves the most, He tests the most.

And I was thinking, you know, those people, there are so many people, believers in the path of Allah, subhanallah, callers to Islam who have been taken and who have been tortured and terrible things that happened to them—their nails pulled out, terrible things, tortured, beaten, humiliated, raped. So many stories, and even these things are going on right until now.

And I'm thinking, "Well, none of those things happened to Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him. I mean, surely," I'm telling, this is what's going on in my mind, "surely, you know, those things are much harder. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wasn't tested like that."

But actually, this is a misunderstanding of what the hardest test is. The hardest tests are not actually physical suffering. It's not.

What Were the Prophets Tested With?

What were the Prophets tested with? Let me tell you. They were tested with this: that Allah had given them

knowledge. Allah had given them revelation, knowledge from Him, and then they went to share this gift, this blessing, this beautiful thing, this knowledge. They went to share this people, this knowledge with people, and they charged them nothing for it. For free, they went to call them to Allah, to save them from destruction, to save them from the fire, to save them from the doom, to save them from misery in this life and in the next life.

And they were called liars. Liars. They were called magicians. They were called fortune tellers. This is the hardest test of all. This is harder than being tortured. This is harder than physical torture and imprisonment: that you have this knowledge from Allah and people call you a liar. They accuse you. "You are a fundamentalist. You are an extremist. You are this and that." This is the hard test.

And this is why the path of da'wah is the path of the prophets. Whoever is in the path of calling people to Islam is going to suffer some of this type of treatment.

The Mission of the Messengers

And this was the job of the messengers. Allah tells us in the Quran:

"(That He did not send to any nation a messenger except that he called the people to worship Allah and abandon the worship of the false gods.)"

This was the task of the messengers. This was their primary task and objective: to call the people away from the darkness of kufr to the light of al-Islam, from the darkness of shirk, of making partners with God, of setting up rivals with God, to worshipping the one God, the Lord, the Creator of the universe alone. This was the task of Nuh, of Ibrahim, of Musa, of Isa, of Muhammad.

The Satisfaction of Calling to Allah

This was their job. Yet you can be sure that there is nothing more satisfying, nothing that brings more satisfaction, a more profound and lasting sense of happiness, than being a person who is calling to Allah.

Because it is the most significant thing that you can do. It is the best way that you could ever help human beings: is to save them from shirk, to save them from disbelief, and bring them to the guidance of God, to the guidance of Allah. It is the most significant thing that you can do.

And of course, to live by it yourself. You should not be a preacher who does not practice what they preach.

The Call to Da'wah

So I am inviting you all, brothers and sisters, as mashallah we have been told: become a caller to Islam.

Definitely become a caller to Islam. But of course, first we need to call ourselves to Islam. We need to call ourselves to submit and to surrender to Allah.

And one of the great lessons of this beautiful month of Ramadan is it teaches you how truly you are able to be in control of your own inner condition, how you can be a master of yourself, so that you can be a slave to Allah and worship Him truly and feel that profound sense of happiness. And then when we meet Allah, inshallah, we will enter that beautiful abode, that blessed place, Jannah, that we began to talk about this evening.

May Allah guide all of us closer to the truth. JazakAllah khair.

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Question and Answer Session

Moderator: JazakAllah khair to brother Abdurrahim for the very inspiring talk. We will now go to the questions, but before that I would like to announce that after the questions we have in the ladies section for sisters who wish to embrace Islam, so once we have the questions done we will do that, inshallah.

Over the microphone, the first question is asking brother Abdurrahim: when and how and why did you accept Islam?

Question 1: How Did You Come to Islam?

Answer: OK, my usual answer to this is: go to YouTube and type in my name, "How I came to Islam." You can listen to the whole lecture there, how I came to Islam. I've given the lecture of how I came to Islam so many times I don't think I want to give that lecture anymore, but you can listen to it on YouTube.

But very, very briefly, I will mention—I only really want to mention one thing: the most, the single most important thing in influencing me to become Muslim was reading a translation of the Quran.

Having studied many religions, having been brought up a Catholic, having practiced Buddhism, having studied many religions, I spent years looking for the answers to life: Why am I here? What is the reason for our existence? What is going to happen to us when we die? What is life for?

I found the answers to all of those questions in the Quran. It was the only book that I read that I felt certain that it was a book that was from Allah. And actually, I remember very clearly the day that I was sitting on a train going from one part of London to another, and I was reading the Quran. I remember so distinctly, I was reading this translation of the Quran. I looked out of the window. At that time, I remember even I was going—at that exact moment we were going over the Thames, the river Thames, and I looked back and I said, "If I have ever read a book that is from God, this is the one."

And I think that is the moment that truly I surrendered myself to Allah. So very briefly, that is how I became Muslim.

Question 2: How Can People Become Da'is and What Materials Are Recommended?

Moderator:

We have a second question. The question is asking: how can ladies and men, basically brothers and sisters, how can they become da'is or da'iya, and what is the kind of material that you would recommend in giving da'wah?

Answer:

OK, every country has its own unique environment and situation. In the UK, we have started an organisation which aims to be an international organisation. So although we are based in the UK, we are launching in Canada this October. We are also going to be launching in Holland and France and Jamaica, in Norway, and inshallah soon in Africa as well. So we have only been going for two years, but things are moving very fast.

But one of the things that we have realised is that a lot of da'wah materials that we hand out is not really based upon sound research. A lot of it is someone who, mashallah, has some knowledge about Islam, some enthusiasm for da'wah, writes down their idea of what they think a good da'wah book will be. And I'm sure that Ismail can vouch that some of the da'wah materials that, mashallah, brothers with good intention have printed thousands and thousands of books and shipped them from the Middle East to England, but they were so unsuited. I mean, from the design of the cover—designs that do not work—people will look at it and they will just put it away. They won't even open it because the design is not something that is appealing to them. Again, to the use of the words, the contents, the approach—every country has its own unique situation.

The Importance of Research in Da'wah

So that's one of the things that we're trying to do in our organisation. Therefore, the research is key. We conducted a survey—this is what they call a statistically robust survey—and this is a scientific survey based upon the same type of scientific principles that, for example, psychologists and sociologists will use to observe trends among societies and so on and so forth. So we use the same techniques. We hired professional companies and we spent a good amount of resources to actually discover: what do English people really think about Islam? What really are their attitudes towards religion?

And I just want to give you one example. In England, for example, this was perhaps the most shocking thing, and there were quite a few interesting statistics. If you're interested in reading it, by the way, you just need to go to our website, www.iera.org.uk, and you can download and read the whole research. But I just want to pinpoint a few interesting points that were raised.

Number one: 70% of people, more than 70% of people, when we asked them, "How would you like to find out about religion?"—and we gave them some options: TV, radio, DVD, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, you know, whatever, right?—70% said none of these. In fact, they said, "We don't want to know about religion, even our own religion. We don't want to know." They don't want to know.

So this was very important, and this matched some other research that we had come across that found that whenever you write a book or a leaflet—and this is England, I'm not saying it's true in the Philippines or in Malawi or in England—if you have a book, for example, and on the book is written "Islam," for example, if you

put "Jesus, a Prophet of Islam" and you put it on the table, people will not touch it. It might as well be a bomb. The moment they see the word Islam, they don't want to touch it. But if you put "The Truth About Jesus," nearly everybody picks it up.

This is proper research, by the way. This is the type of stuff that Christians have been doing and spending huge amounts of money on.

Learning from Christian Missionary Organizations

I want to give you an example of one, just one Christian missionary organization. The name of this organization is called Campus Crusade for Christ. It's just one, and it's not even the biggest. This organization operates in 119 countries in the world. They have 25,000 full-time, full paid missionaries and 250,000, a quarter of a million volunteers. And here's the most shocking thing: last year they raised 670 million US dollars in one year. 670 million US dollars for their missionary work. And you know what they spent on aid, helping the poor and the needy? 80 million. 80 million on aid. 670 million on their missionary work. Subhanallah, this is what they are doing.

So we have looked at their models and looked at the way they are trying to do things, and we are trying to see what have—what techniques have they employed, what type of—of course, our sharia is not, our way is not their way, but if they are doing something that is effective and it is halal, we should look at it.

And one of the things we find, they do this research. When they come to our countries, they will make sure—and Sheikh Ahmad Deedat was pointing this out years ago—they will make sure their leaflets, you know, their book looks like a Quran. You think, "Mashallah, the true Injeel," and you open it up and, you know—and they will study the culture. They will say, "OK, we shouldn't say this thing, we should say that thing." Maybe they will come dressed in a khutra and a thawb, and you know, they think about all of these things: what is the best way to talk to the people? And we don't do these things, unfortunately. And they base it on research. It's not just guesswork. They spend a lot of money and invest a lot of money to do this research.

So these are very, very important things. So when you say to me, what's the best way of giving da'wah, as the person was asking? Well, you know, how to give da'wah in the Emirates may be very, very different how we give da'wah in the UK.

Adapting Da'wah to Local Context

People here, I suspect—I don't know—why don't you do some research? Do some research. Find out. Ask the non-Muslims who come here: what is their attitude to Islam after they've been here for a year or two years or three years? I suspect they will be much—I think actually they will be very happy to get information about Islam. I suspect that you may think, "No, they don't want to know." I think most of them, they do want to know something, right? So I think you may find very different attitudes. Allahu alim.

So, however, I would like to say one thing: I still think that the best way of giving da'wah is by one person talking to another person. It is so much—I mean, books are fantastic, videos are great, YouTube is great, satellite, it's all good—but the best thing is when one human being is talking to another human being.

Every Muslim Should Be a Caller to Islam

And so I do think we need to initiate programs. I would like to see every Muslim, every Muslim becoming a caller to Islam, to have good basic knowledge—and it doesn't take much, you don't need to be a scholar—but knowing how to have a da'wah conversation. And actually, this is the main thrust of our activity and our organization is just this one thing: teaching people how to have a good da'wah conversation.

Because if every Muslim talk to their non-Muslim work colleagues, their non-Muslim friends, their non-Muslim neighbors, and they knew how to explain to Islam to them properly, I think this would be the best way to give da'wah.

And I am sure we will see very soon what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, because the Prophet said, peace and blessings be upon him: "Islam will enter every country, every city, every town, every village, every home, even a home of mud or hair"—meaning a tent—"there will be someone whom Allah will honor with the Quran, or those whom Allah will dishonor by them being away from the Quran." (Musnad Ahmad 16998)

This means not that there will be a TV with information about Islam. No, there will be a Muslim in every house, every house. It is going to happen. I think the question we need to ask today is: do we want to be part of making that happen? Do we want to get the ajr? Do we want to get the reward? Because I think the time is right with mass media, with the media, with our ability to travel, the opportunity—and the world is so open today. I think Dubai is an amazing example of that, you know, the opportunity is there. We just need to seize that opportunity, inshallah.

Question 3: How to Protect Oneself from Sin

Moderator:

Final question for this evening is: what is the most effective way to protect myself from sin, or from sinning? What is the most effective way to protect yourself from sinning?

Answer:

OK, I'm trying to think of one. I don't know if there is a most effective way to protect yourself from sinning. It needs multiple solutions. There is no one particular thing. But if I was going to focus on one thing, if I was going to focus on one thing, I would say that the most important thing to focus on is perfecting your salah.

Perfecting Your Salah

And when I say perfecting your salah, I don't mean spending hours and hours and hours studying: do I point my finger? Do I shake my finger, right? Do I put my hands on my chest when I come up from ruku, or do I leave

them by my side? I'm not saying the fiqh from this point of view. It is important, but when I say perfecting your salah, I don't mean spending hours and hours and days and days arguing and debating on these issues. No.

When I say perfecting your salah, I mean the khushu' in your salah. That when you stand in front of Allah, you truly are standing in front of Allah, and you have the mindset: can you imagine if you were really standing in front of Allah, how would you be? How would your khushu' be? How attentive would you be? How frightened would you be? How terrified would you be? How awed would you be? How in love with the presence of Allah you would be? How you would hope for Allah's mercy? How you would be afraid of—how would you be? Think about it. If you're truly in front of Allah.

But actually, when you make salah, you are truly in front of Allah. Truly you are. And this is we need to focus on this. If you perfect your salah, so that when you are standing in your prayer you are thinking of nothing except Allah, this will be a most amazing, amazing anecdote and cure for your sins, inshallah.

Closing Announcements

Moderator:

We would like to take this opportunity to invite all of you, especially the youth, to our Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing Islamic exhibition in the heritage area, located next to the Heritage Village, which is called El Siraj. We have the opportunity there to be able to give the message of Islam and the values of the UAE culture to many tourists, and we have several programs and da'wah workshops as well on how to give da'wah on a one-to-one basis.

And you can get more information by either calling us on 043933240, emailing us at info@al-siraj.com, or by visiting our website www.al-siraj.com.

If the sisters are ready on their side with a microphone, brother Abdurrahim will take them through the process of declaring their faith, inshallah. Are the sisters ready?

Maybe we should ask if there is anyone else here who wants to take shahada? Anyone here today wants to become Muslim? Here amongst the men, we have to ask, anyone who is not Muslim? OK, so we got the sisters then.

So in that case, are the sisters ready on their side? Not yet, OK.

Well, in the meantime, while the sisters are preparing, we would just like to inform that brother Abdurrahim will have two more lectures here in the UAE. He will have a lecture tomorrow at the Al-Manar Quran Center Ramadan Majlis after Tarawih prayer, and he will have also one in the Al-Boum Tourist Village, courtesy of Jumeirah Islamic Learning Center, on the 15th after Tarawih.

They are ready now, inshallah.

Shahada Declaration

Brother Abdurrahim: OK, so just say after me. I'm going to first say some words in Arabic and you can repeat them, and then we will say it in English, or I don't know what your language is, but we will just say it in Arabic to start with. OK, so say after me:

أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ

(Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah)

I testify that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

Allahu Akbar! You are now Muslim, alhamdulillah, inshallah.