Nurturing Compassionate Communities- Connecting Faith and Service

Connecting Faith and Service

Opening and Greetings

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Sayyidina wa Habibina Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa man wala wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. Alhamdulillah.

Acknowledging Authentic Scholarship and Al-Azhar's Role

First of all, I want to also acknowledge like Imam Suhaib, the Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Goma, who is really, I think, one of the most effective spokespeople for the Muslims alive. And it's extremely important that we recognize the role of Al-Azhar University. I think sometimes our community forgets the importance of having a normative tradition, in other words, a tradition in which people have a resource that they can go to for a sound Islam.

The Need for Accredited Scholars

And I want to point out something very important about this, which is the need for accredited scholars who understand the religion as it should be understood. Religion is probably the most, it is the single most powerful force on the planet. Religion is more powerful than any temporal government.

Governments come and go, nations come and go. All nations have curvilinear courses. They rise and then they fall.

But the power of religion has been around since the very beginning. Humans have always been religious. This is something our anthropologists, our historians, anybody that looks at the matter, sees very clearly.

The Power and Danger of Religious Interpretation

But religion, because it's powerful, it's also very dangerous. And one of the most dangerous aspects of religion is revelation itself. When you have a book that those who adhere to that book claim that it is from God, how that book is understood is the single most important thing that any large group of people that adhere to that group have to be concerned with.

Preservation of the Quran and Arabic Language

And this is why the Muslims historically, the single most important endeavor in Islamic history is the preservation of the Quran and all of the ancillary sciences that were necessary to preserve the understanding of Islam and at center to all of those was the Arabic language. Without the Arabic language preserved the way it was preserved, we would not understand the Quran the way it should be understood. And so Al-Azhar has played that role in preserving the Arabic language, in preserving the understanding of the Quran for centuries.

Al-Azhar's Global Impact

It has one of the largest student populations in the world. It has massive endowments. It also has an international body of students.

When we were just recently in Al-Azhar, I was with Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah. We met with the Shaykh Al-Azhar there. And I was overwhelmed by the contingency that came from Central Asia, the contingency from Malaysia, the contingency from Turkey.

All of these different groups studying in Al-Azhar, they will go back to their communities to serve their communities. We now have Imam Suhaib Webb and we should all congratulate him on graduating from Al-Azhar University so that Al-Azhar's knowledge is transferred to the United States of America. Without real scholarship, our religion is in danger of being taken over by mad people.

Historical Example: The Danger of the Khawarij

And I want to read quickly an example of this from Imam al-Tabari. It's in his famous book of Tarikh. And he talks about the Khawarij when they took over a village.

And I want to emphasize that the Khawarij were people that had prayer marks on their heads. Most of them memorized the Quran. They prayed all night.

They fasted during the daytime. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, when you see them, you'll belittle your own prayer in front of their prayer. You'll belittle your own fasting when you see how much they fast.

They were so charismatic that many many thousands of people joined their groups. And when they took over the areas that they took over, what did they do? Bloodshed. Killing people that disagreed with them.

A Tragic Account of Khawarij Violence

I want to just read this section. He mentions that when the Khawarij came to a village, and this was a village in Iraq. They took an old man and his daughter, who were Muslims that weren't following their version of Islam.

And the young girl started crying and she said, Don't kill my father, he's an old man. Don't kill my father, he's an old man. And then she said, I'm just a young girl.

I never harmed anybody. I never did any sinful thing. And then they said, They brought her in front of them to kill her.

And when she did that, she shouted, What's my sin? What's my sin? And then they killed her, and cut her up, and then they killed her father. Our history is filled with mad people in the name of religion, who go about killing other people. This is going on in the Masjid of Afghanistan, in the Masjid of Pakistan, in the Masjid of Iraq.

Contemporary Manifestations of Extremism

We even find this type of mentality in our own country here in the United States. And if we're not careful when we see these people, like this young man in New York, really, who plans on blowing up Times Square, with innocent people walking around, and then, on the stand, he says that he's proud of it, and he would do it again.

This is the type of problem that we're dealing with in certain segments of our community.

The Urgent Need for Sound Scholarship

If we remain in denial about this, if we don't address the need for sound scholarship, for moderation in our religion, for the truthful teaching of Islam, and I know all of you are part of this, but we have to institutionalize these things. We have to bring this to the forefront of our concern, because our religion is a beautiful religion, and it's being made ugly by the acts of fools, by the acts of the Sufaha.

The Fatwa of Mardin: A Case Study in Textual Corruption

I just want to bring your attention to something that, when I found this out, I was so flabbergasted. My own teacher, Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, had a conference in Mardin. Mardin is a city in Turkey, in which Jews, Muslims, Christians, all live together. There was a period of time when the Mongols had a Muslim ruler, who was just a figurehead, but he was ruling under Mongol rule.

Ibn Taymiyyah was asked, what he thought about a place, where they were not applying the rules of Islam, even though they were Muslims, and he wrote a famous fatwa, which is called Fatwa Mardin. In this fatwa he said, that this Dar is Murakkabah. It's a compounded Dar.

It's an abode that's neither an abode of Islam, nor an abode of war. And so he said something very interesting. According to the published traditions that are in Saudi Arabia today, in many many Muslim countries, according to the published edition it says:

"So the Muslims should be treated according to what they deserve as believers, and those who deviate from the Sharia should be fought according to what they deserve."

Discovering the Textual Error

Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, when this fatwa was read, in Mardin, he said, there's something wrong with that fatwa. And people got very upset. Some of the ulama that were in the gathering were upset and they said:

"O Shaykh, don't change the fatwa of Shaykh al-Islam."

"We can discuss the fatwa, but don't change the fatwa."

Shaykh Abdullah said, the wording is not right. Because he is an ocean of the Arabic language, and he knew that the wording wasn't right based on his knowledge of the Arabic language, on بلاغة (rhetoric), on the idea of طِبَاقِ الْمُقَابَلَة (antithetical parallelism), he knew that it wasn't right.

The Original Manuscript Reveals the Truth

When he got back to Jeddah, and this is a copy of the oldest manuscript of the fatwa, this fatwa which is in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, is the oldest manuscript of Shaykh al-Islam's fatwa of Mardin, and he does not say:

"He should be fought according to what he deserves."

He says:

"He should be treated according to what he deserves."

The Deadly Consequences of Misprint

The fatwa based on يُقَاتَلُ (fought) was used to kill Anwar Sadat. This very fatwa was used to kill Anwar Sadat, the president of Egypt.

Because if you read the text, this is the fatwa that was quoted. This is the fatwa that Osama Bin Laden used in justifying the attacks in the United States. This is the fatwa that they've used for opposing all of the rulers in the Muslim lands because they don't implement the Sharia, and it's all based on a misprint.

It's based on a misprint. This is an incredible tragedy in our community, that this is the level of scholarship has fallen to such a level, that people are killed based on misprints in books. And this is why we need sound scholarship.

The Danger of Misunderstanding Religious Texts

What our beloved president and sister, Dr. Mattson was talking about, about this textbook that she was teaching, these textbooks have now been printed in the tens of thousands, sometimes the hundreds of thousands. People are reading these books and thinking that Islam is a religion of hatred, is a religion of violence, is a religion of bloodshed. All of these things are because of this misunderstanding of a religious tradition that has a vast spectrum of opinion.

The Necessity of Proper Guidance in Hadith Study

If you take books like Sahih al-Bukhari, and I was in Oxford University a few weeks ago, and somebody told me that they have a problem with the hadith. And I said, you're not the first person. Ibn Wahb, the greatest muhaddith of his time in Egypt had a problem with hadith.

Ibn Wahb said:

"Had it not been for Malik and al-Layth, I would have perished. I read so many hadith, I became confused."

You cannot just open Sahih al-Bukhari and think you're going to be rightly guided.

Al-Bukhari can lead you astray. Sahih Muslim can lead you astray. Any hadith collection can lead you astray.

The Quran without the requisite knowledges to navigate these works can lead to the most heinous crimes. And this is what we're suffering from. If we don't change this situation, we're in big trouble.

ISNA as the Central Institution for American Muslims

I would argue, and I'll end by saying this. ISNA is the single most important institution in the United States for Muslims. It is an umbrella institution.

All of us are under the umbrella of this institution. We have to strengthen this institution. We have to empower it.

We have to make sure the best and the brightest of our community are enabled to work under this umbrella. We need curriculum. We need schools.

All of these things should be done with some type of central understanding. This is not about control. It's about having institutions like al-Azhar.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Religious Fragmentation

That maintain the sanity of the Muslim community. Because if you all become like the Protestants, open your own Bible and do it for yourself, then we'll end up with Anabaptists, Baptists, Methodists and every version of Christianity until you've got the church on the corner with the minister who's the only one that understands the Bible. Everybody else is wrong except for him.

Now in America, fortunately, the vast majority of these churches are harmless. But amongst the Muslims, unfortunately, that's not the case. We have a serious problem.

And if that problem is not addressed, it will continue to dishonor our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him, and his teaching. Because it breaks my heart when I read about these things. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, loved human beings.

The Prophet's Love and the Environmental Crisis

He loved human beings. He loved animals. He loved frogs.

If you look now, this planet is in such wretched condition because of what our own hands have wrought. If we don't work together as a species and start setting aside this pettiness, this sectarianism that Imam al-Ghazali fought hard and long to remove from our tradition. This stupidity and sectarianism that breaks us apart until we become completely ineffective.

A Call to Action for Our Generation

We lose our way. This is what we have to fight people. It's a hard battle but it's a worthwhile one.

And it's our time. It's our time. This is our time.

It's not the time of the people of the past. The people of the future aren't here right now. But we're here.

We're alive. It's our time to do something. Let's do it.

Building Strong Islamic Institutions

Let's get together. Let's honor our institutions that we have. Build them.

Strengthen them. Make them greater. And inshallah we'll see a great Islam in this country.

We will see a beautiful Islam. We'll see an Islam. We'll see Islamic schools where people want to send their children just like Protestants send their children to Catholic schools because they recognize it's a superior education even if they don't believe.

Even atheists put their children in Catholic schools because of the superior education. That's where Muslim schools should be. We should have politicians that are speaking from a platform of basic humanity and dignity.

Praying for Righteous Leadership

We need rightly guided politicians. We should pray for the success of our politicians. These are ولاة أمورنا our leaders) and they have the power of the entire world in their hands.

If they're not guided, if they don't do the right things, all of us suffer. The most stupid people, according to Abu Bakr al-Tartushi, are those who make dua against the politicians. He said because they make dua against themselves.

Their guidance is our guidance. I really hope that everybody stays to listen to Sheikh Ali Gomaa. May Allah bless him and bless Al-Azhar University and restore it to its greatness.

Closing Remarks and Appeal for Support

It has the potential to be great again and people like Ali, inshallah Sheikh Ali will make it great. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. My wife donated $100 to ISNA and she said she wants 2,000 people in here to give $100.

And that will take care of ISNA's budget for right now. May Allah reward all these people. Jazakumullah khairan.