Moving Beyond Rituals

Moving Beyond Rituals

Khutbah by Shaykh Khalid Yasin

Opening

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ، نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

أَمَّا بَعْدُ

Introduction

To our respected colleagues, neighbors, friends, faculty members from the administration, student body, all the respected scholars and students of knowledge who have been assembled here, who have come from long distances, and especially to the ISOC who made this possible - may Allah bless all of you. And for the non- Muslims, we ask that our words penetrate your hearts and change perhaps some misconceptions and distortions that you may have regarding Islam and its special set of values.

Opening Quranic Verse

Allah says in the Quran to the Ummah, to the nation of the Prophet:

"You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah."

This verse addresses the issue of ethics and morality. The translation that I want to give it, the most direct one: Allah says in the Quran to the nation of the Prophet - you are the best Ummah, group of people or civilization evolved for humanity, because you command the common good and you prevent the social evil and you institute the faith connection.

This is very important. In a society that we live in, we have laws, and of course it is good for a citizen to obey those laws. But there is also a criminal justice system that is set up to punish the people who violate those laws and to imprison those people who commit crimes and to reward people and to protect people from those criminals. So this is not abstract, and this whole idea of Islamic morals and ethics is not just rhetorical.

Second Quranic Verse on Purification of the Soul

Allah also gave us another verse in the Quran. He says:

"He has certainly succeeded who purifies it, and he has certainly failed who corrupts it."

Certainly those who purify their soul, they are the really successful people. And certainly those that corrupt the soul are really humiliated with failure. Now this whole idea of success and humiliation, it is not just an issue of the Hereafter - it most certainly ends there, it certainly will be completed there - but it begins while we can see and experience.

So Islam has a very real approach to the issue of good and evil. It has a very real approach to commanding what is good and preventing what is evil. In order to do that, to command what is good and prevent what is evil, it requires a system. It is not a group of people who pray well or a group of people who write well or a group of people who mean well or just a group of pious people. No, it is a system set up by pious people, good people, resourceful people who oppose those who do the opposite.

The Nature of Morality

There seems to be a question about the law of morality - you know, like morality is sort of like something abstract. No. Morality is like gravity. Morality is like time. Morality is like death. Morality is like food.

Morality is like air. Morality is like water. Morality is like life itself - all which human beings have no control of, but they are the beneficiaries of.

Therefore, when it comes to the issue of morality, we are bound to respond and subordinate ourselves to the Benefactor of all these things and the legal legislation, law and decree and determination of that Benefactor. That is the issue of morality. It is not abstract. It is not just a matter of sitting down and drinking some tea and coffee and trying to determine what we should do next.

Historical Context and Muslim Responsibility

I recited these two verses as a preface to the issue of the responsibility of Muslims in the past and the responsibility of Muslims today. It has never changed. Our responsibility is the same.

As long as Muslims clung to their religion, their system of life, as long as they observed the mandates of the Quran, and as long as they honored and followed the legacy of the Prophet, they prospered. They created a high civilization. They set a precedent for the world.

But it is not enough for us to keep talking about the nostalgia of the past. No, we need to dig up the diamonds, let the gold of Islam shine, bring these tools back to civilization. And then I believe that the Islamic paradigm

that ruled the world, that was introduced to the world and then ruled the world for close to 700 years - that we have a chance to reintroduce that paradigm to the world today. Not for the sake of ruling, but just for the sake of making a profound presentation, giving the world a new alternative.

But as the Muslims departed from the Quran, when they departed from following the legacy of the Prophet, when they stopped enjoining or commanding the right, when they stopped preventing the evil and the corruption, they degenerated. Owing to the erosion of their standards, they scattered their psychological energy. They wandered into purposelessness, unawareness, stagnation, conditioning, enslavement to habits of action and thought, automation, mechanism, and obtrusive introduction of foreign corrupting influences.

The Current State of the Muslim World

This is our state today. And let us be very honest before we talk about the nostalgia of Islam and the beauty of the Quran and the legacy of the Prophet - let's talk about our condition today. We should not be people that disguise ourselves for non-Muslims and try to make it seem like something else.

At least we should be honest and say: Islam is the system. It is perfect. It is a reference that anyone can make and will never fail. But we Muslims, we are something different. We are the people who claim to embrace Islam. We are the people that claim to follow this legislation. We are the people who are attached to this faith by a profession.

But today, the Muslim world is sick, divided, and socially dysfunctional. I said they are sick, divided, and socially dysfunctional.

Now I have to be honest because this is my family. I was born a Christian. I was born into a Christian family, but by ideology I divorced them. I am connected to them by blood and by honor, and I am still struggling with them and they are still struggling with me.

But when the reality of Islam came into my life - not that I was searching for it, but that it found me - when that reality shined into my life, it was so bright and so clear that I accepted it. And I have been struggling to be a Muslim and meeting those standards to the best of my ability since 1965.

However, as I traveled through the Muslim world to visit my family - it is actually about 53 countries that I have visited so far, 26 of them Muslim countries, that is countries with major Muslim populations - I have to be honest with you that in my early travels in the Muslim world, it was very traumatic for me.

I came back to America very confused. Still glad to be a Muslim, but confused about the family that I had just joined. Understanding the Quran to be the Word of Almighty God, understanding the Prophet to be the final legacy, but not understanding what had happened to the family, the Muslim Ummah.

Economic Reality of Muslim Nations

Let me state a few things that you can try to understand, and this is all part of my experience. Although Muslims produce 67% of all the petrol used in the world - and let me put this into context for you: 178 billion dollars a month comes from Muslim countries. Now keep that in mind - 178 billion a month, not a year, a month.

Yet their societies collectively are economically and technologically stagnant and subordinate. How could that be? There is an explanation.

While scholars and students of religious knowledge remain polarized into various ideological sects, the secular leaders of the Muslims, along with the secular leaders of the non-Muslims, collectively conspire to exploit the ignorant masses.

Now that sounds like an indictment. It is not mine - that is a historical contemporary indictment. But we do not have any courts to bring these people to justice.

The so-called Islamic universities, while they are producing students and scholars, they are teaching mechanistic doctrines and dogmatic adherence to rituals. While in the most progressive universities of the world that we would call un-Islamic, science, logic, reason and ethics are taught.

And that is what has happened to the Muslims: in the so-called un-Islamic universities, science, logic, reason and ethics are taught. And in most Islamic universities, mechanistic doctrine and dogmatic adherence to rituals are taught.

As a direct result of this, the animal rights in the Western world are more sophisticated and guaranteed than the human rights in the Muslim world.

Freedom of Speech: A Comparison

I have given some talks in the Western world where I am free to comment on what I consider to be criminal acts of my government, criminal acts of other governments in their exploitation, in their perversion, in their intrusion and other kinds of things that they commonly do in the name of what they call "just us" or "justice."

I have also in my lectures talked about my experience in the Muslim world, and I have been equally critical about the Muslim governments because that is my family and I should be even more critical about them.

However, I cannot be critical about them in their country. One, they will not even allow me to come there once they have heard what I got to say. But if I was a citizen of one of the twenty-six Muslim countries and I spoke like this about them or delivered something similar to what I have done, as a student of political science or a student of history, I would be locked up within a half an hour. And you all would be locked up with me for listening.

So I want to be honest first of all that if we are going to treat the situation, we have to lay it back. We have to lay the situation back, then we can treat it. But if we hide it with denial, if we hide it with denial, we are never

going to treat it.

Addressing Misconceptions

So I am not bearing the faults of Muslims in front of non-Muslims because somebody will say, "Oh Sheikh, why do you bear our faults in front of non-Muslims?"

I would say, "Are you foolish? You don't think that non-Muslims - they can't read? They can't see?"

You don't think that non-Muslims, when they go visit Egypt - every year over fifteen or sixteen million tourists go to Egypt every year - do you think that when they come back they are impressed with Islam? No. They come back with trinkets, souvenirs, but they don't come back and say how impressed they are with the Islamic ethics that they saw at Al-Azhar.

No, that is how far we have slipped into the quagmire of civilization. People come to a place, they go to what's that - Ibrahim Khalili, Campbell Khalili - yes, the beautiful marketplace right around Al-Azhar with all the seven different masajid. I lived there for about a year.

And they go there and they walk down these little streets and whatever and get their little gadgets and whatever and go back to the Nile on the Hilton, you see, and gamble a little bit that night with some Egyptians too. And you think when they come back after they visit all the different places - the Ahram and Giza and Muhammad Ali Pasha place up on the hill and all those places - that they come back and say how impressed they are with Islam?

No. On the contrary, they come back and say how pitiful the peasants are, but how hospitable they are. They served us tea and hummus, but we had to hold on to our wallets too.

I want to tell you that Al-Azhar is the most prestigious university in the Muslim world until today. Let's make it clear: Saudi Arabia does have some beautiful buildings and some prestigious universities, but those buildings and universities only came about about 50 years ago, around the time that the oil was discovered by them.

And mind you, the oil was discovered 20 years by Shell and Mobile and Exxon before they discovered it. Did you get what I said? Before the Saudis realized that their oil was being pumped out and sold 20 years, then they discovered it.

After that, they were able to draw the best scholars from Al-Azhar, from Indonesia, from Africa, from Pakistan, from everywhere and bring them to Saudi Arabia and then to start building an infrastructure which we see today the phenomena of the Islamic universities in Saudi Arabia.

And I tried to study there, but I only lasted a year. I will be honest with you. The Haramain is beautiful, but outside of the Haramain, I am a bit confused even until today.

The Term "Islamic" in Modern Context

But I say this because I want you to understand that as a result of this sociological psychosis, the term "Islamic" - whether it applies to universities, whether it applies to masajid, organizations or whatever - the whole idea of "Islamic" in the world today has become synonymous with:

• Backwardness
• Regressiveness
• Extremism
• Fanaticism
• Disorganization
• Being dirty
• Unhealthy
• Part of the historical nostalgia of the third world

Now if we Muslims don't want to accept that, that is what Western people generally consider about Islam, then I want to remind you: you may feel that I am being over-critical and excessive in my descriptions. However, I want you to know this - that I am not an intellectual, but every now and then I am able to creep into some intellectual environments.

And when I listen to them, and when I use some Harvard-Oxford English and they accept me to be there, these are exactly what I hear from the most influential, intellectual and progressive people in the real world. These are the terms when they talk about Islam honestly.

Now if you meet them on a train and you introduce yourself, most of them say to you, "Oh, that's interesting." Educated people, when you're around educated people, you start to learn things. They say, when educated people don't agree with you or they believe that what you're saying is not even true and they don't even care, they don't argue with you. They just say, "Oh, that's interesting."

And you know you think in your mind that they're interested, but that's not what it means. You see?

Divine Punishment and Accountability

The domination and even the persecution by other peoples and nations, and even by tyrants of their own, and the fights and the killings and the murder between their own sects and groups, and the suffering caused by all of this, I would consider that to be a divine punishment.

You see, when people go away from something that God gave them, when God gives people a treasure and God gives them a responsibility and He makes them accountable for this, and they turn away from it, then surely

there is a consequence.

The Middle Way: Deen Al-Wasata

This is Deen Al-Wasata, Allah says. This is the Deen, you see, of the middle. That is bringing the religious and the secular interest, the balance, bringing the balance all together, integrating it together, and then placing it under the auspices of the Quran and the Sunnah, of the Sharia of Allah.

When that balance was brought to the world, I want to say to you skeptics, people who want to think about Islam purely from an ideological, pragmatic point of view: I want you to go back, if you can, from a historical perspective. I want you to go back to the 9th century.

And I want you to find a country that Muslims went to with the sword and forced them to become Muslims. And as a result of that, those people became Muslims and then they grew. I want you to find one.

You won't.

On the other hand, you will find country after country, society after society, capitulating, accepting the power and the benefit. When they weighed the power and the benefit of accepting the rule of Islam - even if they didn't become Muslims - they accepted the rule of Islam.

And they took one of the two choices: that is, to become Muslim, either by lip service or otherwise, by adhering, paying the Zakat and making the calendar; or not doing so, but being safe and being prosperous and paying the Jizyah. They chose one of those two, and it wasn't because of war.

War only took place when there was a block made from the Dawah. When the message of Islam was blocked, when the message was not able to reach some people because a wall was put up, then Allah ordered the Muslims: bring that wall down so that the Dawah can move and flow. Not because we just want to kill people and take their properties and occupy their lands. No.

That integration of secular and religious, or secular and divine, it gave a paradigm for this world which is already historically documented.

The Age of Enlightenment and Islamic Contribution

And I want to tell you that you should admit - skeptics should admit - that the so-called Age of Enlightenment, you know, which is the genesis of Western civilization, the Age of Enlightenment (is it called the Renaissance?) - that was the genesis of Western civilization when it came to some sense of balance and development. It is called the Renaissance.

Well, where did that light come from? That light came directly or indirectly from the Quran and the legislation and the legacy of the Prophets of Islam and the Islamic civilization. That is where it came from.

Now, that is of no benefit to us today, so I am not trying to exploit the past. I am not trying to exploit dead people or to use the nostalgia of history to impress you. I am only stating a fact.

Because when I learned history in a history class, my history teacher was always telling me about these personalities of the past who contributed so much to our civilization. So I want to do the same thing for you.

The Problem: Lack of Integration and Production

Now, our masajid and Islamic organizations have provided no bridge of integration and collaboration with the general community where they are located. They have not built any bridge of collaboration with the municipalities. They have not built any bridge of integration with the societies where they live and work.

We have virtually, Muslims, no institutions providing goods or services. And listen, in the Western world - I mean in the real world we live in - countries are measured by something called GNP, isn't that correct? Gross National Product.

And think about this statistic: In the United Nations, there are 168 registered countries, maybe now 173, because nations are coming about every day now. You know, people are losing their nations and nations being added. But 168.

And did you know that only 38 nations among the 168 - only 38 nations have a Gross National Product above 138 billion GNP? And do you know that there are no Muslim countries that have that? Yet they're controlling 67% of the oil production?

I figured that out.

The Call for Goods and Services

So goods and services - I'm asking any Muslim, wherever I go: your masjid, your group, your organization, where you went to school, your country, where you come from, whatever - what is the GNP? What are you producing? What are the goods, what are the products that we're offering to the modern world today to improve the quality of life?

And what are we offering the modern world today to deal with the erosion of morals? Because the Western world, as fast as it's headed technologically and scientifically, it is headed towards the abyss of immorality.

And if we who live in the West, moral-minded people, the moral majority, who basically are decent, hard-working people - if we don't stop this sliding into the abyss of immorality - if we on the top of the boat of society, the moral majority, if we don't stop the people in the bottom of the boat from drilling holes in the bottom of the boat, then the boat or the society, we will all drown.

Moral Crimes in Modern Society

And I say that the manufacturing and the distribution of drugs (that is, illegal drugs) was facilitated by this country and America. Think about this: that 76 tons of khat comes into this country here every month.

Now that's a drug. Khat. It is a drug that this country allows to come in because Yemenis, who are very hyper-active people, and Somalis, who are very hyper-active people, they chew khat and it puts them to sleep.

So why not let them get khat? Because ain't nobody else in Britain chewing no khat. So let them have khat. Let them have the drugs.

That ain't no different than in Amsterdam. You can smoke weed right outside. In Amsterdam, you can go to a cafe and you can order cocaine, you can order weed, you can order upside-downs, or glass, or whatever you want to smoke or drink in Amsterdam, right on the sidewalk.

Why? Would they rather you had the drugs than to be going around the corner in a back alley somewhere, knocking somebody on the head, stealing drugs? I say that's wrong.

The manufacturing of drugs and distribution of drugs, the manufacturing of alcohol, the manufacturing and setting up of casinos and allowing people to gamble, fornication and adultery, robbing and stealing - these are moral crimes. And also compounded interests that the banks take from us and force on us that's a greater crime.

I say these are all holes being drilled in the boat of modern civilization. We have to stop those holes being drilled.

But we Muslims, we're not. We only talk about religion. We only build masajid. We only send our children to madrasas. And we only react immaturely and sporadically to the information war against Islam. That's all we do.

The Path to Islamic Revival

The question is now: what do we do about this? Where do we begin? How do we address and rectify this entrenchment and this stagnation?

Well, my answer is: we need to start the process of Islamic revival.

I believe - now I don't want anybody to think that I'm talking about something like what the Taliban did or Osama Bin Laden, because they are not paradigms for us. They're not examples for us. I'm not here to discuss them or to judge them. But I don't want to bring Taliban, I don't want to bring Osama Bin Laden, I don't want to bring any of those kinds of people into play when I'm talking about Islamic revival because they're not our examples.

They're only Muslims that we can accept some of what they do and reject some of what they do. They're human beings. We can do that. We can also make a judgment on them if they're wrong. But they have nothing to do with this issue of Islamic revival.

This process, it is not a nebulous process. It is not based on abstract rhetoric. It has a method, a procedure. It has a clear and systematic objective. And Islam has a historical paradigm to guide us.

The Methodology of Revival

One: We have to identify what the problem is.

Two: We have to design a plan of action.

Three: We have to implement it.

We have to understand that Islam has three different levels in which approaching this issue of revival:

1. Spiritual
2. Mental
3. Physical and mechanical

Now, if the spiritual part doesn't control the mental part, then the mental part will not control the physical part. It goes like that, in that order. It has to be driven that way.

Teaching a Holistic Approach

Muslims need to be taught a holistic approach to the religion:

First: Tawhid (Monotheism)

After that, following the legacy of the Prophet ﷺ. We need a human example.

Second: Tazkiyat An-Nafs (Purification of the Soul)

They need to purify themselves from all the debts, all the impurities and corruptions and deviations that have come about as a result of cultural baggage or their compromise, their own personal moral compromises.

They need to become disciplined people. They need to come back to obedience. They need to come back to discipline.

To do that, they need to make Tawbah (repentance), individually and collectively. Tawbah means repentance to Almighty God.

Developing Resources and Competition

After that, they need to begin developing their resources. Because at the end of the day, nothing from nothing means what? Nothing.

You need to develop resources.

You need to develop resources. Because if you don't have any resources, you don't pay the tab - you basically live off charity. We need to learn how to struggle and sacrifice like other people do. That is: struggle, compete and make a sacrifice of what you have.

Because if you don't, the only people that move forward in the race - Allah says:

"Strive as in a race."

The only people that win the race is the people who sacrifice. And the Muslims have to develop an attitude of competition. That is, to compete in order to win. Not just compete to be in the race.

We don't just practice Islam. No, we want to implement Islam.

Building an Institution for Revival

And we must start the development of an institution for revival. Because revival requires an institution. It's not just an idea.

I say there should be a central Islamic organization set up with offices all around the world. A central Islamic organization that is set up with offices around the world. And the people who represent them, they're not kings or chairmen or presidents or anything like that.

No, these are independent people who form a think tank. Okay? And they represent resources. And even if those resources they represent is a family - so women should be part of that too because they represent one of the major resources which is family.

But a central Islamic organization of thinkers, professionals, business people, skilled people should begin to talk about setting up the structure for a revival of Islam in the world.

As the Sheikh mentioned:

• Start with yourself
• Start with your family
• Start with your neighborhood
• Start with your society
• Start with the nation that you live in
• And then let it move out from that center

Diagnosis: Islam in Prison

Now, brothers and sisters, I do understand that we cannot solve all the problems just by speaking for 45 minutes. But what I've tried to do here today is to make an examination for you of what I consider to be the problems that Muslims have in regards to stagnation.

And I coin it in this way. I say what has happened is that Muslims have put Islam in prison.

You know, we become very angry when we think about Muslims being put in prison in Guantanamo or Muslims in prison in the UK or Muslims in prison somewhere else. We're angry about that.

But what about Muslims who put Islam in the prison of their culture? And Islam wants to get out. Islam wants to be free. Islam wants to be seen and tasted and touched and heard. But Muslims will not let Islam out of the prison of their culture.

And we need to move beyond culture. We need to break those boxes. We need to break those containers. And we need to subordinate our culture to Islam.

Then the world of skeptics, non-Muslims, whomsoever they are, they will be able to really see Islam. And then they can make an appraisal of it.

Right now they're seeing Muslims.

Muslims as Windows to Islam

And listen, if we are the windows to Islam, a cracked window, a distorted window, a dirty window will give you a distorted figure.

If that door was a frosted window and my mother was outside knocking on that door, asking me to come in because she was in danger, and I was saying, "Who is it?" And she couldn't really talk, but she keep knocking. I keep looking to see who it is. I just see a shadow. I say, "No, let it go."

It's my mother because the window is distorted. People cannot see Islam because of us. It's like you can't see the forest for the trees.

Moving Beyond Rituals

Muslims: clean the bath, represent Islam properly, move beyond the rituals.

Don't think to yourself that because you pray five times a day or you observe the outward Islam or outward demands, or you read the Quran, or you make Hajj, or you fast in the month of Ramadan, or you this or you that, or you're Salafi, Hanafi, Sunni, that's Sufi or whatever your names are.

You follow this shaykh or that shaykh. You know, you've been Muslim this long, your grandfather, blah, blah. Don't think that means anything.

It doesn't.

It is what you do today with Islam, how you deal with your neighbor, your colleague, your coworker, and how they see, touch, smell Islam, how they react - that's not our business. But it's our job to deliver the message and deliver it without distortion.

In order to do that, we have to move beyond the rituals.

Closing

Brothers and sisters, I want to thank you so very much. We ask Almighty Allah to be our witness for what we have said. And we ask Him to be a witness for our sincerity towards Him and this religion.

We pray not to have any khillah towards any Muslims - that is to have any bad feeling or to have any hard feelings towards any Muslims. And not to disrespect our elders or our religious scholars, but to use a dynamic approach to address the internal threat of fixation upon rituals and move beyond and towards Islamic revival.

Question and Answer Session

Question 1: Women's Dress and Western Influence

Question from Pamela: I observed at the conference that some ladies wearing the veil were people new to Islam from countries not typically associated with Islamic faith, while ladies not wearing the veil were from countries traditionally associated with Islam. What influence do you feel the West or living in a Western country has on this condition you talk about? Can you practice Islam when you're living in a Western country?

Response: Pam, what I think I need to do, since you prefaced your question with innuendo, I got to address that innuendo.

First of all, I think that your perception is wrong. It's very limited. I think what you need to do first, before you ask a man about the issue about the women wearing the veil or the covering and how and what value system that seems to suggest - talk to women.

Get in a room, if you can, with three or four women who wear the veil, and in a room where there's no men, and they'll take off the veil. In fact, they'll even take off maybe the headpiece. Then you'll see they're real human beings. You'll also find out that many of them are post-graduates and Muslims and business people and very intelligent.

The other thing is, you'll also find out that some of those women who are unveiled or don't wear whatever it is, they're just like those one sisters who are unveiled. It's just that one sister chooses to follow what she considers to be the commands of Almighty God in the wearing of a specific social uniform.

So the wearing of the scarf, the headpiece, all that - it is a specific uniform, social uniform, for her protection and identity that God gave to them. Other women are more relaxed about that for a number of different reasons.

But what I have basically found and experienced over a period of time is that you can't really determine by virtue of their not wearing or what their real status is or their associations and things like that.

Now let me go to the actual question that you had. Pam, I say that living in the Western world is very challenging for the practicing or the implementation of Islam as a system of faith because obviously it's like the salmon upstream. You know, we're going upstream against all odds.

But then there's something else I have to say: The best steel comes from the hottest fire.

In my experience, Muslims who have been pushed out from their land, from their countries, and somehow or another they arrived in Britain, somehow or another they arrived in America - I find out a phenomena that for the most part they become better Muslims.

The challenge of living in the West, if they're going to practice Islam, makes them better Muslims. That's what I have found. Not that necessarily there are not good Muslims in the Muslim lands, but I have to say that particular phenomena.

Now at the same token, I think that dealing with neighbors and colleagues and co-workers who don't understand and have distortions and prejudices and other types of issues makes it a bit more difficult to practice Islam because people misunderstand and they've got these prejudices created by the media, the info war, and all kinds of things like that. But in time, we'll work through that. In time, we'll work through that.

Historical Example: The Mormons

Because I remember in America, there was a group of people called the Mormons. You see, the Mormons were considered by all other Christians to be deviants. They were spit at, stoned - I mean, all kinds of things. Put in prison and whatever.

But today, the Mormons, they control the state. They're the only religious group in America that control an entire state. The state is called Utah.

So perseverance, religious perseverance, has its benefits. And I think that if Muslims persevere in this country, obey the law, become prosperous, competitive - things that I just spoke about - I think they're going to surpass the Mormons.

There are 9 million Muslims in America. When I became a Muslim, there was only 1.4 million Muslims in America. When I became a Muslim, there were 76, or around that, new Muslims, converts in America. Today, of the 9 million Muslims, 3.6 million are reverts, like myself. The rest are immigrants.

I say that if they persevere, they're going to achieve more than the Mormons. So that's my answer - that it is a challenge, but the challenge is perseverance.

Thank you very much.

Question 2: Accusations of Immorality and Aggression

Question from Albrecht (Germany): I found your speech very fascinating, but also very aggressive. Aggressive in the sense that you're telling me, as a member of this society, that I'm immoral, that I'm drilling holes into this ship. Do you think by talking this way that you can convince me to embrace Islam, by sort of accusing me of being immoral, of sinking this ship?

Response: Al, listen. First of all, I don't know what type of immorality that you are guilty of. I was speaking - I wasn't speaking about the whole society. I spoke about specific things.

I said, and I'll be clear on that issue, I said that I believe that it is a crime, and it is immoral, for the production and distribution of alcohol and what it has done to the world.

I said that I believe that it is immoral, the production and distribution of tobacco and what it has done to the world.

I think it is immoral: prostitution and the promotion of it and what it has done to the world, and gambling and what it has done to the world, and pedophilia and pornography and what it has done to the world.

And I went on to speak about even, I said, compounded interests and how they have exploited all of us and made us in debt when we're born in the mother's womb. I said that's even a greater crime. Is that what I said?

So now those who promote that, and those who promote abortion, killing in the womb, killing children - that's also a crime.

Now that's my perspective. That's my moral perspective. I can't force anybody to believe that way, but I do have a right in this country to say that's my moral perspective. And I believe that the moral majority of the world generally agrees, regardless of what religion that they are.

So I say this is drilling holes in the boat. Now I don't know which one of those you fit in.

However, we do not force our opinions on anybody, but we do have a right to speak aggressively. Because if I saw you walking across the street and you were blind and you were about to fall in a ditch, then I would say to you, "Hey Al, watch out!"

I don't think that you would appreciate that when you knew that you were blind and I saw that. But if I say, "Al, watch out!" - that would be aggressive, right? But in that case, you would appreciate it.

So excuse my aggressiveness. I told you from the beginning I was from Harlem.

Al's Response: Obviously, I'm also fascinated by the aggressiveness.

Sheikh's Response: Hey Al, just like the pot called the kettle black - Germans can have a talk about aggressiveness!

Thank you very much, Al. I like your country too.

Question 3: The Caliphate and Think Tank

Question: Your speech was very inspirational, so thanks very much. You mentioned earlier on the Caliphate. And I know that some major politicians such as Bush and possibly Blair are quite afraid of it. But you also said something about a think tank, a global think tank with regional offices. Is that your idea of a future Caliphate?

Response: No, no. Caliphate or developing the idea of central government among Muslims - it should be an aspiration for all Muslims.

Why? Because it has a precedent. It is not something that we just create. That idea has a precedent.

Caliphate means in Arabic: successor to the Prophet. Not in his prophecy and not in his capacity as a prophet, but his capacity of being the ruler or the legislator or the arbitrator or the official representative, global representative for the Muslims.

So whoever steps into that position becomes responsible for the actions of the Muslims, becomes responsible for the resources of the Muslims, and also becomes responsible for their moral interaction with the non-Muslims.

Historical Example: Umar ibn Al-Khattab

You know, one of the Caliphs said - his name is Umar ibn Al-Khattab, I think, Sheikh Jahan, you can correct me. Umar ibn Al-Khattab once said: He said that he's afraid that if an animal, a donkey, slips on the streets because the streets are not paved properly and stumbles and falls and breaks his arm he said that he fears Allah and the punishment just because of an animal.

That is what the Khilafah means. That he's concerned about the money that is spent.

On another occasion, the same Khalifa - he was on his way to give the Khutbah one day, the Friday prayer. And as he got ready to get up on the Friday prayer to go up, somebody stopped him. And they asked him, "Where did you get this new gown that you're wearing?"

You see this? This is a man who's the ruler. This bad conduct of this person on Friday in front of everybody. Umar was a powerful man - he could have just slapped him. Like George Bush would have did. Put him in Guantanamo.

But Umar, he didn't do that. Umar understood that he is responsible to answer. That if somebody thought maybe that he bought or he took the money from the Baitul Maal, from the treasury of the Muslims, to buy this and wear it - because that person never saw Umar wearing something like that before.

So Umar, he realized the right of that person. And he told him, "Ya akhi, wallahi, I was given this gown as a gift. And my son Abdullah, he's the witness."

And his son Umar, his son Abdullah said, "My father is right. He was given to him as a gift."

Then the man said, "Okay, go ahead."

See, this is the justice of the Khalifa.

Clarification on the Think Tank

So I say to you and anybody else that: No, we don't want to create a think tank to create the Khalifa. We're not going that far.

No, we want to create a think tank to put things right. A think tank to make an assessment. A think tank in a sense made to hold people accountable. A think tank to plan. A think tank to have to develop a vision.

That's what we want to do a think tank for. Then that vision and that plan and those resources and that assessment will lead us to see some other things towards the end.

May Allah give you the best.

Closing Dua

"[English translation here]"

"[English translation here]"

"[English translation here]"

End of Khutbah