Islam - A Message of Peace
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-10T15:52:19.550783+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Islam - A Message of Peace
Opening
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
We always praise the Almighty. We always ask Him to bless every one of us and to grant us goodness. I almost asked to go on to that microphone because being quite sensitive to what the microphones are all about, I noticed when the reciter was reading, it was fluctuating and that is quite disturbing.
So we ask Allah to bless the organizers to be able insha'Allah, to leave it insha'Allah as is, without it fluctuating. And that also will be our little message of peace today. May Allah grant us goodness.
The Test of Life
Normally things happen for us to be able to prove ourselves. And I'm just diverting for a moment. A lot happens in our lives, situations occur, we go through accidents sometimes, we go through missing a flight, missing a train, missing a plane.
All of that is in order for us to prove ourselves. Who are you? Who are you really? When things go wrong, that is when you actually show your true colors. May Allah bless every one of us and grant us ease.
We're speaking this evening, my brothers and sisters, about the message of peace. And when we say the message of peace, I'm sure you know, that across the globe, there is everything but peace. Within our lives, there is everything but peace.
Within our communities, everything but peace. Within a broader circle, there is everything but peace. We start off in the name of the owner of peace, expressing our gratitude to him, our thanks to him, saying:
All praise is indeed due to the Almighty Lord of the Worlds.
Reference: Quran 1:2
He calls himself, (السَّلَامُ - As-Salam). One of his names is, the source of peace, the owner of peace, the giver of peace.
All of that is included in the meaning of his name, the maker. So, if I am to submit to the maker, I should be getting the first level of peace, and that is peace within myself. Peace within myself.
The Origin of Peace
We can never ever be people who truly taste peace, if we are not at peace with ourselves. And in order for me to be at peace with myself, I need to ask myself, where did I come from? And you and I know, and it is something amazing, I love talking about it. We came from the wombs of our mothers.
And prior to that, subhanallah, we were somewhere that Allah wanted us to be. We cannot remember, but Allah knows. And He told us, so much so that every one of us knows for a fact, we were in the wombs of our mothers.
We all know it, for a fact. But we cannot remember it for ourselves. We were told later on, we may have been shown videos of little scans as we were in the bellies of our moms.
I'm talking of the millennials probably. But what definitely did happen is, none of us remembered the day and the moment we were born. So Allah Almighty kept it that way for us to be able to believe others about what happened.
For us to be able to believe the message of those who were sent by the Almighty known as messengers, telling us what happened, where were you? And one thing I know is, I'm going to die one day. And when I die, I'm confident that I'm going back to the same loving Maker who is so merciful, who is full of peace, who is the source of peace, the giver of peace. And He will grant me that peace.
I'm confident because I tried my best to worship Him alone and to understand why He made me and to live in accordance with that. This is the beauty and this is where the peace starts. It starts with the Maker Himself.
He's the source of peace. And thereafter, with your recognition of that Maker, you gain internal peace. If I were to ask you this evening, how many of you have no problems at all throughout your life? You've never had a problem.
You've never had issues. You've never had a sad day. Not a single one of you can say, yes, it's me.
Not one. Every one of us has faced difficult days, sad days. In fact, my brothers and sisters, life itself is a challenge.
Life as a Challenge
It's a challenge to get up in the morning, to go to work perhaps, to earn a living, to put food on the table, perhaps to look after yourself, to take care of your health. If the Almighty wanted, He would never had let your hair grow, but He let it grow so that you can take care of yourself. Wow! Subhanallah.
If He wanted, He could have never let you go out to work to earn. He would have kept everybody's food miraculously somehow in front of them. Or He would not have kept the need for us to eat, but rather He kept that need in order for us to continue through the struggles of life.
Because life is a challenge. It is a challenge to prove that you are going to do something. And this is why initially when you are born, He created us in a unique way.
A way that we are all interconnected so that we feel for one another. When you are born, if people didn't feel for you, if your parents didn't feel for you, they wouldn't have cared for you. And what would have happened? Perhaps you would have died.
At the point of birth, you are in desperate need of your mother. You are in need of parents, someone who's going to look after you, take care of you. That was the plan and the system of the Almighty.
He could have had us multiply like plants or like some other creatures. But no, the Almighty chose for us to have parents. And that connection with those parents is such that both parties earn paradise through serving each other.
A mother's status is not given to her for no reason, but because she has struggled. She has... The burden that she carried for such a long time, she gave birth to you, subhanallah. Surely she's owed at least respect, to say the least.
So this is the plan of the Almighty. Why do I start this way when talking about peace? Islam focuses on the maker. And Islam tells us, the maker is the source of peace.
After the prayer, five times a day, we say:
O Allah, You are As-Salaam (The Source of Peace), and from You comes peace.
(Sunan Abu Dawud Hadith 1512)
That term (السلام - As-Salam) refers to every single aspect of peace. The peace comes from Allah, it belongs to Allah, it is given from Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
He gives it, He owns it completely. When you want the peace, you ask the Almighty, the owner of peace to give you the peace. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala grant us inner peace.
Finding Peace Through Trials
So when you understand that it is an honor to face the challenges of life, you will then be smiling at something that appears to be negative. Why? You're at peace inside. I know my maker, someone who missed a flight.
I'll give you an example of Ethiopian Airlines flight number ET302 that crashed. There were two people who didn't make the plane. One of them had a boarding pass, and he got to the gate a moment after the flight had closed, after the gate had closed.
He tackled them, he desperately wanted to get there. I have a policy. Because we're at peace, if we missed it, we'll smile, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
Notice I said Alhamdulillah two times. When something happened my way, I say Alhamdulillah. When it did not happen my way, I say Alhamdulillah twice.
That means praise be to Allah. All praise is due to Allah. Why twice? Because now He has chosen for me something far better than I think was good for me.
Later on when he discovered and the other brother discovered that this flight had lost all the passengers, they all died, may Allah grant them goodness. I promise you my brothers and sisters, the relief was such that, oh, the Almighty saved me. But moments ago you were fighting to be on there.
Imagine. This is why we say, the inner peace comes when you understand the plan of the Almighty. You made a little accident.
You come out of the car and start yelling at the sister or the brother who might have bumped into you or you may have bumped into without realizing, calm down, relax. Perhaps the Almighty didn't want you to get into a crash further up which could have broken your limbs and you didn't know and you will never know. So to recognize the Maker brings about a unique type of peace, a contentment, a happiness that everyone is searching for.
The Reality of Suffering and Hope
When you're ill and sick, for example, people become frustrated. How long am I going to suffer? I promise you suffering never lasts. The maximum is to the point of the worldly death beyond which there is no suffering thereafter.
Even the Prophet ﷺ has taught us that beyond that point of death there will not be any suffering. Fatima r.a makes mention of it. Aisha r.a speaks of it.
There will not be any hurt or harm after this day. The day of what? The day of death. We came onto this world or onto the earth.
We were crying. I think you perhaps would know that we were crying. If we weren't crying, the nurse spanked us a little bit to say, let's make sure that the lungs are all inflated properly and this child is normal.
And then we started crying. The louder the cry, the happier they were. The redder your face became, the happier they were.
Why? Because they knew you're alive. Little did anyone know that the difficulties you're going to face throughout your life, if it were not for the help of the Almighty, we would all be absolutely depressed. But we have conviction that whatever He chooses is the best for us on condition that we're trying.
As human beings, we falter, we err. I always tell those who sin, when you sin and transgress, your peace will be snatched away because you've done something that is definitely not within the ingredients of contentment. Your peace will be snatched away.
Sin and Peace
But you need to know the sooner you turn to the Almighty, the better it is for you. And I want to give you one beautiful consolation. And that is, a believer does not sin out of defiance of the Maker.
Therefore, he deserves forgiveness because he is sinning out of human weakness, not out of the defiance of the Maker. If I commit a sin, I'm not committing a sin because I want to say to Allah, astaghfirullah, that you made this prohibited, I'm going to show you, I will do it and you're going to do nothing about it. That is called defiance.
A believer does not do that. But rather a believer says, Oh Allah, through my human nature, my weakness, I perpetrated a sin, I did something that was wrong. Forgive me.
You have already recognized the supremacy of your Maker. You have already recognized that, yes, His law stands, His way and His entire system is according to what He wanted, not according to what I wanted. So, if you'd like peace, you need to understand that the Almighty has set rules, regulations.
The Role of Prayer in Peace
You know, we have the prayer. The prayer. Prayer brings about a unique peace if you were to wash yourself and you were to stand in front of your Maker in the early hours of the morning.
I swear, there is a peace that we should be speaking about that is interior before exterior, that we achieve, that cannot be described, but it can only be felt by those who are willing to share that type of a moment with their Maker. Try it, my brothers and sisters. Get up at least once a month, at least maybe twice a month, early hours of the morning between you and your Maker.
And you know what? Sometimes the Almighty knows that you may not do that. So, guess what He does? He decides to inflict you with something that will result in you realizing, I need to turn to my Maker. Whoa! We looked at it as negative, but it was actually positive.
Learning from Trials
I had a brother who was terminally ill. He passed away. May Allah give him and all those who've passed on Jannatul Firdaus and Paradise. Ameen. He was so sad at the time when he was diagnosed with his cancer. May Allah grant cure to those who are struggling with the same disease and other diseases.
Ameen. He was so sad and I told him, my brother, imagine if the Almighty took you away on your date of death without even giving you a warning. Don't you think that right now at least while we're hoping that you get cured, at least you have the time to make peace with your Maker? I also recall a family who asked me, our grandma has been diagnosed a certain disease that is terminal.
We're thinking because she's so old, we don't want to tell her. Let her die, just like that. And I said, no, no.
You need to tell her because give her the opportunity to make peace with her Maker, to get ready to meet with her Maker. And you know what? Subhanallah, they did tell the granny. And guess what? I believe that it helped and it will help and it definitely helps everyone.
Imagine if someone told you, brother, you have 15 days or you have 20 days. Who knows Allah can give you another 15 years or 20 years.
But at the same time, it gives you a moment to reflect you made peace with who? With your Maker and with those around you.
You realize, you know what? I'm nothing. Today we are distracted because of our status, our wealth, our authority, our looks. So Allah says, hang on, as time passes, I take your looks away.
No matter how old you think you are. You know, we get excited when someone says, you know, you just look 28, you look about 30. Oh, thank you.
But you don't know that subhanallah, in actual fact, you are thanking them for having told you that you are being deceived by this age. And you're saying, that's so good, man. Subhanallah.
Now I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing to look young. But I am saying to be deceived is something you need to watch out about. Because your peace is snatched away.
When you feel young, you start doing things as though you're a teenager. But Allah says, you know what? Those days are gone. You need to make sure every day is better than the previous day.
That's when you will achieve peace. You've committed sin. You've done everything there was in the book of don't do's.
Isn't it time to stop it and to say, you know what? That's it, it's enough. Let me turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You don't know how long you're going to live for.
So when we talk of Islam being the message of peace, we must definitely make peace within ourselves. Make peace with the maker. Make peace with ourselves in the sense that we quit the bad habits.
The Unease of Sin
I promise you, people told me, why is it that when I have done something haram, I feel this uneasiness? And I said, you know what? It's like committing a crime. If a person has committed a crime or broken the law of the country, they are not satisfied at all. They are worried, when is my fine going to come? Have you seen the camera flash on the roads, right? You know what I'm talking about.
Internationally, it happens. As you're driving, the camera is flashed. And you don't know, was it my car or the car next to me? And you're worried, when am I going to get the message? How much is it going to be? And so on.
Recently, I saw a little joke someone had on WhatsApp. They showed the four corners, in fact five. They showed a pentagon, a hectagon, an octagon, all these little shapes.
And then they showed the pole, the traffic pole. And they said, this is salary gone. Subhanallah.
And in reality, it's true. If we are not careful and we are breaking the law, we are worried. What's going to happen? Perhaps I'm going to get a fine, perhaps.
And you live on edge for a whole month. And when the ticket doesn't come, you sigh a sigh of relief. But deep down, you know, it might just come.
What's going to happen? That's if you break the law. A simple driving rule. What about when you have transgressed against Rabbul Izzati wal Jalal? You have gone way against your Maker.
And you think that it's not going to cause the loss of that peace within your heart. And this is where Islam comes in. I have seen people, including today, who are interested in Islam.
Some of them ask questions. And they say, but there are too many rules, too many regulations. I said, you know what? These rules and regulations are placed in order to ensure your peace, in order to ensure your contentment.
You are a disciplined person. You lead your life focused. Because you are totally focused on the objectives, what you want.
You don't dilly-dally to the left and the right. Because then when you lose focus, you cannot be a leader. And you won't have holistic success, even though you might be a multi-millionaire.
And this is why you have people with a lot of wealth at times. But they don't have the peace. They don't have the contentment.
Why? The owner of peace is not in their equation. So put him into the equation. Put him in.
It's simple. No matter who you are, pray and try your best to fulfill it in a beautiful way five times a day. On top of that, you will only achieve peace when you realize.
Peace with Family
And now we're getting to the core of the subject. Together with making peace with yourself and your Maker, part of it is to be able to make peace with the rest of the creatures of the same Maker, starting with your family members. You're at home, how do you speak to your spouse? I promise you we need to change this.
We have complaint upon complaint. We have divorce upon divorce. We have so much of breaking of homes, one after the other.
Because we have not understood the value of courtesy, politeness, humbleness, reaching out, helping, being selfless, being considerate. All of these don't feature in our dictionary at all. So that's why we lack peace.
You will only achieve peace when you make sure your wife is at peace from your mouth. When you make sure that your children or your husband are at peace from your mouth to begin with. Say beautiful words and smile and see the type of peace it brings you.
When you're ready to forgive, you will be forgiven by the Almighty:
Let them forgive and overlook. Would you not like that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
So if you'd like to be forgiven by the Almighty, learn to forgive others. And when you are forgiven by the Almighty, you will have peace. My brothers and sisters, when you don't forgive others, it is a burden more on your shoulders than anyone else's.
It is perhaps going to crack your back more than anyone else's. Learn to forgive, especially small matters. Subhanallah, we hold grudges, we become jealous, we become envious, we have characteristics that snatch our peace.
Hence, this is what Islam talks about:
(Sunan Abu Dawud Hadith 4903)
Jealousy will eat away even at your good deeds in the same way that fire devours dry wood.
Subhanallah, why did the Prophet peace be upon him say this? Because he knows that if you have that jealousy, your peace is gone. Be happy with what the Almighty has given you.
Be happy with what you look like. Be happy with your complexion. Be happy with your hair.
Be happy with your hands and your feet. Be happy with your race. Be happy with how the Almighty made you.
And be proud of that. For indeed, He loves you. He made you the way He wanted you.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us goodness. If we don't do that, what type of peace are we going to have? I remember a sister, and with all due respect, with all due respect to all our brothers and sisters. A sister came to me telling me, I'm too embarrassed about my complexion.
I'm the darkest in my home. And I said, it's got nothing to do with complexion. If you are helpful and you are courteous, and you are a loving person, and you are kind, and you reach out with a smile, and you yourself are the best of character, they will have no option but to acknowledge your goodness over their own.
What makes you? Your character. What makes you? Your conduct. That is in the eyes of people.
And even in the eyes of Allah:
The most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.
Reference: Quran 49:13
The best from amongst you are those who are best in character and conduct. Imagine. So now you find people painting their faces because they are upset.
They are not happy with themselves. Yes, a little bit of makeup may be a good idea, but so much that you are actually embarrassed about what you look like, is surely an ingredient of the lack of contentment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us happy with what we have and who we are.
Be satisfied. And if you are satisfied in an open way, you definitely will be from those who taste some of the contentment. And you will actually teach others.
You will actually help promote this goodness. People say, Wow! Look at how simply you're dressed. You're looking so good.
MashaAllah. They will also want to dress as simply as that. May Allah grant us goodness.
Reconciliation and Humility
To resolve your problems and your matters and your disputes that you have in your homes is an act of worship that brings about peace. To be able to forgive and seek forgiveness, to apologize is something that will bring about the greatest of peace. Learn to apologize.
Many of us don't apologize. Why? The question is, Why should I apologize to my wife? I'm the husband. Or why should I apologize? That's my daughter-in-law.
Why should I say sorry? They must say sorry. Why should I? I'm wealthy. I'm this.
Just say, I'm sorry. If that is going to solve the problem, I promise you a mountain of a burden from your back shall be, shall crumble, come down crumbling actually. But that is only if you're prepared to look at it from a very spiritual angle.
Look at it from an Islamic perspective. Learn to let go. Learn to apologize.
Learn to accept apologies. Learn to be the best in your home. That's why the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says:
(Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 3895)
The best of you is the one who is best to his family.
He or she who is best to his spouse or her spouse. Are we really the best? We get upset. We get angry.
When we speak on the phone, it's like we're speaking to some criminal. We have no good words to say. We are so abrupt.
Why? Change that and taste the peace. What is the point of the whole world thinking that you're such a cool dude and your own family really believes that you're some vampire from outer space. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us.
You'd like the peace? Well, I promise you it starts within the home. Thereafter, those who work for you, the helping hands in your home, you need to treat them with utmost respect and you will release yourself into the peace of the Almighty. You will get the contentment to see another human being Circumstances have driven that human being to work for you.
But if the Almighty wanted, it could have been the other way around and it can be some generations down. So treat them with respect. Give them some form of goodness and you will have the peace.
Community and Charity
I promise you thereafter, the circle becomes broader and broader in society and community. How you speak to people, the people you work for. Don't cheat when it comes to time.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, warns both sides. The employer and the employee. As for the employer, he is told to pay the payment on time and he is told not to abuse, etc., etc.
Yes, that is when you will taste true peace. Imagine, people will pray for you. The goodness.
Look at the charity that Islam teaches. To be charitable to strangers who are in need. What about those who are not strangers? Who are not in need perhaps of your wealth, but just of your kindness.
To be charitable to a stranger can actually earn you paradise. What about charity to those whom you know? In a way that is not monetary perhaps. And even if it were monetary.
And I want to take it further. When you are at peace with the rest of the creation of the maker, including the animals. And remember animals, there are several types of animals as Muslims.
We have some that we may consume under certain circumstances and some we cannot. And some that are considered animals we should be staying away from when it comes to consumption. But the Almighty teaches us that if you were to be kind even to a dog, you would earn perhaps paradise by that good deed.
Imagine, if you were good to a dog. There is a hadith of the Prophet and I've mentioned it so many times, I'm not going to repeat it. But in it, a man who was compassionate to a dog by quenching the thirst of the dog earned forgiveness.
Imagine if that was a human being. And imagine if that human being was a family member. And imagine if that family member was your spouse.
Are you seeing? Are you seeing the way we're going? If you got peace through serving a little dog for the sake of Allah, quenching the thirst of the dog for the sake of Allah. Imagine if the circle became closer and closer and closer. It's amazing.
It's just amazing. You would like peace? Learn to appreciate. If you're wealthy, give.
If you have any goodness, don't keep it to yourself, give. Show your character, show the good side of your expressions, and you will achieve the peace.
The Power of Giving
Two days ago, I read a true story of a young boy, who said, our father, wealthy man, but very, very miserly, stingy. He didn't like to spend, not even on his family. One day we decided that we're going to pinch some of his money, steal some of his money.
As children, I think it was the little boy with his mom.
And they decided to pinch some money and feed, I think, 500 people from the community who were poor. And the name they used was the name of the man. We'll bring them all in for lunch at a certain place, and we'll invite our dad as well.
They had the luncheon the next day and they invited the dad. And what happened? These people, the whole community, thanking him, thanking him. He would never have done it.
He's never done it. He didn't think of it. You know, he would just get money and his aim in life perhaps was to make that bank account balance grow and grow and grow and grow and grow.
That's the focus. I need to get to my first 100,000. I've got 1,000, I've got 10,000.
Now from 10, it's going to 20, from 20, oh wow! And you're just thanking and smiling. Every time there's a few thousand that goes in, you're saying, I'm closer, I'm closer. But you don't realize, if you want it to grow, you're going to take some out and give it.
Whoa! If you give, you attain peace that is priceless. What's the point of reaching the 100,000 but you can't sleep at night? I'd rather have 50,000, 75,000, mashaAllah, a little bit more, a little bit less, whatever the Almighty wants. But I've helped, I've given, I have compassion.
When I see people, I give a little bit. You know, it's amazing. So this man comes and he sees the people thanking him and really appreciating and praising him for the first time and greeting him and appreciating.
And he looked, for the first time in his life, he felt the value, the true value of this wealth. The true value of the money. He spent this money.
But actually it was his children who did it for him. And after that, they kept greeting him through the week and later on they greeted him so much and they acknowledged him and they smiled at him and it built a good community. Just look at one example I'm giving you of a person whose wealth was used behind his back by his own family members to prove a point that what is more valuable than amassing is giving.
You will never taste true peace until you learn to give what you have to those who may not have it. So we ask the Almighty to grant us goodness.
The True Message of Peace
You know, when I was asked to speak about peace, I thought I'd change it a little bit because... or speak from a different angle. Because every time we say Islam, the message of peace, the first thing that comes to the mind of people is perhaps, we're going to talk about terrorism and the opposite of it. We're going to talk about what's going on across the globe. But people forget that it starts within you.
It starts with the recognition of the Almighty. When you're happy, you reach out to others. You look at those who are Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, whatever other faith they may be.
You look at them not with the eye of hate, but with the eye of compassion, goodness, with the eye of contentment and that of being a brother or a sister to them in humanity, which a lot of us tend to forget. The example of the dog I gave earlier, where a person achieved paradise or forgiveness through quenching the thirst of an animal. Imagine if you had to reach out to someone who you disagreed with, but they were human beings.
What type of peace and contentment do you think you would achieve? Subhanallah. Through forgiveness, we achieve peace. Through mercy, we achieve peace.
Tolerance and Mercy
When you're addressing your children, be merciful. When you're addressing others who are lower than you in authority, be merciful. And when you have those who are older than you, above you, be respectful.
Be honorable, be respectful. Even within our own homes, the Prophet, peace be upon him, says, he is not from us who does not have mercy on the young and does not respect the old. When you see an older person, today, it's important for us to remind the young ones, you will only get peace when you respect the elderly, when you help them, when you are courteous.
Where is the courtesy gone in today's world? It's gone with the wind. People worry about themselves. And that's why we are lacking contentment.
It's all about myself. That's what it is. I need to get there.
But you see an older person, let them go in front of you, mashallah. We still have some of these qualities, but I notice it diminishing among the younger generation. We need to develop and speak about these qualities once again.
You want a successful life. Help others cross the road. Help them achieve something.
Say a good word for them. Reach out to them in a good way. Be polite.
And you will see the contentment you feel at night when you're about to recline and you say your little prayer as you're going to sleep. You will have a smile that only you and the Lord knows what it is all about. You will have a smile.
Why? Today I helped 10 people. And alhamdulillah, I thank you, O Allah, for giving me the opportunity. I promise you, a day will come when you and I will need help.
If we have started this trend, there will be others to help us. The Almighty will create people to reach out to us. He will create people to reach out to us.
But if we have not, what do we expect? What do we want?
Tolerance and Coexistence
When you differ with someone, speaking about tolerance. Tolerance and peace are interconnected because without tolerance there can never be peace. If you're not going to respect others, there will never be peace.
When you're not willing to acknowledge difference of opinion, there cannot be peace. When you're not willing to peacefully coexist, how do you expect contentment? Subhanallah. We all differ, every one of us.
If I were to bring pizzas right now for free for everyone to eat, I'm sure a lot of us would say, I don't eat pizza. I'm on a diet. I can't have this.
And I cannot eat cheese. And I cannot eat this. And I cannot do that.
And I'm intolerant of whatever else and gluten and so on. We'll have so many who don't. Do we say, right, all of you guys, we're going to hang you because you're not having part of the pizza.
If they don't want it, they don't want it. I remember someone asking me, you know, I have two wives. When I buy a pizza for this one, I buy a pizza for that one.
That's what the brother was telling me. So, have I fulfilled their rights? I said, look, that's a silly question. I'm sure there's a catch to it.
What exactly is it? He says, well, one of them keep saying, I don't want the pizza. I said, well, ask her what she wants. Subhanallah.
As simple as that. You cannot shove down the throats of both people the same thing. One might not want what you bought for the other.
Subhanallah. Anyway, that's a topic on its own. But the reason I mentioned it is that peaceful coexistence is impossible if you don't acknowledge we are different.
Every one of us is different. You might like an apple and I might like a pear. You might like a banana and I might like a cucumber.
Subhanallah. So what? We're eating. But if I don't acknowledge your right to think differently, just acknowledging the right, I will never be able to achieve peace or even inner contentment.
I will live as though I want to hit this man and attack this man and fix this man. I've heard people, even religious people sometimes, say, we're going to fix these people because you know what? They are like this and they are like, hang on, hang on. Where is the calmness? If you have something and you are so confident about what you have, present it in a respectful way and stop.
That's it:
Our duty is only but to convey.
Reference: Quran 36:17
The rest of it is handled by Allah Almighty.
But when you are so, you know, so small in your knowledge and when you are so lacking of self- confidence, you want to attack, you want to hurt, you want to harm because you have not yet polished your character, your conduct. You have not refined yourself as a human being. You don't understand differences and you don't know we all will differ.
Right now in this hall, you see all the colors, mashallah. Everyone's chosen a different color to wear. Everyone's chosen different type of clothing to wear.
Some have this and some have covered more than others and so on. We're all brothers and sisters. They have a right to wear red just like you have a right to wear green and orange and whatever other color there may be.
They may disagree with you. That doesn't mean we don't like, we hate, etc. No.
We will acknowledge that right. And that is why we say, you need to be willing, willing to peacefully coexist. From the beginning, yesterday I gave an example of Adam a.s. At his time, how when his children had a dispute and one wanted to fight the other based on a virtue that the Almighty had blessed one with and not the other.
Imagine, that coexistence was already damaged from very early up in the creation of mankind. It was a lesson for all of us. We would all be killing one another if we felt we are the only ones who have the right to exist on earth.
And unfortunately there are some, very small number, who actually believe that we are the only ones who have the right to exist on earth. The rest of the people need to be eliminated. That ideology needs to be tackled.
It was never ever a heavenly ideology. If the Almighty did not want others, He was powerful enough not to make them in the first place. He is the giver of life.
He is powerful enough to take them away without your interference. He is powerful enough. He is the giver and the taker of life.
Do you really think the Almighty made you and I to come on to earth and kill each other? To come on to the earth and argue and fight and destroy each other? Absolutely not, never. But learn, educate yourself. Keep on learning.
Learn what people have to say. Learn about revelation. Learn about what is right and wrong.
Learn from the good source. Teach others in a beautiful manner. Hope and pray for them.
Pray for their goodness. When your child is on drugs, for example, and you want to see the child helped, what will you do? You take the child from pillar to post. From this rehab to the other.
And you pray for the child. And you want goodness for the child. And you keep on going from one person to another.
And you keep praying. Imagine if someone else came and said, your child does not have the right to exist. And they were five centimeters away from being cured.
Subhanallah. How would you feel as a parent? Well, I can tell you we're all creatures of the Almighty. In the same way that you think others need help, they may be thinking you need help.
Well, you have to present the matter and pray to the Almighty. The day they come along and they see the goodness, subhanallah, it will be a day of inner contentment, inner peace. We all get closer to the Almighty by worshiping Him alone.
Patience and Self-Control
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant every one of us goodness. Another aspect of the peace that Islam teaches is in patience. O you who believe, seek assistance through prayer and patience.
Or through patience and prayer. What is this patience? Patience is a topic that is very broad. You need to have sabr.
You need to have forbearance. You need to practice restraint. You need to hold yourself back at times.
It will bring about contentment. One narration says that if a person... In fact there is a verse of the Quran praising those who when they are becoming angry, they quickly suppress that anger. Why? There is an inner peace that you achieve.
People swear you. Recently someone called me a baboon online. You might have seen it.
What did I say? I screenshotted it and posted it on Instagram. And I said, Hey love, you look just like me. Subhanallah.
That's what I said, exactly. I'm sure you might have seen it. I was not offended because I know I'm not a baboon.
And then someone comes and says, No, baboon in Arabic means a door. Huh, get lost. Allahu akbar.
Baboon. You know, a bab is a door. But I know what they meant.
An insult. Why get angry? Imagine if I said, Okay, I'm not a baboon. You're an ape.
And then he sent me back a message to say, You're a dog and I said, You're a swine and so on. It doesn't stop. But you can extinguish it from minute one.
After that, if you did not extinguish it, you don't know where it's going to go. The moment it gets out of your hand, it might go beyond control. He might fly down to you and want to attack you.
Who knows? It started off with a little message. For now we laughed at it. And we said, Whoa, subhanallah.
And really, before when I was a little bit younger, I would have got very cross, very upset. But now you realize, social media and people's tongues will keep wagging. You cannot stop them.
But you can control how to react to it. You can control how to retaliate or how to just remain calm or how to give back in a unique way. Subhanallah.
You can give back. Smile about it. Make a joke of it.
They might get more irritated. Imagine someone trying to irk you, trying to really make you angry. And you're just smiling.
Whoa, subhanallah. So this type of patience, this restraint, you will enjoy it at a certain stage. It will bring about that peace where with a smile you react to those who swear you.
If someone calls you a dog, does it make you a dog? It doesn't. If someone calls you a bad word, does it make you that? But sometimes your reaction is a vindication. So what happens is the way you react proves that you're actually a person who might have a few of these bad qualities that the person called you by.
The Prophet's Example of Response to Blasphemy
And this is why my brothers and sisters, the religion of peace, the religion that brings about peace, there are people across the globe who might provoke by perhaps cartoons and videos and images and other swear words, etc. Against those whom we consider very lofty in rank such as the messenger, peace be upon him. Such as the pious and the other prophets of Allah or Allah himself, or maybe the Kaaba.
And places that we consider very very holy. If they are to engage in something negative, yes, it will hurt us. But our reaction should not create a bigger problem.
That's what I want to say. The way we react to someone's bad deed should be, number one, yes we felt hurt in the sense that if it was blasphemous to our religion, we feel it. We pray for them and we will do whatever we can in a very dignified way to stop that, but without becoming hooligans.
I remember some time back, there were cartoons that were drawn against the prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And there were videos that were made against the prophet, peace be upon him. And rightly so, there were people who were very upset.
We were all quite upset, every one of us, but people reacted differently. Some became hooligans. Hooligans to the degree that there was loss of life as a result.
There was loss of life. So people started saying, look at these Muslims. My brothers and sisters, you know what? Those who prayed, I promise you I'm going to say something very touching.
Those who prayed with a sincere heart for the guidance of the others who had perpetrated these crimes. The result of those prayers in this hall, we heard from one of those who was engaged in the initial blasphemy, who became a Muslim as a result a few years later. This venue, the same venue we're at today.
Subhanallah, what happened? The Almighty guided them to the goodness. Look at Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a. He came out to commit murder. Moments later, the Almighty guided him.
Why? Because the prophet, peace be upon him, had made a prayer for him to say, oh Allah, guide him to the deen, guide him towards goodness. How many of us have that good heart? When you have the good heart, you're able to reach out to people with a peaceful prayer. It's a very high level.
I'm not telling you that you should allow people to slap you, and you should allow people to be unjust. No. When you're standing up for justice, do it in a dignified way.
When you're standing up for justice, do it in a responsible, respectful way. People would know this person was wrong. They have actually dealt with it in a very dignified way.
But don't become a hooligan. Don't be a disgrace to yourself, and to your deen, to your religion, to your people, and to everyone else. We have to build this globe together.
Closing Message
My brothers and sisters, my 45 minutes are up. Can you believe it? But I ask the Almighty to grant us all goodness. The message I have said, it's come from the heart, and I really mean it.
We're witnessing a lot on the globe today, and some of it is common sense. Some of it is common sense that is not so common these days. So we have to talk about it.
And we have to keep reminding each other to say, you know, my brothers and sisters, it is very, very important for us to be at peace with our Maker, with ourselves, with our family members, with our communities, and insha'Allah with the broader creation of the Almighty. When we have achieved that
peace through patience, through service, through good character, through conduct, through forgiveness, through mercy, through so many other good ways, through charity, then insha'Allah we would have changed the entire globe with that goodness.
I conclude with this statement, and may Allah send His peace, blessings, and mercy upon our Prophet Muhammad.