ICNA-MAS 2012 iShariah
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-08T19:05:44.797+00:00 | Topic: Iman
iShariah by Nouman Ali Khan
ICNA-MAS 2012
Opening Verses
"And say, 'I have believed in what Allah has revealed of the Book and I have been commanded to do justice among you. Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us are our deeds, and for you are your deeds. There is no [need for] argument between us and you. Allah will bring us together, and to Him is the [final] destination."
"So to that [religion of Allah] invite, [O Muhammad], and remain on a right course as you are commanded and do not follow their inclinations."
Introduction: Building on Previous Foundations
I really don't have much to add to what our dear teacher and Shaykh Yasir Qadhi has already presented that I think are the cornerstone of this conversation. Credibility and actions taking precedent over our speech.
So I want to share two ideas with you in this talk. And the first of them has to do with looking in the mirror.
First Idea: Looking in the Mirror
Understanding the Quran Through the Companions' Perspective
You know, when we study the Quran, it's very important like our other teacher Imam Suhaib Webb also mentioned, it's very important to study the Quran from the point of view of those who are struggling alongside the Messenger (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم - salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam). You have to imagine yourself in the situation of the companions of Allah's Messenger (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم - salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) to gain some perspective on what these words of Allah really mean.
To put yourself in that position. And that's important for developing an understanding, but at the same time, there is an unfortunate side effect. And that side effect is that we start assuming that we are already at the caliber that the Sahaba were, and therefore when Allah speaks to them about having the courage to stand up against the unjust, or tells them how to carry forward that we have already met the prerequisites that we know took some time for the Sahaba to meet.
The Importance of Credibility
So that credibility conversation is really important and without it, the ideas that I wanted to share with you would have been hollow. They really wouldn't have much substance.
Internal Community Struggles
The first thing I want to share with you is this complaint about these people hate on our Sharia and our laws and our injunctions, and they hate on women wearing hijab and things like that.
When we complain about these things ourselves, I wonder how many times we've looked in the mirror. I wonder how many times we've actually had an honest conversation about how many Muslim households have a fight inside the doors, inside the confines of that home, that the daughter started wearing hijab and the mom can't stand it. How many times is that conversation happening? That the parents are worried that their boy started making Salat, or he's starting to show some facial hair, and he better take that stuff off his face.
That's not an Islamophobe. That is not some anti-Sharia crazy that wants to have a ceremony on burning the Quran. That's Muslim communities in America.
Cultural Resistance Within Muslim Communities
That's Muslims that have those attitudes. And there's this agitation towards even the slightest submission to Allah, culturally speaking. How many debates I've personally been privy to across ethnicities.
It's not just a Pakistani thing. I used to think it's a Pakistani thing. It's not.
How many households where the son is told, unless you go to a med school, and you will go to a med school after we take out some very questionable loans, and unless you go there, you are a failure in life. And by the way, also do Hifz. You know.
Also memorize some Quran on the side. Because we want to be able to prop you up like, you lead Taraweeh every week, and you're a doctor. Look at that, deen and dunya.
You know. That's how it's done. My goodness.
The Need for Self-Reflection
If that's not a mockery of our deen, I don't know what is. We have to have a really careful deep look in the mirror of how we've been raising our children, and what aspirations we've put into them. What have we put into them that means success? What have the vast majority of our efforts, what have they gone into? Really, what have they gone into? And even if we support a cause financially, and I'm glad that we are.
Even if we support a cause financially, where is the sweat and the tears? You know. But you know what, wherever I go, I find something in common.
Brother, our masjid, we don't have a lot going on.
It's really like stagnant community. We don't have any programs. That's your fault.
Don't complain about that. We have to do stuff. We have to get to work.
Starting at Home
And so the first really reminder for myself and all of you is, let's start at home, really. Let's defend the Sharia at home. Honestly.
Let's defend the Sharia at our wedding ceremonies. Let's defend the Sharia in our financial obligations. Let's do that first, before we talk about other people attacking our Sharia.
Second Idea: The Context of Revelation
Background of Surah Ash-Shura
Now the second half of my talk is these ayahs that I read before you. And in these ayahs, there's some context to these ayahs of surah Ash-Shura, that this is late Meccan, and already there was some interaction happening between the Meccans and some elements of the Jewish community. And some scholars even mentioned that the Meccans were being fed difficult questions to ask the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم - salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam). Hey, ask him this, and he won't have the answer, and that's how you'll stump him.
That's how you'll get him, you know. So they were feeding them questions. And there's already some scholars even argue that there was already some interaction happening between people of the book by the late Meccan era.
Taking Control of the Conversation
And in this context, Allah (عز وجل - ‘azza wa jall) mentioned something about the Sharia, conversations about the Sharia, right? But I wanna tell you, you know what bothers me about this entire conversation? Is that we're not in control of this conversation. We're only reacting to a conversation that has been initiated about us, that isn't by us. You don't let somebody come and introduce you, you introduce yourself.
You don't let somebody else come and introduce you. You understand this? We're being a great sign of weakness of a people is that they are allowed to be introduced and defined by others. And they accept it.
They take it. And the only thing they can do beyond that is respond. They have to be able to tell their own story.
They have to be able to define themselves, speak for themselves. And not in a reactionary way.
Learning from Prophet Musa's Example
And I tell you why not. I tell you why I believe we should not be reactionaries. Why I believe we need to almost even sometimes ignore all of this bakwas. We just need to ignore it sometimes.
I'll tell you why. You know, one of the places I find the most fascinating in the Quran is the conversation between Musa (عليه السلام - alayhis salam) and Firaun. Fascinating stuff.
And one of the things I find the most fascinating is that Firaun kept throwing in things into the conversation and Musa (عليه السلام - alayhis salam) kept ignoring them. He kept ignoring them.
"Lord of the heavens and earth and that between them" (Quran 26:24)
"Lord of the east and the west" (Quran 26:28)
And he comes, you know, what are you talking about? He's crazy.
It's like he didn't even say, no, no, I'm not crazy. What are you talking about crazy? No, no, I got a staff and everything. No, no.
He didn't get into that conversation. He just kept going as though he didn't even hear the fluff. He didn't even hear the rhetoric.
He didn't have to respond. He was on a mission and he was gonna stay on course. He's just gonna stay on course.
The Power of Ar-Rahman
And we have to learn to do that sometimes. We've got an incredible deen on our hands, folks. We've got, you know, when I was reading the tafsir of Surah Al-Rahman, when I came across some commentary on the last ayah of Surah Al-Rahman, I was dumbfound.
"Blessed is the name of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor." (Quran 55:78)
I was absolutely like taken back. I was taken back. Because essentially when Allah says that His name is full of barakah, it's تَبَارَكَ اسْمُ رَبِّكَ that your name, the name of your master is full of the power of blessing.
What that implies is, when you call on Allah's name and you do something, that the good of it will come out more than you expected. And the name of Allah being invoked in that particular ayah is the name the surah began with, Ar-Rahman. And so what we're learning then is, whenever we say (بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim) our actions with that name of Allah.
And we call on that name of Allah. Whatever actions we do, we have certain expectations of results. Yes, every time you do something, you expect certain results.
When we use that name and do the action, the results will be way beyond what we expected. And that is the power of the word Ar-Rahman. Now when you realize that, something incredible happens.
The Power of Beginning with Bismillah
You never underestimate the effort you and I will put into Islam. Nothing is happening, we're trying to build a masjid, we're trying to establish a school, we're trying to start a campaign, we're not getting enough YouTube hits, there's not enough people coming to the program. None of that matters because I started with (بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim) All the help I needed is already there.
That's already there. I don't have to worry about anything else. I just have to put my blinders on and get to work.
It's time for us to get to work.
The Legacy of Prophets
The Same Path as Previous Prophets
And I wanted to particularly share these ayat with you for a special reason. The first thing, that all of us should be clear about, that nobody should be able to come and tell us, this new foreign Sharia law, that's from somewhere out there.
"He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah"
What Allah gave to Nuh (عليه السلام - alayhis salam). Away has been carved out for you the same as it was for Nuh (عليه السلام - alayhis salam). وَالَّذِي أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ And what has been revealed to you.
"and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus"
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, they've all been on the same road. You are on no different path. It's the same road.
The Three Audiences of the Prophet
Understanding the Challenge
But then Allah added something. He said
"Difficult for those who associate others with Allah is that to which you invite them."
Generally speaking, the Prophet had three audiences.
Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. I want you to keep this in mind in this conversation. The Prophet had three audiences.
It was the pagans of Mecca, the mushrikun of Mecca, who else? You guys can tell me the other two. The other two audiences. The Jews and the Christians, the people of the book.
The Muslims are obviously understood. Outside of Islam, the three audiences are the pagans, the Jews and the Christians. When Allah says, the mushrikun, it's very hard on them to accept what you're calling them to.
The mushrikun.
The Challenge of Pride
And Allah says, in their nature, it's very difficult for them, it's very difficult for them to accept this message because it requires way too much of a change from their attitude. Their attitude is one of them being on top. And to declare Islam is to declare your humility and your lack of position.
And to give all glory and greatness to Allah (عز وجل) It's too big a deal for them.
Divine Guidance and Human Effort
Now by the way, on the other hand, I want you to appreciate something. You know when you go on a difficult job, when you do a difficult job, but you're still motivated and you're doing it anyway, and then somebody comes and tells you, you know, however hard you're trying, don't even bother, nothing's gonna change. Why do you even bother? You've been trying to do that for years. So some of you are trying to, you know, maybe teach kids or make some improvements in your community, and you've been trying for years.
And then some people come along and say, you've been trying. Has anything happened in the last three years? Any good come? No, why do you even bother anymore? And then you quit, you stop. That's when just anybody makes a comment, even a negative comment from a stranger can deflate your energy.
It can do that. But in this case, the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is delivering the message of Islam. And it's not just anybody.
Allah told him, most of these mushrikoon, I don't know, it's too hard for them. They're not gonna accept. Allah knows, He says, they're not gonna accept.
Isn't it true then the thought would come into the heart of a da'ee, if Allah is saying, it's too hard for these guys to accept, why should I even bother? Why even bother? They're not gonna accept. Allah Himself said,
Then Allah made it clear for him. No, no, no, no, no.
"Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back [to Him]."
Allah is the one in fact, that chooses towards Him whoever He wants. No matter how much da'wah you do, no matter how much efforts you make, you should understand, if it wasn't for Allah's will, nothing would happen. You would keep on making your efforts.
The Example of Prophet Nuh
And by the way, you are on the legacy of the first Prophet mentioned in this conversation was Nuh (عليه السلام). So if you wanna ask Nuh (عليه السلام) a progress report at the end of every year, Hey, so how many people you got this year? What's your progress? Show us a chart and a graph to see how your organizational work, your da'wah work improved. How would that chart look? You know, 950 years.
So how's the family situation? We don't gauge success by what we see on the ground. That is what the messenger is being taught. That's not up to you.
The results are not up to you. You have to do work and I'm letting you know the odds are against you.
Do you understand that? That Allah will guide to him whoever turns.
Real-Life Examples of Guidance
There will be people, you will think, oh man, everybody hates Islam. You know, they're Islamophobes, they hate, they can't stand us, etc. etc. etc. My goodness, I tell you, just recently I was talking to a non-Muslim group and there was a young man in there who is a very devout Christian. He had a lot of very aggressive questions about Islam.
And he kept on going at me, kept on going at me and we had a really nice conversation and I took him out to pizza afterwards. You know, we just talked.
And after a couple of weeks, I saw him at the Masjid at Dhuhr.
He's making Salat. You know. And all that aggression.
I would never think this guy will become Muslim. I wouldn't think so. No matter how much I try, I wouldn't make a difference.
Allah brings to him whoever he wants. That's up to Allah. That's not up to you and me.
Divine Help Comes After Human Effort
We're not gonna bring change to America. Allah will, but we will do our work so we become qualified for Allah's help. Allah's help will not come until he sees sweat and tears.
Allah's help will not come. You know, I keep repeating to my students, the battle of Badr, you know the help of the angels came. You know that, right? At the battle of Badr, the help of the angels came.
But it's not like the Sahaba are showing up to the battlefield and the angels are like, what happened to you guys? We've been here since 3 o'clock. Where have you been? It doesn't work that way. First they have to show up against impossible odds.
Then the help of Allah arrives. And you have to really be at it to the point where even the strongest of believers have to scream
"When is the help of Allah?"
They have to get to that point.
The People of the Book
Knowledge Without Acceptance
But now I told you there are 3 audiences, right? Which audience did Allah say it's a tough sell? It's a tough sale.
Which audience? Call it out loud please. The mushrikun. So what audiences are left? Jews and Christians.
We call them what? People of the book. People of the book. And they're essentially then people of knowledge.
Okay? Allah (عز وجل) says in the next ayah,
"And they did not become divided until after knowledge had come to them - out of envy between themselves."
They didn't fall into disagreement until after knowledge came to them. Some of our ulama said this is referring to the people of the book. They already had knowledge.
They already had revelation. And after revelation they fell into disagreement. You know why that's important? It's important because we have to understand.
We have to go on a campaign to tell people what this book is. What this message is. But there will always be a group of people that even knowledge will not help them.
They will have knowledge and even after knowledge came
Even after knowledge came to them they fell into disagreement. And then Allah says, how come? You would argue if people had knowledge they would be good. Allah says, no, there's another problem.
The Problem of Arrogance and Rebellion
It's not up here. It's down here.
Their urge to rebel.
Their urge to dominate one another. Their urge to maintain control and be able to take more than what they deserve. Their urge to keep another people down.
That urge in and of itself is enough to even deny the truth even after they come to learn about it. And that group of people will always be there and you will never be able to please them. So today it's gonna be Sharia.
Tomorrow it's gonna be Aqeedah. The day after that it's gonna be Islamic history. The day after that they're gonna come back to Sharia because they can't find anything else.
We're gonna keep going in circles, folks. We're just gonna keep going in circles. That's what's gonna happen.
Sharia is just a buzzword they're holding on to. That's all it is. At the end of the day
The Divine Command: Continue the Mission
Despite All Obstacles
So now look at the position the Prophet is put in. On the one hand, the mushrikun are not easy to convince. On the other, I have one minute. No, okay, five minutes.
Okay. This is confusing because this side says one minute, this side says five minutes. So I'm gonna make it six minutes then.
So anyhow. So on the other hand, you have the people of the book that even if they know a group of them, nothing will change. They'll stay at it.
But what I really wanna talk to you about is what Allah says at the end of that. So He mentioned three groups of people, all of them are gonna be a difficult sell. Then what does He say?
It's a very remarkable piece of language in the Quran.
The Significance of "For That Reason"
The letter لام in the Arabic language, they say it's للسبب للتعليل to give rationale. Okay. So for example,
I came to the conference for basketball, in order to play basketball, for the purpose of basketball. I'm sure you didn't, right? But I'm saying that the لام offers a reason. Allah has given the messengers all the reasons to stop.
All the reasons that you don't have to go on. I mean, come on. They're not gonna believe because they're mushrik, they don't know.
And the ones that know won't believe even if they know. So what's left? And now Allah says, and because of all of that,
You should invite. I was expecting as a result of that, forget them.
Or I was expecting despite all of that, invite them. Despite
Despite that, invite them. Allah says,
And it is for that reason in particular that you will invite.
They Need the Message Most
In other words, those communities that are so hard to penetrate and such deep problems they have, what I have given you is for that kind of a crowd.
These are the exact kind of people that need to hear this message as hard as it is for them to accept it. Your job is to continue to invite them.
And you remain firm and stay on your projectile. You go straight where you're heading as you have been told. Don't be distracted.
Don't worry about what they're doing. You just do what you gotta do. That's it.
It doesn't matter all those obstacles. I've shared with you all of what's going on with them. But these are all... That's why, because they're so corrupted now that the only remedy they have left is you and your job is to keep on going.
Difficulties as Motivation, Not Deterrent
So the difficulties were not a reason for the messenger to stop, but rather the difficulties according to Allah, are the reason the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم should go on. This is why your job is so important. You know, this is the attitude of the Muslim.
The fact that we're going to face difficulties is the very reason we have been made a part of this ummah. Allah knows these are the people that can handle it. Allah knows these are the people that are gonna carry on his mission.
Confidence in Our Beliefs
Standing Firm in Truth
And then there's the matter of confidence. And just declare openly, I've come to believe in whatever Allah has revealed from any book. It's a remarkable piece of revelation. I've come to believe in it.
In other words, when they come up to you and try to pin you in a corner and ask you weird questions like, do y'all actually believe that? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And if it's from Islam, you say, yes. You don't say, do you actually believe Jesus isn't the son of God? You know, and he's not divine.
How can you believe that? You say, yep, we don't believe it. Don't worry about how their feelings are gonna be hurt. You have to be nice in what you say.
But you can't compromise the truth. You can't. You can't afford to.
Learning from Others' Confidence
We have to, sometimes we have to learn from the confidence of our Christian fellows, brothers and sisters. We had a preacher come to the masjid, and he took the, it was like an interfaith kind of forum, and he got up, and this is Texas, you know, so the straight shooters. So he got up there, he goes, look, we believe that until y'all come to Christ, y'all go to hell.
But we can work together on some other things. And that's for judgment day, but in this world, we can work together. I was like, you know what? I appreciate your honesty.
I genuinely respect the courage for him to walk into a masjid, looking at a bunch of bearded uncles, and to be able to say, y'all better come to Christ.
That's what I believe. I'm just letting you know.
But when it comes to helping the homeless in our neighborhood, or keeping our streets safe, or whatever, we can work together, that's fine. And I'm willing to work with you. You're good people.
Staying on Course
You know what? That's genuine honesty. I don't think we should go to a church and say you people are going to hell, by the way. That's not very Muslim.
You know? Interestingly enough, at least the conversations I've had with Christian friends, that's the first thing they ask. Why do you believe we're going to hell? I was like, why do you think that's the first question you should ask? That's what I asked them back. Why is that the first question on your mind? You know? Which prophet started with sending people to hell? Why do you think my conversation with you would begin with something that no prophet ever started his conversation with? Why? Why can't we be more prophetic in our conversations? Let's just see how they started a conversation when we open up the Quran and start reading something.
You know? Let's just see that. Why do you have to have such a negative conversation? And we get caught up in this stuff, right? Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, you are kind of going, no, no, maybe I don't know.
And then the imam, is my friend going to hell? What should I tell him? You're letting others dictate the conversation. We have to be smart enough to navigate these things and stay on course. We have to stay on course.
Focusing on Local Community Work
Not Being Overwhelmed by External Issues
Don't be overwhelmed by all the negative that is happening around us, the policy changes, the media propaganda, the political circus games that are taking place. All of that is important and there are intellectuals and leaders that will be dealing with it. You and me, at the local level, at our masjids, in our communities, get your act together at home and fix the affairs of your masjid.
Bringing Life Back to Our Masjids
Bring the masjid back to life. Let the sons and daughters of this ummah go and see what Maghrib and Isha looks like at the masjid. These masjids were built with so much, so much sacrifice.
It's not easy to build a masjid in New York City. It's not easy to build a masjid in the middle of Ohio. And after all the ordinances and all the town hearings and everything, you know, I went to one of those town hearings in Las Vegas.
It was a town hearing for the building of a masjid. And the guy got up and said, today they are building a mosque. What's tomorrow? They're gonna cut our hands there? You know, that's what he said at the town hearing.
It's amazing. But you know what? These masjids are being built anyway. Allah is allowing that to happen anyway.
Reasons for Optimism
The last 10 years, we've had more masjids built in America than ever in its history. That's incredible. That's amazing.
So all the reasons we have to feel down, we have so many reasons to feel up. We have so many reasons to be optimistic. As I travel across the country, I see so many cool, creative projects that are happening that I find... I'm just inspired.
I just say, man, there's some really good stuff happening. I told you I went to Milwaukee, right? There's a bunch of Muslims, young Muslim brothers and sisters. They started a group called Al-Ma'ruf.
They go around and they just help people. They go around passing foods in neighborhood, food to homeless folks in the neighborhood. And they go around and they help people that are coming out of prison, help them find jobs and put them in rehab programs.
They don't even mention Islam. They just help people. And then people themselves ask, so why do you have that beard? What's that thing on your face? I said, well, you know, I'm Muslim.
What do you guys do? They let them start the conversation, not themselves. They let the action speak. It's pretty amazing stuff.
That's amazing stuff. And Muslims are already starting to do it. So I'm not pessimistic.
The Need for Self-Examination
I am optimistic. But at the same time, I worry. I worry that we're too busy looking at what the enemies of Islam and what the outsider is doing and we're not spending enough time looking deep into the mirror.
Really looking at ourselves. Really looking at where we're heading with our households. You know.
I don't understand that how we can be a people that believe in the Akhira and yet our children grow with no bigger aspiration than their own careers.
Zero minutes. That's 5 plus 1. Plus, I'll put the 5 and the 0 together.
That makes 50. Okay. I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding. Last thing I want to share with you guys and I'm done inshallah ta'ala. Last, last thing.
The Need for Ethical Reform
The Biggest Reform We Need
The, in my opinion, the biggest reform that the Muslim community needs today, in my opinion, is an ethical reform. It's a moral ethical reform. We have lost our moral compass, our moral gauge.
We do things, we do things that are clearly outside the bounds of any standards of human ethics. And when we're questioned about them, we say, is that haram? Where's your fatwa? Where's your dalil? As though your own conscience isn't enough. We're lying.
We're cheating. We're backbiting. We're backstabbing.
We're saying salam, but we don't mean salam. We're saying how's it going brother, but we mean I hate you brother. You know.
We don't even mean the word brother when we say brother. Right. There's an ethical character problem and it needs to be addressed at its core.
It needs to be tackled at its core. And by the way, that is no different than the Quran's original call. It came to reform character.
Two-thirds of the Quran, that's Makkan, essentially believes in reforming character that make us into decent human beings. We have to go back to those fundamental principles of decency.
Conclusion and Du'a
Unity Among Organizations
May Allah عز وجل aid us our masajid, our institutions, ICNA, ISNA, CAIR, MAS, all these organizations because we have so few resources, all of them are important.
All of them are important. Whether it's YM, or it's MYNA, or it's, you know, a local youth group that you're starting, whether it's Crescent Youth in like Houston, or it's some other youth group in Boston, or whatever else. May Allah عز وجل put all of these efforts that they understand that they have to cooperate with each other because we are so few here.
Final Prayer
And we have to show the world what the beauty of Islam really is.
"And peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and His blessings."