MAS ICNA 2014
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T14:34:57.374301+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Restoring Hope and Balance in Islamic Da'wah
Opening and Introduction
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. As-salatu was-salamu ala sayyid al-anbiyai wa al-mursaleen wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.
Thumma amma ba'd fa a'udhu billahi min al-shaytan al-rajeem.
"[Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.]"
"[My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech.]"
Ameen ya rabbil alameen.
The True Meaning of Da'wah: An Invitation of Love
What I want to talk to you about this evening insha'Allah ta'ala is something very near and dear to my heart. And something that I feel has been missing in much of the conversation that Muslims are having with each other. And what I want to share with you this evening is basically an idea of passing you a certain responsibility in what you share then with fellow Muslims. And actually not just with fellow Muslims, also with non-Muslims.
The first thing I want to talk about is this concluding towards the end of surah al-Nahl, Allah says, (اذْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ - Quran 16:125). Which is commonly translated, invite to the way of your Lord. That's how it's translated typically. Invite to the way of your Lord. (بِالْحِكْمَةِ - meaning using wisdom). Or invite to the way of your Lord wisely. But let's think about this a little more deeply.
When you invite someone, inviting someone is an act of friendship, it's an act of kindness, and it's an act of love. You don't invite someone that you hate. And inviting someone cannot happen when you're angry. In other words, you don't go over to someone inviting them to dinner to your house and say, Hey, come to my house. You don't do that because that is the guaranteed way of your invitation not being accepted.
What I'm trying to get at is that the idea of da'wah, the idea of spreading or inviting people to Islam, the idea of da'wah itself is an act of love and courtesy and respect for the person you're giving da'wah to. It cannot be filled with a message of hate. It cannot be filled with a message of judgment. It cannot be a condescending message where you come across as better than the one you're talking to. It cannot do any of those things because if it is, it's just not an invitation. It's just not an invitation.
The Path vs. The Destination
Now, that's the first word that Allah uses, اذْعُ. And then He says, إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ - Call to the path of your master. Now, I want you to think about this. There's lots to talk about in classical tafsir, but I want to make it very simple for our audience today.
It's really easy to understand. When I invite someone, I invite them to my house, yes? I invite them to a conference. I invite them to a retreat. I invite them to this program. I invite them to a restaurant. Meaning, what I'm trying to say is you invite people to a destination. What you do is you invite people to a destination. But you don't call someone and say, Hey, I want to invite you to highway 95. That doesn't make any sense. You don't invite people to a path. You invite people to a what? A destination. That's what makes sense.
Now, think about what Allah said. ادْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ - Invite people to what? The path of your master. The road of your master. The invitation is not to the destination. The invitation is to the road. Which is unlike any other invitation.
When someone... Now, let me help you understand why that is. Because this is profound wisdom in the Qur'an. Profound wisdom in the Qur'an. When you invite someone to your house, which is a destination, and they don't show up. They don't show up. They're two hours late. Or like me for Juma'ah today, I was an hour late. So if you're late, then people are upset with you because what? You did not make it to the destination. But if you were invited to the path, then it doesn't matter if you've traveled a thousand miles, and it doesn't matter if you've only traveled 10 feet. You have already met your goal because you are where? On the road. You're on the road.
Understanding Progress on the Spiritual Journey
In other words, Allah has given us a profound gift to help us understand what da'wah means. You're not asking people to reach the destination of perfection. You're not asking people. We're not expecting from anyone. Not from me, not from you. No one is expected to be an absolute, complete, perfect submission to Allah without any mistakes. No, no, no. And people aren't even expected to be at the same level. No. Because this is a path.
Some people will make progress faster than others. Some people are gonna be way ahead. Some people are gonna be behind. Some people are gonna move really slowly. And some people are gonna move super fast. Some people are just getting started. And their progress is literally an inch a day. Almost feels like they're not making any progress at all. Feels like that.
But you know what? All of that, all of that is a success. And if any of those people die, if any of them died on the road, meaning it feels like they were just traveling and they didn't even make it to their destination, and their journey came to an end. They died. They are acceptable with Allah because they were on the road. The entire religion of Islam is described as a road (اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ - Quran 1:6). Think about that.
The entire life you spend is a road that you're traveling on. And the point of a road is to make progress. But Allah did not define for us how fast and how quick and how much progress quantitatively you're supposed to make because every human being is different.
Lessons from the Sahaba's Journey
By the way, the journey to Islam. You say some people take their time coming to Islam. But it's not any different even after Islam. Your progress even after coming into Islam takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. There are some sahaba who go from absolutely against Islam to completely in Allah's submission for Islam. And then there are some other companions of the Prophet who struggled. They struggled. It was hard. It wasn't easy for them. Not every sahabi was Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رَضِيَ ٱللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ عَنْهُ. Not everyone was Umar ibn al-Khattab رَضِيَ ٱللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ عَنْهُ. They weren't. People were at different levels.
Why do you think the best generation, the best of all generations when the ayat came about alcohol, when the ayat came about alcohol, they came one time or in stages? They came in stages. Can you imagine? These are the best people, the best believers of all the other generations that will ever come. And the best of all generations, Allah did not impose a drastic change on them collectively, immediately.
He didn't expect that it would disappear all of a sudden. Even though, in the final revelation that has to do with khamr, that has to do with alcohol and wine consumption, Allah describes it as (رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ - Quran 5:90) - an abomination, an evil from the work of the devil. Now I want you to think about this. If alcohol has always been the work of the devil, even when Allah said, He didn't say it was haram yet, even then it was evil. Even then. Even when He said, at least don't be drunk when you what? When you pray. Even then it was still the work of who? The devil. But Allah didn't say it yet. It was too much to handle for some people.
So Allah was merciful to the believers, even around the messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And He allowed them to develop, to mature. And eventually gave them the final verdict, this is evil, this is an abomination, you need to stop altogether.
The Problem of Unrealistic Expectations
What I'm trying to tell you is, nowadays you give da'wah to someone, and you expect them to turn around and turn into a sahabi. Or if not sahabi, at least a tabi'i. Within 24 hours. Bro, I told you it's haram yesterday, why you still doing it bro? Astaghfirullah al-azim, these people don't even change man. I already gave them da'wah, they didn't change. I already told them, I gave a whole 20 minute khutbah. And look, nothing changed. Man, can you like go read something about Nuh (عليه السلام) or something dude? He has a right to say people don't change. You don't have a right to say that.
And by the way, it is not your words or my words that change people. It is not our words that change people. It is Allah that changes people.
I start from here, because this talk is supposed to be a balance between dunya and akhira. And the first thing I wanna share with you is sometimes in our da'wah, we kill the hopes of people. We expect too much from them too quickly.
Patience and Perseverance in Da'wah
As a matter of fact, when you give someone da'wah, even as a Muslim, who is in disobedience to Allah. A lot of young guys came to me today and said, my friends in college, they drink. Muslim friends. They drink, they do drugs, and they do worse. And I'm trying to give them advice, what do I do? I don't know what to do with these guys. They don't wanna come with me to Jumu'ah. They don't wanna come with me to the masjid. I try to make them watch a YouTube video, they don't wanna hear it. I don't know what to do with them.
And you know what I say? You just need to be patient with them, and keep giving them a reminder. And don't give up on them. Because you don't know which of your words are gonna be planted inside their heart like a seed. And you don't know when that seed, Allah will grow it. You don't know. Maybe it'll happen a year from now that the words you said to them click. Maybe it'll happen 10 years from now. Maybe it'll happen overnight. That is not up to us.
Which is why, in the very same ayah, when Allah towards the end, in this ayah of Dawah, what does He tell us? He tells us, (إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ - Quran 16:125) - Allah knows better who's guided and who's misguided. In other words, what you see, you think someone is guided, you think someone is misguided, Allah is telling you, I know better than you who's guided and who isn't. There's something going on in a person's heart.
A Story of Hidden Faith
This girl's not wearing hijab, she's dressed like, you can't even tell she's Muslim. But there's a turbulence inside her heart. And her heart is turning back to Allah. And she is closer to Allah in her transition at this moment than somebody who on the outside looks like a perfect Muslim. I wanna tell you a crazy story. But before I do, I gotta drink some water.
True story. Last Ramadan, actually two Ramadans ago. I was in Texas. After Taraweeh, you get a little extra hungry. There's only like two restaurants open in Texas, in Dallas. So we go to this one place late night. We're sitting there, bunch of guys. We're having dinner. And the table next to us are two young women that are dressed fairly inappropriately by Islamic standards.
We don't think they're Muslim. We don't think they're Muslim. And because the tables are rather close, they're talking to each other and one of them says, I feel so bad. I haven't prayed in like a year. And the
other one said, me too. It's Ramadan, we should go. I think I have a hijab in my car. This is a conversation the two of these are having. I'm trying to eat a shawarma.
And I pause like, What? And they got up in the middle of their meal. They didn't even finish their meal. They left. The masjid must still be open right now because it's Ramadan, they keep it open all night. Let's go. I think I still remember where it is. And I tell you, I don't know. Allah knows. I don't know that the two rakah these girls made. Maybe they don't even remember how to make wudu. I don't know. Maybe they don't even know like another surah after the Fatiha. I don't know. Maybe they don't even know how many rakah for isha they're supposed to pray. I don't know.
But maybe their salah is more valuable to Allah than somebody who's a hafidh of Quran who prayed the entire night and his head was somewhere else. Who was only reciting to show off to people. We don't know. We cannot judge the outside from the inside. We can't. We can only see the outside. That's it. That's all we know. So our attitude towards people when we invite them to Islam has to change. Our sense of judgment has to change because we are making them hopeless. We make them feel like they'll never make it to Jannah. That's the first problem I wanted to bring to your attention.
The Problem of Knowledge Intimidation
Here's the second problem. These are ways in which we make people's hopes for Jannah disappear. They don't even want to work towards the afterlife because they feel like it's pointless. I'm never gonna make it anyway. I'm not good enough. The second way we do it, we make it seem like you have to have so much knowledge. You have to know so much fiqh and so much aqeedah and so much Islamic history and so much Arabic and so much tafsir and so much of so many things and you have to know so many scholars and all of their books and all of their names and all this stuff. And then you have to watch all these thousands of YouTube videos and take all these notes. Maybe then you might make it into Jannah.
And now what happens to people? They get intimidated, man. There's way too much stuff to learn, bro. I don't know. I don't know this stuff. But I'm not good enough until I learn everything. Let me ask you something. Think about this. This is one of the most beautiful stories in the entire Qur'an. It is the young men of the cave.
The Story of the People of the Cave
You know the story? These young men of the cave that Allah described, they lived at a time after Isa (عليه السلام) before the coming of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And according to the best historical records, they actually were discovered in their cave or when they came out to eat food, they were discovered about 100 to 120 years before the birth of the Prophet (عليه السلام). So it's very close to the time of the Prophet (عليه السلام) that this happened.
Now, these young men are living at a time where there are no Prophets. These young men belong to a village, a city, where there are no other Muslims. They're the only ones. Everybody else is a mushrik. These young men are not scholars. They don't have a sheikh who teaches them. They have no ijazah in anything. Nothing. All they know is that they cannot worship anyone other than Allah. That's all they know. They don't have any other ilm. They don't know anything else.
And look, ulama of Islam, scholars of Islam, from the beginning of our history to this day, people who study tafsir for their entire life are going to be writing and studying the legacy of young men who didn't know anything but (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - la ilaha illallah). Those young men who are nothing in knowledge are heroes to the ulama of Islam. They are heroes. That's the old men with white beards that have spent their entire life in the maktaba islamiyah, in the Islamic library. Those old men are studying these teenagers. Think about that. We have made things complicated. We've complicated things.
The Balance of Knowledge and Faith
We're expecting too much from people. First of all, understand the real expectation from people is that they recognize who their Rabb is and that is it. And then let their journey begin. And if you want to seek a lot of knowledge and you want to learn a lot, that just means you're further down the road. And somebody is not that good at learning, that's okay. They're just a little behind the road in knowledge but they must be way ahead of you on the road to sincerity.
There could be someone who knows a lot of Arabic and because of it they're arrogant. And there could be someone who doesn't know any Arabic. When they recite the fatiha,
And yet their fatiha is dearer to Allah than the best qari. That could happen.
The Example of Bilal's Beautiful Imperfection
Somebody came to me today, brother, I have a little bit of a stutter. Whenever I recite the fatiha, I have a hard time reciting certain letters. Is my salah still accepted? And I said to him, listen to me, young man. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) loved the adhan of Bilal. And Bilal couldn't even pronounce a sheen. He used to say, "As-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah." And this is what the messenger loved hearing.
If somebody went to the mic today at the masjid and said, "As-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah." Take this guy down man, adhan didn't get accepted. You know, we have to repeat the whole salah. I don't even know if he's wajib ul-qatal now or something. You know, we go crazy. And yet this is the Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) loving, lovingly inviting Bilal (رضي الله عنه) with his mispronunciation.
The Problem of Perfection Obsession
And how hard are we on people who don't perfect tajweed? لا تعرف أحكام التجويد. كيف تصلي ؟ كيف تدخل الجنة؟ - You don't know the rules of tajweed. How do you pray? How are you gonna go into jannah? You
don't even know ghunnah. You don't know qalqalah. This is what we've done. This is what we've, as though Allah will ask us about these things more than other things. This is, we made the road difficult because we emphasize so much perfection.
And by the way, there is, tajweed is important. It's important. But you know what? When you become obsessive compulsive and somebody says,
No no no no
And you do that for nine months. I think I know how to say
now. There is a problem with that. You're obsessive compulsive about something that the sahaba did not spend this kind of time on. They were easy on people, man. They weren't hard on people.
The Flexibility of the Early Muslims
You know when Islam spread and all these different tribes of the Arabs accepted Islam, and the majority of the Quran was revealed in the dialect of which people? The Quraish. There were other Arabs who had different accents. And so there was a story of a sahabi who's teaching a new Muslim Quran. And the ayah comes and the ayah mentions
And he asked the guy to read it, he goes, "Al-Musrikeen."
The sahabi says, you just memorize.
They were easy on people. They didn't say
They didn't say that stuff. They were easy. We are hard on people. But our legacy is rahma towards people. Especially those who accept Islam. We put so much pressure on them, they give up on the deen altogether, man. They walk away. They don't want anything to do with it. This is the second way in which we complicate our religion.
Opening the Gates of Paradise
The third way, in which we close the door to Jannah on people. We make it sound like, only the best people are going to go to Jannah. But you unfortunately, I mean you could try, but I mean look at you. I mean seriously, Jannah, you, and come on.
Allah says,
SubhanAllah. He says, why don't you try to rush towards Jannah. By the way, if you rush, you're on a road. Yeah? It means you're on a road. The imagery is consistent throughout the Qur'an. You're on this road towards Jannah.
And He says, why don't you rush towards this Jannah. Who has it been prepared for? I mean you should rush towards it, but I mean really, come on. No, no, no. What does Allah say? It has been prepared for any who believed in Allah and His messengers. All of them. Is that restricting the gates of Jannah or is it opening them? Tell me. It's opening them. And it's such a wide opening that it's an extra gift of Allah that we did not expect. So in the very same ayah, He says Himself
- that is the favor of Allah. He gives it to whoever He wants. And Allah is capable and possesses great favor.
The Quranic Perspective on Hell and Paradise
There's a huge favor He gave people that He gave them hope that they can make it to Jannah. And what do we do? Every chance we get, Wallahi, these people are... How can you tell you're a munafiq? How can you tell you have shirk inside of you? None of your deeds will be accepted. You are going to go to Jannah. Oh my God, man! Chill out! Are we reading the same book? Let me tell you something from the Quran.
Before I translate this ayah, listen to this example. It's a silly example, but it will get the point across. The department of motor vehicles, there are traffic laws. You guys are familiar with traffic laws, unless you're 17 years old. But you know, if you're familiar with traffic laws, listen. They say you will get a ticket if you speed. You'll get a ticket if you what? Speed. Does that mean you will only get a ticket if you speed? No. That means one of the ways you can get a ticket is what? Speeding. But there are other ways to get a ticket, right?
But what if it said, no one will get a ticket except the one who speeds. If I say it like that, nobody will get a ticket except the one who speeds. Then what are we saying? Everybody else is what? Off the hook. No problem. The only crime is what crime? Speeding. Now listen, Allah does not say
- He will enter the worst people into hell. He will throw the worst people into hell. If He said that, then the room is open. The worst people will go to hell and not that bad people also. He didn't say that. He said,
- Nobody will go to hell except the worst, worst, worst kinds of people.
الأشقى - The most wretched, the most miserable, the most evil kinds of people. Those are the ones that are gonna go to Jahannam.
What is the concept that most Muslims have in their head? That somehow most of us are gonna end up in Jahannam. Ya Rabb, look at the next ayah. Look at the next ayah.
He didn't say, He will not let anybody go to Jannah except the best people, the most righteous people. He didn't say that. He said, He will let the most righteous people go to Jannah. They will be saved from Jahannam. But He didn't say only they will be saved. He left the door. When He came to Jahannam, He closed the door. When He came to Jannah, in the very next ayah, He opened the door.
The Harmful Language We Use
He likes to open that door, we like to close it. And not on ourselves, especially on other people. It disturbs me sometimes mothers with their children. When your kid doesn't listen to you, Allah will punish you. What is wrong with you lady? Jahannam, naar, mothers to her child. Lady, listen, listen, listen. You would not want your kid to be hit with a car. You would not want your child to fall down the stairs. You would not want your child to be stabbed with a fork when he's eating and his tooth falls out. You wouldn't want any of that stuff. But so easily from your mouth, Jahannam. There's something seriously wrong. Seriously, serious. That needs to stop. Because we plant these ideas in children's minds from an early age. That
Jahannam is easy and Jannah is difficult. Jahannam is easy and Jannah is difficult. How can you expect these people to have a balanced life if you do that? How can you expect them to have husnul dhan with Allah when you do that? Good expectations of Allah.
The Misuse of Halal and Haram
I got two more things to share with you that I think Muslims need to hear that is not said clearly enough. So I'm gonna take it upon myself to say it to you even if I get in trouble.
Allah says,
- Don't just make up stuff on your own and just use, carelessly use the words halal and what? Haram.
What do we do? Kid in school, one kid is eating chewing gum, yo, don't eat chewing gum, that's haram. The other one is playing a video game, video comes out haram. The other one, you know, no matter what you do, the first word that comes out of the kid's mouth is what? Haram. And it doesn't, children didn't invent that themselves. They didn't invent that themselves. They got that from their parents, they got that from a culture where we love casually to use the word haram for everything.
By the way, the fuqaha of Islam, who know a lot more than you and I do, they would think a thousand times before they would call something haram. And nowadays for you and me, it is so easy man. Pew, pew, pew. Haram, haram, haram. It's so easy.
The Problem of Shallow Knowledge
As a matter of fact, you know what our default position is? Haram until proven halal. Yo, why are you laughing in the masjid? That's haram. Why are you sitting like that? It's haram. Why are you standing like that? It's, oh God, man. You know, you know when you do this, you know what happens? You take things that Allah did not impose on people and you like to impose on people. Your version of haram, your version of halal, that's not even rooted in anything. You don't have any kind of deep knowledge. You never sat deeply with a faqih and discussed the issue. Your deep research involved Google. And you didn't even finish the whole search. They auto-entered the rest of it. And you didn't even read the whole article. You read the first line. And you don't even know who the author is. It says Shaykh, so it must be good. You don't even know.
My teacher was telling me one time, one of my teachers, Shaykh Akram Nathumi was telling me that he was teaching in a class, a hadith class. And his student, one of the students, he loves to get dalil for everything. So he was telling him, he was telling the students that certain things that people consider haram, actually the fuqaha did not consider it haram. And so the student, young guy, because you know he's going to do amr bil ma'ruf and nahi al munkar in the classroom to his Shaykh. He looks at the, Shaykh, ma huwa dalil? Aina dalil? Where's the evidence? And so the Shaykh sat down and said,
And he gave him like 20 names. And he asked
the student, are you satisfied? And he goes, yeah. And he goes, you monkey. I just named all the students in the class. Now shut up and listen. You don't know. People just love hearing words. They don't even know what that means. It's shallow knowledge. And you're using it to pass judgment on people.
The Destructive Effect of Narrow Thinking
This is chaos. This is absolute chaos. And you know what it does? It take, you know, some kid who's got some issue. He's doing something. It's not the best thing but it's not haram either. But you tell him, you're doing haram. Then he starts thinking to himself, yeah, you know what? I'm already neck deep in haram. I can't get out of it anyway. Might as well go out and live it up before I die. Because we make the haram wide and the halal limited. And what does Allah say? He gave us a few things we should stay away from. And the rest of this earth
We reverse engineered the revelation of Allah.
Because we are narrow minded, we brought our narrow mindedness to the word of Allah, to the messenger of Allah's teachings (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And thus making the life miserable for people. Just hard for people.
Understanding True Sincerity (Ikhlas)
Here's the last one. And then I'm done, I promise. This one's hard to talk about. Sincerity. Help me finish this sentence, loud and clear. Everything you should do, you should do for the sake of? Allah. Very good, that is wrong. Let me... Let me explain, before you kill me.
There's a famous hadith narration about a man who had done a lot of sins. And he was on a journey, and he saw a dog that was salivating, it was dehydrated, it was salivating. And so the man who was about to drink his water, instead of drinking it himself, what did he do? He gave it to the dog. And then the man died, and where did he go? He went to Jannah. (Bukhari hadith 174)
Now, before he fed the dog, did he turn to Allah?
Did he say that? Ya Allah, it is only for Your sake that I'm feeding this dog, this is ibadah to You. No, no, no. He just felt sorry for the dog, and gave him some water. His emotions were sincere, sincere mercy, yes? But can you actually say with any evidence that that is for the sake of Allah? No.
Salah is for the sake of Allah. Ibadah is for the sake of Allah. Recitation of the Quran is for the sake of Allah. Sharing the message of Islam is for the sake of Allah. But loving your mother is because she's your mom. You don't say, I only love you because of Allah, you know. Because if it wasn't for Allah, I mean... No, you idiot. She's your mom. Why do you...
The messenger of Allah told us (صلى الله عليه وسلم)that smiling in the face of your brother is what? It's sadaqah. (Muslim hadith 1009) But you need to have ikhlas. So as soon as you see your brother, make my niyah clear. It's not because I like you. It's because of Allah. You just like your brother and you're happy to
see him. So you smile. And Allah records that as what? Sadaqah. Even though in your head, it has nothing to do with who? With Allah. It had only something to do with you're happy to see your brother.
Natural Emotions as Acts of Worship
You kiss your child, it's an act of ibadah. You kiss your child, it's an act of ibadah. You show love to your wife, it's an act of ibadah. For some of you, you have to bring Allah into that one. Ya Allah, I can't do it. It's really hard for me to be nice to her. So it's only for you that I'm gonna buy her some flowers. Not because I love her or nothing. Because had it not been for Allah, I don't know. No, no, no.
We've got this all wrong. Sincerity. We love buzz phrases. We love to say, everything you do, you should do for the sake of Allah. Allah never said that. The Prophet never said that, (صلى الله عليه وسلم). The condition in the Qur'an, in the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is sincerity. And you can have sincerity to your mother. You can have sincerity to your teacher. You can have sincerity to your fellow Muslim. And you have to, in some matters, only have sincerity to Allah. But all of your emotions are supposed to be pure and sincere, no matter who they're directed towards.
That you don't have, you say something and you mean something else. And let me tell you when ikhlas is missing, when you hold a grudge against your brother, you don't like him. But when he walks over to you, you say, (السلام عليكم). Because when you say, (السلام عليكم) you are saying you have nothing left against him in your heart. So don't say it if you don't mean it. Because it's not sincere. And if Allah is compelling you to say it, He's telling you to change what's in your heart. He's telling you to change it. So don't just say salam.
And don't say (وعليكم السلام). Because that ain't (وعليكم السلام). (وعليكم السلام) means we good, man. I love you. I hope that you have peace in your life. I hope that Allah sends his salam, his peace upon you. I hope that your family is at peace. Everything about you is at peace. And by the way, I declare that I'm at peace with you, man. I got nothing in my heart against you. That is salam. That's sincerity that is taught to us in the salam.
The Beauty of Honest Work
Now why am I telling you this? I meet young people all the time. When I travel, one brother came to me, one young man came to me and said, Akhi, I have a real problem. I have a job. I love my job. I really love doing what I do. I enjoy it a lot. But it's dunya. I should quit, right? And just study Islam all day? I said, why? Because everything we do should be what? For the sake of Allah. But I'm only doing my job because I love my job. I love engineering and I just I love it so much. So it's insincere to Allah. I said, bro, chill out.
I don't know who did this to you. But we need to detox. When the messenger of Allah told us himself, (صلى الله عليه وسلم, الكاسب حبيب الله) (Baihaqi hadith 334) - The one who works hard to earn a clean living is the beloved of Allah. He is going to work hard because he loves hard work. Because he wants to
earn a good income for his family. That itself is an act of ibadah. And that is sincere because his means of earning is sincere. He puts honest work into his workplace.
He's sincere to his employer. He truly earned his paycheck. He didn't sit there watching Islamic videos on sincerity for 40 hours and get a paycheck. No, no, no. He actually earned his paycheck. And he's sincerely concerned about the well-being of his family. There is ikhlas all around this picture. And we cannot dismiss that and make people's lives miserable making them think that they have no sincerity. When they do, the deen of Allah is beautiful.
Restoring the Beauty of Islam
It's beautiful. It gives you hope. It makes you realize everything you do can have value. It's appreciated by Allah. Even the smallest of things. And yet at the same time, what do we do? We have turned this religion into something hard, something ugly, something impossible. We're criminals when it comes to that. We have to stop committing this crime ourselves. We have to restore the beauty of this deen. We have to restore the beauty of this deen.
The Balance of Divine Anger and Prophetic Mercy
The last thing I want to share with you in this regard. About making our deen easy. Taking our deen easily. Is Allah angry in the Qur'an sometimes? Tell me. Is He angry in the Qur'an sometimes? Absolutely. Now please listen. Listen to the silly example first. Then I'll tell you about the Qur'an. I have six children by the way.
So one of my younger boys, Waleed, maybe he does something. Maybe he took the crayons and decided to write his name on the wall. And I'm yelling at him. Waleed, why did you do that? Why did you take the crayons? You shouldn't have written on the wall. I'm yelling at him. And my daughter says, Yeah Waleed, why did you do that? And I look at my girl and go, Excuse me? When did you become mama bear? I'm the father. I have a right to be angry. You're a little chicken. You need to know your place.
You understand what I'm saying to you? Allah gets angry in the Qur'an because He is Allah. He has a right to get angry. But you know what people do? They take the ayat in which Allah is angry and they say, Yeah, Allah is angry. So I'm angry too. The biggest example of that is our own Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) how he taught us this balance. We're in Christmas season so it's appropriate to mention even.
When somebody says Allah has taken a son, how angry does it make Allah? How angry does it make Allah? The skies shake. They're about to rip open. (تَكَادُ السَّمَاوَاتُ يَتَفَطَّرْنَ مِنْهُ وَتَنشَقُّ الْأَرْضِ وَتَخِرُّ الْجِبَالُ هَدًّا) (Qur'an 19:90) - The earth is about to crack open. The skies are about to rip. When somebody says what? Allah has taken a son. This is extremely angering to Allah. Extremely infuriating to Allah.
But those same Christians who say it, when they come to visit the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) he tells them to stay where? In which hotel? Al-Masjid al-Nabawi. And when they pray to Jesus,
where do they pray? In Al-Masjid al-Nabawi. By the permission and hospitality of the Messenger of Allah. Because Allah has the right to get angry, but the Messenger's job is loving da'wah. There's a difference between the two.
Our Responsibility to Restore Balance
And the Muslim needs to understand that difference. They cannot take the anger of Allah and turn that to your anger against people. You have no right. You have no right and I have no right. That is in the hands of Allah. We have to restore balance to this ummah.
It will not happen if we don't go back and deeply think about our tradition. We cannot afford to think in a shallow way about a single ayah of the Qur'an, a single hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). There are too many people with too much anger issues, depression issues, rage issues, that are speaking on behalf of Islam. And they print their rage, and their anger, and their depression.
They read these ayahs of Allah through the lens of their depression and their anger. And they make it seem like that is how you correctly understand these ayahs. And it is unfair to the Book of Allah.
So we have to restore sincerity to the Book of Allah. Sincerity to the word of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). In the way we think about Allah, and in the way we help other people think about Allah. May Allah help all of us shoulder this responsibility and make the next generation a model for hope and returning back to the deen of Allah in the spirit that it should be.
Closing
بَارَكَ اللهُ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ