Muslim Superheroes

Going Back to Fundamentals

If we are going to raise a generation that is above this mess, which is what this hall is going to do, what this audience is going to do, your responsibility is to go back to the fundamentals.

How are we going to go back to the fundamentals? When you say (مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ - Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and those who are with him), (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - are with him), then you realize, anybody who says, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, anybody who says those words, is enough for you. Your love of your prophet is so intense, it's so incredible, that anybody you know shares those words with you, you can only be merciful and loving to them. Your hatred for them just disappears.

It doesn't matter if you don't see eye to eye with them, if it doesn't matter they're not from the same school of thought, or they don't agree with the same madrasa, or they don't agree on the same sheikh, and they don't read the same tafsir, and they don't even read the same hadith, none of that matters, now because what do you share? (مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - Muhammad is the messenger of Allah). You don't have to agree with them, but you will be merciful towards them. You are going to be merciful towards them, and loving and caring towards them as human beings, and moreover, these are people who love your messenger, like you love your messenger. A shared love brings you together.

And that love should be enough. It should be enough. Unfortunately today it's not enough.

The Problem of Over-Categorization

It's not enough that somebody else says (مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - Muhammad is the messenger of Allah). You need to know, if they're from Pakistan, you need to know if you're Hanafi or not. If you're Hanafi, whether you're Deobandi or not, or are you Barelvi? And which kind of Barelvi? And you have to sub-categorize

and categorize, and if you're from the wrong category, go burn in hell. The words (مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - Muhammad is the messenger of Allah) are just not enough.

They're just not enough. We have to figure out other labels. We have to figure out what makes the other Muslim a deviant.

What makes them on the wrong path, so I can make sure I'm on the right path, and the only way I can make sure, that I'm on the wrong path, is to make sure everybody, I can prove everybody else is going to hell. That's what we have to do.

A Story About Simplicity

I finished a talk one time in an Arab country. I finished a lecture, a sister came up to me, very concerned. And she came to me and said, Akhi, you talked about Allah's book, you talked about the Quran, but you know there are so many people who do shirk, and they don't have the right kind of beliefs, they don't have the right kind of aqeedah.

You have to fix the aqeedah of the people. You're not fixing their aqeedah, you're only talking about the Quran. I say, lady, how else do you fix their aqeedah? If not the book of Allah. Like, how did Allah fix the beliefs? And by the way, can you show me the ayaat of aqeedah, so I can be careful next time? She says, I have a book on aqeedah, teach this.

If you teach this, everybody will be good. I said, lady, you got it. Because you know, after a long lecture, there's a switch in my brain, it turns off.

So you don't want to ask me questions after that point. Because what's going to come out of my mouth, is going to be problematic. You just, you know, I've done some terrible things, once that switch is turned off.

Somebody comes to me and says, how do I become a better person? I say, you can't. Anybody else, I don't know. They had hope.

But you, I don't know. So you don't want to ask me at that point. So my switch was turned off.

And lady hands me the aqeedah book. And I say, lady, you got a couple of minutes, I want to talk to you. I got some crazy ideas, I want to share with you, some really deviant ideas.

I think the best book to teach ever, is the one Allah taught. I know it sounds crazy, but I believe that. And then I also think that the people that Allah Himself taught, who are they? The people who Allah Himself taught? The prophets.

They are the best teachers. I think that Ibrahim a.s. and Salih a.s. and Nuh a.s. and Musa a.s. are the best teachers humanity ever saw. I don't know, it sounds crazy, I know.

But I believe it. Do you think that? She goes, of course. I was like, okay.

Well, you know what, if they're the best teachers, I also believe they had the best curriculum. Because you can have the best teacher and not the best curriculum, right? It's possible. But not only were they the best teachers themselves, but they also had the best things to say.

They had the best curriculum and the best way of teaching it. And the best of everything they had to say, Allah put in His book. The best of what Ibrahim a.s. had to say, he said many things in his life.

But the most timeless things he had to say, Allah put where? In the Quran. The most valuable things that Musa a.s. had to say, Allah put where? In the Quran. The most incredible things Nuh a.s. had to teach, he put where? In the Quran.

I think the best teachers and the best of their teachings, chosen by the greatest teacher of all, Allah Himself, is in the Quran. You agree so far? She goes, yeah. And then I said, okay, this Aqidah book you gave me, I'm reading the second chapter, it's pretty complicated.

There's a lot of, here are the deviant groups and here's what they believe. It's a long list of deviations that make you a mushrik. I said, this is really hard to remember.

But I remember what Ibrahim a.s. said, he said, the sun can't be God, the moon can't be God, stars I can't worship, I'm gonna just worship Allah. It seems to me that the prophets who were taught by Allah kept things simple. And you wanna make me teach something that is fundamentally complicated.

I'd rather keep things simple. I don't know, it sounds crazy, I know. But it's pretty deviant too, but if it was good enough for Ibrahim a.s., and it was good enough for the Quran, and it was good enough for the Prophet himself to repeat it, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Why isn't it good enough for you and me, and the Muslims? Why isn't that enough?

The Place of Scholarly Works

But you know what we do? We create, and I'm not, I'm not insulting the books that have been written on Aqidah or on Fiqh or on Sharia. Those are all important works, but they have a place. They have a place in scholarship.

Not in the discussions you have with people outside. What you wanna tell the people is what the prophets told people. Keep things simple.

And the more we complicate them, we go to people and say, Hey, what's your Aqidah? I'm a Muslim. Yeah, I know you're Muslim, but what's your Aqidah? That should have been enough. I believe in Allah.

What else? The Messenger. What else? The Day of Judgment. No, but akhi, which Aqidah book did you study? The Fatiha.

Not good enough? Sorry. We love complication. And as a result of that complication, we figure our curriculum is the rightly guided curriculum, and anybody else's curriculum must be the deviant curriculum, and we start this labeling business.

You know when that happens? When you walk away from the teachings of the prophets.

The Companions in Prayer

Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and those who are with him are tough against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves. They're merciful among each other. What are the other qualities of these people?

You'll see these people in ruku' and sajdah seeking favor from Allah and His pleasure. (Quran 48:29)

What is the most important thing highlighted about these great men, who are so tough, and they are so unified among each other. Allah says, He will show the prophets, you will see them in ruku' and in sajdah. You guys know, ruku' and sajdah are part of what? They're part of the prayer, they're part of salah.

So the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is being told, your proudest moment is going to be watching them pray. Your greatest joy is gonna be when you see them pray. And this is actually a prediction in the Quran.

When the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is leading the prayer, when he's leading the prayer, he cannot see his followers praying. Isn't that true? If you're the imam, you cannot see your people praying. When the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was on his deathbed, and he was so weak, he couldn't even get up to pray.

He could not even get up to pray. And the jama'ah started, and he can't get up. And the sahaba are praying, and he moves the curtain, and he sees them praying.

Allah fulfilled this ayah. You will see them in ruku' and sajdah seeking favor from Allah and His pleasure. The messenger's greatest joy, what is he leaving behind as he moves that curtain? He sees that my followers are praying to Allah. They're making ruku' and they're making sajda.

And that brings joy on his face. His greatest joy that his sahaba are praying. So simple.

We make this so complicated. We just gotta be people who pray. We just gotta turn back to Allah.

That's the joy of our messenger. That's his greatest success. These are those heroes who just turned before Allah and they were seeking.

Seeking Favor and Pleasure from Allah

Now what are they seeking? Allah says They're seeking favor from Allah and His pleasure. (Quran 48:29)

I'll translate it my own way. They're seeking a bonus from Allah, and they're seeking for Allah to be happy with them, to be pleased with them. So what's the first thing about bonus? The idea here is when you pray, you are in a position to ask Allah to give you more than you are capable of.

To give you more success that can ever come from your own efforts. When you pray before Allah, and you ask Him, He will provide you things that you could not have imagined. All of that which is beyond your own capability is called fadl.

It's additional. It is above and beyond the expected. And so they pursue from Allah what cannot be expected.

No political scientist expected it. No economist accepted it. No academic accepted it.

They're asking Allah for a cure. The doctor has given up, but you can ask for Allah's fadl. And all of a sudden, even the doctor can't explain where the cancer went.

He can't explain where it went. I have people I know in my personal life like that. I know people that were given three months to live.

The cancer is spread all over the lungs. It's gone. You just say your goodbyes.

And homeboy goes to Umrah. And he just asks Allah, Ya Allah, if I get to live more, I'll just serve your deen. That's all I'll do.

He told me himself, I'll just serve Islam if you let me live more. I know I'm only 23 years old, but I'm gonna die in a couple of months if I don't have your fadl. Then he goes back for his follow-up appointment for the final round of chemo and they can't find anything.

His doctor can't find anything in the scans. Where did it go? What did you do? He said, I just prayed. That's all I did.

He asked Allah for what? Fadl. (يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ اللَّهِ - They seek favor from Allah). But when does the fadl of Allah come? When does Allah give you so much extra? How can he get rid of terminal cancer like that? How does he do that? He will do that when you seek Allah's contentment. When you wanna make Allah happy, the stuff that you wanted above and beyond anybody else's expectation is easy for Allah to give you.

That's no big deal for Allah. You just need to seek to make Him happy. When the Prophet sees these men that are making dua, and they're making dua and they're motivated to make Allah happy, he knows

they're gonna be alright.

They're gonna be okay.

The Marks of Sajdah

You will see on their faces marks of sajdah. (Quran 48:29)

Now, (وُجُوه - wujuh) is different from (جَبْهَة - jabhah). (جَبْهَة - Jabhah) is the forehead over here. But Allah says their faces will have marks of sajdah, of putting their head on the ground.

Now some people think that means you have to like get really rough kind of carpet at home. So when you make sajdah you go a little extra till you get a tattoo type situation over here. And that's (سِيمَاهُمْ فِي وُجُوهِهِمْ مِنْ أَثَرِ السُّجُودِ - marks on their faces from the traces of sajdah). Thank Allah, he did not say (جَبْهَة - jabhah), he said (وُجُوه - wujuh).

He said faces. He didn't say foreheads. Not (نَاصِيَة - nasiyah).

But (نَوَاصِي - nawasi), he actually said just (وُجُوه - wujuh). What does that mean? When you put your head before Allah all the time, all the time, all the time. You know what happens to you? You become a person who is so connected to Allah.

You only expect from Allah. And you have a mercy towards other people that just shows on your face. It just shows that you're genuinely happy to meet another Muslim.

You genuinely care about other people. When you give someone advice, you're genuinely loving towards them, inspired by your humility to Allah.

When somebody is arguing with you, you don't get angry because you know Allah is the only one who has the right to get angry.

So you keep yourself humble. You can tell on their face, these people's faces are different. You know a lot of times in the Quran, Allah doesn't even criticize people doing haram things.

Allah doesn't criticize somebody drinking alcohol, or eating pork, or killing somebody. Allah criticizes the look on their face.

Then he looked, then he frowned and scowled, then he turned away and was arrogant. (Quran 74:21-23)

He was staring, he was frowning, he was making faces.

Don't swell your cheeks at people.

Don't swell your cheeks at people. (Quran 31:18) Don't look frustrated and go, Somebody comes up to you, Oh Salman, can I have a picture? And I go, Okay.

Don't swell your cheeks at people. You can tell from people's... Allah criticizes the faces people make. Because your entire attitude, your entire personality is captured where? On your face. Your facial expressions matter.

They matter. These inflections matter. And when people are in sajdah to Allah, something happens to their emotional state.

By the way, how can you tell a person's emotions? If you're really good, like even you're an expert psychologist, how can you tell a person's emotions? From their face. You can't just look at their hands and say, Oh, this guy is stressed out. But you look at their face, you can tell they're angry, they're happy, they're sad, they're nervous.

Isn't that true? So what's going on inside of you? What's going on in your heart? The only window into that is what? Your face. Allah is saying, when you and I become real people of sajdah, our personalities, our expressions will be different on our face. Our emotional states will be different.

You will notice the mark of sajdah on their faces. And then He says, this is the example given of them in Torah. Which is remarkable for many reasons, but we don't have time today.

Allah gave this example of their faces in the Torah.

The Parable of the Crop

And their example in the Gospel is like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, filling the sowers with wonder and delight, to enrage the disbelievers with them. (Quran 48:29)

This is the example that I really wanted to talk to you about if we're gonna build superheroes out of our kids.

Their example, the example of those great incredible companions is the example of a crop. It's a field, a farm, farmland. Where the blade comes out of the ground.

Now you know, I know you guys don't know enough about farming. I know. But you know a farmer's got just a big field of dirt.

And he has to put the seeds in. And when he puts the seeds in, he does not know if it's gonna rain or not. He has no idea.

Some seeds are good, some seeds are no good. He has no idea. He has to put them anyway.

He has to do the digging, and he has to put the seed. Then he has to make sure that they all get enough water. Then he has to make sure none of the bugs show up and destroy the soil.

It doesn't get infected. Then the rain comes. Alhamdulillah, the rain comes.

And now the seed starts growing. And a little tiny little blade comes out of the ground. If you've ever seen those fast track, fast forward depictions on discovery channel of a plant coming out of the ground.

That little tiny blade comes out of the ground. Is that the time to celebrate? Not yet. Because that is worthless.

That little blade is worthless. That blade is eventually going to be taller than the farmer himself. Isn't that true? It's going to be so tall.

When you walk in the farm, it's over your head. That's when your money was made. So he says (أَخْرَجَ شَطْأَهُ - He brought out this little blade).

Then he says (فَآزَرَهُ - Then he meaning Allah, reinforced it). Then he reinforced it (فَاسْتَغْلَظَ - Then it became harder, meaning the stock is growing).

(فَاسْتَوَى عَلَى سُوقِهِ - Then it can stand on its own stem). What is Allah describing? One word after the other, after the other, after the other. You've got the seed, grew into a blade, it grew a little bit, then it turned into, it got a little harder, then it stands tall.

And the farmer is looking up at it and going, Whoa, that's nice. This is a good year. This is good produce.

You know what this entire example is of? It's the example of the believer.

The Process of Growth

Now you tell me. I'll close this now. You tell me. How quickly does a crop grow? Does it grow overnight? Do you go from a small stock to a fully tall farm overnight? You don't. It takes time, doesn't it? When the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was told that you will see your companions praying, and it will make you happy, did that scene happen overnight? No, it happens at the end of his life, yes? So his people, his companions, our superheroes, are fully mature at the end of his life.

That's what we're learning. They became fully mature over the course of a 23-year struggle. Yes or no? Now I want you to understand something.

There are some people in this audience who are just a seed. They haven't even come out of the ground yet. Some girl here is sitting in the audience, she doesn't even wear hijab.

And she gets all the looks in the world when she's walking around in the bazaar. But the fact that she's here, means there's a seed. There's a guy here in the audience.

He brought his girlfriend. They're sitting in the audience somewhere. And you know what? (لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ الْعَظِيمِ - La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah, astaghfirullaha al-azeem) I know they're not holding hands while they're at the ICNA convention.

Because some uncle is gonna go like, you know what I'm saying? Don't. But they're here. Some non-Muslim is sitting here.

She's wearing a hijab so she looks like you. But she's non-Muslim and she's sitting here. Because some friend invited her.

You know what's there already? A seed. You don't see progress. I don't see progress.

The farmer doesn't see progress when he pours water over a seed. But it's there. We get so frustrated when we tell people what to do and they don't do it.

And we don't see a transformation right away. You are as silly as a person who plants a seed in the ground, puts some water and says, hey, grow already. Let's go, let's get the tree.

Come on. I want some apples. You're insane.

It's gonna take time. And there are going to be stages. By the way, even when it grows a little bit, does it grow on its own or does it need support?

What did Allah say? It needs support.

So when people are growing, they don't need your criticism. They don't need you to stomp all over them. They need you to carry them a little further.

They need your support. They need you to be positive and encouraging. They don't need you to tell them, you don't need to tell them, hey, you're not even fully mature yet.

You're not even doing everything yet. What is wrong with you? Why do you expect this from people? You push people further away than bringing them closer.

The Prophet's Wisdom with a New Muslim

You know there was a man who came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the middle of his company. There are all these companions sitting there. And a guy walks in, comes to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and says, I love this hadith. He says (أُبَايِعُكَ عَلَى صَلاتَيْن - I am ready to pledge allegiance to you on the condition of two prayers). (Hadith reference needed)

It's amazing. He says, I am ready to pledge Islam to you, but I'm only gonna pray two times a day. Sahaba are sitting there, man. And everybody knows, (فَلَا صَدَّقَ وَلَا صَلَّىٰ وَلَٰكِنْ كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ - He neither affirmed the truth nor prayed, but rather he denied and turned away) (Quran 75:31-32) don't have salah, what do you have?

Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times. (Quran 4:103) This salah was given in the mi'raj.

This is a big deal. Five prayers are a big deal. And this guy walks in and says, I'm ready to become Muslim, but I just wanna do two.

He should have got the lecture of his life about the importance of what? Salah. And how mandatory it is. And how he's gonna get punished if he doesn't pray.

And how he's gonna be answerable before Allah. And how he's a hypocrite, and how he's weak, and he needs to submit before Allah completely.

And you have to be ready to submit completely before Allah.

But the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam says, No problem, go ahead. And he becomes Muslim and walks away. And the sahabah are like, Aren't there five prayers? Did something change? Is there a new revelation? With a discount plan? And the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam explains to him that when he tastes the sweetness of salah, he will make five on his own.

When he tastes the sweetness of salah. Now think about that. This little plant hasn't grown yet because it's not time yet.

It needs more time. It needs more water. And when it gets more water, it's gonna get tougher.

When it gets tougher, it can stand on its own. And when it can stand on its own, it can grow a lot further. But all of that is a process.

All of that is a process. And that process cannot happen when you're too busy judging each other, and too busy labeling each other, and too busy hating each other, and not supporting each other, and loving each other, and caring for each other.

Redirecting Our Focus

This is why the ayah began, all of your frustration should be directed towards those who are enemies of Islam. Which I'll come to at the end. Who are the enemies of Islam. All of your frustration should be focused on the enemies of Islam.

And all of your love, and care, and concern, and slow patience. This long term patience with your people. That should be directed towards the Muslims.

That's what needs to happen. We need to stop being so judgmental. We need to take many, many steps back because we are pushing people away from Islam.

I'm not here to compromise the message of Islam. It is what it is. But you know what? People are also people.

Your mother is your mother. Just because you started praying five times a day, does not mean you can start giving your mom lectures. Calm down.

Chill out. Auntie, if you started making salah, and all of a sudden you realize you didn't raise your children the right way or something, and they don't even pray, and you start panicking, and yelling at them about prayer every single day, I am guaranteeing you, even if they were going to pray, now they won't pray because you're yelling at them. That's the only reason they won't pray now.

Because you're so frustrated with them. Calm down. Don't expect people to transform overnight.

That is not how things work. You're looking at me. Is it time? We gotta go? We gotta go.

Okay. Okay, I'll just say one last thing. One last thing.

On Hatred Towards Non-Muslims

You know, we have made it oversimplified that the non-Muslims, which we love to call the kuffar, hate Islam. This is the most absurd, silly notion I've ever heard. Somebody came up to me today and asked me, and it's a question worth sharing for everybody, because it's on many people's minds.

Sheikh, I don't know why they call me Sheikh. I don't know. I'm totally not a Sheikh.

I'm so not a Sheikh. And all the shuyukh sitting here, like, he's right, he ain't no Sheikh, let me tell you. You know what? So he come to me and say, they hate us.

The mushrikun, the kuffar, they hate us. Why can't we what? Hate them. They hate our Prophet.

Why can't we hate them? Shouldn't we hate them too? And I said, tell me which Prophet hated people? You wanna follow the sunnah of your Prophet, right? (عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ - alayhissalatu wassalam). Tell me which Prophet hated people? The same people who spit on them. The same people who made fun of them.

The same people who even tried to kill them. Including the Messenger of Allah, salallahu alayhi wasalam. Did he ever hate the Quraysh? The same people who attacked his own family.

The same people who even tried to poison him. Did he ever hate them? What sunnah are you following when you say we should hate them? You have to get this poison out of your head. This is not from our deen.

This is not from the teachings of our Prophets, (عَلَيْهِ الصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ - alayhissalatu wassalam). None of them hated the non-believer. None of them.

You cannot be the ummah that will call the world to goodness if you hate everybody else. You can only call people to something when there is love and sincerity on your face. By the way, this thing is totally off.

It was red the whole time and now it's green like I can go now. But my time is up. So, I would sincerely urge you to change your attitudes towards the non-Muslims around us.

Even the ones that hate us by the way. The ones who hate us to the core. Let me tell you, the vast majority of them don't hate us.

They just love money. They don't hate us. Pamela Geller doesn't hate Muslims.

She just loves making money off of it. Okay, we need to be smarter about this. These are not enemies of Islam.

These are lovers of capitalism. And the only thing that makes them money is when we get all fired up. So, we're paying their paychecks.

Think about that.

Closing

I pray that Allah azza wa jal blesses this conference. What an incredible experience it's been. I'm so very happy and honored to be here. Thank you so very much.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.