Staying "Clean" in a Dirty World (How to Do Dawah)

The Political Influence on Religious Institutions

That's why one of the most valuable assets for politicians is religious institutions. Because through religious institutions, they're able to influence the people that are coming to the temple, coming to the church, coming to the mosque. So they want to develop a relationship with the religious.

But politics is always a dirty game. When Rasulullah ﷺ is being told:

Maintain clean clothes. It's as if do not enter the dirty world of political negotiations.

Understanding "Purify Your Clothes"

Purify your clothes. Literally means, and purify your clothes. And keep on purifying your clothes actually.

Because if the ayah said, وَثِيَابَكَ طَهِّرْ and there would be no فَا then it would simply be, and make sure especially to purify your clothes. But وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ - the عطف, what it does is, it cannot be the مفعول به مقدم of this verb. The verb is being repeated. Once it's understood, the second time it's mentioned. Complicated grammar. The bottom line is, keep on repeating.

Keep on cleansing your clothes. يَعْنِي تَطَهِّرْ ثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ - Cleanse your clothes, then cleanse them again. Now, this image, let's understand the image first.

The Metaphor of Getting Dirty

The image is that of washing your clothes. And wash them over and over again. When does somebody have to wash their clothes over and over again? When they're getting dirty.

So Rasul ﷺ is being told, you are going to go out there, and something's gonna happen that's gonna keep on making your clothes dirty. And you're gonna have to keep coming back, and you're gonna have to keep on washing your clothes. And then back out, and then, and then, and then, and then.

But it's not literally talking about laundry. It's not literally talking about that. Even though some people do believe that it is talking about that, and I think there's a reason Allah mentioned this language.

Because yes, some fuqaha went in this direction and said, this is the evidence that we should have clean clothes when we make salah and all this other stuff. Because it's takbir and then salah. But that's not the subject of the ayah.

You could say secondarily, maybe that's one of the fawaid of the ayah. But that's not the main point. The point that's being made here is actually quite powerful.

The point that's being made here is, just like if you go outside during a sandstorm, or during bad weather like rain, or it's a mudslide, right? We already gave the image of something, the night being very cold. Now imagine the day is very dirty. And you go out there and what happens eventually? The more you walk around? And understand that the Arab land, they don't have paved streets.

Sometimes you have to walk. Have you ever walked after the rain in some grassy field and it's muddy? And what happens to your shoes after that? And to your clothes after that, right? So you are going to get your clothes dirty. Or some horse walked by or trampled by and it splashed on you, right? So the elements are going to keep making you dirty.

The Impact of Da'wah

So Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ, this work of da'wah that you're going to do, you're going to experience so much ugliness from it. The words you're going to hear, the insults you're going to hear, are being described as if your clothes are getting dirty. It's having an impact on you.

And by the way, when your clothes are dirty, people don't say, that man, his clothes are dirty. They don't say that. You know what they say? That man is dirty.

Right? They don't say the clothes are dirty. They say the person is dirty. Right? You don't say your clothes are a mess.

They say you're a mess. You're a mess. Rasul ﷺ's clothes represent him.

This is the impression people get of him. Right? Now Allah could have said, purify yourself. Keep cleansing yourself.

Allah didn't mention himself. He mentioned his clothes. So, the first lesson to take here is, Rasul ﷺ is definitely being impacted by the negativity.

Even the Highest Iman Is Affected

Even though he has the highest iman possible of any human being. Doesn't matter how high your iman is. There is no way you will not be impacted by the negativity.

It will be there. And it will have an effect. It will stain you.

It won't stain you on the deep level. It's not an injury. But it will stain your clothes, which is still bad.

Right? And if you go out there the next day, before people even hear you, what will they see first? They'll see the stain on your clothes. And that's, this image, understand the picture that's being painted, then we'll understand the lesson. If I go out the next day without washing my clothes, and I go out in dirty clothes again, nobody will even talk to me the next day because they say, who's this dirty man? And if I keep on not cleaning my clothes, my clothes will keep getting what? Dirtier and dirtier until people will just, ugh, stay away.

Not Carrying Past Baggage

Now what does that mean in terms of dawah? If somebody was mean to me, once, twice, three times, it started having an effect on me. I start thinking, man, even though it was one person, one case, I start thinking, these people, man. All these people.

And you, you know people that got scammed or cheated in a business? When you get scammed or cheated in a business, anytime somebody offers you a business deal, what's in your head? This guy, these people, I know these people. I know what these people are like. You're carrying the stains from a previous experience, you're carrying the stains from yesterday, and you're bringing that baggage the next day.

You understand? And so now your akhlaq, the way you talk to people, the way you're dealing with people, is being impacted by your past scars, by your past stains. Rasul ﷺ is being told, dawah cannot work this way. You have to start clean every time.

You cannot use previous experience to judge tomorrow's experience. You cannot even judge yesterday's Umar ibn al-Khattab to today's Umar ibn al-Khattab. You don't know that Umar was going through something yesterday, and he's going through something different today, and he's more amicable.

This has even happened in my own life. I've met people, I met them the first time, they were extremely rude. And I met them the second time, they were extremely nice.

And I couldn't understand it. So I asked them, you were a really messed up person. And they said, I was? What are you talking about? Well, the other day you said this, I didn't know.

Oh my God, I'm so sorry. No, no, no. I had just lost my job.

This has happened, this has happened. I didn't even know I was being mean to you. They don't even know.

So you know, but you know what? If I carried that baggage from before, I wouldn't even want to have a conversation with them the second time. You understand? So, وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ is also about me not holding past grudges, and starting over again. And it shouldn't show on me.

You know, some people you don't like them, because of the past. Even the way you look at them, they know they don't like you. You don't like them.

They walk in and they're like, oh. You know? My daughters are very good at doing that, and when somebody walks in, one of their friends, they don't like them. Like the roll of the eyes is so hard.

Right? The imagery is that of not holding grudges. Not letting this weigh on you. Not letting... You know, people say I'm traumatized, or I have scars, or I have baggage.

Don't carry that baggage. Let it clean off. How do you get it to clean off? The way you get it to clean off has already been answered in the previous surah.

The heart gets cleansed. The heart gets healed by standing in front of Allah at night. This is وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ.

Multiple Garments - Different Approaches

Then there's another side of وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ. You have to... Allah could have said, وَثَوْبَكَ فَطَهِّرْ. Purify your garment.

Singular, garment. Allah said, purify your garments. Plural.

Profound statement. Purify your garments, plural. You know, if I'm wearing a t-shirt and a baseball hat, sports clothes, sneakers, etc.

I'm going into a certain setting. I get invited to meet the president. What am I going to wear? My favorite hoodie? No.

I won't put a suit on. I'm going to dress formally. You're about to graduate.

Right? You're not going to wear your pajamas you go to sleep in at night. There's different settings. You put different clothes on.

Yes or no? At the workplace, you're required to wear certain kinds of clothes. Right? At a wedding, you're going to wear certain kinds of clothes. Different settings, different clothes.

But it's not just the clothes that change. Your behavior also changes. When you're in a work meeting, you're a different kind of person.

When you're playing with your kids, you're a different kind of person. When you're talking to your friends, you're a different kind of person. When you're talking to your friends when your wife is not there, you're a very different kind of person.

For some of you, when you're talking to your dad, you're a different kind of person. When you're talking to your mom, you're a different kind of person. When you're talking to your brother, different.

When you're talking to your brother-in-law, different. Isn't it? But does that mean that you are a hypocrite and you change your colors and you have multiple personality disorder? No, that's not what that means. That means you understand that a child needs to be spoken to differently and you should be speaking to your boss differently and you should be speaking to your best friend differently and you shouldn't be talking to your mother the way you talk to your best friend.

You're stupid. What are you doing tonight? You could talk to your friend that way and he said, nothing ugly. What are you doing? You could do that with each other but you can't talk like that to your mom.

In other words, you put different clothes on in different situations. Isn't it? That doesn't mean you're a different person but each situation requires you to be a little bit different. Rasulullah ﷺ is being told dawah is not one thing.

Dawah requires many clothes. Dawah requires many clothes. And you have to be aware who you're talking to, which clothes are required in which situation.

Adapting to Different Audiences

And you know, when somebody is a mu'anid, somebody is arguing and angry and arrogant and disrespectful, you have to have certain heavier clothes on. Right? You have to have more defensive clothes on or protective clothes on. Now that you're used to putting those clothes on and now the next time you're talking to somebody who's not angry or defensive but you start being angry or defensive because you're like, this is my favorite outfit, yo.

So this is how I talk to everybody. You can't do that. I remember one time back in the days in college, there's one brother who really loved debating with atheists.

Right? And there were some hardcore atheists in college and he's just going back and forth and I remember debates where the atheists were crying because of him. Like he was intense. But then one time he's just talking some guy comes in, you know, one of the brothers brought his non-Muslim friend into the musallah area to pray.

He was a nice guy. You know, he was a Christian. But he wanted to learn more about Islam so he came in and you know, atheist annihilator was there and the, he was like, you believe in God? He was like, yeah.

Prove it. And he switched on his terminator. Right? You don't need to do that with this, this guy doesn't need that outfit.

You don't need to put the exoskeleton on for this one. Right? You could be your regular self. And then there's some young brothers, they get involved in the da'wah and they learn about الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر and then they go home and their dad is sitting there - الأمر بالمعروف dad, النهي عن المنكر dad! You idiot.

You have to put your son clothes on. Not your da'wah bro clothes on. Different clothes, different situations.

You understand? Now, the question that arises, why can't you just, why can't Rasul ﷺ just be himself as he is? Because you know, who is he talking to? He's talking to his best friend, he's talking to his wife, he's talking to his uncle, he's talking to his nephew, he's talking to his cousins, he's talking to his elders, isn't he? And these relationships already existed. But now, for each one of them, he can't just talk to them as a nephew and a friend, he has to talk to them as Rasulullah ﷺ. Right? It's different now. Ibrahim ﷺ is Azar's son.

But he can't put the son clothes on when he talks to him. He puts on the prophet clothes and he says:

He said, my father, I love you, but knowledge has come to me that didn't come to you. Follow me, I will guide you to a straight path.

Which son talks to their father this way? That's not a son talking to the father, that is a prophet son talking to, he has the prophet garments on, you understand? So, we're learning there's a degree of separation also. There's a degree of separation. He has to speak to people even though he's changing his garments and speaking different ways to different people.

The Constant Identity of Messenger

He ﷺ always has to have one undergarment on all the time and that undergarment is that of being the messenger of Allah ﷺ. That never comes off. That's always there. Which is why even his best friend doesn't say, my best friend said.

He says, قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ. His wife doesn't say, my husband once told me. She says, سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ يَقُولُ. His closest relationships understand that no matter, he has these different relationships but the first relationship he has with people is the messenger of Allah ﷺ. This is وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ.

Being Ready for Any Situation

Another side of that, when you see someone wearing dirty clothes, isn't that their first impression? When you see someone wearing clean clothes. And by the way, not one outfit, there's multiple outfits, right? ثِيَاب is plural, ثَوْب would be singular.

Multiple outfits, all clean. If you do laundry of all of your outfits, what does that mean? You're ready to put on any one of them depending on the situation. All of them are ready to go, right? It's as if Rasul ﷺ is being prepared for versatile interactions.

You don't know which garment is going to be needed at which moment. And he's gonna be ready to put any one of them on when the situation calls for it, subhanAllah. So this is a really beautiful expression and every one of them has to be clean, meaning they have to be their best.

When you clean your clothes before you wear them, you know it's important to make a good first impression. Islam isn't just about the internal message, it's also about the external impression. Rasul ﷺ is supposed to wear his cleanest clothes.

The Connection Between Salah and Da'wah

Now, the amazing thing is, I told you there's two kinds of standing. There's a standing in salah, Surah Al-Muzzammil. There's a standing for da'wah, Surah Al-Muddathir.

There's a takbir in salah, Allahu Akbar, and you start to salah. And there's وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ, there's a takbir of da'wah. Remember that? The same way you have to dress your best clothes when you make salah.

Allah says. Wear your best clothes, wear beautiful clothes when you are going to come to the masjid or pray, right? So you have to bring good clothes to Allah. And now we're learning, you have to also bring good clothes to what? To da'wah.

You see what Allah is doing? Allah keeps comparing salah to da'wah, salah, da'wah, salah, da'wah. Why? Because they're both acts of ibadah. And in both of them, you have to be extremely cautious of Allah.

And just the same way you treat the act of prayer as something being done exclusively for Allah, the same way you're going to treat da'wah as something being done exclusively for Allah, and it should be done with ihsan. Therefore, you should dress your best when you're doing da'wah.

Maintaining Composure and High Morals

وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ means maintain your composure.

فُلَانٌ طَاهِرُ الثِّيَابِ يَعْنِي النَّقِيُّ الذَّيْلُ وَالْأَرْدَانِ إِذَا وُصِفَ بِالنَّقَاءِ مِنَ الْمَعَايِبِ وَمَدَانِسِ الْأَخْلَاقِ - When they say someone has clean clothes, it means they maintain their composure and high morals. They don't use name-calling. They don't use bad words.

They don't talk down to people. They, you know, like, the basic akhlaq of kindness, of composure, of speaking respectfully. They don't drop their standards.

So, let the other person look like a fool, but you maintain your composure, right? That's the beauty of this phrase, وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ.

Maintaining Dignity and Not Being Bought

Then there's another component to this. أَثَّوْبُ الشَّيْءِ الْمُلَازِمُ لِلْإِنسَانِ فَلِهَذَا السَّبَبِ جُعِلَ الثَّوْبُ كِنَايَةً عَنِ الْإِنسَانِ يُقَالُ الْمَجْدُ فِي ثَوْبِهِ وَالْعِفَّةُ فِي إِذَارِهِ - They say in Arabic that dignity lies in the clothes. Maintain your dignity.

Now, what in the world does that mean? You see, when these ayat came of warning, the people that are going to be the most offended by Islam are the people that benefit from humanity being less than them. The 1%. The people that are powerful.

And the people that are powerful are 2 kinds. Politicians and business people. Those are the 2. The people of money and the people of government.

There's 2 categories of them. Now, those 2 people, when they see somebody doing dawah, when they see humanity, all they see is someone they can buy. That's all they see.

How do I buy this person's services? How do I use this person? They don't see people. They just see product. Products and services.

All of us are just products and services to them. Or pieces on a chess board, right? So, what politicians try to do is they try to manipulate the da'i. That's why one of the most valuable assets for politicians is religious institutions.

Politicians try to develop relationships with different religious institutions because through religious institutions, they're able to influence the people that are coming to the temple, coming to the church, coming to the mosque. So, they want to develop a relationship with the religious. But politics is always a dirty game.

It's always dirty. And they're always trying to buy somebody out. You can't engage with politics and remain clean.

Not in this world. That doesn't happen. When Rasul ﷺ is being told:

Maintain clean clothes. It's as if, do not enter the dirty world of political negotiations. Don't deal with these people in that way. Maintain your ground.

Hold on to your principles. You know, sometimes there's offers made. The offer is made, look, just don't talk about our idols for two years.

And I will encourage people to accept your religion. I will fund your campaign. I will spread it to Ta'if and Medina.

I'll bring all the tribe leaders. I'll have a special fundraising dinner for your Islam. Just one thing, don't talk about the elders, okay? Just don't talk about our elders.

We respect our elders. One line, can you give me that much? Because this is too extreme. I don't want your extremist version of the religion.

I want the civil version of the religion. The civilized version in which you don't talk about our elders. Give me that and watch what I do for you.

This grant is ready for you. This check is ready for you. This government approval is ready for you.

This is all there. Look at the size of our check. We got this funding for you.

All of this is what? Getting your clothes dirty. وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ. And were these offers made to Rasulullah ﷺ? Absolutely. These offers were made to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. But stay clean of this stuff.

Do not get influenced by any of these people or any of their offers.

External Cleanliness Reflects Internal Purity

وَالثَّانِي أَنَّ الْغَالِبَ أَنَّ مَنْ طَهُرَ بَاطِنُهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَطْهُرُ ظَاهِرُهُ - It's as if Allah is saying, keep your clothes clean because it represents the inside. People will see eventually that if you maintain that same composure and that same stance and you don't budge, you don't back down, then people will see through it and they'll recognize that this person is not hiding some dirty hidden agenda.

The fact that they keep themselves clean under all this pressure must mean they're clean on the inside. Eventually, because nobody can see inside the heart, right? Nobody can see inside the heart. But when you can maintain your principles in the harshest conditions, that will become a testimony for people that you're clean on the inside.

That you didn't sell out. And that's again, وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ.