Compassionate Orthodoxy Finding the Middle Path
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T17:55:51.024161+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Compassionate Orthodoxy: Finding the Middle Path
Shaykh Omar Suleiman
Opening
"[In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.]"
"[All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. There is no enmity except against the oppressors, and the [best] outcome is for the righteous. O Allah, send your peace and blessings upon Your servant and messenger, Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and upon his family and companions, with an abundance of peace.]"
This is a huge topic and one that I actually think deserves more than a lecture but it deserves an entire meeting of the minds and people of da'wah and people of activism and people that just genuinely care about others around them and are trying to find the most effective way to deliver the message of Islam not necessarily just to those that are outside of the community and belong to a broader human family but those that are within particularly a brother or a sister or a close friend and it's one of those topics like the topic of mannerisms and adab and akhlaq character that you can never have too many reminders of but I really wanted to address this topic because I think that it'll be a great lead up insha'Allah into our next discussion in which we talk about where we draw the line.
The Challenge of Labeling: Beyond "Practicing" vs "Non-Practicing"
There is a constant battle between upholding the standard of orthodoxy and then being compassionate to those that aren't necessarily meeting that standard and I want to actually share with you all something very personally that I remember using some certain language around one of my teachers and I used the word non-practicing Muslim and he took exception to that because he said that when you use that you're automatically putting someone in a bucket when you think about physically or labeling someone with a physical illness or stigmatizing someone by putting something on them you almost stunt entirely their potential for growth by putting someone in a bucket.
And at the end of the day the spectrum has to stay sound, the standards have to remain intact clarity must remain throughout the process of whatever strategy we're crafting about how to do a better job as a community reaching those of our brothers and sisters who might be struggling a little bit more at the end of the day we're all somewhere there and as long as a person says (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu muḥammadun rasūlu-llāhi) and acknowledges that perfect standard there is no there is no judge as to what denotes a level of imperfection that would take someone out of the practicing bucket and put them in the non-practicing bucket.
There are farad, there are obligations there are principles, there are things that we uphold there has to remain clarity there cannot be ambiguity about those principles about those standards but we all fall somewhere there there are sins that are more major than others there are obligations that are more emphasized than others all of those things exist but we all find ourselves in this struggle.
The Balance Between Compassion and Standards
The balance always becomes for anyone that's in this tricky space of da'wah in some capacity well, at what point am I simply telling the person who is struggling with whatever particular sin or failing to uphold a particular obligation or failing to meet a particular standard at what point am I making that person comfortable in their place as opposed to inspiring them by gently nudging them to the next level or trying to move them from the place that they're in and it is tricky and I think that as long as we can put those two things in front of us first to say that there has to be compassion and there has to be orthodoxy that everything else is up for discussion.
And I also want to propose that compassion is orthodoxy, that there is no such thing as orthodoxy that is devoid of compassion because the Prophet ﷺ was described as what?
"We have not sent you except as a mercy to the world."
But how do we maintain that? Do we have to relinquish certain elements of Islam to make it more acceptable to the 21st century American Muslim will that push people over the necessary edge to be considered amongst the practicing amongst the observance or are we simply going to set up the next diluting of something critical from the message and the next step and the next step and the next step until it becomes something that is completely unrecognizable.
The Importance of Maintaining Clarity
And so let's start with that the importance of maintaining clarity the Prophet ﷺ told us that there would come a time that people say Allah Allah they still say the words, they still say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu) but the substance has been removed to an extent that those words are only words that are repeated out of some sort of cultural or family loyalty because we used to hear our parents say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu) so the symbol completely lacks substance at that point because there is a failure to maintain clarity.
It's not just that I say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu) and I'm struggling with salah and I'm trying to get there with the other things, it's that why do you say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu) why do you still say (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - lā ʾilāha ʾillā-llāhu) well, our parents used to say it you know, why don't you eat pork? well in our house we didn't used to eat pork and there was some sort of Muslim inclination but clarity is lost the clarity has to remain no matter where we are and how short we are falling in regards to meeting that standard the clarity has to remain.
Gentleness as the Default in Da'wah
Now how do we balance compassionate orthodoxy or how do we balance compassion with orthodoxy and let's get to that for a moment there are things that happen in our da'wah that are out of the ordinary that might be out of character there are times where a person might have to express a certain level of displeasure and a person might have to insist on certain things and there are unique circumstances that call for very unique behaviors and unique qualities in the moment but there are overall defining characteristics of that da'wah that cannot be separated from that da'wah.
So for example the Prophet ﷺ being described means that mercy at the end of the day defines everything that the Prophet ﷺ does including his anger his anger is out of mercy his anger is out of mercy when he's angry at you he's actually angry for you as well whether we're talking about his fiercest enemies in Quraish or we're talking about the members of his community that are still demonstrating some elements of the days of ignorance his anger at you is still at its root, anger for you because the Prophet ﷺ wants you to do better and so it's still defined by his mercy (عليه الصلاة والسلام - ʿalayhi al-ṣalātu wa-al-salām)
And at no point is anyone in his community confused by that at no point does anyone in his community find him to be mean spirited or out of touch or not recognizing their experiences and the difficulties that they are facing at no point does the Prophet ﷺ fit those descriptions because the Prophet ﷺ overall has a dominant quality of (رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ - rahmatan lil'ālamīn) a mercy to the worlds.
The Prophet ﷺ has a dominant quality of (إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ لِأُتَمِّمَ مَكَارِمَ الْأَخْلَاقِ - innamā buʿithtu liʾutammima makārima al-ʾakhlāq) (Ahmad hadith 8595) that I've only been sent to perfect people's manners, to perfect people's morals.
The Prophet ﷺ gives us a dominant characteristic in our da'wah:
(Bukhari hadith 6927)
"Allah loves gentleness in all of his affairs now that's the dominant trait, that's the absolute, that's the normalized behavior within the capacity of da'wah and how we carry out our affairs that gentleness should be the default.
Self-Reflection in Da'wah
And I want you to think about social media or the different avenues that we have right now and you ask yourself let's not, I don't want your mind to go to anyone else today or tonight I lost track of time, I don't know what time it is I don't want your mind to venture, and this is just going to be a rule for the next two sessions, I want you to be self-critical only think about yourself when you speak about Islam to someone else or when you give someone advice, are mercy and gentleness the default or are they the exception are they the defining qualities of your da'wah in the first place.
Meaning at the end of the day what those two things mean because وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ speaks more to the overall character of the Prophet ﷺ إِنَّ اللهَ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقَ فِي الْأَمْرِ كُلِّهِ Allah loves gentleness in all of his affairs speaks to the end product, the way that it comes out right, the actual languaging so it comes
from a good place and it comes out in a good way the end product of mercy is gentleness, is a sense of delicacy, is being very calculated, being very considerate of how the other person is going to receive what you're going to say.
It's considering the tone of your voice, it's considering the particular word choices that you use it's considering that the way that you speak and the way that you carry yourself is a reflection of the place that you come from and if the place that you come from is a place of compassion, which is orthodoxy, then the default is that it's going to translate into gentleness in your affairs.
The Heart-Tongue Connection
Now are there going to be times that the Prophet ﷺ, uses himself (عليه الصلاة والسلام - ʿalayhi al-ṣalātu wa-al-salām), an elevated pitch, are there going to be times when the Prophet's ﷺ face turns red, that the Prophet's ﷺ anger frightens not, not out of the sense that the Prophet ﷺ is going hit somebody, or going to take a dramatic action but frightens in the sense like we disappointed him we let him down, that we pushed the Prophet ﷺ to a point that he raised his voice at us, that the Prophet ﷺ his face became red, that his anger which was out of norm and only employed where anger was beneficial, was because of a shortcoming on my part, or was that the dominant trait of the Prophet ﷺ, right?
So think about ourselves once again. When I talk to someone else and try to convey orthodoxy, when I say orthodoxy, let's just say the deen itself, when I try to convey a standard of the religion to the public or to a close friend, is the expectation that it will come from a place of gentleness and care and love, or is the expectation that it will come from, that it will come out condescending, hence from a place of pride?
Because the tongue to the heart, as Imam al-Qayyim said, is like a spoon to a plate of food. What comes out from here is a reflection of what's in here.
What comes out through here is a reflection of what's in here. And what comes out of here, into here, or into here, more so here now, because no one uses this anymore, everyone uses this now. But what comes out of this to a person of wanting to shame someone, wanting to put someone down, wanting to prove a point, wanting to hurl an insult, is not any care for the deen, it's a care for hearing your own voice or seeing your own words in the capacity of what you deem victory in that particular interaction, that I want, I want to win the debate, I want to win the argument, I want to put someone else in their place.
When in reality, it's not about the place and it's not about the substance of what you're saying, it's just that you, at the end of the day, gain the upper hand because that's what fulfills the ego. And that's what speaks to the pride that's on the inside.
The Connection Between Mercy and Gentleness
So again, the connection, the dominant quality وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds. To the end result, إنَّ اللهَ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقَ فِي الْأَمْرِ كُلِّهِ That Allah loves gentleness in all of
his affairs, there's a connection between the place that you're operating from in your da'wah and the way that it comes out. The end result of that. And what's the dominant characteristic?
And when someone employs mockery or foul language or sarcastic or puts people down as the norm, that's a flawed da'wah. That's in and of itself. That means that you're betraying the orthodoxy that you're claiming to represent because that wasn't the character of the Prophet ﷺ. And that's where you actually start to turn people off from what you're calling them to because they know that you're not coming from a good place.
And you know what else happens when gentleness is the dominant characteristic and people understand that you operate out of a place of love and mercy? They take your anger more seriously. They know that because your anger is not the exception, I'm sorry, that your anger is not the norm, but rather the exception, they know that it's for something that deserve that type of response. And so they pay closer attention. Because this is out of character, this is different.
So it must be that I did something or that the situation is that severe and requires that type of response. So instead of turning someone off forward, you know what it does to the other person psychologically? It gives them heightened awareness. Like, whoa, let me pay attention now. This is serious. Because you don't usually talk to me in this way and I know you wouldn't be talking to me in this way or employing that type of language or that elevated pitch or that urgency unless it was really serious and you really wanted something out of me in this moment. And that's what the Prophet ﷺ was able to set with his companions.
The Power of Personal Touch in Da'wah
Next element of that compassionate da'wah or that compassionate orthodoxy is this, that at the end of the day, and I want you to think about when you're in grief or when you're in trauma. Someone once told me something that when I was studying grief counseling, because you know imams have to be like counselors and mechanics and maintenance people and everything, all of the above. You got to check all the boxes so you can make sure that you're a competent imam.
And I remember in grief counseling something that really stood out to me because it spoke to an experience that I had, that I had when you're in trauma or when you're in grief, okay, what are the two things that you remember when you're in grief? You remember or when you look back on a moment when you were in grief, what are the two things that you remember? You remember the people that were present and you remember the people that said really dumb things.
So what does that mean? You don't remember the good words that were really said to you in those moments, you really don't remember the advices or the beneficial things usually that were said to you, but you remember the people that were present. You remember the people that hugged you, that comforted you, that offered some sort of a comforting presence to you.
And then you remember the people that said things that were really inappropriate, right? That were completely misplaced and that really turned you off in those moments.
Subhanallah, one of the things that I heard recently from one of the people in our community that does a lot of good work is that the Muslim community is in need of overwhelming compassion right now. Like we're under a lot of stress as a community and people need a lot of compassion. They need to be overwhelmed with that sense of compassion.
The Prophet's Personal Touch
And one of the things about the Prophet ﷺ, about the way that he dealt with people, is that there was a personal touch to the interactions of the Prophet ﷺ. And I want you to remember this point. Sometimes the personal touch takes words that would have otherwise been forgettable and imprints them in your heart.
Sometimes the personal touch takes words that would have otherwise been forgettable and imprints them in your heart. How many hadiths of the Prophet ﷺ are narrated by a companion that was sitting on the back of a camel with him, that was with him while he was making wudu, that was receiving those words in the context of a very personal conversation. Whereas maybe if those words would have been said in the context of a khutbah, or in the context of a sermon, they might have drowned in all of the other words of religious admonition that were being delivered in the process of sermonizing.
But because it was delivered with a personal touch, because that person felt like the Prophet ﷺ was taking the time, was making that effort to deliver that message to them, it had a life-changing effect on them.
The Hadith of Ibn Abbas
The hadith of Ibn Abbas always comes to mind. A young man, and he was riding with the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ turned around, said:
(Tirmidhi hadith 2516)
O young man, let me teach you some words. Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah, you'll find Him in front of you. If you ask, then ask of Allah. If you seek help, then seek help of Allah. And know that if the people were to gather to benefit you with something, they would not benefit you with something unless Allah has written it for you. And if they were to gather to harm you with something, they would not harm you unless... they would not be able to harm you unless Allah decreed that harm upon you.
The pens have been lifted, and the papers have dried.
Those words that were given to Ibn Abbas, do you really think they would have had that impact on him if Ibn Abbas heard them in a khutbah, or read them on a piece of paper in the context of a bigger conversation? No. But it's personal. There's a personal touch.
And making that extra effort, the bulk of the tradition of the Prophet ﷺ, his words do not come to us through khutbah, but through sermons. They come to us through conversation, through actually talking to people, to actually having conversations with people.
The Importance of Direct Communication
Meaning if you really want to be effective in delivering a message, then you have to be willing to employ the necessary tools to ensure that delivery happens. Sometimes there will be broad messages, there's a place for the sermon, there's a place for the Facebook status, there's a place for the blog, there's a place for the tweet, I'm not sure there's a place for Instagram yet, I'm still trying to figure that part out. I don't really know what the benefit is yet, but we'll get there.
There's a place for all of these things though, these mediums of delivery. There's a place for it. But what's the place of actually talking to someone, taking that time out to talk to someone, and having a conversation?
You want to know the most annoying thing about social media? And please do not sell this as orthodoxy. Passive-aggressive comments. It's so childish. It's disturbing. It's like you have someone's phone number. You know, for God's sake, Twitter DM them. Do something.
But the passive-aggressive comments where everyone in the community all the time seems to be talking at each other instead to each other. What does that say about you as a person, where you're operating from? Where are you operating from? What are you trying to do with that? What are you really... Are you trying to preserve the deen? Or are you trying to put someone in their place?
Creating Safety and Trust
And so when we talk about compassionate orthodoxy again, where do you operate from? When the Prophet ﷺ said:
(Tirmidhi hadith 1956)
A smile in the face of your brother is charity. What that also speaks to is that the expectation when you met the Prophet ﷺ was that he was (بَسَّامًا صَحَاكًا - bassaman sahakan) that he would smile in your face and he put you to comfort. You felt safe with him.
And this is the next point. I don't believe that our deen is so difficult for people to practice. In fact, I think our deen is empowering and I think it's particularly empowering when we're under the pressure that we're under right now. I don't think we need to change it. I don't feel like it's in need of reformation. I don't think we need to be shy of it. I don't think we need to hide any elements of it.
But at the same time, the person that you're talking to, if you're going to propose a standard that is at odds with the standards that they're constantly interacting with, a practice that's going to necessarily put a barrier between them and their regular environment, an obligation that's going to disrupt their daily lives, they have to feel safe with you.
You know, that concept of feeling safe with someone? I know you are telling me this because you want what's good for me. How often did the Prophet ﷺ go out of his way to emphasize that to his community? This is about a love for you. When you know that someone is speaking to you from that place of love and you feel safe with them, then you'll accept certain things from them. You'll hear them out.
Building Credibility Through Worldly Care
One of the beautiful things about the Prophet ﷺ's da'wah is that the Prophet ﷺ, when he came with this radical change in belief system, the Prophet ﷺ called the people's attention to the good that he's done for them or to the compassion that he's shown to them in regards to their worldly affairs. Meaning the Prophet ﷺ was saying to them, you know how I have tried to protect you in this dunya.
So much so that if I told you an army was behind that mountain, you would believe me. You know that I've always cared for you, showed you that compassion, and operated from a place of being protective over you. And so when I tell you about an imminent harm in the hereafter, it's not to frighten you.
The purpose is not to get you to conform out of a sense of urgency. The purpose is not for me to skip through the necessary build-up that it usually takes to warn someone of something that they can't see. It's to first and foremost tell you that when I say this to you, I say it to you because just as I wanted to protect you in this world, I want to protect you in the hereafter.
What does that mean? If you show absolutely no interest in the welfare of people in the dunyawi sense, in the worldly sense, why should they trust anything you have to say about their akhira, about their hereafter? Why should they believe that that's coming from a good place? Why should they trust that you're saying that to them because you actually care about them?
If you take no interest in their well-being in the worldly sense, why would I believe that you're taking interest in my well-being in the akhira sense, in the hereafter sense? I'm not gonna trust your sincerity.
The Prophet's Empathy and Care
And so that idea of actually showing a person that, look, this is out of love and care for you, this is why I choose not to make a childish, passive-aggressive comment on social media, this is why I choose not to humiliate you publicly, this is why I choose not to write something to turn you off or to further you away from the dean, this is why I took the time to make that extra effort to take you in privately and to say, listen, I love you and I care about you, just hear me out on this and I'm not trying... You know, this is why I take the time to put all those qualifiers that might even humble me a little bit before I even give you advice about what it is that I think you should be doing better.
This is why I pay attention to all of those extra details. Because I actually care about you as a person, I actually take interest in you as a person.
With the Messenger ﷺ, Allah testified to that quality:
That the Prophet ﷺ was empathetic, that he cared about your well-being in this life, that the Prophet عليه الصلاة والسلام cared about your well-being in the hereafter, he had a special and exclusive mercy towards the believers as well, but that the Prophet ﷺ tried as much as he could, or he operated out of that care and compassion for you.
Understanding and Continuous Support
Now, move it a little bit further with the prophetic character. And what you find from the Prophet ﷺ is he himself made it a point to articulate to people two things. Number one, that he understood where they were coming from. Number two, that the Prophet ﷺ would continue to do whatever it took to protect and save those people.
So for example, the Prophet ﷺ in acknowledging the pain of a person, and pain is of different levels, and acknowledging the difficulty that a person was having living up to the standard, set a tone where people could come to the Prophet ﷺ and ask him for permissions or ask him things that most people would be too shy to bring up to someone else. But they weren't with the Prophet ﷺ because they felt safe with him.
The young man that went up to the Prophet ﷺ and asked the Prophet ﷺ for permission to commit adultery, he felt a sense of safety and security with the Prophet ﷺ. There's a reason why he went to him to ask him that question. Not just because the Prophet ﷺ is involved in a legislative process, but because the Prophet ﷺ created the atmosphere of being approachable, that you can come and you can talk to me when you find yourself in that place.
The second thing is the Prophet ﷺ had the heart and the care for each and every single person in this ummah, and it wasn't just within the capacity of what it would take to have a successful community.
The Prophet's Concern for Every Individual
Let me be very explicit here for example. The Prophet ﷺ did not say, you know what, I've got my Abu Bakr now, I've got my Umar, I've got my Uthman, I've got my Ali, I've got my Sahaba, I've got this amazing core around me, I've got Mecca now, so forget about da'wah anymore. We've already have success and an institution as a community, we're moving forward.
He still demonstrated concern for each and every single person, whether it was the simplest old Bedouin that only had a year or so left of his life, or the young, you know, abrasive man or woman in that society that was struggling with this huge amount of sins. The Prophet ﷺ still took concern in each of them, meaning there wasn't a threshold to where the Prophet ﷺ said, we're good now.
When he describes himself ﷺ to his community, as a man who's standing in front of a fire, trying to catch flies or bugs that are jumping into the fire. And he gives this example, I'm catching you by the waist belts, but you're fleeing from my hands. That means the Prophet ﷺ is trying to catch as many people as he possibly can. It's special, that he wants to catch as many people as he possibly can عليه الصلاة والسلام
The Danger of Disconnection from Sinners
And there's this idea, that the more righteous you become, the further disconnected you become from a person who is excessively disobedient. It becomes harder and harder and harder to connect with someone who's excessively disobedient. And that's extremely problematic.
The Example of Mu'adh and the Long Recitation
I'll give you an example. Two things inshallah ta'ala with the last six minutes and then the rest of it we'll carry it into the panel discussion bismillah ta'ala. When the Prophet ﷺ said:
(Bukhari hadith 6110)
That there are people amongst you that run people away from Allah.
What was it about? It was about a man complaining to the Prophet ﷺ, that a sahabi who was leading them in salah, that Mu'adh رضي الله عنه was reading long surahs in salah. Now let's take a minute to appreciate this. Who loved the Quran more than the Prophet ﷺ? Who could enjoy a long recitation more than the Prophet ﷺ? Who is the man that would stand up and recite al-Baqarah, al-Nisa, al-Imran in one raka'ah عليه الصلاة والسلام? Who was nourished by the Quran? Who enjoyed it more than the Prophet ﷺ? Who had the complete opposite experience of a man who thought that there was too much recitation of the Quran in salah? It was the Prophet ﷺ.
There is no... Even Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه who loved the Quran and who recited the Quran in a way that the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever wants to hear the recitation of the Quran, like fresh, the way it was revealed, let him listen to the recitation of Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه. Ibn Mas'ud found the recitation of the Prophet ﷺ too long.
HEADING
So when a man comes and complains that Mu'adh's recitation is too long in the Quran and Mu'adh (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) is natural, his natural response is what? He's a hypocrite. He doesn't love the Quran the way we love the Quran. Disconnect, right? And the Prophet faults who? He faults him for reciting too long.
I mean if you think about this, if there is anyone that wouldn't be able to relate to that person's experience, it would have been the Prophet ﷺ if we're restricting it to the deed. But the Prophet was not disconnected from that man. He heard that man out, he understood his grievance, and at the same time he faulted the caretaker. And said, you have to do a better job.
And instructed Mu'adh to read shorter surahs of the Quran in Salatul Isha. The Prophet did not say, you know, the quality of these people, we're an ummah of the Quran. Isn't the complaint of the Prophet on the day of judgment?
That my people took this Quran without the degree of seriousness that it was supposed to be taken.
The Prophet could have said, what, you know, I've got people in my ummah like this, what do I need with this man? Or did the Prophet demonstrate that he cared about that man as well? That he cared about that man's well-being and put a bigger onus, a greater onus on the caretaker.
Meaning what? This idea that, you know what, let them go. Who cares if they're leaving Islam? That's their fault. Let's keep taking the haq to them. If they were gonna leave anyway, you did not get that from the Prophet. That's definitely not the character of the da'wah of the Prophet.
The Wisdom of Gradual Guidance
And when you say, well, they've got to hear it as they are, as it is. You got to tell it to them as it is. Wasn't it Ali (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) who said, or who advised against giving everything to a person. And he actually cautioned, Ali (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) actually cautioned, not to give someone something they're not ready for. Do you want them to disbelieve in Allah? Some people are not ready to hear something yet.
That doesn't mean you obscure the truth. That doesn't mean you twist it. That means you're cognizant of where that person is at in that journey. And without obscuring the standard, you're bringing them along in a way that they'll be able to digest it.
How much trauma do you cause to someone sometimes, intentionally or unintentionally? With that Facebook status, with something someone wasn't ready to read yet. Now obviously in the information age, you can't control everything that gets out. And so you have to give things to people in piecemeal, and you have to contextualize while being honest to the context itself, not over contextualize to where you dilute.
But you give things to people in a way that they can comprehend, in a way that does not depart from that spirit of compassion, and in a way that takes into consideration the likely objections, even if they were manufactured by society, that a person's mind or heart is going to have. And walk them through it. Help them see through it.
The Example of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
Never losing the standard, but never losing the place that that person is at. And the last one, subhanAllah, which is very powerful. You know, one of my favorite people in history, I was extremely fascinated with him, and not just because I share his name, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz rahimahullah.
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz represents reform, and radical reform. Alright, and I know that has certain meanings in the western context, that's not all I'm talking about. But you talk about an agenda of change.
What Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz rahimahullah did in this ummah is nothing short of remarkable, over less than two and a half years. But his son thought he was moving too slow. He loved his son, Abd al-Malik rahimahullah ibn Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. He loved him a lot. And his son used to advise him and admonish him. That was the type of relationship he had with his son.
You talk about security, it was a home of da'wah and enjoining good and forbidding evil. And what did he tell his son as his son advocated for a rougher, quicker, you know, overhaul of everything? What did he say to him?
He said to him, Oh my son, do you want me to force them all upon the order of Allah at one time, so that they leave it all at one time? Meaning if I try to force them on it now, if I put them all on it right now by the stick and just quickly like give it to them as it is, and this is the new way of life, and this is how you're gonna have to be from now on, and force them all to the, you know, jump on the bandwagon of the sunnah now. Get on it all together.
If I do that all at one time, then as soon as the authority that brought them in and settled them in is gone, they will leave it all at one time too. So that acceptance is going to lead to a counter rejection that will be just as severe as that which forced them on to it at one time. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ) understood even as he was advocating and pushing things forward that were unprecedented in this ummah, that he had to be cognizant of that.
That was not obscuring the standard. That was recognizing where people are at, knowing where his people were at, knowing what they could chew, and giving it to them in a way where the interest was that they would preserve that deen, and that there would be continuity of the ideals, the belief first and foremost, and the ideals that stem from that belief in the generations to come, in the children of those people that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was transforming, not just in the people that he himself was transforming (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ وَأَرْضَاهُ).
Conclusion: Finding the Balance
So the idea here, dear brothers and sisters, again, we have this panel insha'Allah where I'm going to be asking Sheikh Hatim some questions, and hopefully having a conversation about these things.
The idea is how do we find that balance? How do we strike that balance? Just know this, and this is going to be very personal. I'll share this with you. Sometimes people ask about how to be a speaker, and how do I go be a speaker? How do I do this? How do I do that?
Someone, you know, anyone that's experienced very heavily the religious traditions of others, you can find that preaching is very performative, especially in some of the more dynamic, if you will, or public forms of Christianity, for example, today, right? Certain denominations, the culture of preaching is one that's very performance-based.
Like a preacher gets up and gives a show, puts on a show. And I remember, you know, going and viewing, and it still fascinates me sometimes, because I'm like, man, we got to step up our game as Islamic speakers. We are not up to par with some of the things that people are used to and accustomed to.
And sometimes you just see a straight performance, and you go, wow. And then you look around the audience, and people are just like looking at their watch, like, when is this going to be over? And is it done yet? And you wonder why there is no connection that's being made.
The Prophet's Authentic Interaction
Whereas you look at the Prophet صالة الله and I just thought about the effect. Imagine sitting in the masjid of the Prophet صالة الله and al-Hassan wa al-Husayn, may Allah be pleased with them, walk in, and the Prophet picks up his grandkids in the middle of his khutbah. He gets down from the minbar, picks them up, sits down, puts them on his lap, and continues to talk to them.
It wasn't just the message about how we shouldn't hate kids in the masjid, by the way, which is a thing. The message was one that the Prophet was always conveying to his community, even if that wasn't necessarily the primary intention behind his message. His action that he's in conversation with them.
That at the end of the day, we're a community that's on a boat. We're trying to sail towards a proper destination. And the people on the upper deck have to be compassionate with those on the lower deck. And the clarity of the message has to remain. But in the process of maintaining the clarity of that message, don't restrict it to a few people, because that will also be counterproductive, and will not serve the goal of preservation.
There is a way to maintain the clarity of the message, while at the same time, delivering it in a way that is most conducive to truly preserving it in both word and in deed, at the individual and at the community level.
So we ask Allah to bless us with that, to allow us to ourselves be upon that which is clear, that which is truthful, that which is closest to what was intended for us, and at the same time to maintain sincerity in that, and in sincerely maintaining our own convictions in that clear message, to deliver it with sincerity to those that might be struggling with it a little more than we are in certain aspects of their religion.
وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ.