Discovering Our Role in Society by Imam Omer Sulieman

Discovering Our Role in Society

Imam Omar Suleiman

Opening

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

Dear brothers and sisters, as the topic was discovering our role, and actually to be very honest with you, I was up until about 2:20 p.m. absolutely positive that there was no way that I was going to be delivering this lecture, because our flight arrived at 2:30. (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ - alhamdulillah rabbil 'alamin) Allah always makes a way out for these things.

The Problem with "Making Islam Relevant"

And to be very honest with you, usually I'm not quite, I'm not very fond of these topics, because usually whenever I see these topics, it screams out to me what it screams out to many other people, that this is going to be this, as one brother, one of my murabbis called it, intellectual amusement about how Muslims need to be establishing hospitals, and Muslims need to be involved in politics, and Muslims need to be this, and Muslims need to be that, and we need to teach our kids to be the next, you know, that we need to teach our kids that you are going to be the next president of this country, and so on so forth, or well now it's degenerated, you know, we gave up on president, and we moved it to Miss USA, whatever it is, we just need to get Muslims up there somehow, and some way Muslims need to be in control, and this is the way it should be. And most people leave that talk, or leave that convention, and what you say to yourself is, you know, mashallah, good speaker, and that was a really good lecture. There's absolutely no practicality in it.

It's just an ideal situation that we have not even inched close towards, so we cannot even begin to talk about those things until we take gradual steps. But dear brothers and sisters, I want to categorize the attitudes that we as Muslims have towards civic responsibility, and I ask you from the bottom of my heart, please do not be offended if you feel like you're being targeted. Alhamdulillah I live all the way down south, I don't know most of you, so you can't feel like I'm attacking you personally.

Four Categories of Muslim Attitudes Toward Civic Responsibility

But it's just the mentalities that we have in regards to social and civic responsibility.

First Category: "We Need to Make Islam Relevant"

And the first category of people, or the first attitude, is based on a model that unfortunately has been floated around for the last year in almost every single gathering, and that is we need to make Islam relevant. We need to make Islam relevant.

And you know something, I give the benefit of a doubt to my beloved scholars and da'iyas who sometimes say this statement, meaning something else and not realizing the implication, of those who first say that we need to make Islam relevant. Look at the word make. We need to make Islam relevant? Does that mean that Islam is not already relevant to our society? SubhanAllah, that's such a dangerous statement, because within this attitude you would have various degrees.

You would have the attitude that we need to have some sort of artificial role in society, where we need to make sure that we get in every single White House gathering and make sure our pictures get taken. We need to make sure that every time the Pope comes we give him a nice "Allahu Akbar" calligraphy. We need to make sure that we send out nice PSAs and we say we are God's children, all of us are God's children.

Let's make Islam relevant. And sometimes this attitude leads to us compromising very key aspects of our own aqidah, of our own theology, and of the sunnah of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and eventually we start to abandon our principles and we start to only look for the cameras, just to make sure that the name Islam is being put out there. It doesn't matter if there is any substance to that name of Islam, just make sure Islam is being put out there.

It doesn't matter if we have to compromise our principles, just make sure Islam is out there. And again, within this attitude, within this behavior, there are degrees. Some of us will take it to an extreme, and some of us very sincerely think that this is the way we should go about making change.

But dear brothers and sisters, Islam has never changed a society in that fashion before. Starting from Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) to the Mushrikeen of Quraish, and actually the entire world, from Ibn Taymiyyah to the Mongols, Allah never gave guidance to a society and never asked Muslims to act in that role just to make up some sort of artificial role, that we are here. It doesn't matter what we're doing, but we're here and you should respect that.

Second Category: Complete Withdrawal from Society

And subhanAllah, this leads to many things. And then you have the other extreme, which is that we cannot do anything for this society. That we're not even supposed to be here in the first place.

That we're not doing our jobs and we're all terrible people and we should avoid every single social and civic responsibility, so we cannot get involved in any form of politics. So you have the first group that will jump to the national stage and any political scientist will tell you that you can't jump to national politics until you've dealt with what? Local politics. Until you are doing things locally.

And then you have the other extreme, that all politics are haram, giving food to non-Muslims is haram, doing these feed the homeless programs is wrong, this is all wrong, why are you doing this? These people can get a job, we should be sending our money overseas. The exact opposite. And since when did Allah only command us to be a comfort to our society when we are in control? Because the answer will be, we don't have a khilafah.

We don't have a khilafah, so we shouldn't be caring about these things. We don't have a khilafah. What about Yusuf (عليه السلام)? The idea that working together with other people on things that we agree upon while not being complacent and approving of the things that we don't agree upon.

That idea is completely being thrown out. What about Yusuf (عليه السلام)? Who worked as a wazir, who worked as a minister for a pagan king and was excellent at what he did. Does that mean that Yusuf (عليه السلام) was endorsing shirk? And does that mean that Islam is not socially relevant?

The Difference Between "Making Islam Relevant" and "Islam is Relevant"

And this is the thing, there is a big difference between saying we need to make Islam relevant and Islam is relevant.

It's true, Lut (عليه السلام) did not come to his people and say, oh my people, your clothes are dragging on the ground and this is your problem. Lut (عليه السلام) addressed the problem last time along with introducing and the prime aspect of introduction is tawheed, that tawheed would rid you of these ills. Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), Allah did not ignore the young girls who were being buried alive and wait until the Medina period where all the other ahkam were coming.

But at the same time, the principle, the key aspects of Islam were being introduced and what about the story of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when he was a minority, when the Muslims were a minority and this is where the other extreme comes in. Are we not supposed to be socially relevant when we are a minority and only wait until we establish khilafah and everything will be okay and then we can be socially relevant?

The Story of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and Abu Jahl

I want to just let you know this small story, many of you have heard it, where a man comes to the leaders of Quraysh and he complains to them that Abu Jahl has taken a haq from him, that Abu Jahl has not repaid to him a debt. And the leaders of Quraysh want to have a little bit of fun.

So they tell him, they say, why don't you go to this man named Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and he is going to make everything okay for you. And they are saying it as a mockery. When the man shows up at the doorstep of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), does he say, I am sorry, I don't work in this government, this is a non-Muslim society, you have to go figure out how to do it yourself.

Or does Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) walk with that person to the door of Abu Jahl, bang on the door of Abu Jahl, demand the right of that person, and Abu Jahl runs and goes and gets the money and gives it to that person. And then the man goes back to Quraysh and says, thank you, thanks for referring me to Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), it worked out well. They go to Abu Jahl, Abu Jahl, what happened to you? Well actually they call him Abu al-Hakam, what happened to you? He says, wallahi when Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came, when he knocked on the door, and I opened the door, I saw two lions on his shoulders about to devour me if I did not return the haq to that man.

Since when are we not supposed to be a place of comfort in our society if we're a minority? So these are two extreme attitudes.

Third Category: Idealistic Without Action

And then you have the idealistic attitude, which is, oh look at us, we're sitting here talking about homeless shelters and feed the homeless programs and feed the hungry programs. Look at the Jews, they have hospitals and they have this and they have that.

How come we're not like them? Why don't you start with the feed the homeless program? Why don't you start a clinic in your masjid once a week? Why don't you start something small and then we'll talk about hospitals. Then we'll talk about moving up that ladder. But don't just sit back and talk about it.

Allah has ordered you to be a source of comfort to your society. How are you doing that? And subhanallah, even with the core issue of zakat, zakat is one of our pillars of Islam. And from the hadith of Mu'adh (رضي الله عنه) when he was sent to Yemen by Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and he was commanded, take from their rich and give to their poor.

The ulama, without any exceptions, will at least say it's mustahab to give zakat in your locality. Because you are supposed to be relevant to your society. Don't make Islam relevant.

Islam is already relevant.

Fourth Category: Criticizing Every Effort

And then there's the fourth category, dear brothers and sisters, where we just sit back and criticize every effort. And let me tell you for a fact, every single effort is going to have its flaws.

Every single effort is going to have its loopholes. And this is not just specific to relief work. This is in general when you're talking about the da'wah, when you're talking about Islamic work, whether it's relief, whether it's passing out why Islam pamphlets or putting up billboards, whatever it is, it's going to have its loopholes.

But don't sit back and criticize the people who are doing it. Because you yourself don't want to do that. You yourself do not want to get involved.

The Example of Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه)

And we go back to the very early attitude of the mushrikeen towards Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه) who was giving his money right and left. And when he freed Bilal (رضي الله عنه) for that unbelievable price, what did they say? They said, well, he probably had a deal with Bilal and he owed him something. You know, they had a deal before and Abu Bakr said that I'm going to free you as a result of that deal.

Allah praised Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه) in the Quran that he would be freed from hellfire. The one who gives his money to purify himself. We are not here, dear brothers and sisters, to completely give up our deen and to compromise on everything just to get our pictures taken.

At the same time, we are not here just to talk out of game and talk about this future idealistic society when we have a khilafah and everything is okay. It's somewhere in between there. We are to be a comfort to our society, start small.

The Power of Small Actions

You know something, dear brothers and sisters, if you were to take dessert to your neighbors on the day of Eid, that can reverse three years of programming from Bill O'Reilly about what Islam really is. Small steps, subhanAllah, small steps when Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said that Jibreel (عليه السلام) came to me and he kept on commanding me with the neighbor. I thought that he was going to give him from my inheritance because of how much Jibreel (عليه السلام) kept emphasizing this point to Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

Two Stories About Proper Understanding

And I would just end with one story. You know something, subhanAllah, actually two. It's amazing how we always look for others to pick us up and we don't look to pick others up.

The Story of the Two Birds

And this is a story from a very beautiful scholar. His name is Muhammad Hussain Yaqub. He's from Egypt and he was telling the story of one of his students who came to him and he told him that he's going to join some deviant group and he's going to go sit in the masjid and everything is going to come to him.

And he told him, what led you to that? He said, well, I was walking and I saw a bird that had a clipped wing and the bird was just sitting there. And then another bird came and started to feed it, started to bring it food and started to bathe it and started to take care of it. So I said, ah, that's the tawakkul.

That's what it's supposed to be like. So I'm just going to go wait in the masjid until Allah does the same thing for me. And then he came back to Sheikh Muhammad Hussain Yaqub very upset.

And he said, this whole thing is just all wrong. And this is this whole tawakkul thing doesn't exist. And he said, subhanAllah, why are you being such a fool? Didn't you think to be the bird that was bringing the food instead of the bird that had the clipped wing and that was waiting there for the other bird to bring the food for it? It's a very small and funny example, but at the same time, it was lived and it was reflected, subhanAllah, in the behavior of a salaf as-salih.

The Story of Abdullah Ibn Mubarak and His Jewish Neighbor

And I'll just mention one more story and I promise this is the end of it. But subhanAllah, you know, this example is actually the one that would keep an Islamic worker going in this society. Abdullah ibn Mubarak, rahimahullah, one of the greatest scholars this ummah has ever seen.

Abdullah ibn Mubarak, rahimahullah, his neighbor was a Jew. And Abdullah ibn Mubarak, before becoming a scholar, very few of us are aware that he actually wasn't very scholarly. In fact, he was very away from the deen of Allah.

Very rich, inherited a huge amount of money from his father, you know, used to have parties in his home, used to engage in very, very major acts of sin and disobedience to Allah. And then Allah guided him, and this is a whole story in and of itself, Allah guided him and he became the Abdullah ibn Mubarak that history knows today, rahimahullah. Huge scholar.

And students would flood his home, flood the masjid. Anywhere he went, there was a crowd to learn from him, rahimahullah. So after he became this great scholar and everyone knew who he was, all of his students wanted to go move in next to him because they would follow him to his home, they would take him whenever he comes out of his home, they would be at his service, they would keep asking him questions.

They were after him. So they wanted to buy the home that was next to him from the neighbor who was a Jew. And it turned out that every single day, Abdullah ibn Mubarak, rahimahullah, before he would go to his own house, he would stop at his neighbor's house and he would give him groceries and he would give him things before he would go to his own home and give to his own family.

So they go to this man and they say, how much do you want for this house? So he says, $1,000 for the value of the house and $1,000 for having Abdullah ibn Mubarak as your neighbor. You know something, subhanAllah, you know what our neighbors get out of us in this country? We park on their lawns, we block their driveways on the day of Jum'ah, we probably don't talk to them whenever we come out, very rude. SubhanAllah, imagine if people felt that way about us, if people actually were happy that Muslims were here.

Practical Call to Action

If we live the way that we're supposed to live, and I'm not talking about, again, the grand ideal stage, don't even think about that stuff right now. Start from yourself, start small, and watch what Allah will do.

Wallahi, there is not a single person in here who cannot contribute to ikna relief, either financially or with your time. What we saw in Louisiana was absolutely incredible. We don't have the community of New York, we don't have the community of these huge cities, we have a very small community. But Allah blessed that effort over there that it is recognized nationwide, the effort of ikna relief right now is being recognized nationwide, not because we get our banner up in many places and we make sure that our picture is taken all the time, but if you ask anyone who works within FEMA now, or Catholic Charities, or Red Cross, all of them know Ikna Relief USA.

And I cannot even begin to tell you how many people have accepted Islam because of this effort. And you might think it's all a game, but I saw with my own two eyes people accepting Islam in large numbers, not because we gave them a copy of Quran, not because we talked to them a lot, not because we made sure that we were very stern with them and we made sure that we held on and we isolated ourselves from them, it was because they saw what Islam is really all about. It's not just getting your picture taken.

Specific Recommendations

And I want every single doctor in here, and I know we have a lot of doctors in the Muslim community, mashallah, every single doctor, think about establishing a medical clinic in your community, even if it's just two hours a week. Ikna Relief would provide you with everything that you need. Anyone in here, brother or sister, brother or sister, if you can just manage to establish once a week a Feed the Homeless program, start simple, get together, make 50 sandwiches and go give it to somebody.

Just start small and do something. We just cannot sit back and look at this ideal picture, because that picture is far away right now. So we can only ask Allah, this starts with myself, because I know how far this work has to go, we can only ask Allah to make us amongst those who live up to that role, without compromising their principles, without compromising the example of our beloved Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), but instead following it as much as possible and being a comfort to our society, even as a Muslim minority.