Give History

Give History

Imam Omar Suleiman

Opening

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and from the wickedness of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide him; and whomever He misguides, none can guide.

I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, without partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, may Allah send blessings and peace upon him, his family, and his companions, an abundant salutation.

Introduction: A Scholar's Humble Life

Dear brothers and sisters, first and foremost, I would not accept to be compared in the same category as my shaykh and my imam, Siraj Wahhaj.

But I will mention something very significant that I think is in line with what he was just now introducing, what our brother was just now introducing. Over the summer, I was actually in Jordan for three weeks. And in those three weeks, there was a very significant scholar who passed away, a shaykh, Abdullah bin Jibreel rahimahullah, who arguably, this is only my opinion, was the most knowledgeable scholar in the world when he passed away.

Someone who, if you met him, you would be inspired and he could inspire a movement inside of you, just by coming in his presence, rahimahullah. But he died only a few weeks after Michael Jackson. And so, in Jordan, in the Muslim world, the TV was all about the death of Michael Jackson.

They were showing the people in the streets crying and moonwalking and singing and hanging pictures. And then you have Abdullah bin Jibreel rahimahullah. And I thought to myself, what a tragedy.

And then, in just one small clip on TV when they covered his death, they were going through the portions of his life very quickly and his contributions in about four minutes before they got to what was the real news at that time. And they showed his house. And you would think that someone like Abdullah bin Jibreel rahimahullah would live in a very nice house, at least a decent house, where people come and access him all the time.

Definitely, people come and speak to him and ask him for fatwa and things of that sort. And his house was a mud house. Literally, a mud house. If you would see that house, you would think to yourself, do these homes even exist today? And I thought to myself, you would tell people about him, they would say, who? Ibn Jibreel? Who is this person that passed away? Because the minds were occupied and the hearts were occupied by something else. But what is the status of this person in the eyes of Allah?

The Prophet's Simple Life

And I remembered a hadith from the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) actually, the story of Umar bin al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) when he walks in the home of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam), and he sees Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) get up from his bed, and the branches which constitute the bed of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) left marks all over his back. And Umar bin al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) broke down in tears, and Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "Ya Umar, what is making you cry?" And he says, "Ya Rasulullah, I have seen the palaces of Rome and Caesar, and you are so much more deserving of that."

He is telling the truth, (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu). And then Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) answers with the words, which can define a movement and define a purpose in life:

"Aren't you satisfied, O Umar, that for them belongs the dunya and for us belongs the akhirah?" (Bukhari)

A few words of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) that summed up the mission of what every believer should be following.

The Year of Ashes (Aam al-Ramadah)

And dear brothers and sisters, I'll take you to the year 18 after hijrah. It's called Aam al-Ramadah in Islamic history, the year of ashes. When Umar bin al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) was the khalifa of this ummah. And this ummah was struck by famine and plague, where the believers were dying right and left, in Medina and outside of Medina. In fact, 60,000 refugees came from outside, from other areas of the Muslim ummah to come to Medina to seek help from the khalifa.

But the khalifa, Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) had nothing to give them in terms of money, in terms of meat, in terms of bread. He couldn't provide for them. And so 40,000 of those 60,000 refugees died in Medina.

And their bodies were in the streets because they were being attacked by wild beasts. And the birds, as Malik bin al-Aws (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) narrates, the birds, the crows were eating from their flesh in the middle of the streets. And Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) was praying janazah by the tents.

Umar's Sacrifice and Leadership

And he was making dua to Allah:

"Oh Allah, do not cause the ummah of Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) to collapse on my hands, on my watch."

And Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) in those moments, now this is a man who is taking the scraps of bread and trying to scrape a piece of metal that butter once touched, trying to salvage that taste. And he would take that piece of bread and he would wipe it on that small scrap of metal and he would keep on licking it until he could get no more taste of butter.

And Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) sees this. And he says, "Wallahi, I will never eat meat, bread or butter until the ummah of Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) eats that." And he forbids himself from those things.

And he says:

"How could it be that I am a shepherd for these people and what is afflicting them is not afflicting me."

And if you read the seerah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) you see that his color changed completely because of the famine. And Malik ibn Aws narrates from Aslam (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) that we knew that if this famine was not lifted in a few months that Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) was going to die.

The Watermelon Incident

And I'll take you just to one moment in that period where the son of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) is carrying a piece of watermelon. And Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) sees this and in amazement he says:

"The son of the commander of the believers is eating watermelon!"

And he chases his son until his son goes to his mother's arms trying to force away a piece of watermelon. Dear brothers and sisters, do you know how tough it must have been for Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) to have to take that piece of watermelon away from his own child? The feeling of not being able to provide for your family. This is the toughest feeling in the world.

Not being able to provide for his own family but rather carrying the whole entire Ummah on his back. And Allah lifted that famine from them. But imagine those moments, what they must have been like.

He was human too (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu). The sahaba were human beings, they were not mutants. They were not something out of a Marvel comic book. They were human beings and they had human feelings. And these are the type of moments that we should look at and truly reflect on.

The Beautiful Loan to Allah

When Allah says in the Quran:

"Who is the one who will loan to Allah a beautiful loan?"

We all know the story. Abu Dahda (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) hears this and he says:

"O Messenger of Allah, I have 600 palm trees. I'm donating them all for the sake of Allah as a loan to Allah."

The Human Cost of Sacrifice

We all know this story. But how must it have felt when he goes home and he sees his children eating from the dates of those palm trees and his wife picking them for her children. And now he has to tell his wife that this does not belong to us anymore.

And he has to tell his wife that this belongs to Allah now. How tough would that have been? And how tough was it for his righteous wife Umm Dahda (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا - radi Allahu 'anha) when she takes the hands of her children and she starts knocking the dates out of their hands. Imagine that feeling.

The Prophet's Greater Struggle

And when you look at those feelings dear brothers and sisters, don't think that Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) struggled any less than them. Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) in Khandaq did something that is worth a million words. When Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) goes to Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and you wonder where Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) got this tarbiyah from.

And the Muslims are cut off from food and drink and Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) raises his shirt. This is a conversation with no words. And he shows Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) that on his stomach there is a stone tied to it because of the hunger that he was facing.

Only Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) could answer that without words when he (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) lifted his shirt and there were two stones tied to his stomach. However much the Ummah struggled, Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) always struggled more. Any situation that you look at, you would always find that Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) wasn't just preaching.

Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was not just giving da'wah. Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was living. Quran yamshi fil ardi. He was a Quran walking on the face of the earth. Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was living those things.

The Key to Righteousness

And dear brothers and sisters, Allah says and this is the point that I want to drive home and I ask Allah that it strikes all of our hearts because it's an ayah from the Quran:

"You will not achieve righteousness until you give from that which you love."

Very simple but very profound. When Allah says "until you give." But Allah didn't stop there.

"Until you give from that which you love." When you sacrifice that which you actually have an attachment to. Don't think that Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) was someone who was used to this form of life, this form of poverty.

Umar's Complete Transformation

Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) before Islam represented nationalism, represented the عزة of al-Quraysh. The pride of al-Quraysh. And he's the same one. Not only with his money. Not only did he live in poverty because of the message that he believed in. But he gave up the very thing which fueled his hate for Islam before he was a Muslim.

Before Allah gave victory to it through him. Think about those moments when Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) is entering into al-Quds and his clothes are all patched up and there's mud all over them and he has a servant on his horse, on his camel and he's walking into al-Quds and Abu Ubaidah al-Jarrah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) comes to him and tells him, "you've embarrassed us." And Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) pushes him and he says:

"We are a people who Allah gave pride to, gave honor to through Islam. And if we seek honor in any other way, Allah will humiliate us."

Umar's Final Humility

What does that mean? This person, when he was dying, the same Umar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) man of pride, the one who was a flag bearer for Quraysh, literally an ambassador for Quraysh. And in his last moments of life, with his head on the knee of his son Abdullah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) Umar tells his son, "Oh my son, put my head in the dirt, in the dust so that when Allah looks at me, and when I return to Allah, Allah will show some mercy on me."

A complete turnaround.

Apply this to every aspect of your life. Your money, your time, your health. Every aspect of your life should be defined by Islam. And Islam is a movement in and of itself. There isn't a grassroots aspect of Islam that some people should take care of this, some people should take care of that.

The Response of the Sahaba

Islam is a movement in itself. What was the response of the Sahaba to that ayah? Abu Talha (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu 'anhu) when he heard this ayah, Abu Talha owned the two best gardens of Medina. And he said to Rasulullah (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) "These are the two most beloved gardens to me."

This is what I can think of. He didn't think to himself when this ayah came down, "Where is my pocket change?" Just like you will not be successful in dunya through pocket change, You will not be successful in akhirah through pocket change. He thought what are the two most beloved gardens to me? What is the thing that I'm most attached to? Let me give that for the sake of Allah.

The Reality of Our Situation

Dear brothers and sisters, A lot of us like to sit and talk about the ideal situation here in the United States. What Muslims could be in the United States. You go to dinner gatherings and you feel like you've solved the problems of the world.

Not only do we solve the problems of the Muslims in the United States, We solve the problems of the Muslims in Pakistan. We solve the problems of the Muslims in Egypt. We solve everyone's problems.

But talk is cheap. How much do you dedicate to this effort? The train has already left the station. I know Imam Siraj Muhammad dedicated his life to this and he's seen the Muslims grow a lot in this country.

And I know 30 years ago, when you were sitting on that bus, you probably would have been very pleased to know that there are Muslim women's shelters now today, that there are Y-Stand campaigns on subways, on buses. This was the dream of people who really dedicated themselves to this 30 years ago.

Give History

And I'll personally give, you know, my endorsement to the title, "Give History," you know, today, because this is what it is, dear brothers and sisters. 30 years ago, 30 years from now, what are people going to say