Live Fully and Righteously! Professor Sherman Jackson Abd al-Hakim

Live Fully and Righteously!

Professor Sherman Jackson 'Abd al-Hakim'

Opening

"Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."

"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."

"All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the wickedness of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, no one can lead astray; and whomever Allah leads astray, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone without any partners; and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger."

I want to say, first of all, that I'm very honored to be here. This is my first time being in a masjid in Oakland. And I speak from the perspective of 30 years as a Muslim in this country.

And one of the things that, in fact, the only thought that I really want to leave us with today is a thought that has to do with the seriousness of historical consciousness. I know that's a big word, so I'm going to try and break it down in terms that will be really meaningful to us, because I really think it's important for us as Muslims, especially in this day and age, in these times that we're living in, that we understand who we are historically, that we understand what our historical role is, that we understand that we would not be here, not in this place, not in this time, not with this diversity, not with this racial diversity, not with this ethnic diversity, not with this linguistic diversity, not in the most powerful, the most influential, the wealthiest country in the history of humankind. We would not be in this place if it were not Allah's will that we be here.

And what we all have to do is we have to recognize that this is Allah's will that we are here, in this diversity, in these numbers, in this place, and in this time. And in that light, we have to understand that we have a historical role to play. And in point of fact, what Imam Zaid said in the khutbah about greatness, I would simply add this.

We are going to be a great community. The only question is whether we are going to be a great success or a great failure, because the reality is that when the history of Islam in the West, in America, is written a hundred years from now, no generation will probably be looked upon as having played a greater role, a more pivotal role, a more informative role, than this generation in which we are living right now. This is the generation that will determine whether Islam in America will be a flash in the pan, something that came and went, as the Qur'an says about many other communities, or whether we will be the beginning of a renaissance of Islam.

Whether we will be the beacon that allows Islam to be beamed out, not only to the rest of this country, but to the rest of the world. We have to understand who we are in this world today, here, right here in America. We, American Muslims.

The fact of the matter is that, and this will not be the case forever. It is the case today. It will probably be the case maybe for another hundred years, maybe for two hundred more years.

But after that, the lantern of civilization will probably pass to someone else. It will not be the Americans. America's star will probably have begun to wane by then.

And I don't say that as someone who wishes ill for my own country. I don't say that for someone who wishes ill for America. I say that as someone who is looking at America through the prism of history. And that no civilization lasts forever. No human civilization lasts forever. All of them have a beginning, they have a middle, and they have an end.

And America will have an end like all other civilizations have an end. But right now, we are in America. Right now, we are the people whom Allah has chosen, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to carry the message of Islam in America.

And if we, if we, if we, this community here, if we, if we are successful at being able to subdue our egos, and able to therefore parlay all of the genius that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has implanted in this community, if we are able to work that into a livable, workable, social, religious order, a cultural order, a political order, an economic order, a civilization that can draw the attraction, that can earn the esteem, that can be the envy of other communities, if we are able to do that here in America, then we will have a multiplier effect that will be heard around the world. Anything we do in America has a multiplier effect. If I write a book, and it's a successful book, in 6 months it will be translated into 27 different languages.

And it will be all over the world. If I write that same book in Spain or in France, it may go into 2 or 3 other languages, and that will be the extent of its multiplier effect. So we Muslims here in America are successful at translating Allah's will subhanahu wa ta'ala into a livable, breathing, empowering, invigorating, inspiring reality that enables human beings to do 2 things.

And this is the genius of Islam, that we have to find a way of communicating to the people. You know, some religions have come into the world and they have focused on living righteously. And they have told people that living fully, that's for somebody else.

As religious people, we want to live righteously. There have been other ideologies that have come into the world and have said, we want to live fully. All those people who want to be spiritual and live righteously, they go over there and do something else.

The genius of Islam. The genius of Islam. And no one who studies the Sunnah of our Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) can fail to see this.

The genius of Islam is that this is a religion, this is a way of life that calls upon us to live both fully and righteously. And that there is no contradiction between the two. That is the very meaning of Islam.

We know the famous hadith of the people who came to the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم). And talked about, I'm not going to eat. I'm going to spend all night praying. I'm not going to marry.

What did the Prophet (صلّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) say to them? You are not one of me then. You are not one of me then. You want to just live just righteously? You're not one of me.

I sleep some nights. I sleep part of the night. I pray part of the night.

I fast some days. I eat some days. And I marry.

Hadith Reference:

Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5063; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1401

Narrated Anas bin Malik: A group of three men came to the houses of the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) asking how the Prophet (ﷺ) worshipped (Allah), and when they were informed about that, they considered their worship insufficient and said, "Where are we from the Prophet (ﷺ) as Allah has forgiven his past and future sins." Then one of them said, "I will offer the prayer throughout the night forever." The other said, "I will fast throughout the year and will not break my fast." The third said, "I will abstain from women and will not marry forever." Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came to them and said, "Are you the same people who said so-and-so? By Allah, I am more submissive to Allah and afraid of Him than you; yet I fast and break my fast, I do sleep and I also marry women. So he who does not follow my tradition is not from me (not one of my followers)."

The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) was a uswah hasanah of how we can live life fully and righteously. Not just righteously. Not just fully.

But fully and righteously. That is the message of Islam. And that is what the world is crying out for today.

And if we want to look at what our youth and our young people are suffering from today. It's that imbalance between how we live fully and how we live righteously. We are the generation who has to find that formula.

We are the generation who has to parley our skills. Parley our knowledge. And by the way, it's not all just religious knowledge.

And I want to be very clear about that. And then I'm going to be quiet because I don't want to get into a khutbah. But we have to understand that we have to have people who know ahkam of salah.

Who know ahkam of wudu. Who know ahkam of baghi. Who know all of the ahkam.

In fact, who know ahkam that have yet to be arrived at yet. Because we have yet to really contemplate this reality that is American reality. Which is going to call upon us to develop some new ahkam that are related to these realities.

We need people who can do that. At the same time, we need poets. We need fashion designers.

We need comedians. We need business people. We need people who can help us to put together a civilization.

That combines that formula of living fully and living righteously. We need comedians even. And in that regard, everyone has their role to play.

Everyone has their role to play. I might be the scholar. You might be the business person.

I might be the engineer. You might be the poet. I might be the martial arts instructor.

You might be the person who has the next Facebook. I don't know what those things are. I'm a technophobe myself.

But somebody else can do that maybe. My point here is that let us not go away from here thinking that greatness can only be by becoming a religious scholar. Khalid ibn Walid, the great general of the Muslims, was not one of the major ulama among the Sahaba.

But he was one of those people who was able to contribute to the Muslim community in a manner that was absolutely critical. And we must understand that all of you have a role. Each and every one of you have a role.

Because each and every one of you have been gifted by Allah subhana wa ta'ala with whatever gifts He has given you. And it is time for us to subdue our ego. To devote ourselves to Allah.

To find that path to ourselves. Imam Zaid mentioned Ibn Ataullah. I'll mention one last thing about him and I'll stop.

One of the things that we have to understand is that we have to clear the path between ourselves and ourselves and ourselves and Allah. Many of us don't find greatness because we don't find ourselves. We're too busy trying to be like someone else.

We're too busy at looking at how someone else became great. What their greatness is. And because we don't have a focus on Allah, we can't find a straight path to what has Allah given me.

What is the greatness that Allah wants me to achieve? Not everybody can be a Muhammad Ali. What is the greatness that Allah wants me to achieve? And what we have to understand is that when we find that path to ourselves, when we find that path to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, then the talents, the gifts, the ingrained values that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has given us can find their fruition. They can find their expression.

But again as Imam Zaid said, they have got to be for the pleasure of Allah. We have got to subdue this ego. We have got to subdue this self.

We have to understand that that is not necessarily our friend. And this is part of what Islam teaches us. That we are to be people who are masters of ourselves and who are not slaves to ourselves.

We can take our talents, we can take our knowledge, and we can go beyond ourselves because we're not imprisoned by that. So I just want to end by saying that I'm very honored to be here. It's very humbling to be here.

As I said, I speak as someone who's been a Muslim for over 30 years. I'm originally from Philadelphia. That's on the east coast of America.

And today, one can travel from the east coast all the way to the west coast and find the Jumu'ah anywhere in the country. That's in a short span of 30 years. You know, often times we have so much coming at us, so much negativity, terrorism, this, that and the other, that we forget.

We're not able to step back and look at what Allah has blessed us with. Look at what we have been able to achieve. Despite the setbacks, despite the challenges.

Look at us. We are everywhere throughout this country. We are black, we are white, we are Arab, we are Persian, we are Indo-Pakistani.

We are all over America. And Islam is here. And now the question is, what are we going to do with this? What are we going to do with the opportunities? What are we going to do with the challenges that Allah has placed in our life? And in that regard, one thing we should not forget is the model, is the example, is exemplar of our Prophet (صلّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). And let us letus, let us, let us not forget that.

That, that, that we will, we will come upon hard times. There will be difficult days for us. Just like they were for the Prophet.

Alright? But Imam Zaid mentioned a great champion, Muhammad Ali. I want to leave you with something that I hope will stick with you for some time. Because often times, we don't really know the meaning of a champion.

We think that a champion is somebody who never hits the canvas. Who never hits the canvas. We think that that's what, what it means to be a champion.

Always win. Right? The, the, the real test of a champion is not whether or not you ever hit the canvas. If you ever get knocked down.

But the real test is how quickly do you get up? And what do you do when you get up? Alright? If you want to know how great a champion Muhammad Ali was, I want everybody to do this right now. I'm not joking. This is, this is serious.

Open your mouth. Real wide. I'm not, this is not a joke.

And do like this. You feel that? No, no. Hit your jaw like that.

You feel that? You feel that in your head? You, you feel that inside your head? Huh? Now when a fighter gets tired, I used to box, I know. You know, when they start out, you ever hear that? You ever hear that? Part of that is to teach you to breathe out of your nose. Right? If you breathe out of your nose, you keep your mouth what? Keep your mouth closed.

When a fighter gets tired, trying to get more oxygen. So he does what? Open that mouth. Now you saw how it felt when you just, just tapped that like that.

Right? Muhammad Ali got hit in the 15th round by Joe Frazier left hook. Mouth wide open. And guess what? If you had sneezed, you would have missed it.

Because he hit the canvas, got right back up, and went back to war. That's a champion. That's a champion.

When we hit the canvas, the question is, will we get back up? Or will we get back into the battle? Ask Allah to bless you, and to bless me, and to bless us all. To bless us to see who we are. Where we are.

What we are. And what our role is. Jazakumullah khair.

Wassalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Closing

"O Allah, send Your peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, his family, and all his companions."

"Our Lord, give us in this world [that which is] good and in the Hereafter [that which is] good and protect us from the punishment of the Fire."

"Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people."

"And peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."