The Quran for Humanity

The Quran for Humanity

Khutbah by Imam Siraj Wahaj

Opening: The Quran as Guidance and Unity

This Quran unites us to the path of goodness and guides us. Allah, the Exalted, has sent it down, and the Messenger of Allah is our Teacher. This Quran unites us to the path of goodness and guides us. Allah, the Exalted, has sent it down, and the Messenger of Allah is our Teacher.

You are Allah's witnesses on earth. You are Allah's witnesses on earth.

Praising Allah and Seeking His Guidance

Brothers and sisters, we praise Allah the Almighty, we bear witness that nothing deserves to be served except Allah, nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah, and we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is Allah's messenger and servant. We seek refuge with Allah from the weakness of ourselves, and we bear witness that whomever Allah guides is guided aright, and whomever Allah leads to error, no one can guide them. We ask Allah to bless His messenger Muhammad ﷺ, and bless his family, and bless his companions. Ameen.

Brothers and sisters, in the beginning of this great akhlaq conference this weekend, I make dua that Allah will bless this gathering, will bless every speaker who speaks to guide their tongue, so that his servants will benefit. I seek refuge with what the Prophet ﷺ did, he said, (اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ لَا يَنْفَعُ - Allahumma inni a'uzu bika min 'ilmin la yanfa') (Sahih Muslim 2722) - O Allah, I seek refuge with You from knowledge that doesn't benefit.

So we're going to be here at this akhlaq conference, today and tomorrow and Sunday, and inshallah we will never come here and leave the same way that we came. And I ask Allah to bless us to leave better than when we came.

Introduction to the Conference Theme: Al-Quran for Humanity

Brothers and sisters, today in this short khutbah, I'd like to give you an introduction to the theme of this conference, Al-Quran for Humanity. And I would like to go back 1400 years ago, in a conversation that happened during the time of our Prophet ﷺ.

The Importance of the Sahaba

You know, sahaba is important. As the Prophet ﷺ said (خَيْرُ أُمَّتِي قَرْنِي ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ - Khayru ummati qarni thumma alladhina yalunahum thumma alladhina yalunahum) (Sahih al-Bukhari 2652, Sahih Muslim 2533) - The best of my ummah is my generation, and then the generation that follows it, and then the generation that follows it.

So we Muslims forever, wherever we live, we live in America, we live in Africa, we live in Asia, we live in Europe, wherever we live, we will not only study the Prophet ﷺ, but we also will study the lives of his sahaba.

Because these are those who lived with him, and they benefited from him, and they served the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

The Prophet Requests the Quran from Abdullah ibn Masud

An incident that took place 1400 years ago, he said to one of his companions, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه, he said, (اقْرَأْ عَلَيَّ الْقُرْآنَ - Iqra 'alayya al-quran) - recite for me the Quran. And this hadith is relayed by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه and it's mutafaqun alayh, you find it in Bukhari hadith, you find it in Muslim hadith, you find it all over the place. And it's narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه. (Sahih al-Bukhari 5049, Sahih Muslim 800)

So the Prophet ﷺ said, (اقْرَأْ عَلَيَّ الْقُرْآنَ - Iqra 'alayya al-quran) - read to me the Quran. (قُلْتُ - Qultu) - I said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَقْرَأُ عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَيْكَ أُنْزِلَ - I said, O Messenger of Allah, should I recite to you the Quran, and the Quran was revealed to you?

(قَالَ: إِنِّي أُحِبُّ أَنْ أَسْمَعَهُ مِنْ غَيْرِي - Qala: Inni uhibbu an asma'ahu min ghayri) - The Prophet ﷺ said, I love to hear it from other than myself.

Why Abdullah ibn Masud?

I want to stop here for a moment and give you some perspective of what just happened. The Prophet ﷺ didn't ask anybody to read the Quran. He asked Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Why did he ask Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه? Because the Prophet said, (اسْتَقْرِئُوا الْقُرْآنَ مِنْ أَرْبَعَةٍ - Istaqri'u al-quran min arba'ah) (Sahih al-Bukhari 3760, Sahih Muslim 2464) - Learn the Quran from four. And the first one he mentioned (مِنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ - Min 'Abdillah ibn Mas'ud) - From Abdullah ibn Mas'ud.

Learn the Quran from him. You can learn the Quran from the other Sahaba. Yes, yes, you can. But these four, the Prophet ﷺ, he called their names out. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud وَسَالِمٌ مَوْلَى أَبِي حُذَيْفَةَ وَأَبَيُّ بْنُ كَعْبٍ وَمُعَاذُ بْنُ جَبَلٍ - Learn the Quran from these four. And the first one he mentioned مِنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ

Abdullah ibn Masud Recites Surah An-Nisa

He said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَقْرَأُ عَلَيْكَ وَعَلَيْكَ أُنْزِلَ - And he said, How can I read you the Quran? The Quran is revealed to you. (قَالَ: إِنِّي أُحِبُّ أَنْ أَسْمَعَهُ مِنْ غَيْرِي - Qala: Inni uhibbu an asma'ahu min ghayri) - The Prophet said, I love to hear it from other than myself.

(فَقَرَأْتُ عَلَيْهِ سُورَةَ النِّسَاءِ - Faqara'tu 'alayhi surata an-nisa') - Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said, I began to recite from Surah An-Nisa, the fourth chapter of the Quran. (حَتَّى جِئْتُ إِلَى هَذِهِ الْآيَةِ - Hatta ji'tu ila hadhihi al-ayah) - Until I came to this verse.

I kept reading to the Prophet ﷺ. He didn't ask me when to begin. I began reading Surah An-Nisa. And I began to read until I came to this verse.

The Verse That Made the Prophet Cry

فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جِئْنَا مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ عَلَى هَؤُلَاءِ شَهِيدًا (Quran 4:41) - And how will it be when We bring from every nation a witness and We bring you as a witness over these?

I came to this verse. When Allah revealed: And how will it be when We take from every nation a witness and We will take you O Muhammad as witness over these? Allah has spoken and the Prophet ﷺ said حَسْبُكَ الْآنَ - Enough!

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud wasn't watching the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said, Enough! We heard the verse, Enough! (فَالْتَفَتُ إِلَيْهِ فَإِذَا عَيْنَاهُ تَذْرِفَانِ - Faltafat ilayhi fa'idha 'aynahu tadhrifan) - And I turned to the Prophet and behold, his eyes were flowing with tears. And the hadith stops. The hadith stops with the Prophet ﷺ crying.

Why Was the Prophet Crying?

So the question is today in the beginning of this conference: Why was Rasul Allah crying? Why was he crying? Today I'd like for you to feel two things. Because when you study the Quran, when you study the Seerah, it's about two things at least.

Two Objectives for Today

Number one is the change of attitude. And before you can change someone's behavior you have to change their attitude. So today I want to do two things.

Number one: I want you to feel the great honor that Allah has given to us. Given to our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. I want you to feel that honor. Because Allah has honored the children of Adam. And He has honored the Muslims.

كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ (Quran 3:110) - You are the best nation produced for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.

But don't you want to be that? You're the best nation, and you enjoin the good and you forbid the evil and you believe in Allah. So you have great honor as a Muslim.

But more than the honor, the second thing I want to do in this short khutbah is to make us feel the responsibility of what Allah has put on our shoulders. We should leave this conference ready to go to work, because we have work to do brothers and sisters. We've got a lot of work to do.

Conferences Are About Action, Not Just Speeches

Conferences are not about speeches alone. It's about speeches, but the speeches are designed to do something. So that when you leave the conference, you don't only say, man, that was a good speech. Well, that's good. You should feel this way. But the issue is, what am I going to do after the speech? Because it's more than a speech.

So we should run out of this conference, go back, if you live here in Georgia, or go back to New York, or California, or Detroit, or wherever you're coming from, you should go back there and commit to do some work.

And you have to feel something. I want to make you feel something today, inshallah. We want to make you feel something for this.

The Universal Message of Prophet Muhammad

Why was the Prophet crying? Let's see if there's a hint. The Prophet ﷺ, in the hadith, Mutafaqun Alayh, in Muslim hadith, you find it in volume number one. He said, Allah gave me five things that He gave to no other Prophet. (Sahih al-Bukhari 335, Sahih Muslim 521)

I don't want to talk about five things. He said, one of the things Allah gave him, he said, every Prophet was sent to his people, specifically. He said وَأُرْسِلْتُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافَّةً - I was sent to all of mankind.

The Limited Scope of Previous Prophets

Let's stop for a moment. Do you have any idea how many Jews are on the planet? There are approximately 1,500,000,000 Muslims, about 2,000,000,000 Christians, and about 15,000,000 Jews. How come there's only 15,000,000 Jews? Because they know. It's clear in the Torah, and it's clear in the Quran. And when Moses said to his people, Jews will tell you that the Torah is not for mankind. The Torah is for the Bani Israel, the children of Israel.

Moses, peace and blessings be upon him, is not the messenger of everybody. No, Moses received the Torah for the children of Israel. And believe it or not, Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, and if you read the Bible, it says the same thing. It says the same thing the Quran says. So, every Prophet was sent to his people. But if other people who took the message of Isa, took the message of Jesus to other people, they're not supposed to do that.

Muhammad: Sent to All Mankind

But Muhammad ﷺ was sent to all of mankind. Huh? All of mankind? All of mankind. Who are we? All of you are the children of Adam. All of you are the children of Adam. And Adam was created of dust.

So, Muhammad ﷺ, you know where his followers are? They're in China, they're in Japan, they're in deep Africa, they're in Asia, they're in Europe, they're in America, they're in Australia, they're in Germany. Wherever you go, you see the followers of Muhammad ﷺ. Why? Because he's been sent to all of them.

Allah said, قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ إِلَيْكُمْ جَمِيعًا (Quran 7:158) - Say, O Muhammad, O mankind, indeed I am the messenger of Allah to you all.

The Quran Is for All Humanity, Not Just Muslims

So, you got that one. Everybody. He's not just a messenger to the Muslims. And this is why Muslims mess up. They say, yeah man, we got Muhammad. Yeah, you do have Muhammad. We got the Quran. You do have the Quran. But the Quran is not just for you.

You see, some of you, most of you here, most of you were born to parents who are Muslims. Unlike me and some brothers who sit here right now, and sisters who sit here right now, I wasn't born a Muslim. But Alhamdulillah, somebody brought the Quran to me. And they brought the Quran to me. Now I'm one of you. I'm

just like you who was born in Islam. I'm no different from you. Yes. Because Muhammad is not just for you. Muhammad is for everybody. And some people, they just don't know it yet.

The Prophet's Concern for All Humanity

So, the Prophet is crying. Why was he crying? Was he crying for Abu Bakr? No. Was he crying for Umar? No. Was he crying for Ali? No. Uthman? No. Fatima? Aisha? Was he crying? No, no, no.

You know who he's crying for? These same people that he walked past every day. He's crying for everybody because he's a messenger of Allah for everybody, all mankind. And you know what his concern is? What's his concern? His concern is that these people are not getting the message.

The Problem: Muslims Are Blocking Access to the Quran

Now, let's take one moment to look at a verse of the Quran. Make a couple of statements. And then I'm going to end, inshallah, the khutbah with an incident that happened that to me represents irrefutable evidence that Muhammad... The evidence is so deep, so profound, that after the incident happened, listen to the words of the Prophet:

اللهُ أَكْبَرُ ! أَشْهَدُ أَنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولُهُ اللهُ أَكْبَرُ ! اللهُ أَكْبَرُ ! أَشْهَدُ أَنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولُهُ

The Prophet said, Allah is great. I bear witness that I am the servant of Allah and His messenger. After he himself bore witness to irrefutable truth, that he was a messenger of Allah. Now, verse... And then we say a few things and we go.

Muslims as Living Examples of the Quran

Because, brothers and sisters, we've got a problem. You know, the problem we have in this conference, we're going to be talking about the Quran. The problem that we have is that the people can't get to the Quran. And the reason they can't get to the Quran is that they're watching the Muslims. And they think they know what's in the Quran by watching the Muslims.

Now, I'll give you an example. Now, Aisha رضي الله عنها said that the Prophet - we should all think about this - (كَانَ خُلُقُهُ الْقُرْآنَ - Kana khuluquhu al-quran) (Sahih Muslim 746) - His character was the Quran. What's the Quran, right? We heard it. And so, he lived the Quran.

The Hypocrisy of Muslims

The problem that we have in Atlanta, Georgia, and in New York City, and in San Francisco, and in Mecca, and in Bahrain, and all over the world, is that Muslims don't live the Quran. And you know what non-Muslims say, especially in America? When they find out that you're a Muslim, and they see the contradictions? They say, you're supposed to be a Muslim. I thought you're supposed to be a Muslim. And you act just like everybody

A Story of Muslim Hypocrisy

I don't know, but I never forget, I try to buy six, seven newspapers a day. And there's a, in Brooklyn, there's a Muslim store where I buy my newspapers. And the reason I buy newspapers... So, I went to a store where I buy my newspapers, and I went on a Sunday, and I noticed something I'd never seen before. I went to the store many times, right? And I looked in the store, and I saw a sign that I'd never seen before.

And I looked, and read the sign that says, This is a Muslim store owned by Muslims and operated by Muslims. And I saw the sign that says, No alcohol sold here. I said, where'd that come from? It's a Muslim store. No alcohol sold here. Allahu Akbar, right? Allahu Akbar. No alcohol sold here on Sundays. Before 2 o'clock. It's the law.

What? What? Isn't it sufficient to say, it's Allah's law? I'm not going to sell alcohol. So the problem that we have brothers and sisters, we talk about, we go to this conference, and we say the Quran is for humanity. But when you look at the practice of the Muslims, it's not what it's supposed to be.

And by the way, I'm not talking about any of you. I'm talking about the other Muslims. Everyone here at this conference is a great Muslim. So you feel me. Don't think I'm talking about you. Okay? So you feel me.

Being Witnesses for Allah

Now, brothers and sisters, let me get to my major point, and then we can go inshallah.

And thus We have made you a just and balanced nation, that you may be witnesses over mankind, and that the messenger may be a witness over you.

Right? So this word, Shaheed, Shahid, I want to mention in Quran, that Allah sent the Prophet ﷺ as a Shaheed. A witness, same as Shaheed. The Prophet is crying. Why is he crying? Because these people, what will he say about them?

What Does Being a Witness Mean?

If you want to understand and appreciate what it means to be a witness, because I don't think Muslims - we think we're in America, and we see what you're doing, and on the Day of Judgment, we're going to be a witness against you. Ah, it doesn't mean that. I mean, it does mean that. But it means more than that. A witness means more than that. And then we reach the conclusion, and then I talk about the irrefutable evidence of the messengership of Muhammad ﷺ.

The Hadith About Witnessing Injustice

Interesting hadith, narration, Nu'man ibn Bashir, he said, that my father gave me a gift. And he went to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Ya Rasool Allah, I gave my son a gift. And the Prophet said, do you have other children? He said, yes. He said, did you give them the same? He said, no.

Take it back. And do not make me a witness of injustice. For I do not witness injustice.

Now what does that mean? It means that really, our job here in Atlanta, Georgia, in the state of Georgia, in the United States, as witnesses for Allah, is more than seeing something. But it means enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. When something is wrong, we have to stand up and say it.

Our Obligation to Stand for Truth

And you know, brothers and sisters, you've got to get out of that attitude that, I don't want to say anything, I don't want to rock the boat, I don't want the people to think that we... No, no, no, no. You have an obligation, man. You do your job. You've got this Quran, and you've got this haqq, and you've got this truth. You do your job. What's your job? Enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.

When you see something wrong, you stand up against it. Even if it's the governor of the United States of America, you stand up and say, no, this is wrong. Mr. President, Congress, this is wrong. FBI, CIA, this is wrong. So, do not be a witness over injustice.

The Statement of Isa on the Day of Judgment

And finally, I close with a statement that Isa عليه السلام will say on Yawm al-Qiyamah. You see all these statements that they made about Jesus? Brothers and sisters, I was driving, I don't remember, somewhere in Atlanta, I was driving, and I saw this huge billboard. And there's two hobbies that I have. Hobby number one is watching billboards. I love watching billboards. You'd be surprised what you find on billboards. And hobby number two is looking at bumper stickers.

You ever watch bumper stickers? I'm driving down in Georgia, right? The highway, and I see this huge billboard. And it says, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. I'm driving down Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. I'm on my way to Fajr prayer. And there's a man driving, and what does it say? Jesus is Lord.

I'm on a certain street, one block from that street, and there's a big church. And on top of the church, it says, Jesus is Lord. I'm turning on the TV, and I'm listening to the evangelist, and they say, Jesus is Lord. And what are we saying? It's shirk. Allah is Lord. Only Allah. And Jesus is the servant of Allah. It's a big issue. For us as Muslims, it's big.

What Will Jesus Say?

Now, Allah is going to ask Jesus, and who knows the answer?

Did you tell the people to take you and your mother as gods besides Allah?

And Jesus will give this long, beautiful speech. By the way, some scholars of Islam say that Allah revealed the answer to Jesus. It's a perfect answer. And I'm going to say one thing that Jesus said, and then we conclude.

I was a witness over them as long as I was among them. But when You took me up, You were the Watcher over them. And You are a Witness over all things.

What's Jesus saying? I am a witness to that which I saw. I'm not a witness to that which I didn't see.

The Prophet's Concern for His Ummah

Oh, but we got a problem. You know why? Because the Prophet ﷺ will say

O Allah, my ummah. O Allah, my ummah. The Prophet will cry. Allah, my ummah. Allah, my ummah.

And you know what the Prophet will say? He will say

And I will say the same as the righteous servant, Isa ibn Maryam, said: I was a witness over them. And You are a witness over them. In my time? Alhamdulillah.

The Quran: A Book Like No Other

Brothers and sisters, I've come to the conclusion of today's khutbah so that we can enjoy this great conference. Okay. We got this book. You know something about the Quran that's different from all the other books? Well, first of all, we believe in the other books.

And We revealed the Torah and the Injil.

In it is guidance and light.

What Allah said about al-Injil:

In it is guidance and light.

So the Torah is full of guidance and light. The Injil is filled with guidance and light. There are words of Allah. But you know what happened?

The Story of the Torah and Stoning

The Prophet ﷺ, and they brought a man and a woman to him, and they wanted the Prophet to judge between them. You know what the Prophet said? He said, what do you find in the book? What do you find in your book?

Well, you know, our scholars said that when they commit adultery, we should put ash on their faces and make them black.

Abdullah bin Salam - who is Abdullah bin Salam? He used to be a Jewish rabbi. He became Muslim. He knows Torah. He said, no, no, no. The verse of stoning is in the Torah. And so they bring the Torah, and it shows them the verse of stoning.

How could they make you, O Muhammad, as a judge when they have the Torah, and in it is the rule of Allah?

Because what Allah was showing them is the hypocrisy. You've got a book that you say is the word of God, but yet you won't use your own book.

Muslims Must Not Do the Same

So what's the lesson? The lesson is we can do the same thing. We can do the same thing. We've got the book, and we don't want to be judged by it.

So brothers and sisters, I conclude with this. The main thing we start to accomplish is to read the Quran for humanity. We, the Muslims, have to feel for all the people. If you can't feel for all the people, you're not in the right place.

Our Responsibility as Witnesses for Allah

What do I mean about that? شُهَدَاءَ اللَّهِ فِي الْأَرْضِ - Witnesses of Allah on the earth. You have to be concerned about everybody. You hear me? You have to be concerned about everybody.

Can you be concerned about the black man in the hood? In our community, in the inner city, brothers, you know we do inshallah, metaphorically, we put our hands down in the mud and bring the people to Islam. Can you bring drug addicts and those on drugs? Can you bring them to Islam? Can you bring prostitutes to Islam?

And you go to some of these inner cities, brothers and sisters, you don't even know. You have no idea where the Imam has been. You have no idea where the people in that community have been. You have no idea because Islam is for everybody.

Islam Is for Everyone

And people that live kinds of lives that you can't even imagine, that you will walk past and make judgment over them and you won't bring them to Islam. And you got the Quran and your job is to bring everybody to Islam.

Your job is to bring the women to Islam, not just the men. The youth, the elderly, the black and the white and the Arab and the immigrants. You have to bring everyone. You have to bring the Jews to Islam. You have to bring the homosexuals to Islam.

Stop for a moment? Oh, so you're not going to give shahada? You're not going to offer Islam to a homosexual? What kind of Islam are you practicing? Everybody! Everybody is a potential Muslim. Everybody.

Brothers and sisters, in our community there are people that used to be gay. I won't tell you who they are because I know how you are. So you're one of those gay men? No. Not at all. Jews? You can't walk past Jews. You're servants of Allah. And you ain't the judge. Your job is to show them the truth.

A Story of Dawah in Connecticut

You know, I gave a khutbah about six weeks ago on top of basketball field. And when the khutbah was over, me and a brother named Akbar got in my car and drove to a place called Water Valley in Connecticut. I was invited to a college in Water Valley, Connecticut, called Post University. Never heard of it before. There's a sister named Fatima, young sister from Yemeni parents. She's a student at the university, right? There's no MSA there, no organizations.

But she had the audacity. You know where she was at? She got on the phone and called Masjid At-Taqwa. You know, Siraj, I have a school here and we want you to come here and give a lecture. I said, okay. Ain't no honorarium. We ain't getting enough money. We ain't doing it for money.

So we drove in our own car, our own gas, went there and gave a lecture that night. And big turnout. You know what this young girl did? You know what she did? She took bags and in every bag she put some goodies. You know, she called them goodies. I said, I said, next time, Fatima, put some food. She said, okay.

So she put the goodies. And in every bag she wrote handwritten some hadith, some wisdom, something for the people. So we gave a lecture there and many students from different universities came. Things were packed. And at the end of this lecture of 9-11, there was one of the women, the students, she was standing there. And then she started crying. She was crying. And they went to her and told her, what's the matter?

She said, I want to become Muslim. African-American student, woman, 21 years old. Fatima's sister said, Imam Siraj, that woman there is my best friend and I never knew this day would happen. So she took Shahada.

Three weeks ago, I called Fatima. I said, Fatima, the woman who took Shahada, how's she doing? She said, Imam, very good. She's going to the classes and she's learning.

Keep Making the Effort

Take in the effort. Don't worry. Allah is the judge. He will guide you. We are in the masjid of Masjid At-Taqwa. Masjid At-Taqwa, if you've been there before, it's in the inner city. Some places, some people don't want to go. Some Muslims don't want to go to inner city.

We have an open house. What do we do in an open house? Talk about Islam, what Islam is. And you know what? Seven people came and took Shahada. They're waiting out there. They're waiting. They're starving. Right now, all they need is someone to come to them and just nudge them. And you nudge them, they take Shahada. But we won't do it.

Irrefutable Evidence: The Prophet's Knowledge of the Unseen

I conclude with irrefutable evidence that Muhammad ﷺ was the messenger of Allah. And this will be the last thing I say.

One thing about Sahaba, you know the difference between them and us? Their faith, unshakable. And all you have to do is study the Seerah and you see how unshakable their faith was. Some of them, they gave their lives for Islam. Some of them spent all of their wealth for Islam. Everything they gave for Islam. They gave their homes for Islam. So they had unshakable faith.

Our Dependence on the Prophet

And one of the things that they had unshakable faith in was the statements of the Prophet. And when you start to think how often, how much we depend upon him, think about it, right? People foolishly say, Oh, I follow the Quran, but I don't follow Hadith. This is asinine. This is absurd.

When you think about it now, listen to the statement. When you think about the Quran, right? It's the word of Allah. Absolutely. And it's different from the Hadith of the Prophet. But if you really understood, you will understand that the Quran itself is a Hadith. Think about it for a minute. Think about it.

Where did you get the Quran from? Allah didn't send it to you. He sent it to the angel Jibreel, to Muhammad and he recited it to us. What you recite in the Quran is what the Prophet said that Allah sent. So we depend upon him. We have to have unshakable faith in him.

Enemies of Islam Attack the Quran and Muhammad

One of the things that you see in this society, those who hate Islam, they were trying to undermine two things. Number one, the Quran and number two, Muhammad. And there's a report that the leaders of Israel called the Shariah a threat to America. And there's a plan afoot right now to absolutely undermine the Shariah. But we as Muslims have unshakable faith.

The Battle of Hunayn: A Miraculous Prophecy

Let me tell you what happened 1400 years ago. This is the Battle of Hunayn. The Battle of Hunayn. This is in Muslim Hadith, in the section of Ghazawat. (Sahih Muslim 112)

The Muslims were fighting in the Battle of Hunayn. And the Prophet did something remarkable. Something that I first read in astonishment. They're fighting the war. They're fighting the battle. And right in the midst of that, the Prophet said (إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّارِ - That person over there is of the Hellfire).

He was pointing to one of his followers who was fighting with the Muslims against the disbelievers. So one of the Sahaba said, I'm going to follow him. I'm going to follow him and see what happens with this man.

So he follows the man and this man, the one that the Prophet said is somebody of the Hellfire, was fighting stronger than anybody else. He was fighting against the enemy. He was killing the enemy. And then he was wounded. So this Sahaba, this Muslim ran back to the Prophet and said, Ya Rasool Allah, this man that you said is of the Hellfire is fighting stronger than anyone.

And then the narration said the Sahabi followed him until that man went back and found out that he was badly wounded. He thought he was going to die. And that man who was wounded took his sword and killed himself.

The Prophet Bears Witness to His Messengership

And when the Muslims saw that, he ran back to the Prophet and said (أَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ - I bear witness you're the Messenger of Allah).

The Prophet said, why do you say that? He said, the man that you said that about, he went and he killed himself.

The Prophet said, (اللهُ أَكْبَرُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولُهُ - Allah is great! And I bear witness that I am the servant of Allah and His Messenger).

Why did the Prophet say that? You see when you read ayat of Quran, when you read Hadith, you got to understand, you got to drink it, you got to eat it, you got to milk it. You know what happened? Prophet don't know the unseen. No Prophet knows the unseen except what Allah reveals.

(عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ فَلَا يُظْهِرُ عَلَى غَيْبِهِ أَحَدًا إِلَّا مَنِ ارْتَضَىٰ مِن رَّسُولٍ - Allah is the Knower of the unseen, and He does not disclose His unseen to anyone, except whom He has approved of messengers.)

No one knows the unseen except Allah. Nobody knows. So the only way that the Prophet knew was that Allah revealed it to him. He's a messenger. He's a messenger. Okay. Allah revealed it to the Prophet. He knows the man that he never saw before. But why? Why announce it?

Understanding the Wisdom

Because think about it right? Think about this. If that man hadn't been wounded and the battle is over and the

Prophet said what he said about this man, what happens now? Everybody look at him for the next 10 years and the Prophet said he was of the Hellfire? No.

He kills himself and the punishment for killing yourself is the Hellfire. Why? Because suicide is the ultimate testimony of one's lack of faith. And what happened is that not only did Allah reveal that this man would be in the Hellfire, Allah also revealed for the Prophet to announce it. To announce it.

So now the Prophet has faith in Allah. No matter what was happening, what it looked like, the Prophet kept his statement. And then when Allah allowed it to happen, what happened? The Prophet himself, like everyone else said (اللهُ أَكْبَرُ - Allah is great).

Why Allahu Akbar? Because the Prophet is a servant of Allah. He does whatever Allah says. So if Allah says he's of the Hellfire, you believe it. If Allah says announce it, you announce it. And he did.

Conclusion: Attend the Sessions and Take Action

Brothers and sisters, we have no reason to doubt. This is a great conference. Attend the sessions. Get your book out. Get your pen and write. May Allah bless us and guide us on the straight path.