A Shahada and Struggling Between Islamic Teaching & American Etiquette

Shahada and Struggling Between Islamic Teaching & American Etiquette

Opening Salutations and Praise

As-salamu alaykum. Alhamdulillah. (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim).

(الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ سَيِّدِ الْأَوَّلِينَ وَالْآخِرِينَ وَعَلَىٰ آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ - Alhamdulillahi wa salatu wa salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad Sayyid al-awwalin wa al-akhirin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in). Praise Allah. A blessed praise.

We send peace and blessings upon our beloved messenger Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), upon his family, his companions, and those who follow them until the end of time. There is a lot to say, you know, in such a short amount of time, so I'll try to keep it brief and focused. But first, let's extend our gratitude to all of the volunteers who have worked diligently and with great dedication.

Gratitude to Volunteers and Organizations

Those of you who are here from the volunteers, personally, I would like to thank you and ask Allah to bless you, inshallah. Secondly, we want to thank ICNA and MAS, two great organizations, two historic organizations, who continue to be extremely relevant to the lives of American Muslims, whether it's through whether it's, someone has really big hands, because like one person does it and everybody hears it. Masha'Allah.

Whether it's through their dedication to youth work through Young Muslims, NeighborNets across the country, YM for young men and young women, tends to be increasingly important as Islamophobia rises, the hatred and bigotry towards Muslims. It's important for our young people to have vehicles and opportunities for expression and identity. Same also for MAS Youth, who, since the early days of Islam's inception within certain communities in this country, continue to show a great dedication to your children, whether male or female.

Challenges and Opportunities for American Muslims

We are faced with an incredible set of challenges in the coming few years. 2016, I think, as people are saying, is like the worst year in history. Some people are saying, I doubt it, but that's what they're saying. And as Muslims, we have a number of incredible opportunities to take on a number of incredible challenges. So what I'd like to talk to you about is really three or four things we can think about to take home from tonight as American Muslim community.

First Principle: Personal Relationship with Allah

The first and very important thing is that each and every one of us has a responsibility to have a relationship with Allah. Nobody can do that for you. Nobody can live that relationship for you. It's something that has to

come from you.

The Qur'an says very beautifully.

Right? No soul can carry the burden of another soul. And Allah says in the Qur'an

I'm with you as long as you establish prayer. Allah says in the Qur'an

Remember me and I will remember you.

Each and every one of us in the coming days, as this year winds down, we should make sure that we don't trump our souls and maintain a strong relationship with our Lord, finding the halawa of ibadah, the sweetness of worship, the beauty of worship, and creating that intimacy. So matter what happens, whether you experience the family challenges of Prophet Adam, whether you experience the mockery of Prophet Nuh, whether you experience the loneliness of Sayyidina Yusuf, whether you have to speak against power like Sayyidina Musa, whether you have to balance opulence like Sayyidina Dawud and Suleiman, whether you experience as a woman the shame thrown at Sayyidina Maryam, whether you experience the stress of Sayyidina Isa, whether you experience the incredible test faced by the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), remember that the greatest asset you have into taking on the challenges of the dunya is the Lord of this dunya. So find that sweetness and that worship in faith.

Finding Solace Through Worship

If you're young and you're cutting yourself, find your value through worship. If you're struggling with drug addiction, turn back to Allah. If your marriage is on the rocks, turn back to having that relationship. Not necessary to fix those challenges, but to bring you a sense of balance and equilibrium.

Whether you fear for family members in Gaza or Aleppo or Yemen or anywhere in the world, find solace in worshipping Malik al-Mulk. The second thing that we really need to consider as a community and we cannot neglect is that the age is changing. You know in the 80s and the 90s and prior to that in the black community in this country under the leadership of incredible black imams like Sheikh Hassan Tawfiq who was in Harlem, Imam WD Muhammad who lived here for years in Chicago.

Second Principle: Activism and Engagement

Times have changed and the necessity for activism and the need for engagement has never been greater than now. We find in the Qur'an that people who have a spiritual relationship with God but fail to calibrate that spirituality in their experiences being raised as God's servants. The people of knowledge and faith are raised.

Allah says we raise who we want. Allah says about Sayyidina Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), On the night of Isra Allah took a servant and raised him and gave him spiritual enlightenment and honored him as we have been honored by God to grow spiritually. We have to recalibrate that as thankfulness to God for looking for the most marginalized in and outside of our communities.

Sanctuary Souls Before Sanctuary Cities

We cannot simply have spiritual experiences that lift our spirits and fail to translate that into lifting the plight of the poor, the homeless, the needy, the immigrants, the refugees. Before we can have sanctuary cities we have to have sanctuary souls. Before we can truly be dedicated to those around us who are most marginalized and under the impending administration we know that it will only increase.

We have to calibrate our spiritual experiences knowing that God has raised us as he says in the Qur'an to look after and raise those who have been let down and underserved by society. That's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says the best of you are those who help others and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said that every creation is dependent on Allah and the best of creation are those who look after Allah's dependents.

The Hadith of Mercy

The first hadith that we learned from our teachers recently I was reading with a sheikha, a woman scholar from Morocco. She's over 98 years old Sheikha Kinza and the first hadith that we learn

(Sunan Abu Dawud 4941, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1924)

ar-rahimoon yurhamuhum ar-rahman irhamu man fil ard yurhamakum man fil sama. The merciful ones, God is merciful to them. Be merciful to those in the heavens and those in the earth.

Be merciful to those in the earth and the one in the heavens will be merciful to you. We have to recognize the power of intersectionality in this country and we have to seek to foster relationships with other religious communities, ethnic communities, the immigrants in this country, people of other orientations.

Cooperation and Alliances

Where those intersections are so powerful that we cannot neglect to exercise the option to participate in

ta'awun ala al-birri wa taqwa wa la ta'awun ala al-ithmi wa al-udwan.

Many of us are Star Wars fans and we know that Princess Leia, she died I believe yesterday, Carrie Fisher. Maybe some people are saying why would he start talking about Star Wars? Because you should go and read how Carrie Fisher, when she had the opportunity to defend Islam and Muslims, she did so. To show you that there are allies in the society who are dedicated and willing, not just because we're Muslim, but because it is the right thing to do to look after this community.

Strategic Partnerships

So for that reason, as a piece of advice, our activist community and our religious leadership, you have to begin to sit at the table and exchange ideas and learn each other's language and understand strategically about

partnerships that are needed for the legacy, the security, the honorability of our community and others. Freedom is not a monopoly. Justice is not a monopoly.

Honor is not a monopoly. These belong to everyone in this country and it's our job now because God has chosen us to face these incredible odds and he would not put us somewhere if we were not ready for it, but we can't do it alone. That's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2166)

yadullahi ma'al jama'ah, Allah is with the group.

Lessons from Prophet Yusuf

And we have incredible lessons from this in our Quran as we look at marginalized communities in this country. We should find great empathy for them because our own prophets, every prophet was an immigrant and many of the prophets were refugees. But if you look at the life of Prophet Yusuf, you find someone who lived the life of really every single marginalized community you can think of.

Number one, he was abused as a child. Number two, he was homeless. Number three, he was trafficked. Number four, he was the victim of sexual harassment. Number five, he served in a prison industrial complex. He worked and he wasn't paid.

He was an immigrant. He was a refugee. He spoke a different language. He was a different color. Go back and read the twelfth chapter of the Quran and find the intersectionality of people in this country and the story of Prophet Yusuf.

Third Principle: Commitment to Black America

Added to that is our uncompromising, unapologetic dedication to black America. The Muslim community has to deal with its own issues when it comes to black America. And as a white man, you know, I can only say that I stand as an unconditional spiritual ally to the black community. That's all I can say.

And then my job as a convert, a white convert, is to calibrate an Islam as black brothers and sisters did for hundreds of years in this country, calibrating an Islam that resonated so deeply with the black community. As Reverend Al Sharpton said, you will be hard-pressed to find a black home in America where there's not someone named Ruqayya, Ahmed, Jamal, or Muhammad.

Honoring Black Muslim Pioneers

The foundations of our communities, whether they are in Bridgeview or Masjid Dawah in Inglewood, rest on the struggles and foundational building of unsung black heroes in the Muslim community. People like Imam Jamil al-Amin, people like Imam WD Muhammad, people like Sister Aisha, and others who laid down incredible sacrifice so that you and I could be here today.

But our job, my job as a white convert, is to say if my black American brothers and sisters spent years passionately crafting a theology that resonated amongst black people, it is upon white converts in particularly to craft an Islam that will remind greater white America of their collective humanity, and scald the notions of privilege, and bring into discipline the gloating that we're seeing from bigots to remind them that the teachings of God always start out with (بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - Bismillahirrahmanirrahim), mercy and grace, and continue by saying

Ya Ayyuhan Nas, O humanity.

Fourth Principle: Empowering Muslim Youth

The last piece that I'll talk about and I'll finish now inshallah, well there's two, is you young people in the audience, let me hear you. I see some ladies and brothers that are like 50 and they're like, you're still young if you feel young. But my experience over the last year on Snapchat with your kids, right, I got all kind of stories I could tell, names and addresses, but you can read about it in the book, just joking. Delete.

But my experience with young American Muslims, regardless of their ethnic background, is that you are really the future of not only Islam, but you are the future of an increasingly diverse America. Your responsibility is a great responsibility, you can make mistakes, you can screw up, Islam will never turn its back on you. You may fall, and you may slip, but I as an imam, and I know Imam Zayed and others, are here to tell you that we have your back, that we are supportive.

Supporting Our Youth

But parents, every time people come and parents they ask me, you know, tell me about this Snapchat, and then they say their kid's name, like why are you telling your kid's name, like what are you trying to find out? But every day around 500 questions, largely from American Muslim youth, and let me just say that when parents ask me like, are the questions really bad? Do they send you dirty pictures? Like dirty pictures? What kind of Snapchat do you have?

But just let me say this honestly, that around 90% of all of the questions that I receive endear me to love this young generation, and to tell you that they are nothing but a ball of awesome. They are going to do great things in this country, they're going to heal a country rocked by racism, and they are going to collectively contribute to the struggles, not only of people here, but people overseas.

Fifth Principle: Unity Among Muslims

The last thing is that as we move forward, it's important that we recognize our need for unity, and what we mean by unity is that we don't have to agree on everything, because that's not unity, but we have to agree in a way which our agreements and our disagreements reflect our collective love for each other.

The challenges ahead will not matter if you are a Salafi, you are a Sufi, you are a mass, you are an iknah, you are from the Dar al-Islam, you are Jama'at Tabligh, it doesn't matter, because in the eyes of Islamophobia, we

are all collectively a problem, and when we are seen as a collective problem, the way to push that back is to be a collective, to be one.

Call for Organizational Leadership

With that in mind, I would like to invite the leaders of major Muslim organizations in this country who come together, regardless of the platform, to show you, not just to tell you, that they are working together to create strategy and vision for the future that will protect our rights as American Muslims and the rights of other Americans. So I invite them to come out now, inshallah, stay and listen to what they have to say.

Shukran wa salamu alaykum.

Final Reminders: Palestine, Syria, and Beyond

Assalamu alaykum, I'm back. The other thing, there's two things I forgot to say, now I'm really over time, officially.

Number one is, everyone needs to be donated to care. Everyone should be signing up at least as care volunteers, or Islamic relief volunteers, right? Today, finally, the Obama administration figured it out about Palestine, kind of, but we will not stop until Palestine is honored, people in Palestine have a right to live in freedom and justice. And the same for our Syrian family, our Yemeni family, our Kashmiri family.

But if we don't organize and unify, we will not be able to accomplish that.

The Shahada: Welcoming Brother Melvin to Islam

Second thing is, we have brother Melvin here. Melvin's mother actually became Muslim a year ago, so let's give it up for his mother. And his sister Andrea is here. Melvin would like to accept Islam. Say after me.

I testify. Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa Allah. Muhammadan Abduhu Wa Rasuluh. I testify. He's doing English too. This is the first time I've seen a disco-like Shahada. Wow. Say it in English.

I testify. That there's no God. Except Allah. And I testify. That Muhammad. Is his servant. And messenger.

Congrats man. Thank you.