Poverty in Religion

Poverty in Religion

Opening Prayers and Gratitude

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa salallahu ala sayyidina Muhammad, rahmatan lil alameen, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.

We begin by praising Allah and beseeching Him to send His peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family, his companions, his community, until the end of time. As-salamu alaykum everybody.

Acknowledging Our Teachers and Mentors

I'm speaking in front of a bunch of giants here, it's a little nervous. I feel like the practicum teacher. You know, when I did my practicum, I remember my professor would come with a rubric and make muhasabah of me. So I kind of feel like that now.

I'm a little nervous because these are my mentors. Those of you who came in this generation, you have Nu'man Ali Khan, Shaykh Nu'man Ali Khan, Shaykh Abdul Nasser - those are people that you relate to. But these are the people who in the 90s helped us maintain our deen. So I want to thank you.

I think that's something that we need to see from the younger brothers - acknowledging what the earlier Imams did. My heart goes to Imam Siraj-ul-Hajj, Imam Zaid, Shaykh Abdul Hakim Kwik, Imam Majid, Dr. Ingrid Madison who's not here, Dr. Taha Jabra Al-Awani and his daughter, Isma'il Faruqi who passed away, rahimuhullah, who's forgotten. These are the people who in the early 90s, if you were Muslim and you had a cassette player, some of you have maybe heard of something called a cassette player. If you had a cassette player, you knew about masjid here in Connecticut and an Imam, African-American convert named Imam Zaid Shakir who could rock it and talk about everything from Barney to Jawharat al-Tawheed.

You would be able to maintain your faith. So before we start, because poverty is also a failure to recognize ni'm. It's not about, as Rakim said, it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at.

We need to acknowledge these people. And one of them, Shaykh Hamza who's not here, Dr. Jamal Badawi, hafizuhullahu ta'ala. These are why Suhaib Webb is sitting here today. Allah blessed me to be in the countenance of these incredible lamps that shone in my life, in the dark period of my life and ultimately, alhamdulillah, I was able to become Muslim. So I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

"Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah" (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1954, Musnad Ahmad 7939).

If people have been responsible for your guidance, you will always be indebted to them even if you differ with them on issues. (أُحِبُّكُمْ فِي اللَّهِ - uhibbukum fillah) - I love you all for the sake of Allah. And I ask Allah (يَجْمَعَنَا فِي ذِلِهِ فِي يَوْمٍ لَا ظِلَّ إِلَّا ظِلُّهُ - yajma'una fi zillihi fi yawmin la zilla illa zilluhu)

May Allah place us under His shade on a day when there is no shade but the shade of Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari 660, Sahih Muslim 1031).

The Call to Change: Starting With Yourself

Now let's begin. What I would like to stress is: how many of you came to change the world? Be honest. Let's get real with it. Let's get loose. It's the morning. I came from Bosstown, Roxbury. And the question where Shaykh Abdul Hakim, we know about the protest in front of the police station - we're not talking about that now.

How many of you came to change the world? Speak up. Say Allahu Akbar. Because Allah is the one who guided your heart to want to change the world. Great. How many of you came to change this country? How many of you came to change the state that you live in or the city that you live in? But most importantly, how many of you came to change yourself? And that's where we need to start.

Let's move to the tangible. Yesterday, Imam Benjamin Bilal from Harlem visited our community. Masjid al-Qur'an is the former temple number 11 which was founded by Malik Shabazz in Boston. Imam Talib Mehdi is there. And something that he continually told me is to constantly, as an imam, be focused on your personal development. Be focused on changing yourself.

He said something - is your bedroom clean? Something very insignificant. And yesterday, my bedroom was not clean. I said, man, why did he ask this question now? But that was fil-azal. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Qada kullu shay', qabla al-khalq.

Understanding Poverty: Multiple Dimensions

So we embark on a discussion of poverty. If we're looking at the concept of poverty, there are four levels that we should look at.

Cultural Definition of Poverty

Number one is a cultural level. How do we define poverty culturally in America? In America, poverty means that you cannot afford an iPhone 5. Poverty is the inability to engage in leisure. That's why some economists say that if you want to understand if America is struck by poverty, look at the leisure activities of people in America.

Now, when I lived in Egypt, I had a neighbor whose source of heat was fire - and for me, that's poverty. Not what type, is it central heat and air, or is it something that you're going to hang in a window? No, he's like, can you pick up some wood for me on the way back from school so that I can maintain myself? So culturally, how do we define poverty within America and outside of America? And our concern is, of course, America.

Political and Policy Dimensions

Number two, how do we define poverty from a political policy-oriented stance? Policy in politics definitely afflicts the reality of neighborhoods. And I'll give you an example. In Boston, where I live, Roxbury, Dudley

Square, where Malcolm, rahimahullah, used to walk, there are $400 million being put into Dudley Square at this moment.

There is an attempt to bleach - and we know what that means the neighborhood. To gentrify it. And what GBIO, which is a Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, along with other partners, began to look into is how many of the contracts to rebuild Roxbury are staying within the community.

It's another Blackwater. And what we found out is less than 6% of the contracts are staying within communities of color to rebuild their communities. Now, that's affected downtown, not on the minbar - explicitly, perhaps implicitly. So we need to respect the power of policy and the power of politics. And when someone says that 47% of us are lazy and don't pay taxes, and homeboy ain't reported his taxes, we all remember the okey-doke.

But we should be concerned about that. And at a local level, I believe, as an inner-city community, you have to have a Muslim who attends city council regularly, if not on city council, to speak up for the people who are being subjected to structural injustice when it comes to the distribution of wealth in those communities.

Religious Understanding of Poverty

The last - I mentioned four and I meant three - is at a religious level. And that's what we're going to talk about today. The concept of faqr in Islam. The concept of poverty. And how we have two types of poverty: poverty which is mahmud (commendable), and poverty which is madhmum (blameworthy). Our scholars will talk about a poverty which is commendable, and a poverty which is frowned upon.

Commendable Poverty: Spiritual Impoverishment to Allah

Let's begin with an acquired poverty. That's why we find some of the arifeen, they used to say: Allahumma, oh Allah, enrich me by feeling impoverished to You, and do not impoverish me by allowing me to feel as though I do not need You. It's a very beautiful supplication.

That concept of iftiqar - actually it's one of the maqam in tasawwuf - is the maqam of impoverishment, from the manazil of the sadiq to Allah. And the Prophet said: "Oh Allah, cause me to die faqeer, and resurrect me as a faqeer. Cause me to die in a state of poverty, and resurrect me in a state of poverty."

Shaykh Taha Ahmed Tahari and my teacher, one of my teachers in Egypt told me, that what that meant is not tangible poverty. But what that meant is: bring me forth completely reliant upon You, and no one else.

The Quranic Perspective on Our Need for Allah

Now the Qur'an paints this picture very beautifully. One of the goals of the Qur'an, the essence of tawheed, is to remind us of our perennial need for Allah - constantly in need of God.

In 2000, I had an infection in my foot and I was hospitalized. Never been in a hospital since I was 2 years old, for anything serious. Some things I don't want to talk about, but in general. I remember my temperature hit 104.

There were some doctors from Stanford, and they told me: if your temperature continues to rise, you have to induce a coma because you're going to burn up.

I said to them: What, what is this? He said: it's a bacteria. I said: a bacteria? I'm 6 foot 5, man. And then, my temperature went down. My leg had turned red like a lobster from the infection. I asked the brother: I left my Qur'an at home, man. Bring the mushaf. One of the brothers brought me the mushaf. The first page I opened to was Surat al-Fatir.

The first verse that my eyes set upon was: (يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ إِلَى اللَّهِ - ya ayyuha al-nasu antum al-fuqara'u ila Allah) - "O humanity, you are impoverished to your Lord, you are in need of Him" (Quran 35:15).

We believe that this commendable poverty is not about what you have, but it's where you're at. The concept of zuhd is not related to tangible things, but a state of the heart. That's why Imam Ahmad was asked: if someone had a hundred thousand dinar, could he be zahid? He said: yes, if it's in his hand, not in his heart.

Examples from the Prophets

Imam Ibn Qayyim says something brilliant about the concept of being impoverished to our Lord, and that it's a state of the heart, and that it's a discipline of the soul. He said: if the tangible is what really defines poverty, internal poverty and external poverty, then Imam Ibn Qayyim says, what do we say about Sayyidina Sulaiman and Sayyidina Dawud? Because no one can say that they were not the most zahid of their age, but at the same time, what did Sulaiman ask for? A kingdom the likes of which no one else would be given. To a point that our Prophet was saying that: I will not ask for this out of ihtiram to Sayyidina Sulaiman.

Achieving Spiritual Poverty: Freedom Through Need

How to achieve this commendable poverty which is lacking? We see youth groups where they make fun of each other's clothing. We see communities that are struck with racism, whether implicit or explicit. And those are all signs of an attachment to the dunya. And that attachment is a form of poverty which is not commendable.

Imam Ibn Ajibaرحمه الله تعالىmentioned something very beautiful about the concept of al-hurriyyah. I found it very interesting. He lived in the 18th century and there were people who mirrored him in the west who also talked about freedom. But they negotiated freedom from a horizontal perspective.

The ulema of our religion helped us to understand and organize freedom from the vertical and the horizontal. Policy does not only impact the earth, but our engagement - what Imam al-Hafidh ibn Rajab called (المعاملة مع الله - al-mu'amalah ma'a Allah) this engagement with Allah.

He said something very beautiful: that being enriched is (غَيْبَةُ الْعَبْدِ فِي مَظَاهِرِ الرَّبِّ - ghaybatul 'abdi fi mazahirir-rabb) - that the person loses their sense of selfishness, and this is the way I'll define it, and self-concern. They allow that to be lost in the greatness of their Lord, and their reliance upon their Lord.

(حَتَّى تَأْتَفِيَةَ ظُلُمَاتُ الْبَشَرِيَّةِ فِي نُورِ الْقَدِيمِ - hatta ta'tifiya zulumatul bashariyyati fi nuril qadeem) - And this is really a powerful statement that should shake the heart, and it brings about a sense of freedom. Being impoverished to our Lord is the way to be free from this dunya.

Who could imagine that poverty would bring freedom? So he said that at that moment in time, the darkness of being a human being - and what he means is the low characters that we have, the negative qualities that we have in ourself - is outshone by the greatness of سبحانه وتعالى, the Everlasting. As Imam Abu Zayd said: (لَيْسَ لِأَوَّلِيَّتِهِ ابْتِدَاءٌ - laysa li awwaliyyatihi ibtida'un) that who has no beginning and has no end.

Two Paradigms: Counting Blessings vs. Counting the Dunya

So impoverishment which is commendable is to realize that our Lord - (كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ - kullu man 'alayha fanin wa yabqa wajhu rabbika dhul jalali wal ikram) - "Everything upon it will perish, and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor" (Quran 55:26-27).

We find two paradigms: those who count their blessings as we learned in Sunday school - count your blessings, remember that song? And those who count the dunya. Those who are busy with muhasabah of their soul and their relationship with their Lord.

As the Prophet said in a sound hadith (طُوبَى لِمَنْ شَغَلَهُ عَيْبُهُ عَنْ عُيُوبِ النَّاسِ - tuba liman shaghalahu 'aybuhu 'an 'uyubin-nas) - "Blessed is the one who is occupied with his own faults rather than the faults of others" (Sunan Ibn Majah 4250). This hadith is narrated as Imam Ibn Hajar mentioned in the chapter on etiquette.

That doesn't mean in the fard kifayah or the fard ayn. This means in those things which are not commendable.

The Example of True Khushu'

الإمام العلم الحافظ الجليل القاضي أبو بكر بن العربي المالكي once prayed in Masjid Al-Aqsa. Yesterday the Mu'adhin of Masjid Al-Aqsa led us in the adhan. Subhanallah. He was praying between two people. After he finished, one of the persons said to him: the guy to your left prayed wrong. The man to his right was watching the man to his left.

I don't know what kind of app he had to do that. And Al-Qadi said to him: what are you talking about? He said: did you see he was doing this in Salah and he moved his hand like this and that. And this is what explains this beautiful hadith and how we become truly properly impoverished to our Lord.

Al-Qadi said: I was too busy with my Lord to even know that you were next to me. And brothers would say: that's impossible, but we do that to our wife all the time. Baby, did you hear what I said? Huh? I was watching sports center. Khushu, Michael Vick got 12 interceptions. Fantasy league is not doing well. هذا خشوع في الدنيا This is khushu' for the dunya.

But the example we see from him is this khushu' with Allah. And that's what he meant. That at that moment in time, the person loses themselves.

Pop Culture and the Quran of Shaitan

We see that pop culture constantly reinforces the idea of "makes me want to lose my mind, makes me want to lose myself, let's dance like there's no tomorrow." All of that is why the scholars said that certain forms of music are the Quran of shaitan. Because they remind you of the greatness and glory of something which is not going to last. Katy Perry will become ugly one day.

No, that's real. Suhaib Webb is going to get old and wrinkly one day if Allah blesses him to live long enough to see that. That is a reality. But the message is that (مَا عِندَكُمْ يَنفَدُ ۖ وَمَا عِندَ اللَّهِ بَاقٍ - mā ʿindakum yanfadu wa mā ʿinda Allāhi bāq) - "Whatever you have will end, but what Allah has is lasting" (Quran 16:96).

That's why we need to be very careful about reinforcing what gives us a sense of impoverishment to God.

Because when we are impoverished to Allah, then and only then are we able to see what the basair of al-huda are and understand really how we should function in this world.

That's why Imam al-Shafi'i, rahimahullah, said that indeed - and I'll say it in English - Allah has certain intelligent servants. (طَلَّقُوا الدُّنْيَا - ṭallaqū ad-dunyā) - Who have made talaq to the dunya, meaning they left the dunya. And they understood that it's a bahar, that it's an ocean. So they took al-amal as-salihah as a sufan, as a boat. They understood that righteous actions are the boat by which we pass over this deep sea, which has no ending.

Individual Responsibility: Check Yourself First

So the first real step is to check yourself first. Don't get caught up in changing the world. That's important. Talking about the thawrah, the revolution, but you don't pray Fajr. Talking about fair trade, and you're not fair to your spouse. Rah, rah, rah for Syria and wearing Nikes that are used at 12 sweatshops right now, in one kampong in Indonesia, where people are paid less than a dollar a week to make your Air Jordans.

Tiger Woods signed a 400 million dollar contract. And we can't raise the wages of those people and ensure that they have proper employment and healthcare options. So if I'm yelling for Syria, or if I'm yelling for the hood, but I'm wearing an Usher t-shirt and some Nikes, I am a parody of justice. I am a walking hypocrite. Because Allah does not accept - (الْحَقُّ مَعَ الْبَاطِنِ - al-ḥaqqu maʿa al-bāṭil) - truth and falsehood don't mix.

Losing Ourselves in Allah's Eternity

So at an individual level is feeling in need of Allah. He continues in his definition, and he says something very profound. He says that after the person loses their sense of selfishness and attachment to this world, because they understood the qidam of Allah, the awlawiyah of Allah azza wa jal.

"He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing" (Quran 57:3).

In the Qur'an we find that Allah compares that type of person who looks after their relationship with Allah. Ahmed Taha Rayan told me a story once about Abu Barakat ad-Dardeer صاحب أقرب المسالك in the Madhhab al-

The Story of Abu Barakat ad-Dardeer

Maliki. And how as a young man in Darb al-Ahmar behind the Masjid al-Azhar - those of you from Masr or Misr, you know Darb al-Ahmar is a neighborhood you don't go to. Only people like this go there. It's the hood.

Used to be more than 2,000 ulama living there. They used to say: (إِنَّمَا كُنَّا نَنْظُرُ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فِي دَرْبِ الْأَحْمَرِ أَكْثَرُ مِنَ النُّجُومِ - ʾinnamā kunnā nanẓuru ʾilā as-samāʾi fī darb al-ʾaḥmar ʾakṯaru mina an-nujūm) - Some of the scholars in Egypt used to say: we used to look at the sky at night and we looked at Darb al-Atrak and Darb al-Ahmar because of the ulama and the tulab al-'ilm that lived there. They would say the stars in that neighborhood are more than in the heavens.

The light of the Prophet because the Prophet said that the ulama shine on the ummah like the moon shines on the stars.

The Story of Abu Barakat ad-Dardeer

So he said one day, Abu Barakat was a young man who was walking to the dars of Shaykh Ali Sa'idi. Allah! Shaykh Ali Sa'idi from al-Khilwatiyah who did the hashiyah on the risalah of Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani which we (كِفَايَةُ الطَّالِبِ الرَّبَّانِيِّ عَلَى رِسَالَةِ أَبِي زَيْدٍ الْقَيْرَوَانِي - kifāyatu aṭ-ṭālibi ar-rabbāniyyi ʿalā risālati ʾabī zaydi al-qayrawāniyyi) still study to this day -

On the way someone called his name: Ahmed, what's up man? So he was young, they say he was a handsome dude because the light of Nur is better than the light of Luria. The foundation of knowledge doesn't wash away. It encourages you to wash with tawbah.

So he walked in and suddenly the door shut and there was a beautiful woman from Sa'id - and those of you from Sa'id, you know that little joke. She said to him: Hey, what's up man? And he was like: Subhanallah, I'm going to a lesson and this happens to me. Then she tried to seduce him. He decided there was a restroom so I'll tell her let me go in the restroom, you know what I'm saying, get it together. So she said okay.

So he went in the restroom and in his memoirs he said - and his house actually is right there, we used to visit his home, rahimahullah - he was sitting in the restroom and he said to himself: how am I going to get out of this situation man? You know what I mean?

Then he said to himself, the ayah came into my mind: (أَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ إِلَى اللَّهِ - ʾantum al-fuqarāʾu ʾilā Allāh) - "You are impoverished to Allah" (Quran 35:15(, you are fuqara to Allah, you are impoverished to Allah for everything. And also (وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا - wa man yattaqi Allāha yajʿal lahu makhrajā) - "And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out" (Quran 65:2).

He said: at that moment when I said this in my mind, I heard the window creak, Subhanallah. And I went out the window. When he came to the dars of Shaykh Ali Sa'idi, Shaykh Ali Sa'idi said to him: (يَا أَحْمَدُ كَيْفَ كَانَ السُّبَّالُ - yā ʾaḥmadu kayfa kāna as-subbālu) - He said to him: how did you find the window when he came to his dars? And that reached us (بِالسَّنَدِ الصَّحِيحَةِ - bi-s-sanadi aṣ-ṣaḥīḥati)

Family Relations and Recognizing Allah's Lordship

Number two, in our family relations, we're all worried about our children. My daughter has Bieber fever, and tanana don't fix it. Imam Siraj can fix it, Imam Zaid can fix it, a good tarbiyah can fix it, being around good

brothers and sisters who have no rancor in their hearts. Because rancor in our hearts towards each other is a sign of attachment to something.

That's why we have a problem - us as converts - do we really love each other? When we see each other: I met an American brother, man. I know he came from where I came from, man. Because we are somehow giving value to where we came from instead of giving value to goodness. And we have post-traumatic shirk syndrome. And that affects us.

But look at Al-Imam Al-Allamah, Shaykh Al-Sha'rani, Abdul Wahhab Al-Sha'rani, رحمه الله from the Sadaat Al-Shafi'i, whose son was not doing what he wanted him to do. He said: for many months, I tried to guide my son to do the right thing, and he didn't do it. Then he said: finally I was sitting one day, and I said, how can my son be this way? I am Imam Sha'rani.

And he said: that's the problem. I forgot that Allah is my Lord. So he said: (فَوَّضْتُ أَمْرِي إِلَى رَبِّي - fawwaḍtu ʾamrī ʾilā rabbī) - "I entrusted my affair to my Lord" (Quran 40:44). I left this affair to Allah and made all the necessary efforts I could. And then he said: my son, alhamdulillah, changed.

Practical Steps to Spiritual Impoverishment

So the first step is that we should become impoverished to Allah. How to become impoverished to Allah is to think about His names and attributes, His sifat, and how they work in our lives. And to engage in that relationship with the Qur'an - that the Qur'an is an uncompromising, unconditional reminder of our impoverishment, of our need, and our sense of poverty to Allah.

I understand this might not have been what you expected, but sometimes we need to hit that first and get to the heart of the matter.

The Opposite: Obsession With the Dunya

Now, as we talk about this concept of poverty, Allah just opposes that to a man who's busy counting the dunya. We have two very interesting ways of reading this verse: (الَّذِي جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَّدَهُ - allaḏī jamaʿa mālan wa ʿaddadahū) - "Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it" (Quran 104:2-3). And the qira'ah that we read, and one of the riwayah from Abu Ja'far, is that he is actually consumed with the dunya to the point that he believes it is going to extend his life.

It is somehow going to create a sense of security for him in the hereafter. (يَحْسَبُ أَنَّ مَالَهُ أَخْلَدَهُ - yaḥsabu ʾanna mālahū ʾakhladahū) - "He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal" (Quran 104:3). As Ibn Malik said: (فِيهِ وَجْهَانِ - fīhi waǧhāni) - which means he assumes that his property is going to allow him to live forever. That's the opposite.

You can find this in Surat Al-Kahf : (وَلَوْلَا إِذْ دَخَلْتَ جَنَّتَكَ قُلْتَ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ - wa law lā ʾiḏ daḫalta ǧannataka qulta mā šāʾa Allāhu lā quwwata ʾillā bi-ʾllāh) - "And why did you, when you entered your garden, not say, 'What Allah willed [has occurred]; there is no power except in Allah'" (Quran 18:39).

The Problem of Dunya Attachment

So first and foremost, what I see in our Muslim communities - and I say this as someone who many of you know more than me, and I feel shy again to speak in front of these incredible human beings - but we have a problem with dunya. We are somehow transfixed by it.

Shaykh Sayyid Ahmed Rifa'i, as we move on to one more point before we get to the main course, said something profound. And this is a good way to judge yourself that even we're finding sometimes in the work itself, in the work of da'wah, a little swagger - unhealthy swagger. I'm down for iman swag, but an unhealthy swag.

I remember when Imam Siraj Wahaj, Imam Zaid Shakir set the example. It's a hard example to follow. These brothers wouldn't take honorariums, man. We would invite them to Oklahoma. That's a trip, right? You could probably make it to Belize easier than Oklahoma from a flight in North America. There ain't nothing there. Imam Siraj will come.

Imam, you know, sorry, we got a little something for you. A little $500. Imam Siraj would say: if you do that again, I'm never coming back. What? I'm not saying we shouldn't pay folks. We should pay folks. We need to make sure that imams are not poor. But our generation, my generation, witnessed their sacrifice for this deen.

Seeking Hidden Service Over Popularity

And that's what I meant by the statement that I'm about to quote of a shaykh, rahimahullah, that on an individual level, if you find yourself always in the activities which are popular and cool - get the sisters looking at your nice little cut, or you checking out the brothers with my cool jilbab, you know, whatever - you need to put yourself into check.

But if you are one of the akhfiyah, those people who sacrifice their time to serve in ways that no one knows about, to volunteer in places that no one would think of volunteering, that is a sign of your connection to your Lord.

That's what he said. He said: (لَقَدْ نَظَرْتُ - laqad naẓartu) - I looked at all of the turuq, all of the ways of da'wah, and I found the popular ways (فِيهَا زَحْمَةٌ - fīhā zaḥmatun) - were crowded with people. Being a speaker, you know what I'm saying, it's good being a speaker, man. People come up to you and praise you. Don't say that doesn't mess with your nafs, man.

I had a teacher who used to run after lectures. I said: what are you running for? He said: I'm running for myself. Wow. I said: Shaykh, man, don't do that. God can never be like that, man. But he said: I looked at those ways and they were crowded.

If we find amongst ourselves as du'at competition to shut each other down or to destroy each other, that is a sign of our nifaq. That is a sign of our hypocrisy. That is a sign of our absence of sincerity to Allah over everything else.

Practical Steps for Community Engagement

So on the individual level, as Muslims, we're talking about the concept of poverty. First and foremost is to change ourselves. To improve ourselves. If you are already, quote unquote, improved, work on kibr. And if you feel that you have it going on, then build on your ihsan.

Number two, to volunteer in our communities. People come all the time and complain. And when they come and complain - not in Boston of course, because it's great, but in other places - and they come and complain, I say to them: have you volunteered in the community? Oh, no. Well then, be quiet. Go and do, before you open your mouth.

The ulema used to say: (اعْدِ - iʿdi) - be just with your ears and your mouth. You got two ears and one mouth, use your ears more.

Number three, in our own communities that we live in. Masha'Allah I was happy to see one of our young brothers - and I'm not endorsing anyone, although I do ride donkeys and not elephants - young brother in my community went and volunteered for the Obama campaign. Hafidh of the Quran. He's doing hifdh with me now. And Ella Collins, going and volunteering to do something. Find those areas in your community, because the institutions are in need of support.

Giving money is great. Giving money is wonderful. But your intellect and your physical presence can do more in many cases to support and build institutions.

The Responsibility of Muslims: Building Institutions

And that takes me to the last point. The responsibility as I finish as Muslims. And I really am not comfortable with these kind of talks. It's not me anymore. I'm sorry. I'm more grunge band. You know what I mean? You find me in the streets or the alleyways doing something. And I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just, I think that it's a time for institution building and teaching.

As we see with Zaytuna. As converts, we should all be supporting the efforts of Imam Zaid and Imam Hamza. The rest of the community, I understand. And when I speak to the converts, I'm not against the converts. But I'm just saying, these are our folks right here. We have a shared experience.

So the last is to amass the talents in your community. Understand and study the needs of your community. Either contribute with other institutions or begin to build institutions within your own community like Iman in Chicago. That amasses the talents of the people to serve this country.

Our Identity and Responsibility

We can no longer say that we are Muslims in America. We are westernized Muslims. And for those of us who are converts, we never left America in the first place. So we ask Allah to help us to study our societies and answer the calls of our society.