Activism for Change

Number Two: There Must Be a Sense of Care

As we listen to these stories, there is a sense of care that you can sense as these messengers are talking and you can feel it as they are talking to their people. And what do they say? He said, "Oh my people, I am one of you. You are my people. You are part of me and I am part of you. I fear for you. Out of concern, I speak. Out of love, I speak. You are my people and I am one of you."

You hear this: Nuh alayhi salam made that statement, Hud alayhi salam made that statement. And here we have Shu'aib alayhi salam - he made that statement. He calls his people and he said, "And I do this because I care."

So there's got to be this sense for humanity. There's got to be this sense for the others. If we only think of problems as "these are their problems. These are the Hindu problems. These are the kafir problems. These are the European problems" - it does not work out that way.

The world is becoming so small nowadays that any social ill will creep into any community. And no community is immune from this. No community is immune. So do not think that because these are their ills, they will never become part of yours. Oh, they will. It's just a matter of time.

So there is this idea of sense and care for humanity.

Number Three: Choose Your Battles Wisely

And this is an extremely, extremely important point. See, brothers and sisters, when there are so many social ills, we need to get engaged, but we need to choose our battles wisely. We have got to be mature as to which battle do we want to fight. Battle here and I'm not talking about battlefield - talking about which social ill are we going to confront first? Which social ills are we going to speak about?

So you have got to be wise about which battles are we going to fight first.

See, we Muslims, sometimes we are so easily offended, so easily provoked, so easily instigated. And that is not very healthy. Appreciate the passion, but it's not very mature. It's not very mature. That's why we say we need to choose our battles wisely. We need to use them wisely.

The Importance of Timing

Here I look into some of the things that currently happened. Be it the people that write about the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) they write against Quran, they write against Islam. And some of them may even be Muslims. Why don't we ignore them?

If they are kicked out, if they're asked to leave, if they stop writing, are our situations better? Do we have less poverty? Are there less... more freedom for the people? Is the situation of the masses - has it

improved because we decided to fight this battle? What was the outcome of this battle? What did we win? What was in it for us?

We made somebody more famous. We made them seen as heroes. We definitely made them rich. Their books went on the bestseller overnight. And what did we gain? They're more famous. Their ideas are more spread. And more people are coming to support them. And more people are coming out.

So we must choose our battles wisely.

And when we look into the seerah of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) we see that the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) he addressed issues, but he did not address them immediately. His silence was not an approval of the ill that was taking place, but it's all about timing. It's all about timing. "Now is not the time for this. And I am not saying this because I approve of it, but now is not the time for it. There are greater battles that needs to be taken care of."

Even in the deen - remember this, brothers and sisters - the teachings of Islam is not one horizontal line, but rather there is a slope where some things are important and some things are more important.

The Hadith on Faith's Branches

Where do we get this from? The hadith of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) when he says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 35)

"Faith has over seventy branches, the highest of which is the declaration that there is no god but Allah, and the lowest of which is the removal of harmful things from the road."

He said faith is seventy-some branches, where the highest branch of it is [la ilaha illa Allah] and the lowest part of it is to remove harm from the path of the people.

And listen to this statement: The highest and the lowest. There is a highest and then there is a lowest. To be occupied with the lowest at the expense of the highest is not acceptable.

An Example from the Companions

We see in the life of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) - in the hadith Aisha narrates: "Amongst the first things that were revealed to the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) were the statements of la ilaha illallah, calling people to la ilaha illallah."

And then she makes the statement and she said, "Then she said, had the very first thing been 'Do not consume alcohol,' the Arabs would have all revolted and they would have said 'We will never abandon the drinking of alcohol. This is too soon. You are addressing this ill too soon. This is not the time for it.'"

And the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) lived and he saw that evil that was taking place. He did not address it because there was a greater evil that was taking place.

The point is: We must learn to choose our battles wisely. We must mature as to which battle do we want to fight and when do we want to fight it. And that is why the scholars speak about the fiqh of determining priorities.

The Story of Ibn Umar and Uthman

And even the companions of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ), they practiced this so beautifully. There is an incident that Bukhari - Imam Bukhari - narrates in his book when it comes to the - he said the chapter on the prayers in Mina.

Now when you go to Mina, people shorten their prayers. So they went with Uthman and when they got to Mina, Uthman decided that he was going to pray either Dhuhr or Asr four rak'ahs instead of two rak'ahs.

So some people came to him. Abdullah ibn Umar came to him and said, "You know, Amirul Mu'mineen, I have done hajj behind the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) and in this particular place I remember so vividly that Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) led us to two rak'ahs. So please pray two rak'ahs."

Uthman was of a different opinion - and this is not what we are discussing. He was of a different opinion and he decided that he was going to lead the believers in four rak'ahs instead of two. So everybody prayed behind him, including Ibn Umar himself.

So when the salah was over, people came to Ibn Umar and they said, "Ibn Umar, did you not say that you saw Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) and you prayed behind him in this place two rak'ahs? You should have waited for Uthman to finish his prayers and then you come and you pray as the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) prayed."

Ibn Umar makes a remarkable, profound statement. What does he say? He said, "Be quiet." He said, "Shortening the prayers is a sunnah. The unity of the Muslims is an obligation. You do not waste an obligation to perform a sunnah. You do not waste an obligation to perform a sunnah."

That's what we do every day. We waste major obligations in order to perform sunnahs. We are not saying that the sunnahs are not important, but we are saying that they cannot be at the expense of the obligations. You cannot compromise the obligation for sunnahs. You cannot jeopardize the obligations for the sunnahs. Not acceptable.

So there's got to be this maturity when we choose our battles.

Human Nature and Values

And we look into the messengers of Allah and we look into Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) - we have got to do this.

You know, people have so much appreciation for values. My opinion - Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best - I have great faith in humanity. I believe that humans are generally good people and when they are shown the way, they even become better people.

And many times people were attracted to Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) so beautifully.

The Verse That Moved Uthman Ibn Maz'un

You know when the verses were revealed in Surah An-Nahl:

"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving [help] to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded."

That Allah commands people of what? Justice, justice, righteousness, and that is being good to your kith and to your kin, treating them with liberality. And Allah forbids fahsha - you know, open immorality, injustice and wickedness.

Uthman Ibn Maz'un said, when I heard these verses I said - even though he was a Muslim - so the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) said, "What happened?" He said, "Prophet of Allah, you have previously invited me to Islam and I said 'La ilaha illallah' because I was just embarrassed because you kept talking to me, talking to me. So I said, 'okay, fine, La ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasulallah.'''

But he said, "This statement is so beautiful. Now from the very bottom of my heart, I am saying La ilaha illallah."

What does he do? He runs to Abu Talib, the uncle of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) who is not a Muslim. And he goes to him and he recites these verses to him and he said, "Abu Talib, listen to what has been revealed to your nephew. Beautiful verses." And he read it to him, hoping that it will have a similar impact on him.

Abu Talib heard the verses and he said - he said, "People follow Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) you become prosperous. Follow Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) for he respects your intellect. He said, even if he is telling us lies and he is fabricating this and this is really not a religion, he said, these are good principles and values to live by. But even if you choose to say that he is fake, he said, what he teaches is good. Follow Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)," he said, "and you become prosperous."

Practical Engagement Ideas

What do we want? We want to be engaged in reality. Many social ills that are out there by which we can tell people about Islam and by which we can also aid and help in the betterment of our fellow human brothers and sisters.

Campaign Against Drugs

Why don't we engage ourselves in campaigns? Campaigns against drugs. Drugs are consuming our children, young boys and girls, be they Muslims or non-Muslims. Were they being wasted? Why can't we as a Muslim community say, "By the way, of the teachings of Muhammad (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) he taught that (خَمْرٌ أَمُّ الْخَبَائِثِ) - that all forms of intoxicants, they are the mother of all evils. He said, out of this, the Muslim community is hereby holding a campaign against drug and alcoholism."

Why can't we do this? Why can't we say "the teachings of Islam are so good, we want it for you as well" when Islam speaks about how we feel about alcohol and how we feel about this? And these are great, these are great values.

A Personal Story

You know, I had one time a sister. She came to the masjid and she took her shahada. And I said, "We all like to hear how the people become Muslims because it's very inspiring. And sometimes our brothers and sisters who decide to come back to Islam, sometimes they see in Islam things that we really don't see because we take them for granted."

So this sister, I said, "Well, what happened? How come you became a Muslim? What happened to you?"

She said, "In my company there is a Muslim man. During Christmas time in the States, the company sometimes decides to give people gifts. Sometimes they give them money. Sometimes they give them all sorts of gifts. And sometimes the company decides to give everybody champagne or they will have lots of champagne and they'll just give it to people."

So she said, "This man, he had this look on his face. He was so worried. I came to him because he just did not look very good. And I said, 'What happened to you?' And he said, 'I am afraid of the champagne.'"

"So what do you mean?" He said, "I have never touched champagne in my life. I am a Muslim. We are not even allowed to touch champagne. I don't want the company to give me any champagne."

She said, "What do you mean?" He said, "We're not allowed." She said, "You mean you have never had any alcohol in your life?" He said, "Never. If they give you the champagne, you're not going to take it?" He said, "Never ever."

She said, "I want to see this religion. I want to look into it." And she started reading about Islam.

But the point is this: People know the ill. People know the impact, the very negative impact that it is having on our communities - Muslims and non-Muslims. What benefit is it into us that no Muslim drinks alcohol, but somebody drinks alcohol and they got onto their car and they become a hazard to everybody else around them?

So we as a Muslim community, we can get engaged in this.

AIDS Awareness

Why not have AIDS awareness days? Why not we say as Muslim community, "You know what? We do believe we know why AIDS is spreading the way it's spreading. And we as a Muslim community, we have a strategy. And that is nothing outside of marriage, nothing outside of marriage. We are going to hold campaign awareness for the people who are infected either with it or to protect those who are not infected with it."

They had a conference in Kenya and one time they gathered about some clergymen - Muslim imams and rabbis and priests - and they said, "You know, we want you to tell us your perspective as to what does your religion say about the people who are already infected with AIDS or HIV?"

They said everybody spoke and then came the Muslim representative to speak and the people commented and they said it was the most useless 20 minutes that were ever spoken in that regard because he got up and he started speaking about how fornication is haram in Islam and in Islam we're not supposed to have any of these types of - but that was not the question.

The question is: these people are already infected with the disease. What can your religion offer these people? To tell them what you did is haram is too late. That is not the question. The question is what are you offering to these people?

If a Muslim comes to our masjid today and he says "I made a mistake in the past and I have AIDS," do you think that the community will embrace that person? And they will say "May Allah give you a speedy recovery. Inshallah some cure will be found, but until then you are our brother. You are our sister. We feel for you. You are still one of us."

Do you think our communities will do this? So we want to be engaged in these things.

Domestic Violence

Why can't we be engaged in domestic violence? Why can we allow so much oppression to be taking place against women and we don't do anything about it? Where women are beating left and right and the Muslim community is silenced? And sometimes it may even be that this is something that is happening within our own community, but we do not address it.

But the question is, brothers and sisters, is that we must engage in reality and we are very mature about choosing what it is that we want to be engaged in.

Child Abuse and Better Use of Masajid

Why don't we have campaigns about child abuse? Why don't we put our masjids into better use? What's going on in any masjid between Fajr and Zuhr? From six in the morning all the way to noon time, what use are we putting our masjids to? They're empty. What is going on there?

Why can't they be clinics? Why can't they be a university where people come and they are taught? Why can't it be a place of refuge to people? Why is it just a building, a skeleton with no soul or no spirit into it? And then we pride ourselves "Oh we have got so many masjids in the area." But what kind of impact are they making?

See, the beauty of a masjid is not in just that skeleton that you put together. Anyone can do that. And I am not undermining masajid here, but I think unless we put our masajid into better use, they just remain a building. And I don't think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would be interested in just a building. That won't be acceptable.

Call to Action and Reflection

I was hoping that inshallah with this short talk that I will provoke my brothers and sisters inshallah to further explore this idea. Look into this. You know, are we really doing what Islam said to be doing or are we just talking about it?

A Story About Actions vs. Claims

A brother tells a story. He said that "I was once in France and I went to the hotel and in the hotel he said it was my first time there and I asked - I wanted to pray - so I said 'Are there any Muslims here?'"

He said this young man came to me and he said "(أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ سُنِّي مَالِكِي - "I am a Muslim, I am a Sunni and I am Maliki. I belong to the Maliki school of jurisprudence.")"

So I said I looked at him and he said "Mashallah, which way is the qiblah? Which way is Makkah?" He looked at me and he said "I don't know, I don't pray." "I don't know? I don't pray?" Yet he claims and he says about himself "I am a Muslim, I am Sunni, I am Maliki" yet "I don't pray."

If what you believe in does not impact how you behave, then what you believe in is not important.

We can say all the nice things that we want to say about Islam, but unless we put it into action, it just remains nice words. Nobody is interested in just nice words. People want to see. And at this time as a Muslim community, we have a lot to show for, but let us begin by this:

Conclusion: Care for Humanity

Care for humanity. We must care for humanity, brothers and sisters. And when we say this, we are not pretending to be anything that we are not. We are not pretending to be like anybody else. We are just trying to be what Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was to humanity.

End of Speech