Purifying your Soul

The Current World and Truth

Dear brothers and sisters, we live in a world where truth has become known as falsehood and falsehood has become known as true. The liar is known as the truthful one, and the truthful one is known as the liar, and we don't know what's going on anymore. The world is in utter confusion.

And I want to bring up something that even though might not necessarily be point blank on the subject at hand, but it is the subject at hand today, and I could not give my first lecture since these incidences and not mention it. There is just no way. It's very nostalgic. The first time I was here, there was something very similar happening. Anyone who has seen that lecture from 2007—there have been some confusion going on in the Muslim world, and this is part of our purification. We have to understand this concept. We have to understand how to deal with things.

Insults Against the Prophet

There has been some confusion going on in the Muslim world about how to handle the recent incidences of blatant misrepresentation, lies and slanders against our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

And as I said before in 2007 when the Danish cartoons came out, there have been some good reactions, there have been some bad reactions, and there have been some over-reactions.

But at the end of the day, and I'm speaking this mostly to our guests, you have to understand the relationship that the Muslim has with the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. You have to understand this. The non-Muslims have to understand this, because if they don't ever even try to look at it from this point of view, they will never understand our reaction. You'll never get it if you don't grasp it like this.

Love for the Prophet

And I'm repeating my words from 2007: We as Muslims are taught to love the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, more than we love our own mother, more than we love our own father, more than we love our own soul. Because he gave to us this beautiful way of life. Without him, there is no us. He was the first of us, meaning that he came at a time where there were no Muslims, there were no people worshipping Allah alone with Tawhid properly. He is the beginning of all of this.

And we are taught to love him more than we love our own soul. And if someone were to come up and insult you in public, or insult your mother and call her the worst names, call her the worst things in front of everyone in this room, you would boil inside. And anyone who says they would not boil inside is fooling no one but themselves. You would boil inside if you had any type of relationship with your mother. You would boil, and your immediate reaction would be to respond. And your immediate response might not probably be the wisest response if you had time to calm down and think about your response or think about your reaction. You might react with emotion. You might get angry, and you might let that anger overspill into how you behave.

Understanding Emotional Reactions

And that is something no one would blame you for. That is why there is a stipulation within the criminal courts

of America called crimes of passion—crimes where a person becomes so overwhelmed with passion or anger or jealousy where they don't think correctly. And that is taken into account within even the criminal law of America and many other western societies, because you are not in your right state of mind.

And I have never even seen the movie. I'm going to tell you that right now. Not going to go watch it. Will never watch it. Didn't look at the first cartoons. Avoided them by all means necessary, because I will not allow the people who perpetrated these things to do what they want to do. They want you to watch them. Why do you think they're there? Do you think they're there so the non-Muslims can see them? They're there for you to watch them. So every click you have given them has just solidified their whole purpose. Don't watch it.

If you haven't seen it yet—if so, go make some repentance. But Muslims have become angry, and we have overreacted. We've done some things that I would say probably are outside of the way Islam would teach us to respond to this. But I understand the emotion. I understand the anger. I understand it, because we live in a world where we're being put through so much. This is one thing that is highly sanctified. You can call me everything you want to call me, but don't talk about my mother.

And as a Muslim, you can call me whatever you want to call me. You can call me a rag head, a towel head, a camel jockey, whatever you want to call me. Tell me where I go back, where I came from—which I'm telling you right now that I only live a little ways from here, so it's not far that I have to go. But at the end of the day, I can deal with that. But don't talk about the greatest human being to ever walk the face of this earth. That's where I will draw the line.

Because you're talking about someone you don't know, and your ignorance is only showing through. Because if you were to know the man that you're speaking about, your own lips couldn't formulate the words that you're trying to put out. Just couldn't happen.

The Prophet's Response to Insults

So at the end of the day, I understand it, but I have to be just. That Islam teaches everything in moderation. Everything. Everything. We're not allowed to go to the extreme in anything. Nothing. There is not one single thing in Islam that you can be extreme in, except for your love for your creator and your love for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. No limits on that. No limits on that—unless it causes you to commit an injustice. Unless it causes you to commit an injustice.

We need to take the example of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in these times, because we can't say that we're defending the greatest human being on the face of the earth by responding to things that he himself dealt with in a way that he didn't deal with them. We can't. We can't get away with it.

And I am not a person that will hold my tongue even against Muslims, because if I can't tell you the truth, then I don't have any business doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Because Allah says:

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice."

Always say what is right, no matter, even if it's against my own self.

The Story of the Jewish Woman

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ dealt with slander himself. He was slandered. He was called a madman. He was called a magician. He was called a sorcerer. He was called things that I would not even repeat in public. He had camel guts thrown on him when he was praying. He had a Jewish woman who used to throw trash on his doorstep every single morning. He was beaten by his uncle every single day when he used to go to the markets. His uncle Abu Lahab would chase him down to the markets, beating him and pelting him with stones.

He dealt with the harshest treatment from his own family members, his own kinsmen, his own town. And how did he deal with them? How did he respond to these incidences? And I'm only going to give you one. I'm only going to give you one that should clearly sum this up. And this shows you a human being who had his own soul in check. A human being that had his whole soul in check.

There was a Jewish woman—there was a Jewish woman who used to drop trash. How many of you know this story? Raise your hands. Good, to take some advice.

There was a Jewish woman—and for those of you who say that you know Muslims and Jews can't co-exist, we have a long history of co-existing. There was a Jewish woman who used to drop trash. She used to take her trash and drop it on his doorstep every single morning. He would come out of his door to trash and have to clean it up every single morning.

Is there anyone here that does this every morning? Is there anyone here who their neighbor drops trash on their door every single morning? Didn't think so.

And every morning he would clean it up and go on about his business. Wouldn't even say anything. Would not say a word.

One morning he came out. There was no trash on his door. No trash on his door. So he was worried. So what did he do? He inquired about the woman. He asked: "What happened to this woman?" And someone told him: "She is sick. She is very ill."

Now most of our response—most of our responses in that situation would have been: Alhamdulillah, may she die today. Just be real with yourself. You would be overjoyed with the fact that there is no more trash on my door. I don't care how it's not there anymore. She gets run over by a bus and dragged 30 miles, we don't really care.

But a person who was sent as he is described:

"A mercy to the worlds."

He went to the woman's door, knocked on the door, and asked for permission to enter. And when he entered, his only question was to see how she was. He only showed her genuine concern that he was concerned for her well-being.

This is a person whose care for humanity overcame everything else. His genuine care for human beings overcame even his own personal preferences, his own hardships, his own difficulties. Humanity came first: Muslim, non-Muslim, Jew, Christian, Atheist, Buddhist—it did not matter. These were human beings that were created in the same fashion that he was created, and this is how he viewed them. And they were all potential for success. Everyone was a potential success.

So he knocked on her door and inquired about her well-being. And when the woman saw his genuine concern for the man that she put garbage on his door every single day, she was overcome. She was overcome with this generosity and this concern that maybe nobody else had come. Maybe her own family hadn't come, but this man is at my door asking how I am.

So what did she do? She accepted Islam. She accepted the message that he was presenting, because she saw very clearly that this is a man who is on truth. This is a man who is following something much greater than what I or anybody else has. So she accepted Islam at his hands.

And if I were to tell you the number of incidences that happened just like this, I would keep you here for hours and hours on end, hours and hours on end. And I'm not telling you something that I heard through third person narration, heard from so-and-so, from this and that. We have verified chains of authenticity to prove every single one of them, or else I would not say them.

Another Story: The Prophet's Daughter

This is the response that the Muslims need to have. There was once the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ -his own daughter—was walking by the notables of Quraysh. And I know I said I was going to give you one, but I don't want you to leave here thinking: "Oh, that was a single incident. That was a coincidence. That was just a single incident."

The daughter of the Prophet ﷺ-she was walking by the notables of Quraysh one day, and they were calling her father the insulted one. They were calling her father, basically the best translation is: the insulted one, the one who has no honor, he is an insult.

And that hurt her very much. That hurt her very much, and she went home and started to cry. And when her father, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came home, he asked her: "Why are you crying?"

She said: "Father, you are the messenger of Allah. You are the one sent to us by Allah, the best of us, the purest of us, the most noble of us. Allah verifies in the Quran:

وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَى خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ

'And indeed, you are of a great moral character.'

You are upon the most noble character, and they are calling you the insulted one."

Do you know what his response was? "My dear daughter, they are calling me something, and Allah has named me Muhammad, the praised one. So I don't know who they are talking about. They must be referring to someone else."

This was his simple response to his daughter—that the person they are talking about is not me. The person who they are talking about in this cartoon is not the Prophet Muhammad that I know. So how could I sit here and tell you this is an insult against the Prophet ﷺ? Because they are talking about someone totally different. They are talking about some fictional character that they have made up. It is not the man who taught me Islam. It is not the person who is referred to in the Quran. It is not the person whose seerah I have read about for 14, almost 14 years. They have made up some fictional character and called him Muhammad, and I am supposed to get angry over that. For what? For what reason?

"Oh, they were intending to insult you." Won't be the first time and will not be the last.

Putting Things in Proper Place

So we need to put things in their proper place. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said there is a time for this and there is a time for that. There is a time for this and a time for that.

We live in a world right now where we don't have the position and place to put our foot down. You have to understand that. Live in reality, brothers and sisters. We don't have the position or the place to put our foot down, and the world knows this very well. The world knows this very well. So they are going to push, and they are going to poke, and they are going to prod, and they are going to antagonize, and they are going to instigate, and they are going to do all of these things because they want you to act the way they have already portrayed you.

They want to push you into acting in a way that they have already built you up to be. And when we respond with the exact response that they want, we verify the exact statements that they are putting out. We give them what they want. We lose. We lose every single time, and we don't see it. We think that we are showing them that we are not going to take it anymore, and we are only showing them that we have lost. We have lost even our own selves.

The Muslim Response

So brothers and sisters, when people say these harmful things, realize that they are saying things that have always been said. There is nothing new under the sun. You guys have heard that one, right? Pretty true. Nothing new under the sun. The only thing that will be new is how we handle it, how we deal with it.

Will we stand up and show people that I am responding with the same tenacity, the same pride—not talking about pride of kibr, I am talking about the pride of izzah, the pride of honor. I am standing up with the same

Not Making the Same Mistake Twice

But the Prophet, peace be upon him, said something very beautiful. And this is the part of where I have to put a seatbelt on this whole mistake thing, because I don't want you to think that you can go out and make mistakes or life is all about mistakes. No.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6133)

"A believer is not stung from the same hole twice. So yes, I may make a mistake today, but that is only so that I don't make that mistake again tomorrow. Shaytan, you got me today, but I promise you, you won't get me like this again tomorrow. So thank you very much, but no thank you. I win this one.

Because we will fail, and we will make mistakes, and we will lose little battles along the way. But battles being lost is not the end of the world, as long as we win the war. And that war is not with your neighbor. Let me tell you that right now. That war is not with the media. That war is not with the Jews. It's not with the Christians. It's not with the right wing, the left wing. It's with none of that.

The Real War

The real war that you have to fight is the war with the person who looks at you when you're brushing your teeth in the morning. This is the real war. Because if you cannot win this war, you will win no other one. And in the end, you will ultimately lose. You will ultimately lose.

And we should have some tenacity inside of ourselves to be able to stand up with our shoulders back and our head up high that: I am a Muslim. I am a Muslim, and that gives me all the tools I need for success in this life and in the next.

You're not going to get the tools for success here at George Mason. I hate to tell you that, but I have to be realistic. You may get some tools that will help you be a better, more righteous person and more helpful in your community, but you will not get the tools for success here. The tools for success were given to us a very, very

long time ago in the book that was revealed to us by Allah and in the Sunnah or the example of how the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, lived his life.

They can't teach you anything better than that here at George Mason, and that's the realistic fact. That you have been given everything you need. All you're doing now is putting some icing on the cake and learning how to use that in a realistic setting of the world that we live in today, learning how to bridge the past with the present. That is what you're doing right here right now.

Standing with Pride as a Muslim

But at the end of the day, you need to be able to sit in your classes, sit on your buses, sit wherever you are, stand wherever you are, walk wherever you are with your head held up high that: I am a Muslim. Indeed, I am one of the Muslims. Don't have any doubt about that. Because they can do what they want today. They can say what they want today.

A Personal Story

And this is an incident that I will leave you with, and we will have a little bit of a Q&A. And I don't like putting my personal stories in. I really don't, because it's my personal life. It doesn't have anything to do with you. But this always reminds me when I hear things like this.

One day I was on my way back from a very long trip. I think coming from Australia or something like that. And I'd already been on a plane for 14 hours. Was very tired. I think I landed at LAX. LAX is the worst port of immigration to the United States ever. You have to go through about 10 securities, this and that. And at that time, I was put into the VIP line.

And most Muslims who have traveled know what the VIP line is. They give you a little orange card and tell you to go into this special line where they will give me a full body massage. They will inspect my luggage to make sure that there is nothing that I randomly forgot to pack that shouldn't be in there, to make sure there's nothing that might harm me. They take really good care of me. And then they'll probably put me through a machine so they can just make sure I've been working out properly and all of these things. And I might get a medical exam at the end. Who knows? But they want to make sure that I am well taken care of before I get on the plane.

So they put me in that little special line, give me a little orange tag that you wave around. And I was standing in that line, and I was dressed about how I am today. And there were a couple of people who—I'm not going to stereotype them—were looking at me, and they got a smirk on their face. And I was kind of frustrated. I had just been through a lot. And every human being has their breaking point. Every human being.

And they all of a sudden started laughing with each other. They just shouted randomly, enough, loud enough for everybody to hear: "Yep, make sure you check that one there real good, because he probably has something on him right now. So make sure you check him real good. One of them there Muslims, right there. Make sure you check him good."

So I smiled, which is what I do when I get very angry. And I stepped out of the VIP line. I had reached my limit. And I walked over to said individuals, and I said loudly enough so that everybody could hear me:

"You know what? Laugh all you want today. Get it all out today. Laugh it up and have a good old joke on my behalf. Because let me guarantee you one thing: there will come a day—there will come a day—where you will stand in front of the one who created you, and you will ransom your own children to stand in this line with me for 5 minutes. And I have no doubt about that fact. There will come a day where you will give your very children, your parents, you will sell everything you own to come back to this world and stand right here in this line with me. So laugh all you want today, because after that day, the only laughter that will ever be heard for eternity will be the laughter of the people of paradise, and they are in this line."

And I walked away. And no applause needed, because this is the truth.

The Reality of Judgment Day

This is the reality that there will come a day where every single individual that exists will wish to be you, will trade places with you, will ransom everything that they own to sit where you're sitting today, just for a moment. They will say to Allah—what will they say? When the angel of death comes to them, Allah says they will say:

"Send me back, send me back. [They will say], 'My Lord, send me back that I might do righteousness in that which I left behind."

Send me back. Why? So that I can do some good with that which I left behind.

So you should have some honor today. You should have some honor today that you were chosen. You didn't do anything to get what you have right now. All of you in this room today that are Muslim, there is nothing you did to deserve it. When you woke up this morning and you could say there is no god but one god, nothing that you did yesterday made you deserve that today. Nothing you did last week made you deserve that today. There's not a single thing in your life you have done to deserve that.

It is because you have been given a gift, a ni'mah from Allah, to be Muslim. But my question to you is: what have you done today to show gratitude for it? Something you didn't get, but have you shown gratitude for it at all?

The First Creation: The Pen

And my last and final thing—this is the thing that I said that you will remember tonight when you lay in your bed. And I saved it for last.

What was the first thing that Allah created? And if this doesn't purify your soul, then nothing can. Your soul is hard as this table.

What is the first thing that was ever created? Loudly. This is interactive.

A pen.

The first thing that Allah ever created was a pen. What did our creator say to that pen?

Write.

The pen said: "Write what?"

What did our creator tell the pen?

Write everything.

Write everything. Meaning everything that will ever happen at any time, at any place, at any position within my creation. Write it.

And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said when he made his Isra wal Miraj to the heavens, what did he say about that pen? What did he say about this pen? That the pen has been lifted from the paper and the ink has become dry. The pen has been lifted from the paper and the ink has become dry.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

Somewhere along the way, and this happened how long before creation began? 50,000 years. 50,000 years before creation, this pen started writing everything.

Allah Thought of Us

I want you to think about something tonight. The first time I thought about this, I couldn't even grasp it. To this day, I have not wrapped my head around this yet.

Somewhere in that book that Allah told that pen to write, somewhere in that book, Allah told that pen to write: "Yusha Evans will become a Muslim." Somewhere in that book, Allah told that pen to write my name and your name and that we will be Muslim.

Allah thought about us that long ago. And that's why you're here today. And if you did anything to deserve that, then you are fooling only yourself.

We are constantly slaves. This is why this is why we are always going to be Abdullah. We are always going to be slave of Allah, because we are in debt to our creator with such indebtedness that we can never repay. I don't care what you do. I don't care if you take all of the deeds of all of the human beings that ever lived on the face of this earth and if you gave them to one human being, that one human being could not repay Allah for anything. Couldn't repay Allah for his eyesight, his vision, his hearing, the heart he was given. Guidance? Forget about it. Not even close.

Constant Slavery and Debt

So you are constantly in debt. This is the purification of the soul—is that we are constantly a slave in a debt that

we cannot repay. And we will constantly fail in that mission to repay it. But every son of Adam sins, and the best of those who sin are those who repent.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 4251)

Closing

May Allah reward all of you, and I look forward to taking your questions and being with you here again in the wonderful campus of George Mason University.