America and Islam

America and Islam

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Praise and the Greatest Blessing

Alhamdulillahi hamdan kathira. All praise is due to Allah, the Almighty God, who has guided us to Islam and who has blessed us with an incomparable blessing by guiding us to Islam, no matter who fails to realize the truthfulness of that statement. Imam Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned in one of his sayings:

"From the blessings of this world, it suffices you that Islam is a blessing."

If we get nothing else from this world but we leave this world with (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ - la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah) on our tongues and in our hearts, then nothing else will matter. Nothing that missed us or passed us by in this world will matter, because the brief time we spend here will be forgotten as soon as we visit the graves.

The Worthlessness of Worldly Gain Without Faith

It won't matter. On the other hand, if we leave this world and we've obtained positions of power and influence, if we gain all the wealth the world has to give, everything the world has to give, but we leave this world and (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ - la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah) is not on our tongues and is not in our heart, then what does it mean? What is it worth?

We stand before Allah and we realize the truthfulness of the statement that Allah mentions in the Quran: "My wealth is of no benefit now" - all of those millions and all of those billions that I robbed and stole and killed for.

Speaking Truth Without Fear

And if you look at this country today, people are hesitant to speak like this. They think you'll end up on YouTube, you'll end up like Jeremiah Wright on YouTube. But Harry Truman once said - President Harry Truman, former president, deceased president - "If one American who has done nothing wrong is moved by fear to shut his mind or close his mouth, then every American is in peril."

Harry Truman made that statement in the aftermath of the struggle against fascism, and he understood that fascists who want to impose totalitarian regime and totalitarian rules don't want anyone to criticize, they don't want anyone to speak out. They rule by fear and intimidation, and when that happens in a democracy, the viability of that democracy is in peril.

Islam as a Source of Solutions

But that's not what we want to talk about. We want to talk about our religion, because this religion, as we started this talk with, is a source of hope. It's a source of salvation. It's a source of good, and it offers many solutions to the problems that are eroding this society.

Time to Implement Islamic Solutions

This behooves us as Muslims not to just talk about the solution - "Islam is the solution, Mashallah, Alhamdulillah" - let's talk. It's time for us to work for the solution and to work to let people know about this Islam and to implement this Islam in our communities, in our economic practices, in our institutions, to let this light shine so the people can see it.

As the darkness descends, there should be a light. This religion is light. This religion is light. This Prophet is a light. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is called Noor in the Quran. The Quran itself is a light, Noor. Every believer is a light. Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth, and every single believer is a light. Every single believer is a light, and we have to shine that light and not cover it up. Don't put a covering over it. Let it shine through the world.

Political Engagement and Islamic Principles

As we move deeper into this election campaign, many Muslims think about how they should vote. "Who should I vote for?" Some Muslims don't vote. We should all think intelligently how we can best use this process that we've been blessed with. It is a blessing, and every blessing, as they say, potentially can become a curse. It's up to us to make sure it remains a blessing.

But in any case, we ask ourselves: "Who should I vote for? What policy should I endorse?"

The Five Universal Objectives (Al-Maqasid)

As Muslims, we don't have to experiment. We don't have to set up a think tank to discover what should govern our agenda. Our scholars, who have looked at the sources of our religion, looked at the Quran and looked at the Sunnah and then extracted from those the objectives, the purposes, the principles that we can derive from those sources, they've already given us insight as to how to go about the process of agenda formation - be that at a personal level or be that at the level of communities and organizations.

That's through their deriving from the teachings of the religion what are sometimes called Al-Maqasid, the great overarching objectives of the divine law, that are sometimes referred to as Al-Kuliyyat Al-Khams, the five great universals of the divine law. Those five things inform our personal and they should inform our collective agenda.

First Objective: Preserving Religion (Hifz al-Din)

What are those things? The first one: Hifz al-Din, protecting religion. So that tells us as an individual or as a community we can't support any project that will lead to or threaten the viability of religion, because the Sharia,

the divine law, was instituted to preserve religion. Because religion defines for us and lays out for us the path of salvation. So that's the first fundamental point in our platform.

In this country where Muslims are a strong minority, that might mean, for the sake of preserving an environment where we are free to practice our religion, supporting groups or ideas - or not supporting but possibly aligning ourselves with groups or ideas that we don't endorse. Civil libertarians, for example, who are for a free and open system where everyone is free to present their ideas.

So that means as Muslims we're free to practice Islam, we're free to live Islam, we're free to wear clothing that identifies us as Muslims. That's our personal freedom. But people who want to worship fire, they're free to worship fire in a pluralistic system. It doesn't concern us what they do. What concerns us is maintaining the integrity of the system so that we are free to do what we do.

So if we look at the big objective, al-maqsad, as opposed to the particulars, then it informs our thinking to understand that to preserve the environment, we might have to compromise some of the particulars, because the Sharia wants us to preserve our religion.

Second Objective: Preserving Life (Hifz al-Nafs)

The second one - and of course these are deep discussions, one of these could be ten khutbahs, we have to do five in seven minutes - the next one: protecting life. This law was instituted to protect life.

"Whoever takes a life unjustly, it is as if they've killed all of humanity. Whoever saves a life, it is as if they've saved all of humanity."

This is what Islam is all about. So knowing that, we cannot support the policies of this war machine. Who knows who it's going to be, but it's going to be somebody, because when you have trillions of dollars dedicated to an infrastructure whose only purpose is to kill people, you have to find somebody to kill.

As Muslims, we should say no. Our Sharia, our law, says you save life and you only fight as a last resort, not as an imperative that's dictated by your economic interest. If the American people generally - they're good people and there are a lot of good people - but if they generally won't stand up and acknowledge this truth, then as Muslims we should put this on the agenda and we should push it, because our religion demands it.

Third Objective: Preserving the Intellect (Hifz al-Aql)

The third: Hifz al-Aql, protecting the intellect. When we look at what sort of policies we should endorse or support or put our weight behind, it's not just anti-drug and anti-alcohol. We have to think and realize drugs and alcohol - we fight them on the demand side before we fight them on the supply side. We try to put faith in people's hearts so they don't need any drugs. We try to put contentment in their soul so they don't need any alcohol.

Then you can have a dope dealer on every corner and a liquor store on the other corner and they'll have no business, because no one needs to alter their mind or to alter their state of being, because they're with Allah in

their heart, and that's the greatest delight. They're with Allah.

"Those who believe and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah. Verily, hearts find comfort in the remembrance of Allah."

That should be our job: to work to fill this country with the remembrance of Allah so people don't need drugs and they don't need alcohol to find comfort.

But when we talk about preserving the intellect, we have to move beyond drugs and alcohol. We have to look at the policies that are dumbing down our children, the educational system, and making meaningful and real reforms in the educational system that creates dummies in the school.

Why is that so? Because there's a system put in place to keep everyone dumb, because it's cheaper and it's more politically wise to have a semi-educated population and import your brains. Because if everyone has a good education, if everyone knows how to think, if everyone's analytical, you can only employ so many of them, and then you create what's known as a revolution of rising expectations.

"I have this good education. I learned how to do calculus in fourth grade," and you can't employ them all. "Why am I working at Burger King flipping hamburgers?" You create revolutionary pressures in your society. So keep everyone dumb. "I'm flipping burgers at Burger King because I can't count to ten, so I guess I should be at Burger King," and import your brains.

When we talk about preserving intellect, then there are other things besides drugs and alcohol that we have to look at.

Fourth Objective: Preserving Progeny (Hifz al-Nasl)

The fourth: Hifz al-Nasl, protecting and preserving progeny, which is a fancy way to say children, our families, but specifically our future generations. Which means what? How many destructive policies? The environment, the destruction of the environment. If there's no environmental soundness, what world would our future, our children, have? A polluted world? All the fish are dead? You can't breathe the air? All the land has been poisoned by toxic dumps?

We should be in the forefront of the environmental movement. The Iroquois Nation - some of you, you go in the store, you see some products, they have "Seven Generations" on them. For most of these companies, it's a marketing tool. Where does Seven Generations come from? The Iroquois Nation.

When they developed a policy, they would not implement that policy until they thought out collectively the implications of that policy for seven generations. "How is this going to affect our children?" And if it had an adverse effect on those future generations, "We're not going to do it." That was a basic principle that guided their policy formation.

What guides the policy formation here? "How much money can it make me today?" If it destroys the environment, "I'll build a private house on an island in the South Pacific." If it destroys our youth, "We're telling them to kill each other. Listen to the music. Tell them to become a bunch of gangsters. Tell our girls to become a

bunch of whores and prostitutes. We don't care, if it makes money. If it sells, then let's do it." That's how we make policy.

They're debating, they're trying to overturn a law that would make cars more efficient, that would work against polluting the environment, because it might affect the oil business. That's how they make policy.

Again, as a community, we have to galvanize our resources, begin to put our heads and our hearts together to introduce these principles into the policy-making process.

Fifth Objective: Preserving Wealth (Hifz al-Mal)

And finally, the preservation of wealth. Just for that. To preserve wealth: no interest, no hoarding, no monopoly, no speculation, no insider trading, no valueless currency. That's how you preserve wealth.

When your currency has value - it's gold or silver - you always have money. But when your currency is just paper, it has the value of paper, and in certain economic conditions it can be absolutely worthless.

What were Germans doing with their Deutschmarks in 1929 and 1930? They were burning them to keep warm because it was cheaper to burn the money than to use the money to buy wood, fuel, or coal. And they were using it to put wallpaper on their walls because it was cheaper to put the Deutschmarks on your wall than it is to buy wallpaper.

The same thing can happen to the dollar. Been to Britain lately? How much did the dollar get you? That's how you preserve wealth.

Just Distribution of Wealth

When we talk about preserving wealth, we're not talking about reckless capitalist greed, because our principles for preserving wealth also lead us to distribute wealth. "And in their wealth is a well-defined right for those deprived and those who are forced to ask."

By spreading the wealth out, you preserve it, because the poor people love you. But when you get a smaller and smaller clique of super-rich people living in walled and gated communities and everyone else is becoming increasingly poor, people start to get resentful and they start to have evil thoughts for you. They start stealing from you. They start looking at ways they can be where you are. It's not wise.

Call to Action and Conclusion

We should stand up and do our best to articulate a credible alternative, and that takes our whole community working hard in our ways, great and small. And never underestimate the power of something that's small that's done consistently. That's the most beloved act to Allah, and if Allah loves something, Allah is going to make that thing have an impact.

I just want to remind all the brothers and sisters to stand up and be proud to be a Muslim. Stand up and be proud to be a Muslim and let your light shine. You can make a difference. You can make a difference in your neighborhood. You can make a difference in your school. You can make a difference in your workplace.