Back to the Basics of Islam

Back to Basics - Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Praises and Blessings

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Messengers, our Master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions, and peace and blessings be upon him.

Our Lord, we do not praise You as we should for the glory of Your face and for the greatness of Your authority. Glory be to You. We do not praise You as You have praised Yourself.

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

I was going to apologize for being late, but you got to listen to the CD Jumu'ah. Probably, I don't know, maybe Islam Abdullah also. So, no need to apologize. Thank you guys. You had good.

Cultivating Connection with Allah Through Repentance

To continue the past theme of cultivating a connection with Allah, we had a program yesterday and we were reading from Ibn Ata'illah's Taj al-'Arus. And the first thing he mentions in the book, as is the custom of the scholars when discussing those things that will help us to attain to Allah and to have a strong connection with Allah, is Tawbah, is repentance. Because as we mentioned, and we mentioned this before, if you want to go to Sacramento from here, and you find yourself on the highway, and you're looking at the signs, and they say 680 South, you're not going to get to Sacramento because you're going in the wrong direction.

So, a person that's trying to travel to Jannah, and you're passing signs, and the signs are saying: lies, prayers missed, Quran never picked up, sins of various types—you're going in the wrong direction. You have to get off and make a U-turn. And getting off and making a U-turn is Tawbah. It's doing those things necessary to point ourselves in the right direction, in the direction that points us and leads us towards Allah. And that's where we're all headed. Just some of us, unfortunately, are heading in the wrong direction.

The Journey Toward Allah

"Oh you human, you're toiling to reach your Lord, and surely you will reach Him."

So we're all trying to move, knowingly or unknowingly, towards Allah. يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنسَانُ إِنَّكَ كَادِحٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَدْحًا فَمُلَاقِيهِ "Oh you human, you're toiling to reach your Lord, and surely you will reach Him."

"Those who struggle for our sake, We will guide them in our paths."

And those paths, the paths that lead to Allah.

The Necessity of Struggle

So the affair requires struggle. Overcoming the inclinations of your soul that keep you from moving towards Allah is not pleasant. Giving up those things that you've grown comfortable with and have become very alluring to you, and they give sweetness and delight to your life, giving those things up for the sake of Allah and for salvation is not pleasant. Those are the things that a person has to do if they want to overcome their soul, if they want to suppress their ego, if they want to rise from one level to a higher level on the spiritual ladder.

A lot of times we think it's gonna be easy. And when it's not easy we're ready to throw in the towel, ready to throw in the towel and just give up. Take off the hijab because it's hard. Stop wearing any clothing, taqiya, or sometimes wearing some jalabiya that identifies you as a Muslim because it's hard. But in reality it's not hard. We make it hard. We make it hard.

Our Reality is Easy Compared to Others

We mentioned the other day that some of us, we say oh it's so hard to be a Muslim in America. What's hard about being a Muslim in America? Well people look at me funny. Your brothers and sisters, their houses are being destroyed by tanks. They come home and their whole house has been reduced to rubble. Their young teenage boys picked up and thrown in some jail, shipped halfway around the world and thrown in some dungeon to be tortured. That's hard. That's hard.

Sister losing her job because she wants to wear hijab. Losing her job, losing her livelihood because she wants to wear hijab. Now she doesn't have to choose between being stared at and wearing hijab. She has to choose between not being able to take care of her orphan children who lost their father and wearing hijab. Not being able to even go to a university because the universities are state sponsored and the state is at war with Islam.

And if you wear hijab you can't go to the university. You can't work in a government office. If you're a Merve Kavakçı you can't take the seat in parliament that you won in an election that you fought and struggled in. That's hard. That's hard. We have it easy. We have it easy.

Giving Thanks to Allah

And all Allah asks us is to give thanks. وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ "Your Lord proclaimed: if you give thanks for the blessings I bestowed upon you, I will increase you, and if you are ungrateful, indeed My punishment is severe." (Quran 14:7)

All Allah asks us is to give thanks to give thanks. لا إله إلا الله May Allah make us all amongst the shakireen. May Allah make us all amongst the shakireen.

Seeking Allah's Love Through Following the Prophet

And why do we want to get close to Allah? Because we want Allah to love us. Another thing that he was talking about, Rahimahullah, was the muhibb and the mahboob. And he said some people are satisfied to be muhibb.

May Allah make you not only one who loves Him but one who's loved by Him. Because you can love someone and they don't reciprocate and there's no joy in that. Your

days of puppy love. You loved the little girl next door. She couldn't stand you. That was torture. You loved the little boy in your class at school.

And he wrote you a note and broke your heart. Roses are red. Oh you got so happy. Violets are blue. Oh mashallah. Sugar is sweet, and so are you. Cloud nine. Then you kept reading, but the roses have withered, the violets are dead, the sugar is lumpy and so is your head. So he said, (شتان بين المحب والمحبوب - There's a great difference between the lover and the beloved.)

We want to be beloved by Allah. We want to be beloved by the Messenger of Allah. And the first step is tawbah. That's the first step. And the next step is trying to live the life of a believer, to live a life of the believer. That's the key, to follow the Prophet ﷺ.

Following the Sunnah is Essential

If we think we're going to become beloved to Allah, and we don't follow the Prophet ﷺ, there's a problem. Allah says: قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ "Say if indeed you love Allah, follow me, then Allah will love you and forgive you your sins." (Quran 3:31) Say, if indeed you love Allah, say to them, O Muhammad, يا محمد قل "If indeed you love Allah, follow me." Then Allah will love you.

So if we think we can abandon the sunnah, we could claim to love the Messenger of Allah, but we have Willie Neckbone's picture on the wall. It's a false claim. We claim to love the Messenger of Allah, but our speech we're imitating some profligate kafir that we don't even know.

The Story of Busta Rhymes

I was at, you might have heard me tell this story before, about five, six years ago at the ICNA convention, Islamic Circle of North America, when it was in Philadelphia. And I was going back to my room, waiting for the elevator, and two young teenage Muslims, they were talking to each other. There's a big hotel downtown Philadelphia, and one Muslim says to the other, man, I just saw Busta Rhymes. He said, really? Yeah, he looked at me like he wanted to kill me. Well, what did you expect? He's supposed to, oh man, you Muslim? Hey, come give me a kiss.

You don't know this guy. You don't know what his likes or dislikes are. You don't know what his personal habits and inclinations are. He might have really wanted to kill you, for all you know. But you got his picture on the wall, and you say you love Muhammad. You use the vulgar language that he uses, and you say you love Muhammad. You have your pants hanging off your rear end, because he has his pants hanging off his rear end, but you say you love Muhammad. It's a false claim.

Imitation is the Greatest Sign of Love

The greatest sign of love is imitation. The greatest sign of love is imitation. So no one can claim to love Muhammad, and not try to imitate him, in his actions, his speech, and his states. It's a false claim.

So we have to pray to Allah that He places us in the company of the truthful people. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ "O you believers, be conscious of Allah and keep yourself with the truthful people." (Quran 9:119)

The Importance of Good Company

Because association breeds assimilation. الْمَرْءُ عَلَى دِينِ خَلِيلِهِ فَلْيَنظُرْ أَحَدُكُمْ مَنْ يُخَالِلُ "A person is on the religion of his companion, or her companion, so let each of you look very closely at the company he keeps." (Sahih Abu Dawud 4833, Sahih al-Tirmidhi 2378) Look very closely at the company he keeps.

We can't keep the company of people who morally have no consciousness of our Creator and expect that we're going to act like the people who are conscious. We can't keep the company of people who have no knowledge, no inclination to follow, no knowledge of our Prophet ﷺ, and expect that we're going to be the people who follow in his footsteps. So we ask Allah جل جلاله that He blesses all of us, that He blesses all of you, all of us, to walk in the footsteps of Muhammad ﷺ.

Entering Fully Into Islam

"O you believers, enter fully into Islam, and don't follow in the footsteps of Satan."

Don't follow the footsteps of Satan. Enter fully into the religion, don't take some of it and reject others. Don't try to get a new interpretation of issues that have been settled for 1400 years of Islamic history.

New Issues vs. Settled Matters

You want to know if it's lawful for you to ride an airplane or not? Go talk to a scholar. There were no airplanes in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. You want to know how do you figure out these calculus problems? Go talk to a math teacher and get advice. There is no calculus in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. There is no insight in the Sunnah to help you pass your calculus exam.

But if you want to know how to pray, how to fast, how to dress, what to eat, how to act, how to talk, we don't need any new interpretations. We don't need any new interpretation. That's all been worked out. That's all been worked out.

The Hijab Example

There was someone that was arguing that Muslim women don't have to wear hijab anymore because they read an article, I'm not even going to say the person's name, by, I'll just make up a name, by Patricia Ahmed, saying you don't have to wear hijab anymore. Who is Patricia when weighed against 1400 years of Islamic scholarship? We don't need any new information about how to dress. The basic parameters are there. There's new ways to do it in new societies that have their nuances concerning clothing. But the basic parameters are there.

Prayer, we don't need, oh it's what's in your heart that counts. So I don't need all these rituals. That's a position that was condemned in the Quran. That's already been worked out. We don't need information concerning when do we start Ramadan. That's been worked out.

Getting Back to Basics

So what we need is to get back to basics. I think this is what Sidi Jamal Hassan was talking about. We need to

get back to basics. We need to get away from all the lofty interpretations and translations and miscombobulations of our religion. We need to get back to the basics.

If you're a Muslim, you get out of the bed and you pray in the morning, and not just in the wintertime because you got to get up to go to work anyway. If you're a Muslim, you don't smoke. You don't drink. You don't use drugs. And when you come into the religion, you understand that. That this, you have to give up something.

Sacrifice is Part of Islam

And if you're not hurting, something's wrong with your religion. If everything's peaches and cream, something's wrong with your religion. There's supposed to be some pain in this affair. There's supposed to be sacrifice. There's supposed to be hardship and difficulty.

A man came to the Prophet ﷺ, said, I want to follow you. He said, be careful what you say. He said, I want to follow you. Be careful what you say. I want to follow you. Then prepare yourself for poverty. Prepare yourself for poverty.

Because you're going to have to cash in your IRA. You're going to have to give up your 401k. You're going to have to quit. Take the liquor out of your store. So your income's going down. You're going to have to make some sacrifices. You're going to have to hurt. You're going to have to sweat. That's what Islam is all about. That's what Islam is all about.

Shameful Behavior Among Muslims

It's time to get back to basics. You got Muslims running around buck wild like they never touched the Quran, like they never heard the Sunnah, like they don't have people who preceded them in this land who sacrificed their careers. Some of them sacrificed their lives so people can say, La ilaha illallah. Running around buck wild. Snuggling up with girls in public. Feeling no shame. Feeling no shame. Come to the masjid reeking of reefer. Feeling no shame. Feeling no shame. Hanging out in nightclubs. Feeling no shame. This is Islam?

Our Mission as Muslims

And we have a mission. All you know why this nonsense goes on? Because we've lost our sense of mission. We lost our sense of mission. Allah brought us to this religion for a mission, for a purpose. And that purpose is to show people there's a better way to live your life. Because all of those things we're talking about are destroying people.

The drugs are destroying people. So Allah sent Muslims to show you can be happy. You can have a good sense of self. You can be perfectly content with yourself with no drugs and no alcohol. Allah sent Islam to show people you can break the chains that tie you to this dunya. And you can unleash the true potential that is placed inside of you by cultivating that light in your heart.

But to cultivate that light it takes work. It takes effort. It takes struggle. وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا "Those who struggle for our sake." (Quran 29:69) That's the word Allah use. لا إله إلا الله جَاهَدُوا فِينَا جَاهَدُوا فِينَا

Allah Will Replace Those Who Turn Away

May Allah bless us to realize how blessed we are to be a Muslim. May Allah bless us to realize that we have a mission. And if you doubt that we have a mission, Allah, I'm not saying Allah is not merciful. You might do some of those things we mentioned, repent, you're in paradise. But Allah is gonna bring some more people to undertake the mission you should be undertaking. وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ "If you turn back, Allah will bring someone in your place and they won't be like you." (Quran 47:38) They won't be like you.

The Believers Allah Will Love

We were talking about love. We started out talking about love. فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ (5:54 Quran) عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ذَلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

Some of the commentators say this is talking about helping the religion and striving for the religion and working to serve the people of the religion, then Allah will bring another people فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ "Whom He will love and they will love Him." Whom He will love and they will love Him. They will be the ones who love Allah. They're willing to sacrifice for Allah's religion because they love Allah. They don't care what people say about them. You're backwards, you're old-fashioned. You must be hot under there. No, I'm so cool that I make you look like a fool. And if you wanna discuss it further, I'll take you to school. And your education starts by learning the true golden rule: لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله

This is Serious Business

This is serious business brothers and sisters. We have our light moments. We have our recreation. We have our moments of rest and recuperation to regroup. But all of that is so we can get back in the ring. Between rounds you sit on the stool. You get fanned, right? Get some water sprayed on your face. Get your eyes fixed up a little. Little Vaseline around the eyes. And then you get back in the ring.

Some of us got stuck on the stool. Ring, ring, ring, ring, round one, still on the stool. Ring, ring, ring, ring, round two. Still on the stool getting fanned. Brothers and sisters, get in the ring. Get in the ring. Fight the good fight. Stand up for the religion. Do the best you can. And that's all Allah asked us.

Allah Asks Us to Do Our Best

This is a beautiful religion. That's all Allah asked us, to do the best we can. The Prophet ﷺ beautifully mentioned it: مَا أَمَرْتُكُم بِهِ فَأْتُوا مِنْهُ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ "What I've commanded you to do, do the best you can do it, do it to the extent possible." (Sahih al-Bukhari 7288, Sahih Muslim )1337( وَمَا نَهَيْتُكُمْ عَنْهُ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ "But what I've forbidden you from, avoid it." Because some things we're not capable of doing, but we can avoid anything we set our minds to فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ "Avoid it."

Building a Powerful Community

So, let's do the best we can to do those things Allah has ordered us to do. And what He's forbidden us from, let's avoid it unconditionally. Let's avoid it. And if we do that, we'll have a powerful community. We'll have a

community that's exemplary. The good in our community, there's much good. There's much good. And other people see it. But our good can be multiplied exponentially. Our good can be multiplied exponentially.