The Foundations of an American Muslim Antipoverty Movement

The Foundations of an American Muslim Anti-Poverty Movement

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Prayers and Gratitude

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Messengers, our Master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions.

Acknowledgments and Thanks

Praise be to God. First of all, I would like to thank all the volunteers who have done such an incredible job. United for Change. There is not a single salary employee. This conference is solely the work of the volunteers led ably by Tariq Subhani and Ahmed Abu Hamda and many others. Ahmedu, the moderator of the year himself.

So we'd like to thank them. All of you have come out from primarily the Tri-State, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey area, and also from environments far beyond. Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia, other places. May Allah reward you for your support of this program that helped Masjid al-Islam to raise a significant amount of money this evening in a very short period of time.

All of the scholars who've sacrificed from their very, very busy schedules. Dr. Quick, traveling internationally from Canada. Sheikh Hamza, traveling internationally from California. Sheikh Adhemi, and Nina Weed, Yasser Qadi, and many, many others who are visionaries in their respective communities.

Of course, these sisters, Yasmin Mujahid, who some of you, many of you might not have known about, and I'm sure now you'll be following her all over wherever she might be lecturing. She's still selling her books outside. We had an introduction to Afia Siddiqui, who was languishing in a prison in Texas. Maury Salican has a book that outlines her case and the egregious transgressions of justice that occurred in that case, so please don't let him leave with any books.

Housekeeping Matters

Also, there's a housekeeping note. Don't leave any trash in here. We want to leave this hall cleaner than we found it, so as you leave after Sheikh Hamza's speech, and then the closing prayer, grab any plastic bottles, cups, paper that you might see on the floor, and bring it out and put it in the garbage cans outside of the hall, please.

If you happen to go into the bathroom, you can help wipe up the lakes and puddles that have accumulated. Then, we'll just say reflected, inevitably, when you get a lot of Muslims together in a public place. May Allah bless all of you and reward you abundantly.

Introduction to the Foundation of the Movement

And in ten or 15 minutes, I don't propose to outline the movement, but I want to talk about some of the things that are absolutely essential if we're going to begin to push back and organize in mass fashion against many of the outrages that Chris Hedges so articulately and penetratingly outlined for us in his remarks.

And I want to do this in the context of a single verse in the Quran where Allah mentions:

This verse mentions those who inhabited the abode before them, they love those referring to the Ansar, they love those referring to the Muhajireen, the migrants, the helpers, the Ansar, loving the Muhajireen who migrated to them. And they find in their soul no need or agitation concerning what they've been given. And they give preference to others even though they themselves have dire need. And whoever can avoid the stinginess in their soul, then they are those who will be successful.

So this verse, I think, it outlined the foundation, one of the foundations for the success of that early community. And I think it gives us tremendous insight into what we need to be successful in our day and time in the very trying and challenging circumstances that we find ourselves in.

The Foundation of Love

So first of all, the verse talks about, not first of all, but it talks about love and the importance of love:

The ability of the Ansar to take in with open arms their brothers and sisters who were forced by trying circumstances to flee Mecca was based in large part on the fact that they had open hearts.

If we don't have open hearts, we'll never have open arms. It's as simple as that. So as a community, first and foremost, if we're going to be a community that begins to challenge and to push back against and to help people who are suffering as a result of the circumstances we find our nation in, then we're going to have to be a community of love.

Because those people who are pushing for the draconian policies that we've been listening to, they're people of hate. They're people whose hearts are filled with hate. And this morning Imam Siraj was talking about the temptations and Aretha Franklin.

So I'm going to do my throwback to the 60s. War is not the answer for only love can conquer hate. So if we are people in a community of love, we will conquer their hate. We will conquer their hate. And we will be able to give solace to those who are living in places like Camden, New Jersey, or microcosms of Camden, New Jersey, all over this country.

Freedom from Envy and Greed

And they find in their heart no need and they're not agitated by what they've been given. One of the reasons we find the kind of policies that we find domestically, the economic policies, is because those people who have wealth, because they don't have love for those who lack wealth, they find agitation and a need for what others might be given. They find a need for that paltry welfare check.

The Story of the Somali Brothers from Lewiston, Maine

And it strikes close to home. This is in some abstraction. We have a group of five Somali brothers with us who've traveled here from Lewiston, Maine. Are you brothers still here? Stand up so the people can see you. These bright lights going in my eyes, maybe I could see you. You brothers here? Where they at? I don't see you. Anyway, you guys see them.

Now I mention them to say this. They're trying to save their masjid. Their masjid, they've come across a property. They come across a property that costs $246,000. But the owner has agreed for them to pay it off to the tune of $1,600 a month. Formally, because they're refugees and they're in an area that's already economically depressed, they were getting assistance, public assistance, and from those paltry welfare checks, they were putting their money together to pay that $1,600.

Now those checks have stopped. They're only getting food stamps. And we know if the food stamp president is defeated in the next election, and this is in an ad for Barack Obama, they won't probably even be getting food stamps. They cannot pay that $1,600 since they've come here to appeal for help from the brothers and sisters here.

The Hypocrisy of the Wealthy Regarding Public Assistance

So those people, they find a need for the welfare check. They find a need for the WIC check. They find a need for the money-paying food stamps. The millions of dollars. But they find no need for the billions or trillions that are going for the wars. They find no need to take that money away. Because their corporations and their narrow interests are the ones that benefit from that.

We should be the ones who say, no, we're going to take your welfare away. They're against socialism until the socialism benefits them. Until the government spending benefits them. Until the tax dollars are going in their direction.

They're trying to take your hard-earned Social Security and call it an entitlement. They're trying to take your Medicare and call it an entitlement. As if it's a privilege that public largesse is extending to you. Social Security was the money taken out of your paycheck to pay for your future. And we have to stand up and say, my money is not going to Wall Street so they can gamble it away like they gambled away the equity in my home. Like they gambled away my retirement account. Like they gambled away my pension fund. We have to stand up, brothers and sisters, and say, no. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Creating a New Public Morality

But to do that, we have to create a new public morality. The public morality of selfishness, it has to go. The intellectual foundations of that selfishness, the likes of the Ayn Rand novels that glorify selfishness, that glorify a lack of public and social concern, that demonize social justice, it has to be countered by a movement and by a morality that glorifies selflessness, that glorifies social justice, that glorifies a compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Preferring Others Despite Our Own Need

Allah says:

They give preference to others even though they themselves have dire needs, have severe needs. In other words, they were poor, but they were willing to help those who were poorer than themselves.

I want to read something to you from something Chris Hedges wrote. It's in your book. There are a lot of good articles in this book. You should read them.

He says, In City and Ruins, despite Camden's bleakness, despite its crime and its deprivation, despite its lost factory jobs that are never coming back, despite all of this, valiant souls somehow rise up in magnificent defiance. In a room across the street from Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where meals are provided for the homeless on Saturdays, a group of African American women bow their heads over a table and hold hands. They're led by Lalois Davis, 67, a heavyset woman who radiates an indomitable, unbroken spirit.

The poor have to help the poor, Davis said, because the ones who make the money are helping the people with money.

The Eternal Message of the Quran

Why do I quote this? Fourteen hundred years before Lalois Davis said it, Allah said it in the Quran:

They give preference to others even though they themselves are poor. They're saying, I'm poor, but you're poorer than I am, so I can find a way to help feed you, to help clothe you, to help you maintain your dignity in the face of the dehumanizing conditions we find before ourselves.

That is our responsibility. That is our mission. That is our job of a community. And if you leave here with nothing else this evening, leave here with that idea imprinted in your heart, brothers and sisters, this is the foundation of the movement that we have to build.

Overcoming Stinginess Through Self-Work

And then Allah tells us, He says:

He knows that there are qualities in us that push us towards stinginess, shuh, extreme stinginess. But to avoid it, we need to do some work on ourselves.

Early this morning, a question was asked by Imam Siraj Wahaj. How many of you came here to work on yourself? And this is where change starts in our worldview. It doesn't start on high. It starts in our hearts.

Because this is where the saga of Islam started. It started in the heart of Adam, peace be upon him, when that ruh was breathed into Adam, that creature of Allah, that mysterious force that we've been given no knowledge of.

That He made him upright, made the human upright and breathed into him of this ruh. And it took its final form in Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. But where did it come?

The Work of Purifying the Heart

It starts in our hearts. It starts in our purifying our hearts and elevating our hearts and elevating our spirit, our soul so that we grow and transcend those natural impulses that we might have. And it's not easy work. It's difficult work. It's challenging work. But it is the work that has an unrivaled reward both in this world and the next.

And one of its rewards in this world it creates within us the capacity to avoid the stinginess within ourselves. It creates in us the capacity to transcend that nafs al-ammara bi-al-su', that aspect of our soul that inclines towards that which is vile and evil. And unfortunately, we live in a day and time where those forces are cultivated within us.

Where they're brought to, they're encouraged to be brought to the fore. This is what the likes of the individual we mentioned earlier. This is the force that's being cultivated.

A Vision for a Just Society

Allah says:

And what does Ayn Rand say? Whoever can glorify and satiate and feed that stinginess within their souls. No, we have another plan for society. We have another path for society. We have another vision for society. And if we stand up brothers and sisters as a community with one voice with one heart, with one vision then we will be,

by the permission of Allah, we will be a source of real hope for this society. But first we have to be a source of hope for ourselves.

The Cry for Love in Our Community

Our sister Noor, this sister sitting here, when she reached out to Ahmadu and expressed the pain that she was feeling at the loss of her young child to cancer. She was only crying out for a little bit of love. When our brother Yusuf stood up at the microphone and passionately described how he was pushed away from the doors of the masjid until he could only find that little storefront masjid in Oakland, California to take him in.

Poor people who didn't have much, but they looked at one who had less than what they had. One who was a wayfarer and opened the doors. He was just crying out for a little love, brothers and sisters.

Let's go back to the 60's again. Let's go back to Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack. Where is the love? You said, was mine or mine till the end of time? Was it just a lie? Where is the love?

The Test of Truthfulness

Brothers and sisters, we're tested for our truthfulness. Alif Lam Meem.

Do people think they'll be left alone merely saying we believe without being tested? We tested them in order that Allah would show which of them are truthful and which of them are liars.

Brothers and sisters, let us be truthful in our profession of love. Let us be truthful in our advocacy of charity and sharing. Let us be truthful as Muslims, as people who have inherited this grand and glorious, prophetic mission to take it forward into history and to be a source of difference in the lives of our community and those around us.

The Path to True Success

In conclusion, the verse concludes:

Those who are able to transcend those negative forces within them, they will be successful.

Brothers and sisters, our success and it's very important as the ravages of the state, the corporation, the fascists, the proto-fascists become full-blown fascists, as they become more egregious, more severe, we're going to have to be people who can maintain their dignity in the face of expanding poverty.

Our Worth in the Sight of Allah

And to do that, we're going to have to understand our value, our worth, as it's been stated all day, and I'm only summarizing what's been stated before me. It's not based on how much money is in our pockets. It's not based

on whether we have all these labels affixed to our apparel. Whether we have the right glasses or the right bag or the right lapel pins or cuff links. It's based on how we stand with Allah.

Brother Yusuf was pushed away from the door. Perhaps if the people who had pushed Yusuf away from the door had reflected on the words of Rasulullah, peace be upon him, they would have taken him in and said, brother you can stay as long as you like. Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, peace be upon him and his family, peace be upon him.

He said:

(Sahih Muslim 2622)

That perhaps a disheveled, dust-covered individual who only has two ragged garments to cover him is pushed away from the doors of people. If he were to ask anything of Allah, Allah would give it to him.

Why? As Imam Nawawi and others say, because of his standing with Allah, Allah would honor him by responding to his request.

Closing Counsel: Where Do You Stand with Allah?

So brothers and sisters, don't look at your worth based on how people look at you. Don't look at your worth based on what you might have in the bank. Don't look at your worth based on what you might drive and how dilapidated it might be. Don't look at your worth based on whether or not you have all these labels, the right labels, Rolex or this or that or the other.

Look at your worth on where you stand with Allah and work day by day by day to improve your standing with Allah to the best of your ability and by the permission of Allah, God willing, we will be successful.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh