O human beings. I have been asked to speak about I slam and peace and I don’t think Islam is different than peace, or peace is different than Islam. So peace is within Islam. And it is one of the principles of Islam.

Allah swt said in Holy Qur'an:

“Ya ayyuha’n-naas – o human beings.  We have created you from male and female and We made you nations and tribes to know each other. The best among you are the most pious/righteous/sincere.

So Allah swt is telling us through His messenger, the Seal of messengers, Sayyidina Muhammad (s), "O human being I am not differentiating, “Ya ayyhuha’n-naas!” He didn’t say, "Ayyuhal Muslimoon!” He said, "O human beings!” That means He is addressing everyone not picking out, "You are Muslim - I am speaking to you; you are non-Muslim I am speaking to you. You are secular I am speaking to you. You are Buddhist I am speaking to you."

No He didn’t pick out anyone, but He said, "I made you from a man and woman and I made you tribes and communities. But I don’t want you to be staying in small communities."

Every nation is made of hundreds of tribes. Allah doesn't like except unity, people to be together, Muslim and non-Muslim. They made a big mistake - they want to be judges of human being. Allah is the Judge. Our Creator is The Judge. We are not judges. He judges everyone. We are human beings. Judge yourself first. Are you happy with yourself? Let them ask themselves, are they happy with themselves, people?

Show me one person who doesn’t have a problem. That means he is not happy with himself. How is he going to be happy with his community. Allah is saying if you want to be happy with yourself, then learn about each other. Stand by your limits. Learn your limits. You are a tiny miny creature on this earth. You are like an elephant and an ant. Is the elephant bigger or the ant? [elephant] no, they say the ant is bigger. Might be the ant can see itself as huge, but the elephant can crush the ant immediately. So are we bigger or Allah is bigger? We are bigger or Allah is greater? Allah is greater. Allah at any moment He can dissolve you, make you disappear from this dunya. It is so simple: He takes your soul back.

So what are you arrogant for, what do you think about yourself? You create problems, you fight governments. You become terrorists and you do all kinds of bad, bad things under the name - to cover yourself - you say under the name of your religion. You are taking from the religion the name and leaving the substance.

Allah swt is saying, “I am making you from male and female, nations and tribes to know each other.” To learn from one another your different cultures; to take what is good for you and to leave what is not. You are saying, “I am better than everyone.” Your ego is telling you to say, "I am better than everyone!”

Allah swt doesn’t like oppression. That is why He called himself ar-Rahman ir-Raheem – the Compassionate, the Merciful.. He didn’t call himself adh-Dhaalim. You know what adh-Dhaalim means? The Oppressor. Allah didn’t call himself The Oppressor. He called Himself The Merciful, The One Who Forgives - not The One Who Punishes.

O My servants, don’t lose hope of My mercy he said, “come to My mercy, I forgive you.”

What the Prophet (s) said in his authentic hadith? “If a human being, a slave of Allah approaches Allah by one hand, Allah approaches him one arm’s length, and if he approaches Allah walking Allah comes to him running.”

So our duty is to approach Allah swt in every moment in our lives - not to fight when Allah doesn’t like war and doesn’t like fighting.

Allah loves peace. Allah said in Holy Qur'an wa in janahoo lis-silmi fajnah laha. If they turn to peace go with them to peace. He didn’t say, "Go and fight them.” If they go to peace then you go to peace.

Everyone today likes to go to peace. Everyone says, “I like peacefulness.” Ok you like peace and like peacefulness in earth then be peaceful. Change your behavior. Be first peaceful in yourself.

What is the sign of being peaceful? To be angry sometime? People get angry sometime. When you get angry that is not peaceful. When you completely merge yourself in the Oneness of Allah’s Beauty and Oneness and the Ocean of Tranquility and the Ocean of ghaybun mutlaq - the complete unknown, surrendering to the One who cannot be known and He cannot be known except by means of His signs. Then you can improve yourself. People, scholars all around the world, everywhere, they say, "We are scholars! We learned Shari`ah. We learned the law. We learned contemporary religion.” Whatever you want to learn, learn. But first apply it to yourself and your family. What do scholars do? They make presentations to people but they don’t apply it to themselves. They think they are out of it. No, apply it first on yourself. If you don’t apply on yourself and in order to be role model then you will not be efficient in showing people to follow you.

There are a few people here and there, that are applying that on themselves. And that is why they become like magnets, pulling people to themselves.

So our message is we are not coming here to teach. We are not teachers but we are listeners. The best example of a teacher is that a teacher is a good listener. A teacher is a good observer. He observes looks and listens. Like a scientist. Always observing when he puts a formula under test and always observing. Today in pharmaceutical companies they put an animal under test and then they observer in order to determine if they can apply on human beings or not.

So to observe is good character of a teacher and to listen well is good character of a teacher. He cannot blow himself up like a peacock and say, "I am a teacher!”

The Prophet was so humble that for his humbleness Allah swt brought him in Isra and Mi’raj, took him in ascensions, because of his humbleness. When you have a message of humbleness, people will follow you, but when you have message of superiority, then no one will listen.

One of the great Imams in Islam, Imam Malik who came 90 years after the Prophet (s), he said, "In Madina al-munawwara I had 900 teachers.” He was from the al-Maghrib and now in the Maghrib, they follow his school of thought. He said, "I had 600 teaching me Shariah and 300 teaching me to be a pious sincere servant.”

So this means it is so important to have good character and moral excellence. The way we deal with people is the thing we lack in our communities. Children leaving their parents and parents fighting with each other and now everything is chaos today.

So the message of Islam is not peace today. Not as they mentioned to speak about today, “Islam and peace.” No, peace is the core of Islam. It will be a sin in Islam if you are not peaceful and if you don’t want peace for everyone. If it is min al-furud to be peaceful with each other is an obligation.

Allah said, "Argue with one another with the best way of understanding and manner. Debate with them in the best way. Jadilhum bilaltee hiya ahsan.

Allah doesn’t burden anyone more than he can take. Don’t see yourself better than others. That is not peace to mock people that is what creates problems. May Allah forgive us and may Allah bless us and bring peace to this world as it was before and make all tyranny to disappear and make all terrorist actions to disappear and make all together as Allah said in Holy Qur'an: w `atasimoo bi-hablillah jamiyaan wa la tufarriqoo - Hold fast to the Rope o fAllah and do not separate." Aali `Imran.

Wa min Allah at-tawfeeq bi-hurmati 'l-Fatiha