Suhbah at Peterborough Business Park
Salaam `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillahi rabbi ‘l-`alameen wa ‘s-salaatu wa ‘s-salaamu `ala ashrafi ‘l-mursaleen wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi…sayyidina wa ’t-tahireen wa ashaabihi ajma`een. Alhamdulillahi ’Lladhee hadaana li hadhaa haithu afaada `alayna min tajalliyyat al-habeeb al-Mustafa `alayhi afdalu ‘s-salaat wa ’s-salaam. Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah nas`aluka ‘l-madad.
Alhamdulillah that Allah has gathered us in this honored gathering where the tajalli of His Presence is coming. We seek your support! Brothers and sisters, I always feel ashamed of myself when I have to speak about the Prophet (s).
I heard what Mrs. "Speaker" said, and it was very impressive, very up to the point with a lot of information and from each sentence you could write a book. I think she was speaking from the heart; I don't ‘think’, but I know it is true that she was enjoying to even say the name “Muhammad.”
Allah (swt) ordered us:
قُل لَّا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا إِلَّا الْمَوَدَّةَ فِي الْقُرْبَى
Say (O Muhammad), "I do not ask you for a reward except the love of my Family."
(Surat ash-Shura, 42:23)
“I am not asking anything from anyone. I will give you what I have, but take care of my family.” And we see in Islam and in history how much care was taken of the family of Prophet (s), by that I mean the opposite happened. So if that is what happened to the Prophet (s) and his grandchildren and his family, what do we think of what is happening today in the world? The Prophet (s), a Messenger, his Family (r), his children (r), his grandchildren (r) were not simply killed but massacred in the desert. For what? For the chair, for someone who wanted the chair. Run away from the chair! This is the teaching of our Prophet (s).
فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
Don’t praise yourself. (Surat an-Najm, 53:32)
Don’t praise yourselves if you want to live in peace. I am speaking to the Muslims and the non-Muslims, because she mentioned the hadith:
االناس سواسيه كااسنان المشط
Prophet (s) said: People are equal like the teeth of a comb.
and:
لافرق بين عربي ولا اعجمي الا بالتقوى
There is no difference between Arabs and non-Arabs (one race and another) except in piety.
He established equality from the beginning, where he said, “Human beings are equal like the teeth of a comb.” When Prophet (s) says, “We are equal,” means we are equal in the eyes of Allah (swt), Allah is the Judge. We are not judges. We cannot judge people if they are good or they are bad, only Allah (swt) can judge. He might send everyone to Paradise. Why not? Then at least we go to Paradise as well? Why not? Our Lord is “The Generous One,” “The Merciful One,” in every word we have to say, Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem, “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Beneficent,” or then you are not praising Him. You are praising Him through His Mercy and His Forgiveness, and no one can Praise Him as He praised Himself, where He said, Subhaanee maa `azham shaanee. “Glory be to My Greatness!” or He says:
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ
مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ
Glory be to He Who transported His servant by night from the Inviolable House of Worship (at Mecca) to the Remote House of Worship (at Jerusalem), the environs of which We had blessed, so that We might show him some of Our Signs, for verily, He Alone is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. (Surat al-Israa’, 17:1)
He is praising Himself so means our praises are not complete, we have to perfect them. So the Message of Prophet (s) is so simple and I am not going to go into its details and discussion, but it is very simple for Muslims and non-Muslims. He said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
That is it; that is Islam: I have been sent to complete or to perfect the Moral Excellence, the good manners. It means Islam is good manners, it is not what we are hearing from some Muslims. Islam is to be concerned to fix your self, reach to the Level of Moral Excellence, and when one of his (s) Companions asked him, “What is Moral Excellence? How can I achieve that?” Prophet (s) said, “`Alaykum bi husnu ’l-khuluq” He asked, “What is good manners?” An tasil man qata`k, “To bring back the one who cut you off, forgive him. Don’t fight with him. Don’t create confusions with him.”
الفتنه نائمه لعن الله من ايقضها
Fitna is dormant and Allah cursed the one who awoke it.
Fitna, confusion is dormant and Allah will curse who brings confusion up or to create confusion between communities, between Muslims or non-Muslims, or between countries; Allah will curse that person, because Allah does not like confusions! Our Lord, the Lord of Heavens does not like confusions! I was young and studying in a French “secular” school and after graduating, my parents sent me to an English school and it had three languages. Every morning before class began we had to go to a chapel and read the Bible. No one had a problem with that, we were sitting together happy, I was reading the Bible in an English school and if you didn’t want to, you didn’t you would keep standing silent. But we read, “All praises to our Lord.” We never made an issue out of it, there was always friendship, the different backgrounds, different beliefs, different groups and there was no fighting, nothing. That is Islam, not like today where we are seeing fighting; that is not Islam!
نَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللّهِ الإِسْلاَمُ
The religion in Allah’s view is Islam (submission to His Will). (Surat Aali-`Imraan, 3:19)
“Verily the religion before Allah is Islam.” It is something you surrender to, not just peace. You can have peace but it is to surrender to your community not to your ego, to their decisions to work out. That is what our religion is teaching us. The Prophet (s) is teaching us that we have to connect to the one who cut you, who made you look bad; never-mind you go back and approach him. Show me is that high enough to respect the teaching of the Prophet (s) or not? Wa an t`utee man haramak, “And to give to the one who did not give to you,” that is continuation of the hadith, “when you become stronger, you give him, don’t look at the past what happened between you and him.”
Sayyidina al-Husayn (a), when they came to kill him and his children before his eyes, he said, “We are the kings of the Day of Judgment and we are the rulers of the Day of Judgment, and we are going to stand with the power in our hand and you will need our forgiveness.” That is where you show courage, to show that “we are better than you,” which means the one who harmed you, you forgive. This is the teaching of Islam: an ta`foow `amman zhalamak, “To forgive the one who oppressed you.”
O People! We are living in a country and we have to abide by the its laws; we cannot segregate ourselves, we must integrate with them as Muslims in the personality of Prophet (s), but we cannot compare ourselves to him, it’s impossible to compare ourselves, but we can learn from him. One famous poet, al-Busayri, said:
Muhammadun basharun wa laysa ka ‘l-bashari bal huwa yaqootatun wa ’n-naasu wa ‘l-hajari.
Muhammad is a man, but not like other men! He is a gem and human beings are stones.
(Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
So when he said, “Muhammad is a human being, but not a human being,” one cancels the other. So what is he? He is a subtle being, he has no shadow; it is well-known in Islam that the Prophet (s) had no shadow even in the Sun, because he is a subtle being, like an angelic being.
Allah said:
إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةً
Verily, I am making a deputy on Earth. (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:30)
“We have made on Earth a representative.” Who is better than Sayyidina Muhammad (s)? He (s) is that caliph, because Allah made him the highest level of manners and character, as Allah said:
وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلى خُلُقٍ عَظِي
You are of the most exalted character. (Surat al-Qalam, 68:4)
And the Prophet (s) said:
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
He (s) said, and we believe what he said, “Allah has disciplined me and perfected my discipline.” That means, if we think, when he said, “Allah has disciplined me,” it means, “Allah has raised me where no one can reach; He has raised me to the highest where there is nothing higher. Fa’ahsana taa’deebee, And He has perfected completely my discipline.” So how much greatness has Allah dressed on Sayyidina Muhammad (s) with His own Beautiful Names and Attributes, and to the point that just to say his name “Muhammad” is enough to go to Paradise!
من قال لا اله الا الله دخل الجنة
Whoever says ‘Laa ilaaha illa-Llah’ enters Paradise.
It is said Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem and every Muslim recites that, “In the Name of Allah (swt), the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate, the Beneficent.” How many of the letter “meem” are in it, the letter “m”? Meem is repeated three times: one is in the Name of Allah, bi-ismi, and one in ar-Rahman and ar- Raheem has another meem and every meem is Muhammad, Ahmad, Mahmoud. He is the deep secret of Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem! And how many letters is Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem? It is 19, and the Ahl al-Bayt how many letters in their names? The Prophet (s), Sayyidina `Ali (r), Sayyida Fatima (r), and Sayyidina al-Hasan (r) and Sayyidina al-Husayn (r). So there are 19 letters there, and Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem also has 19. It means that if you are calling on Ahl al-Bayt it is as if you are calling on Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem. They are the backbone of the Muslim ummah; without the Ahl al-Bayt there is no value for us, we are lost! They taught us what we need to learn.
Once Sayyida Fatima (r) was asked to marry, and her father Sayyidina Muhammad (s) asked her, “It is time to marry, yaa Fatima,” `alayhaa afdal as-salaatu wa ‘s-salaam, Fatima az-Zahra, our mother. “What do you think about `Ali?” Prophet (s) was giving her the choice, but they say there is no choice, especially Pakistanis. I should keep my mouth closed as there are too many Pakistanis here! Ask your children whom they like, don’t force them. They will kill me outside! [Laughter.] He asked her, “Do you like Sayyidina `Ali (r)?” Look at the good manners, from whom we get good manners and we get knowledge.
أنا مدينة العلم و علي بابه
I am the City of Knowledge and `Ali is its Door (or Gate). (al-Haakim, Tirmidhi)
To enter the City of Knowledge you need a key, and Sayyidina `Ali (r) is the key.
The Prophet (s) asked her, “Do you accept Sayyidina `Ali (r)?”
She said, “No.” Who was better than Sayyidina `Ali (r) for Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (r)? The Prophet’s face became red.
Jibreel (s), the Archangel and messenger from Allah (swt), came down and said to the Prophet (s), “Ask her why she said no.”
So the Prophet (s) asked her, “Why did you say ‘no’?”
She said, “I will accept on one condition.”
The Prophet (s) said, “What is your condition?”
She said, “Before you were born,” and as mentioned in many ahadith:
كنت نبيا وآدم بين الروح والجسد
I was a prophet while Adam was between soul and body.
Or:
كنت نبي و ادم بين الماء و الطين
I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay.
And also mentioned in another hadith:
رواه عبد الرزاق بسنده عن جابر بن عبد الله بلفظ قال قلت: يا رسول الله، بأبي أنت وأمي، أخبرني عن أول شيء خلقه الله قبل الأشياء. قال: يا جابر، إن الله تعالى خلق قبل الأشياء نور نبيك من نوره،...
When Jaabir (r) asked, “Let my father and mother be sacrificed for you, oh Prophet of Allah! What is the first thing that Allah (swt) created?” the Prophet (s) said, “The first thing that Allah (swt) created is the Light of your Prophet from His Light, O Jaabir.” (Musannaf `Abdu ’r-Razzaq)
So he was a prophet before the creation of human beings. We believe he knows everything, `Uloom al-Awwaleen wa ‘l-Akhireen. He asked his daughter because he wanted to teach us to ask for their opinions before marriage. He is the Prophet (s) and even though everyone would die to follow that order, sami`naa wa ata`naa, we listen and we accept, we listen and we believe, but she said no. That was strange for the others who were listening there.
The Prophet (s) asked “Why?”
She said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, when you were prophet before Sayyidina Adam (a) you were concerned for your ummah, your nation.”
By the way, the nation of Sayyidina Muhammad are all human beings who came after him, they are considered his ummah, Ummat an-Nabi (s), from whatever backgrounds they are. Ummat al-Ijaba are those who accept, the Muslims, and Ummat ad-Da`wah are the non-Muslims, but both are considered Ummat an-Nabi (s).
And she said, “O my father, you were concerned about your ummah when we were souls in the Presence of Allah (swt),” as we were all there as souls in the Day of Promises in Allah’s Presence. “When you came to this world you were concerned about your ummah and when you were leaving this world you were concerned about this ummah and when we are being recreated on Judgment Day you are concerned about this ummah, so I am concerned also. So if you give me my condition, I will accept.”
And in Islam, in order to marry the man must give his wife a dowry. Correct? Ladies, did you take dowry from your husbands? If they didn’t give it to you, don’t let them to leave this room before giving your dowry! Don’t cheat them with a false ring.
And she said, “O my father, you are always concerned for your ummah and if you give me the ummah to be in my dowry, then I accept!” The daughter of the Prophet (s) was able to play a role there, Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (r); we hope to be under her feet in dunya and Akhirah!
Sayyidina Jibreel (s) came to the Prophet (s) and said, “Allah is sending His Salaam and He accepts,” and now we are in the dowry of Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (r)! She will intercede for us alhamdulillah, that is what we need, then after that the biggest intercession of the Prophet (s). Look at the mercy in the heart of a lady! How much Islam gave honor to ladies! Every man came from the womb of a lady, so who is higher? We came from the womb of a lady; Allah honored them more than us because if there were not ladies, what will happen? We will go to Hell, there is nothing left but punishment in dunya. (...) So we are most happiest because we are under her dowry and inside her dowry, that Allah accepted, and the Prophet (s) accepted, and angels accepted, and they were witness.
O Muslims and non-Muslims! I was in a conference, sorry to say that, because people are innocent of terrorism and suicide bombings, and I was in a conference in Turkey, and mostly in attendance were scholars, around 200-300 and the topic was about suicide bombing and that it is not allowed in Islam. There were high profile scholar sand speakers, including the president of al-Azhar in Egypt. And we as scholars presented to the audience that suicide bombing is forbidden in Islam, it is haraam, and most of the scholars were from Afghanistan who had been flown to Turkey. It was like a workshop to study where it is found in Holy Qur’an or in tafseer or in hadith that there is no suicide bombing in Islam. And we came to the conclusion that there is no suicide bombing in Islam. We finished, and were closing with questions and answers.
Two or three people raised their hands and they asked, “Can we speak? But our scholars in Afghanistan said that suicide bombing is halaal and we have to go for it.”
Two days of explaining that suicide bombing is not allowed in Islam and at the end they put question and answer session and they asked this question! We have to put the conference another time. People are easily trapped [by cultural norms] and this isn't something new, it is from the time of Creation, when Cain killed Abel. Why did he kill him? In all religions, when Abraham was thrown into the Fire, when Noah was running to safety in his boat, the Boat of Safety, when Moses was tortured, when Jesus was tortured, is it a struggle always? And the Prophet (s) said, “I was the one most tortured of all people,” with his family. And so it is a struggle.
Do you like Sayyidina `Ali (r)? [Yes!] Do you love Sayyidina `Ali (r)? [Yes!] If so, he said four things, give them to me.
1. Be silent. When there is a conference like that don’t talk, just look at the speaker and as-sukoot, silence.
2. Listen. It is the second principle. He is giving us advice, big advice. Don’t give your decision yet, take your time after you listen well.
3. Observe. Observe them, their eyes, their movements, and try to pull information from their hearts. This is well-known in meditation, that you can read hearts of people as mentioned in the hadith of the Prophet (s): My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsi, Bukhari) Like looking after the country, the people, looking after homeless, looking after women who are abused, domestic violence, looking after the entire community who is being abused. So that is a very important aspect. So Sayyidina `Ali (r) wants to teach us something very important: to keep quiet and listen, and then when you listen, observe. Allah said, “When somoene approaches Me through voluntary worship, then I will be the ears he can hear with and eyes he can see with and tongue he speaks with and hand he can change things with it and feet he walks with.” That is for pious, sincere people who love Allah (swt).
4. So Sayyidina `Ali (r) said after silence, listening, observing and thinking, then: Move, haraka. Then when you move, your action is correct.
O sisters and brothers! There is too much to speak, but at the end I will say that the Prophet (s) has said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
As Mrs. Mirali was saying, alhamdulillah, we spoke about Sayyidina `Ali (r). She put things together which need a lot of explanation, but the summary of what she said is: wa innaka la`alaa khuluqin `azheem, “You are of the best character.”
Good tidings to you, O Muslims, inna lanaa min al-rukni ghayr munhadami, “We have a pillar that will never be demolished, as one pious wali said, “Where Allah addressed Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in Holy Qur'an as ‘Yaseen,’ good tidings for us, O throngs of human beings, for we have of an indestructible pillar of support (in Prophet Muhammad [s]).” (Excerpt from al-Burdat ash-Sharifah.)
Good tidings to us, O human beings, as we have a pillar on whom we can depend that is never destroyed!
Salaam 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
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