North American Muslim Alliance Convention
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem.
Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem.
Wa ‘s-salaatu wa ‘s-salaam `alaa Sayyidina Muhammadin wa `alaa alihi wa ashabihi ajma`een wa man tabi`ahu bi ihsanin illa Yawmi ‘d-deen wa `alaa sa’iri ‘l-Anbiya wa ‘l-mursaleen wa ‘l-Awliya wa ibaadillahi ‘s-saliheen wa alayna ma`ahum ajma`een, yaa Arhamu ‘r-Rahimeen.
Laa hawla wa laa quwatta illa billahi 'l-`Aliyyu 'l-`Azheem.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
I am thanking the organization as the previous speakers have done. Thank you for inviting me to say a few words. You were talking about the youth, so my words are directed to the youth. May Allah (swt) make them strong Muslims. May Allah (swt) make their hearts open to the message that Rasoolullah (s) brought. That is the problem. The problem is that the hearts are closed. The hearts of the youth have been veiled with the desires of this world.
The heart of a human being is veiled, closed because of the desires of this world. The desires of this world are what you achieved when you were growing up from a baby to a toddler and then you became a 2, 3-year-old, 5, 6, 7. You have developed all of these characteristics of, “Me, me, me. How can I have a good time? What do I do to gain more?” These are the veils that we have put on our hearts or around our hearts while growing up and that’s the problem nowadays.
Alhamdulillah, the older generations were brought up in a different kind of environment. The younger generations, especially in the western world and honestly speaking, the eastern world is no different from the western world. It’s all the same nowadays. Whatever is here is over there. Whatever was over there is coming here. May Allah (swt) protect our youth from what’s going on.
I will not speak too much about verses or Ahadith. I will mention a few. I will tell stories as my teacher has taught us. He says, Allah (swt) said in the Holy Qur’an.
فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Faqsusu 'l-qasas la`allahum yatafakkaroon.
Tell them their stories so they may remember. (Surat al-Ma’arij, 70:176)
Faqsus ‘l-qasas la `allahum yatafakkaroon. Tell them stories so they can contemplate, so they can think.
If you look in the Holy Qur’an, Allah (swt) says in so many places: wadrib lahum mathala. It is in Surah Yaseen. Tell them the story of these people. Tell them the story of those people. Tell them the story of the ones before and the ones after. The way of the Holy Qur’an is to tell stories to make people contemplate, especially the young ones.
When I was a young one, I couldn't understand the Ahadith or the Holy Qur’an’s Holy Verses too much, unless I was very much into that `ilm. When you are 16, 17, 18, 20, you are not into that `ilm. You are into this world, into enjoying more and more of this world. That is the illness nowadays. You have to tackle the young hearts that are enshrined in the pleasures of the iPhones and Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook. How will the youth find any time to listen to anything else or to watch anything else?
Tell them stories. I will mention a few things that I have studied and read. May Allah (swt) always keep us on the right path. Are there young ones here or only old ones like myself? Young ones, where are you? Alhamdulillah, some hands are rising up. What are you aspiring to be, doctors, big ones, great ones, rich ones? Everybody is aspiring to be known and to be something in this world. Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an, asta`eedhu billah:
وَٱلْوَزْنُ يَوْمَئِذٍ ٱلْحَقُّ فَمَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
Wa ‘l-waznu yaumadhi ‘l-Haqq
And true will be the weighing on that Day; and those whose weight [of good deeds] is heavy in the balance - it is they, they who shall attain to a happy state. (Surah Al-A’raf, 7:8)
The scale on that Day is the way to go, if I can put it that way. If you speak a word, it will be weighed. If you do an action, it will be weighed. If you step into a place, it will be weighed. If you get out of a place, it will be weighed. Allah (swt) will weigh every word we utter and every action we do, and you all know that. Everyone who believes in Yaumu ‘l-Qiyamah knows that there is Meezan, a Scale.
O young one! Listen to this Hadith from Rasoolullah (s), your teacher. Do you read what your teacher says? Do you listen to what your teacher says? No. You listen to your buddy on Facebook and see what he said. You listen to this guy on YouTube and see what he said. Did you ever listen to what Rasoolullah (s), your teacher, said? I’m talking to the Ummah. Those who didn’t follow Rasoolullah (s), what can you tell them? May Allah (swt) guide them to the True Path.
What did Rasoolullah (s) say? This is mentioned by Imam al-Bayhaqi and Imam ad-Daylami fee Masnadu ‘l-Firdaus. He said, on the Day of Judgement the big man, the tall man--mashaa-Allah, when we were young, we wanted to wear heels. They have cowboy boots, don’t they? If you’ve been in our countries, you see especially the short ones wearing some kind of shoes with big heels to make them tall. In this country they don’t need that, they are already tall. Allah (swt) will bring the tall man, the man who eats too much, the man who drinks too much and he will be weighed. That great, tall one who has money to dine anywhere he wants, to drink any kind of drink he wants. He will be weighed--that great, successful business man, that successful Wall Street guy, that very famous politician.
O Muslim youth, O young ones! Know that Allah (swt) will weigh everybody’s actions and words on the Day of Judgement, so be on your best behavior. Sooner or later, you’re going to be like the older generation with white hair, an aching back, aching knees and on the way to the grave. Nobody stays here forever. Your actions and words will be weighed. That one will be weighed and his weight will not be as much as the wing of a mosquito. That means there is no value, so why are you aspiring to be a great one? Why are you aspiring to be a rich one? If you have no iman, if you have not acquired iman in this world, why are you doing all of that, for those behind you to take it over from you?
When the father, mother, grandfather or grandmother pass away, who takes whatever they have earned? Do they take it to the grave with them, O young one? Tell me. Who takes it? The inheritors and of course the government too. They get a share out of that. What’s the point of being a great one if that love to Rasoolullah (s), if that love to Allah (swt) did not build in your heart? What’s the point of living? If you have not understood the most valuable thing in this world, what was your point of living, to eat, drink and graze like the rest of the people or animals out there? In Michigan we have a farm. We have some sheep and chicken. All they do day and night is eat and go back to sleep. Your accomplishment is something different, O young one! Everything will be weighed on the Day of Judgement.
There was a very rich and powerful man. He said, “I will build a city that will be the envy of everyone.” He built the city of huge palaces, towers, gardens, rivers and whatever it was. He brought the people to come and see. He said, “I am offering you food and drinks. Come see my big city that I have built.” Mashaa-Allah, everybody runs to build their mansions back home. “I made some money in the US. I will go back to my country and build myself a big villa.” That’s what we do. “I will go build another building in my country or here or there.” People are running to build stuff and at the end it’s not theirs, it goes away.
This man was so wealthy and he built the biggest city. He invited people to come and watch how beautiful it was. He put two guards at the door. He said, “Ask everybody who leaves this city if they found any fault in my city.” He wanted it to be a perfect city built with the most expensive things on earth. Everybody came in and said, “Wow. Amazing. Wow,” like we do when we go to some museums. Where are they now? Yesterday I went to the New York State Museum in Albany and I looked at all the previous people that lived before us in the 1600s and 1700s. They have their canvasses and paintings. I said, “SubhaanAllah. These people built this state. Where are they now? They built New York City. Where are they now?” They built it and left.
So everybody went in and out of that city and said it was perfect except for two people who came at the end. They were people of iman. The guards asked them, “Did you find any fault in the city of the king?” They said, “Yes, we found two faults.” They were arrested and told, “We have to present you to the king. We have an order from the king to take you into his presence if you find any faults.” They took them to the king and he asked, “What are the two faults that you found? I didn’t want one fault and now you are saying two.”
They said, “The owner of this city will die. You will die. It will become ruins after 100 or 200 years.”
He asked, “Is there a city or paradise like mine whose owner doesn’t die and it does not perish?”
“Yes, there is a place that is the most magnificent city where you can find everything you need. Its Owner never dies. That city or that area never perishes.”
“Who? What?”
“Jannah and Allah (swt), the Owner of Jannah.”
“How can I get there?”
This man’s dream was to be in paradise forever, so he thought he could build his own paradise on earth like the young ones are aspiring to do. When I was in New York City, I used to say, “One day I’m going to own a penthouse in the city and not only any penthouse, but in the best area, not in Harlem, down in the city. Not in the Bronx, down in Manhattan. I want to own a penthouse.” What should I do? Study medicine, law, finance, business. Aspire, O young one, go get your money. For what? To get yourself a paradise. They seek paradise here on earth and Allah (swt) has told you, “There is a Paradise that I prepared for you.” O young one, Allah (swt) has prepared a Paradise for you. Do you get that into your mind or not? Maybe sometimes it passes but most of the time it doesn’t. They forget the promise of Allah (swt).
Allah (swt) promises you Jannah with four words. If you say these four words with sincerity, as Rasoolullah (s) has taught us, Allah (swt) will admit you to Jannah: Laa ilaaha illa-Llah. You will enter the city that will never perish. You will see things you have never seen or dreamt of, let alone you making it yourself. Allah (swt) prepared it for you by His own Hands, the Paradise of Eden.
Sooner or later you will pass on. I was informed today of somebody who passed on. Yesterday I also heard the news that somebody passed on. Sooner or later it will be you. Death doesn’t have an age. Death doesn’t have a sickness. Death does not target the old or the young. When Allah (swt) has decreed the moment of death for you, it will come. You can die or old, but what does it matter if you said: Laa ilaaha illa-Llah, O mu’min, O Muslim? If you say, Laa ilaaha illa-Llah with ikhlas, Allah (swt) will admit you to Jannah.
We are all engulfed in sins and disobedience. Rasoolullah (s) told us something that is the Door of Rahmah. Rasoolullah (s) was not only telling us about punishment, punishment, punishment. Mashaa-Allah, the previous speaker spoke about so many glad tidings. The problem nowadays is so many imams scare people. They make people afraid. Don’t make people afraid of Allah (swt), make them know and hear what Allah (swt) has prepared for them from Rahmah.
This is Hadithu ‘l-Bitaqah, the little card. Rasoolullah (s) talked about a little card that will save you, O disobedient one, O the one engulfed in sins. It doesn’t matter. If that bitaqah comes to you, if Allah (swt) allows that Rahmah to reach you, Allah (swt) will put you into Heavens. That Hadith is as follows. A man will be brought on the Day of Judgement and he will be shown his files. Do you hide your files? They’re top secret, even from your family. You need passwords and passkeys. I have never heard of these things. You need a face ID. You need so many things to open a file.
On the Day of Judgment, Allah (swt) will have mercy on that man. He will open 99 files. Each file is as far as you can see. Allah (swt) will ask that man, “Do you deny any of this?” He will say, “No, yaa Rabbee.”
“Did the ones who I assigned to keep track of you do injustice? Were they unfair to you?”
“No, yaa Rabbee, they were not unfair. They wrote everything correctly.”
“Do you have an excuse?”
“No, yaa Rabbee, I don’t have an excuse.”
“But you have a good deed with Me.” One card will come out.
Muslim youth, if you say the Shahadah, Ash-hadu an laa ilaaha illa-Llah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah, and that card comes out, it will be put with the rest of the 99 files that are filled with wrong things as far as you can see. The files will be put in one pan and the card with the Shahadah written on it will be put in the other pan. It is said it will be as small as a tag that is put on your favorite Gucci suit or shoes. That card will outweigh all of the 99 books. That is one Shahadah. That is the Rahmah of Allah (swt) and the shafa`ah of Rasoolullah (s). It will save that sinner.
Don’t despair of Allah (swt)’s Rahmah, O people! Don’t despair of Rasoolullah’s hurma. That will save all of us on the Day of Judgement. Don’t think our actions will save us. What actions? What do we do? How much do we pray a day, five minutes? We prayed the fard. Some people didn’t pray the Sunnah. How long was that two raka`ats, two minutes? Five prayers, two minutes each and that’s 10 minutes a day in Allah (swt)’s worship and service, and the rest? What `amal are we talking about? None. We have nothing. We can never say, “Yaa Rabbee. This was worthy of Your Presence.” The minute we say, “Allahu Akbar,” we are lost in our aspirations, in our penthouses, in our dreams and businesses and what we want to do in life. What are you going to do in life? At the end you leave and go. As you have come in, you will go out.
I remember a verse that I heard. Dakhalu fi ‘d-dunya. They entered the dunya and as they entered, wa minha kharajoo. It’s a nasheed. I forgot how it goes. My memory is not that good anymore. As they entered this dunya, they exited. Tell me how you entered this dunya, O young one. Did you have anything with you when you entered dunya? You didn’t even have clothes on you. They wrapped you in a towel. You had nothing. When you exit dunya, what do you have? Also nothing. They just wrap you in a towel. They wrap you in a towel on the way in and on the way out. The rest is history.
If you have not acquired that, Laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah (s), you are in trouble, O mankind. May Allah (swt) forgive us. What else can you say? Mashaa-Allah, we have `ulama in front of us. Their `ilm is huge but for the common one, what does that `ilm benefit them if they cannot use it? `Ilm is not only to be memorized and said. True `ilm has to be used.
We said the story of the king but this is a true story from the Sahaabah and it is mentioned by Imam Ahmad. Sayyidina Anas ibn Malik narrates that they were sitting with Rasoolullah (s) in the masjid. Rasoolullah (s) said, “Now a person from the people of Jannah will come in front of you.” They looked and saw an Ansari, a Sahabah kiram. His beard was still wet from wudu and he was holding his shoes and entering the masjid. The next day, Rasoolullah (s) repeated the same thing, “Now will appear to you a man from the people of Paradise.” It was the same man as the day before. On the third day Rasoolullah (s) repeated the same thing and the third time it was the same man.
When the majlis was finished, the man went home. Sayyidina `AbdAllah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas (r) said, “I want to know what he does. I want to know how he is from Ahlu ‘l-Jannah, the People of Paradise.” He made up a story. He said, “Yaa Sayyidee. I had a fight with my father and I swore that I would not be with him for the next three days. Can I stay with you until these three days are finished?” He said, “Yes, you can.”
He stayed with him and looked. For three days this Ansari did not do anything different. He did the prayers like everybody else. He did whatever they did at that time, nothing different. He didn’t even wake up for Qiyamu ‘l-Layl,the Night Prayer vigil. He just stayed in his bed and when the adhan was called he stood up and prayed but nothing else.
At the end of three days he asked him, “What did you do to deserve to be from Ahlu ‘l-Jannah, the People of Paradise? Rasoolullah (s) said that you are from Ahlu ‘l-Jannah for three days straight.”
“Yes, it is what you saw, nothing different, but I do not commit dishonesty to any Muslim. I do not cheat any Muslim. I do not tell a lie to any Muslim. I do not defraud any Muslim. I do not envy anybody for what Allah (swt) has given them from khayr. If somebody is richer than me, I don’t have jealousy in my heart towards him.”
This Sahaabi reached a state where he had no jealousy in his heart and he had no dishonesty in his heart. Sayyidina `AbdAllah said, "That's what made you from Ahlu ‘l-Jannah, the People of Paradise - the good heart.” That is tariqah. People ask, “What is tariqah?” Tariqah is to get rid of the dishonesty in your heart, to get rid of the jealousy in your heart, to get rid of the enmity in your heart, to get rid of the cowardice in your heart, to get rid of the stinginess in your heart, to get rid of the anger in your heart, to get rid of all of these bad characteristics that are in the heart. That’s what we’re trying to do, to reach that qalbun saleem, that pure heart.
How is your heart? Test it. Are you jealous of somebody? Do you hate somebody? Are you angry at somebody? If you get rid of that anger and hatred, you will be like that Sahaabi that Rasoolullah (s) said, “He is from Ahlu ‘l-Jannah, the People of Paradise.”
After you say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah, and you do what the Muslims do, what is the next step? Allah (swt) said: W’Allahu yad`oo `illa daari ‘s-salam
وَٱللَّهُ يَدْعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ دَارِ ٱلسَّلَـٰمِ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ
AND [know that] God invites [man] unto the abode of peace, and guides him that wills [to be guided] onto a straight way. (Surah Yunus, 10:25)
Allah (swt) is calling you to the Land of Peace, the Land of Healing.
Awliyaullah have said it is the one who has healed his or her heart from dishonesty, cheating, lying, hatred, envy and jealousy. That is Daru ‘s-Salam. That is the true Islam, when you have nothing in your heart against anybody. That is what they call salamatu ‘s-sadr.
If you say, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah, you have guaranteed your place in Jannah with the Rahmah of Allah (swt). O young one, you do what everybody else does but then what do you have to work on? You have to work on these two things. The most important are the desires, lust and anger and wrath. May Allah (swt) forgive us.
My message to the young ones is to keep dhikrullah. Lisaan qaratibu min dhikrillah. They asked Rasoolullah (s), ayyul `amalu afdal. He said, that you leave this dunya and your tongue is moist because you have always done dhikrullah. My advice to myself and the others is, recite, laa ilaaha illa-Llah everyday, one time, ten times, a hundred times, one thousand times. Recite durood shareef on Rasoolullah (s). Make your tongue used to dhikrullah. Don’t make your tongue used to gossip, plotting, and screaming. Get your tongue used to dhikrullah. That is the best of actions.
They asked Rasoolullah (s), “Which among people is the best?” Tooba liman ta’la umruhu wa hasuna `amaluhu. Glad tidings, Tooba, that tree in Paradise is for those whose lives are long but their actions are most excellent.
Our way in Islam is not to stay at the surface of, “I pray and I fast,” and then at the bottom, “I plot, I gossip, I hate and I do this and that.” That is not Islam. That is superficial Islam. True Islam is to give your heart to Allah (swt) and accept what’s coming from Allah (swt). Try your best. That is qadaa wa qadr, those who accepted what Allah (swt) sent to them. Watawassaw bi ‘l-Haqqi watawassaw bi ‘s-sabr. They say what is right, what is just, what is fair but the patience has to be there. Allah (swt) will open. Allah (swt) doesn’t leave the mu’mins and the Muslims until He separates the khabeeth and tayyib.There is so much khabeeth amongst the Muslims and there is so much tayyib among the Muslims. Allah (swt) wants to separate that.
May Allah (swt) forgive us. Young ones, don’t forget the Hadith of Rasoolullah (s), Hadithu’l-bitaqah. If you don’t remember anything that I have said, remember that Hadith of the card. On it will be written, laa ilaaha illa-Llah Muhammadu ‘r-Rasoolullah (s) and it will be enough for the other pan. Whatever is in the other pan will just go up. Make sure you stay on that road. Inshaa-Allah, we all stay put on that road. Ameen.
Aqoolu qawlee hadha wa ‘s-staghfirullahi ‘l-`azheem lee wa lakumi ‘l-mu’mineen fastaghfiroo fa ya fawzan li ‘l-mustaghfireen astaghfirullah.
Was-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
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