DON T LOSE YOUR ISLAM LIKE THIS!
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00:00Imam al-Muslim narrates on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
00:08said Islam began as something strange and it shall return as being something strange.
00:14So good news to the strangers who does not want to feel like he fits in and that they
00:20belong and in order to achieve that we tweak our personalities and present ourselves in
00:28different ways according to the environment we're in and according to the people that
00:32we are set with.
00:33From the fear of alienation, from the fear of being given the title of gharib, you're
00:38a stranger, you're weird.
00:40But subhanAllah the Prophet s.a.w. emphasizes that there is one thing that you should hold
00:46on to through it all and that is your deen.
00:49You don't lose your principles when everybody else loses their principles.
00:52If everyone else in the world becomes dishonest you don't lose your honesty.
00:56If everyone else in the world cheats you don't lose your integrity.
00:59If everyone else in the world slanders then you keep your tongue safe from that.
01:03If people harm each other as commonplace and as norm you don't harm anyone and instead
01:09you make it a point to say that I will be from the one who is oppressed not from the
01:14one who oppresses.
01:15If oppression becomes that which overtakes a society altogether.
01:18To hold on to what is so precious to you, your faith, your iman and to make it so independent
01:24of anything else that's happening around you whether it is changing circumstances or changing
01:29trends.
01:30And what is very interesting in this regard is that the challenge becomes for the believer
01:35in these types of times to simply hold on and that holding on in and of itself is extremely
01:41praiseworthy.
01:42When the Prophet s.a.w. mentions in the famous narration that what comes after you are days
01:47that require great patience and that patience in those days is like holding on to a burning
01:52hot coal.
01:53When the Prophet s.a.w. says whoever is going to live, you're going to see a lot of difference,
01:58you're going to see a lot of dissension, you're going to see a lot of dispute.
02:01When that time comes hold on to my way and hold on to the way of the rightly guided khulafa.
02:08And the Prophet s.a.w. said literally cling on to it like a person that is holding something
02:13with their molar teeth.
02:14So in one narration you got a burning hot coal in your hand which is like it feels so
02:19much more relaxing to just let it go.
02:21In another narration the Prophet s.a.w. is saying look hold on to it with your back teeth
02:25like someone's trying to pull it away from you.
02:27Hold on to your faith, hold on to your principles, hold on to your deen.
02:31What's happening around us constantly is a shift.
02:34The world looks so different every year and then the pressure on you to change, to abandon,
02:41to adapt becomes stronger every single year.
02:44We see time and time again that liberalism becomes awfully illiberal when people refuse
02:49to abide by ever-changing sanctified secular norms.
02:53You our Muslims will be usually a minority amidst a non-Muslim majority.
02:59Allah s.w.t. said,
03:01لقد جئناكم بالحق We've come to you with the truth.
03:05وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَكُمْ لِلْحَقِّ كَارِهُونَ But most of you despise the truth, most.
03:12Allah s.w.t. said,
03:13إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَقَلِيلُ مَا هُمْ Except those who believe,
03:18except those who believe and they do good deeds and they are few in number.
03:22Allah s.w.t. said,
03:23فَأَبَىٰ أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ إِلَّا كُفُورًا Most of humanity accept nothing but disbelief, most.
03:31Allah s.w.t. said,
03:31وَقَلِيلٌ مِنْ عِبَادِيَ الشَّكُورِ And few of My servants are those who are grateful.
03:38Every time the Quran speaks of a majority, it dispraises it.
03:41Every time the Quran speaks of a minority, it praises it.
03:45A stranger amidst people who don't share your religion and it is stressful.
03:49Many times when an imam or a scholar or a student of knowledge or an activist speaks about the prohibition of buying and selling drugs or alcohol or using interest or serving shisha in your store or something to that effect,
04:05in many instances, those who protest and object are the Muslims themselves.
04:11Many times when you speak about the ideal hijab intended by Allah for our mothers, our sisters, our daughters,
04:18those who are first to object in some instances are the Muslims themselves.
04:24When you speak about the role of motherhood and being a homemaker as being a great profession and raise it above all, in many instances, those who object are the Muslims themselves.
04:36So this brings about a type of ghurbah in the heart of the Muslim.
04:39When he sees his family, he sees his brethren speaking against him whilst all he or she are trying to do is be a Muslim upon the prophetic path.
04:49They feel strange when they look around and they see their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters with their greatest aspirations in life to receive the reassuring nod of acknowledgement from society, from parliament, from friends, from social constructs.
05:01They feel strange because all they want is the acknowledgement of the king, Allah, the sovereign and the prophetic nod of acknowledgement on the day of judgment.
05:09They feel strange when they see their Muslim brothers and sisters jumping through every hoop and wearing every mask to fit in, to not be labeled as a stranger.
05:19But for them, they hold on to their principles and values even if it rocks a few boats along the way.
05:24And that is because society is always drumming into their heads and saying to them, you can't fit where you don't belong.
05:31So they've given up trying to fit in at the expense of their principles and they have chosen to not compromise.
05:37They have chosen to inhabit planet Earth on their own terms, on their own conditions as practicing Muslims who will not compromise.
05:47You're actually enduring hate just because you're doing the same thing that your parents did and that your grandparents did.
05:52And you're worshipping with a religion and abiding by an instruction as 1400 years old.
05:56And you didn't get the memo on Twitter that things have changed yet.
05:59And you're trying to maintain and hold on and that takes a level of endurance.
06:04And sometimes that comes with great sacrifice and sometimes that comes with great abuse.
06:08Muhammad Ali, of course, one of the most celebrated people in American history and certainly the most celebrated American Muslim in history.
06:16When he refuses to be inducted into the draft, he was the most hated man in the country.
06:22I mean, he risks his career, he risks prison, he risks everything.
06:26And he stands tall and proud upon this idea that I'm not going to go kill people that did no harm to me.
06:31I'm not going to participate in the killing of innocent people.
06:34I will not go 10,000 miles from here to help murder and kill another poor people simply to continue the domination of white slave masters over the darker people of the Earth.
06:48And shoot them for what?
06:49They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father.
06:57What I'm going to do? Shoot them for what?
06:59How am I going to shoot them?
07:00Little poor little black people, little babies and children, women.
07:03How can I shoot them poor people?
07:05I'm just taking me to jail.
07:06You can celebrate him now for that.
07:08And they always talk about how, subhanAllah, we're just coming now past six years after his death, that they only loved him when he couldn't talk anymore.
07:15Because what would he have said about police brutality and militarism today?
07:18And suddenly now everyone was championing him and holding him up.
07:21So that's one element of it.
07:22But also look at the other elements that don't get talked about much, which also come from the same place of being morally anchored in deen.
07:28When he refuses to put Muhammad Ali on the ground, on the Hollywood Walk of Stars, because he doesn't want people stepping on the name of Muhammad.
07:35That's a man of principle.
07:36He could barely talk at that point in his life.
07:38But I don't want people stepping on the name of Muhammad.
07:40You have to adjust.
07:42You want that star there?
07:43You feel like it's incomprehensible that people will go there and not see the name of Muhammad Ali?
07:47Well, you figure out a way that it's not stepped on like everyone else.
07:50And you go to that Walk of Stars, and subhanAllah, the only name that's up and not on the ground is Muhammad Ali.
07:57Because he refused.
07:58Not because of an arrogance with his name, but because he anchored himself in some sort of principle.
08:02People aren't gonna step on the name of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
08:05I'm not okay with that.
08:06What many of us might not also know is Muhammad Ali turning down the beer advertisements.
08:11What would they have said about Muhammad Ali today, if Muhammad Ali refused to wear an advertisement that he felt like went against his faith?
08:18Would they still praise him?
08:19Would they still hold him up as an icon of justice?
08:21Or would they blast him as a religious zealot?
08:23You don't have to look much further, subhanAllah, than when you look at France today.
08:27And you have a brother by the name of Idrissa Ghana Gay, who is a Senegalese French football player.
08:33All he does is he sits out a game, because he doesn't want to wear an LGBTQ pride flag on his uniform, feeling like it undermines his faith.
08:41And so he was hunted down by the press and the French Association of football.
08:46And they said to him in an arrogant manner that one of two situations apply.
08:52Either these rumors that you're not supporting the LGBT are true, in which case you are to know that there are going to be consequences for your action.
09:01And to realize the impact of your behavior, to realize the grave mistake you have committed, they say to him.
09:07Or either these allegations are false, in which case we invite you to send a message of support and you are wearing the t-shirt, send us a picture.
09:16He's lynched in French media.
09:18All sorts of racist rhetoric is hurled against him.
09:20There are calls for discipline.
09:22All he did was take a dignified stance.
09:24Man said, I have deen.
09:25This is my deen.
09:26How do you describe his situation now amidst this avalanche of condemnation?
09:31Ghareeb, stranger is a good word to describe him.
09:35Many other Muslims who simply want to be as Allah intended.
09:39We need people of azm, people of determination, people that have confidence in their faith, people that will not buckle, people that draw from something greater in terms of strength.
09:49And my sincere nasiha to everyone and myself.
09:52If you have to lose everything in life, don't lose your deen, don't lose your imam.
09:56It's the most precious thing, the most precious provision, that which you will need in your grave and that which you will have.
10:03When you stand in front of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, that will make all other sacrifices worth it.
10:11And we all repent to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and turn back to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
10:15O believers, so that we may be successful.
10:17Learn to compromise in everything except for your deen.
10:20Learn to compromise in arguments.
10:22Learn to compromise in your family relationships.
10:25Learn to be someone who's kind, who's courteous.
10:27Learn to be someone who is dignified in the face of insults.
10:29Learn to be someone who's always in a place of showing rahmah and mercy, but don't compromise on your deen.