Why The World Cup Proves We’re Still Colonised | Muharram Wake-Up Call

The Sign of a Colonised People

I'll never forget, I was in the sixth grade and I sat down and my math teacher came up and he asked everybody in the room, what is the date in the Hijri calendar today? Silence. We knew it was the second of February and Allah knows what year, but we didn't know what was the Hijri date. And he looked at us and he said, this is the sign of a colonised people.

You don't even know the date in your own calendar. You have been made to forget your calendar. You've been made to forget your role models. You've been made to forget your language. You've been erased, you've been wiped. What's left? You've come like a formatted hard drive. You've come like an empty, illiterate person and a software has been installed into you and everything that Allah sent down is not in that software. You don't even know.

If you don't know the date, how do you know what happened in history? How do you know what today means? And how do you know where you came from?

We Have Just Entered the Islamic New Year

We have just entered the Islamic New Year. شَهْرُ اللهِ الْمُحَرَّم — Muharram in Arabic literally means the prohibited, the protected, the sacred. But these names of months did not come with the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the Arabian Peninsula, no.

The names of these months were known to the Arabs for centuries. They knew about Muharram, they knew about Safar, they knew about Rabi'ul Awwal. They had given these names to these months for centuries.

But it's when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came, he showed them that the calendar is not just a calendar. It's not just something you track every morning, what date is it, no. It means something because your calendar is your history.

December 31st vs. Muharram

On the 31st of December every year, you see huge celebrations. We know the day because everything goes off. You can't sleep at night because there's explosives happening in the air outside your window. Everyone is shouting and screaming, today is New Year's Eve.

But on our New Year's Eve, what does it mean? January 1st is just a day like any other day in the year. Nothing actually happened between December 31st and January 1st. Literally, nothing happened. The sun set and it rose the next day.

But something did happen in Muharram. Yes, it means something.

This Is the Month of Liberation

Our beloved Messenger ﷺ migrated from Mecca to Medina — the turning point in the history of this ummah. Yes, something happened this month.

Ibrahim ﷺ was saved from the fire. Yes, something happened this month. Yunus ﷺ was saved from the whale. Yes, something happened this month. Ayub ﷺ was healed from his sickness. Yes, something happened this month. Nuh ﷺ was saved from the flood. Yes, something happened this month. Musa ﷺ left Firaun behind and was liberated.

This is the month of liberation. This is the month of freedom. This is the month where Allah reminds us that history repeats itself like a cycle. That the Uighurs in China and the oppressed in Gaza and those struggling in civil war and strife — it's a reminder that one day they will be free. The Dutch colonised Indonesia for 300 odd years. But they lived to see the day in which they were free. Every tyrant will fall and every pharaoh will drown and every oppressed person will be liberated. This is the sunnah of Allah. And Muharram is the reminder that it will continue to repeat itself until we meet Allah.

The Poem of Andalus

When Andalus fell and 700 years of Islamic empire was receding away in front of the very eyes of the Muslims, Abu al-Abbas al-Rindi, in his famous poem, writes: where are all the kings? Where are all the tyrants? Everything that goes up must come down. Everything that thrives must eventually wither away.

Something happened to Andalus that happens everywhere in the world. It rose, and just as it rose, it fell. And as Allah says:

These are the days — I switch sides between people. Sometimes you're winning, sometimes you're losing. This is the game. This is the test of this life. This is the nature of things. One year passes and another one starts. One person dies and the other one is born. This is how Allah governs this world. هُوَ الْخَلَّاقُ الْعَلِيمُ

Leave Behind What Was Old

Muharram is a reminder that just as you left the year behind, and just as Rasulullah ﷺ left Mecca behind, and just as Yunus ﷺ left the whale behind, and just as Ibrahim ﷺ left the fire behind — you and me have a lot that we need to leave behind and move on from.

O believers, return back to Allah. Change. Be a new person. Leave behind what was old. Leave behind the sins of old. Leave behind the attachments of old. Because Muharram is here.

The Month of Fasting

Aisha رضي الله عنها narrates, the Prophet ﷺ did not fast in any month the amount he used to fast in Muharram. Why? We all fast in Ramadan, but why Muharram? Because when you want to change, you have to empty yourself. When you want to move, you have to cleanse yourself. And when you want to be ready to meet Allah, you should meet Him with the body and the soul of someone who is fasting.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 13, Hadith 2661)

For Rasulullah ﷺ, this was a month of fasting, the month of Muharram. And he would fast the 9th, the 10th, the 11th — what we know as Ashura. And he would do it differently than the Jews and the Christians before him. And they would celebrate this month — like people celebrate Mother's Day, and Father's Day, and Electronics Day, and all the other nonsense days that exist. They would celebrate this month. Why?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3943; Sahih Muslim, Book 13, Hadith 2520)

This is the day Allah saved Musa from the Pharaoh. This is the month of hope. This is the month of change. Let this month not pass and leave you the same person you were.

The World Cup Proves We're Still Colonised

In this sacred month of Muharram, something else is also happening. Something that maybe did not happen in any previous Muharram in the history of humanity. That is the World Cup. Yes, the World Cup. The World Cup is happening this Muharram.

But let me challenge all of you. What if I came here and I claimed that the World Cup doesn't exist? Have any of you been there? Physically? You've not seen it? Okay. So I'm claiming right here on this minbar, the World Cup is a lie. It doesn't exist. All the TVs are doctoring footage and pretending. None of you can prove me wrong. Why? For you to see a website, a TV advert — someone tells you, this team won, that team lost. This is all iman bil ghayb.

You are believing in something you don't see. The World Cup for you right now is ghayb. You can't see it. It's testimony. It is a khabar sadiq. It is narrated to you by someone you trust — a television, a website, a person that you trust. If not for your trust in this person, I could stand here and claim the World Cup is a lie. It doesn't exist. You've never been there? You've never seen it?

Iman Bil Ghayb — Belief in the Unseen

And the World Cup thus must remind you of something very deep, dear brothers and sisters. When someone comes and tells you, do you know that team won 2-1? You realise in that moment, this could be a lie. You are trusting the information from somebody you trust. You've never seen it before. You're not there.

When Allah begins the Qur'an, the first way He describes the believers:

They believe in that which they don't see. And they establish the salah. And they spend from what I have given them. This whole deen is built on this foundation.

I have never seen Jannah. Have you? I have never seen Jahannam. Have you? I never saw Rasulullah ﷺ. Have you? I never saw Allah. Have you? But I believe they are real the way you see me standing in front of you today. And that is what makes a believer.

The believers — who are they? Those when Allah is mentioned, their hearts tremble. Because they know something real is being described, not a figment of your imagination. When His signs are recited, it increases their certainty. Those who are patient, those who trust.

We All Trust Something

You see today, everyone is trusting something. They trust their friend who tells them what's happening on the news. They sit in the car, they trust the car will work and get them to where they need to get to. They turn on the light, they trust the electrics are working. We always trust something, every second of our life. I'm standing here, I'm trusting this audio system will work. I'm trusting this minbar will not break. I'm trusting that the construction beneath my feet will hold. We all trust.

But the difference is, we trust what we see, what we taste, what we touch. But how many of us trust the one we never see?

The World Cup is a reminder, brothers and sisters. You realise every day, people are talking about something they cannot see. Let us talk about Jannah like people talk about the World Cup. Let us talk about Rasulullah ﷺ like people talk about the World Cup. Let us talk about Allah, جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ — the one we don't see, but the one who, insha'Allah, one day we will see.

Du'a