Al-Wasatiyyah: The Middle Path Of Moderation In Islam

Introduction

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Alhamdulillah, we are very blessed and honored — as later tonight, as we all know, we will be starting our annual retreat. Many of the mashayikh, the speakers, have arrived, and one dear honorable guest that will be with us later today, along with delivering the first Jumu'ah, is Imam Dawud Walid, who is the Executive Director of CARE Michigan, and at the same time the author of the famous book Towards Sacred Activism. MashaAllah, he studied traditionally overseas under many mashayikh. So alhamdulillah, we will have the honor of listening for the first Jumu'ah, along with later this weekend inshaaAllah. Jazakumullahu khairan.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. الحمد لله رب العالمين. الحمد لله رب العالمين. الحمد لله رب العالمين.

Al-Wasatiyyah: The Middle Path

Beloved brothers in Islam, we live in days and times where our focus as a community needs to be on what is known in the Arabic language as al-wasatiyyah. Al-wasatiyyah — moderation and taking the middle path in things.

It's important for us to get some understanding, or at least a reminder for those of us who understand this — if not in practice, at least theoretically, nazhari — of this important concept that is pointed to or indicated in the Quran and is within the sunnah of our beloved Prophet alayhis-salam. Allah azza wa jal says in a portion of an ayah from Surah al-Baqarah — after I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

He azza wa jal said in the Quran that thus We have made you ummatan wasatan — a balanced ummah, a balanced nation. And then Allah says: for the purpose that you may be witnesses over all of the people, and al-Rasool صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم is a witness over you — meaning over us as an ummah.

The mufassireen of the Quran have said that this wasat carries the meaning of idl or adl — that it is proportional and it is balanced. And virtue in Islam is not simply the muqabil or the opposite of sharr. That's not what we're talking about here — virtue. Of course there is khayr and there is sharr, there is good and there is evil. But when we speak of virtue, the wasat is in the middle — it is la ifrat wa la tafrit — meaning there is no excess, which is an extreme to the right, nor deficiency or negligence, which is an extreme to the left. So there are extremes to the right and extremes to the left. In virtue, the wasat is in the middle.

The Hadith on the Best of Matters

In a hadith narrated from the chain of Imam al-Husayn al-Asghar from 'Ali Zayn al-'Abidin from al-Husayn ibn 'Ali ibn Abi Talib — some scholars say this is weak, but it is at least hadith hasan li ghayrihi — the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم said:

The best of matters are those in the middle (the balanced ones).

Virtue Between Two Extremes

Generosity: Between Wastefulness and Miserliness

For instance, we have in Islam one of the noble traits of character — a virtue — which is al-jud. Al-jud means being generous. Al-jud is between al-israf and al-bukhl.

How do we understand what generosity is as a fadl, as a virtue? It is in between al-israf — something that Allah hates:

Allah says He does not love the people who are perpetually involved in israf — wastefulness. But then the opposite of al-israf is al-bukhl — being stingy. So there is al-bukhl and al-shuhh: one who is extremely stingy. So virtue — generosity — is in the middle: to not be reckless and not overdo it and just give away and be wasteful without any contemplation; but at the same time, not being stingy and not giving anything.

A practical example where a lot of israf takes place — I think in Urdu the word is shadi — at weddings. You have the so-called wedding feast, or we know this in Arabic as al-walimah, where you have a big wedding party. You invite people and you have all these different types of pulao and biryani and all these different types of kebab — all this excess of food, all these different varieties of food. People come and eat, all these different halwa, and then afterwards all this food is left over, and it's wasted and gets thrown away. This is israf. This is sinful. Allah does not love this.

Then you have another extreme: someone comes and asks for some help or some food — they're needy, they're hungry — and as some people have misunderstood spirituality, thinking it is just dhikr and having a certain dress: you have an imamah, you have your Yemeni shawl, your Hadrami shawl, you have a certain type of oud, and you look the part of a real righteous Sufi — and then someone comes to you and asks for a bite to eat, and you even have a date, and you won't even share a piece of a date. You're stingy; you want to keep it all to yourself. This is also excess — it's excess to the left.

Courage: Between Recklessness and Cowardice

Likewise, al-shaja'ah — to give another example. Al-shaja'ah means courage. Courage is in the wasat between two extremes: between being reckless and al-jubn — being cowardly.

Being reckless — that's not courageous. Just to run into a situation with no sort of strategy, no sort of contemplation — in which a person with this type of understanding would do not only harm to themselves but harm to other people — in the name of saying that they are courageous or speaking truth to power. This is reckless. But there is another extreme: that of the coward who won't speak the haqq, who won't follow the haqq — only out of fear that people will mock them or make fun of them. Not because of any physical harm, not even any fear of financial loss — just because people will look at you up and down because of how you're dressed, or make fun of you because you're wearing a thobe, or say that you're backwards. That is cowardly.

Al-Khalifah al-Rashid 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, karam Allahu ta'ala wajhah, in a famous hikmah mentions this. The Arabs know this saying well:

An intelligent adversary is better than an ignorant or foolish friend. (Attributed to 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, karam Allahu wajhah)

This relates to the reckless person who causes the Muslims harm. The meaning of this hikmah, this aphorism, this statement is: the intelligent adversary is better for you than the foolish or ignorant ally — why? Because out of their recklessness, out of their lack of wisdom, out of their hastiness, they will run in and say they're doing something for the cause of Islam or for the Muslims, and do more harm to the Muslims through their recklessness. At least the 'aduw 'aqil, the intelligent adversary, at least will be calculated. You actually have a better chance of defending yourself from an intelligent enemy than from an ignorant ally.

The Warning Against Exaggeration in the Deen

Then we have the coward also. There is a hadith sahih — rigorously authenticated — narrated by Imam al-Nasa'i, rahimahullahu ta'ala, and another narration also sahih by Imam Ibn Majah al-Qazwini, rahimahullahu ta'ala:

Beware of exaggeration in the deen, for most certainly those who were ruined before you were ruined because of ghuluw (exaggeration) in the deen. (Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 3057; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3029)

Beware of exaggerations in the deen, because most certainly those who were ruined before you were ruined — why? Because of ghuluw in the deen. Ghuluw resides — and there are two things that normally inform al-ghuluw fi al-deen: it is when someone has great hubb for something, or something that has intense bughd — and it's not for Allah, even if it appears outwardly to be for Allah. What hubb means is love — when someone intensely loves something for the sake of that thing; or bughd — they hate something for the sake of that thing. This brings about al-ghuluw fi al-deen.

Ta'assub al-Madhabi: Fanaticism of Madhab

For instance, one prime example — and this is specifically within the deen but can go outside of it — and we will conclude with this, because these are things that we have to be aware of, especially Muslims living here in America, in the West. Because unlike some other countries — for instance, the Faqir spent time in Mali, in a village called Mopti, or we also have Bamako — if you go there, you have people basically of two tribes: everyone follows Madhab Maliki, and mostly most of the people are either Tijanis or Qadiris, and they are of the same mashrab. Basically everyone is doing the same thing: everyone is praying with their hands to the side like the traditional Maliki Madhab, and they are doing a particular type of wird, and everything is uniform. Things aren't like that here in America, though — right?

Al-ta'assub al-madhabi — fanaticism based upon one's Madhab — is one example of al-ghuluw fi al-deen. And we'll conclude with this: we have an issue of marriage in our community. We have a lot of sisters who are single — for whatever reason, are not married. And sometimes, one reason some sisters can't get married is because of al-ta'assub al-madhabi. One example that I heard of — we won't mention the group — where one Shaykh said that girls who are his students can't marry outside of his Madhab and his Tariqah.

Why? Someone can't marry outside of your Madhab and your Tariqah? Now, commonalities are good — the more commonalities in marriage, the better. But what is the standard that we were given by Rasul Allah صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم?

Religion and character. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1085)

The Madhab is a way — a path to following the Sharia. The Tariqah is a path towards inner directedness, zuhd — detaching one's heart from everything else except attachment to Allah. This is what zuhd is. This is the purpose of the Tariqah. This is the purpose of the Madhab. When we take this and give it such supremacy that we discriminate against other Muslims — then this is ghuluw fi al-deen. And we're not talking about deviant groups — because we have deviant groups like the N.O.I. and the Qadianis. We're not talking about deviant groups. We're talking about people amongst the established Ahl al-Qiblah.

Closing Du'a

So we ask Allah to make us the people of wasatiyyah, to make us of the people that don't go to ifrat nor tafrit. We ask Allah to make us not be of the jahileen, of the ignorant people.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم، والحمد لله رب العالمين.

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.

Announcements

I kindly request the brothers to please pass the donation boxes from your left to the right and donate generously on this blessed day of Jumu'ah. You can donate cash in the boxes, or you can donate via Zelle, donate at masjidds.org, or on your way out you can visit the kiosk. Let's give whatever we can — no amount is small — and inshaaAllah Allah will use that as a means of protecting us from any calamity and grant us in this world and the next.

Alhamdulillah, the main announcement for today: our largest gathering of the year — alhamdulillah, through the mercy of Allah — has arrived, which is our Annual Retreat, which will be starting later today after Salatul Asr. Alhamdulillah, many brothers, sisters, and families from far and wide — from Seattle to Dallas, Phoenix, Vermont, Florida, different states — buses have arrived, different ulama, scholars, and leaders. So with the ongoing developments nationally and internationally for the past months and years, the topic is "Awakening the Ummah: The Lives of the Revivers and the Revivalist Movements." That will be the theme for this weekend.

Tonight's Schedule (After Salatul Asr — 5:30 PM)

The following sessions will be covered tonight:

• The Custodians of the Sunnah: The Vital Role of the Muhaddithin
• Defenders of Faith: The Kalam Scholars and Theological Revival
• Salahuddin Ayyubi: Strategic Vision and the Long Game for al-Aqsa

Additionally, there will be a parallel session for sisters:

• Maryam and Fatimah alayhim assalam — Pillars of Faith, Modesty, and Devotion
• Khadijah radiyallahu anha — The Prophet's Pillar of Strength
• Revivers of Faith: The Inspiring Lives of Two Sisters from Pakistan

Throughout the weekend there will be more alhamdulillah. We actually have ten parallel programs taking place: one is the main session, one is the sisters' session, one is the session for ulama, one is for reverts, one for kids, one for youth — brothers and sisters, boys and girls separately. So alhamdulillah, this event is not just for one group or for one age group, but rather it's for the entire family.

If you're hearing this for the first time, we humbly request — as this is not just a lecture and talk, but rather in these times of challenges and difficulty — what is our role? What is our individual and collective revival role and responsibility? These are the topics that will be touched upon, along with some actionable items of what we can do on a day-to-day basis, so we can use it as a means of seeking Allah's mercy, help, and victory nationally and internationally.

So lastly, a humble invitation and request to all of us: whatever time you can, kindly please do join us this weekend for this blessed event. May Allah grant us all the tawfiq and accept from us.

Lastly, let's continue to make du'a for all of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and all around — the Muslim Ummah that is suffering.

أستغفر الله. لا إله إلا الله. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Post-Salah Announcements

For the brothers and sisters that joined us later in the talk — alhamdulillah, today's khutbah was delivered by Imam Dawud Walid, who is the Executive Director of CARE Michigan, along with being the author of the book Towards Sacred Activism. Alhamdulillah, we are very blessed and honored to have him. He will be with us this weekend for our Annual Retreat.

Along with Imam Dawud, alhamdulillah, we are also blessed and honored to have Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, who is visiting us for the first time — despite his senior age — and alhamdulillah, in collaboration with Guidance Residential, who facilitated his trip this weekend to address the community. MashaAllah, he is a world-renowned leader in Islamic finance, being on the board of Guidance Residential along with many different Islamic finance organizations.

So alhamdulillah, we have all these mashayikh and ulama that will be with us — so it is our responsibility to spend time and benefit from them, as they are taking out their valuable time.

Lastly, Moulana Zubair — Sheikh Zubair Abdurrahman from Phoenix — will also be visiting us, a very senior scholar. In fact, he is actually coming between two dialysis sessions just to be with us, once he heard about the theme and the topics. He is flying between one dialysis session, and then on Monday he will be back for the next one. So we ask Allah to grant him aafiyah and to grant him shifa.

But all these different mashayikh that are coming — let's try our utmost best to be here as much as possible. May Allah accept from all of us and grant us tawfiq. Jazakumullahu khairan.