From Learning to Leading | Jumuah Khutbah | Imam Nadim Bashir | EPIC Masjid

Opening Du'a and Introduction

I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to Prayer. Come to Prayer. Come to salvation. Come to salvation. Allah is the greatest. Allah is the greatest. There is no god but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who believe, fear Allah and say the right words. He will correct your deeds and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great victory.

The best hadith is the Book of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. And the worst of things are its innovations. And every innovation is an innovation. And every innovation is a misguidance. And every misguidance is in the Fire.

I ask Allah that just as He has gathered us here today on this day of Jumu'ah, may Allah gather us along with our families in Jannat al-Firdaws al-A'la in the companionship of Rasulullah ﷺ. I also ask Allah to help our Muslim brothers and sisters all over the world wherever they may be. If they are mazloom, may Allah alleviate their miseries. May Allah bring the zalimun to justice. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give our brothers and sisters izzah and victory. Ameen. Ya Rabb al-'alameen.

The Current State of the World

Brothers and sisters, we live without a doubt in a chaotic world. SubhanAllah, we see all these situations, the stories are unfolding around the world. As if it was not enough to see that what is happening in Gaza, now you see another situation escalating between India and Pakistan for example. And you ask yourself that we are looking at this situation, that is happening on that side of the world.

And because, let me be very honest, what we see happening in India, what we see happening in Palestine and so forth, when we talk about Zionism, when we talk about the Hindu fascist groups and so forth, the Hindutva groups and so forth, they are cut from the same cloth. Fascism runs in their blood. We know these kind of things. We've heard about these kind of things.

But the same time when you look at the entire world, countries that are viewing themselves, they have always viewed themselves as first world countries. Why? Because they would boast about freedom of rights. They would boast about freedom of speech. Just like this country in itself, and we see today what's happening all over this country. People, because they are simply voicing their opinion about how they feel about Gaza, how they feel about Palestine, they are being persecuted because of speaking up their own opinions.

The Question Everyone is Asking

So the point is that many people are asking the same question. And every time there is a Muslim gathering, whenever people come together in an invitation, or at a party, or when there are families that come together, everyone is talking about, what is the solution to the ummah of Rasulallah ﷺ? How can we fix our situation?

And subhanAllah, this is clearly a very subjective discussion. Because everyone is gonna have their own opinion exactly what needs to be done. One person will say that we need to take more participation in media. The other person is gonna say, no, you are wrong. This is where we need to take participation. And so this is clearly a subjective matter and discussion.

However today in this brief khutbah, I want to share with you some things that I have read. Some things that we have learned from the seerah of Rasulallah ﷺ that we can do today. That in order for us to grow as a Muslim community, for us to thrive as a Muslim community. And once again, you may disagree with me because it's a subjective discussion. You may have your own personal opinion about this. But what I'm trying to say is clearly from the Quran and from the sunnah of Rasulallah ﷺ.

The Foundation: Spirituality

Now, what I want to share with you in this khutbah are three things that we as a Muslim community need to take very seriously. But at the same time, before I get into those three things, the most important thing that we all need to take very seriously, which there is no compromise on. There is no way to work around this. And that is spirituality.

We as a Muslim community need to reconnect with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We need to again understand our purpose of our creation. Why were we created by Allah? To worship Allah, to recognize Allah, to have the ma'rifah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And every single juncture of our life, we have to always remind ourselves that, who am I serving? I am serving Allah Azza wa Jal. My purpose of life, as Ibrahim عليه السلام says:

That my living, my salat, my ibadah, my nusuk, my ritual rites that I do to please Allah, my living, my dying, everything is for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

We may have everything in this dunya, but if we as a Muslim ummah don't have spirituality, if we don't have a connection with Allah, if we are not turning to Allah, and rather than coming closer to Allah, we are excelling in our disobedience to Allah, the help of Allah will never ever come to the ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

Historical Examples

This is a clear proven fact, whether you say the battle of Badr. The battle of Badr was only 313 against 1000. Any logical person will say, 313 don't stand a chance in front of 1000. But because those 313, they had Allah on their side, numbers did not matter, the quantity did not matter, it was the quality of the people, and that's why Allah gave them Izzah.

In the battle of Uhud we saw that they violated the instructions of Rasulullah ﷺ, and as a result the Muslims they suffered immensely in the battle of Uhud.

In the battle of Hunayn, when they thought that we have outnumbered, now quantity meant more than quality, then that is why in the early stages of the battle of Hunayn, the Muslims they suffered a setback, but then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran:

Allah then says, that He sent upon them Sakina, in tranquility, upon the believers, upon Rasulullah ﷺ, and He sent an army that they could not see, an invisible army, and that army gave them Nusra, and they were able to overpower their enemy.

The point is brothers and sisters, spirituality is the most important thing when it comes to our stability, when it comes to the success of any Muslim community, so there's no way to work around that.

The First Worldly Priority: Education

Now, besides the spiritual aspect of things, from a worldly perspective, there are three things that today I want to implore upon all of us, the Muslim community, and believe it or not, this is my personal opinion about this matter, but I think that if the entire Muslim community in the United States, in North America, South America, and all over the world, if we take these things very seriously, wallahi we can have an impact.

Now there are some things that are very relevant to us, and there are some things that could be relevant to the entire Muslim world. The very first thing that we as a Muslim community need to take very, very seriously is our education. We as a Muslim ummah need to take our education very, very seriously.

Study Islamic History

First of all is, study Islamic history. When the entire world was plunged into darkness, we know the situation of the world. Go back and study history, what had happened to the value of human beings before the coming of Rasulullah ﷺ. Study world civilization and you will see how people were treated. What we only know is that in the Arab lands, they used to bury girls alive. But there was a lot more problems that did exist in that civilization. And not only that, but in the European countries, how they used to treat people who were not white, people who were black, and so forth, how they were treated. They were treated worse than animals.

And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted to have mercy on the entire world. And the very first revelation, not only did He send Rasulullah ﷺ, but the very first revelation that came from Allah عز و جل to the Prophet ﷺ was about knowledge. It was about education.

Three Crucial Elements of Education

Three important things were taught to the Prophet ﷺ when it comes to education. Number one is reading is very very crucial. Today you and I, the Muslim community, we don't read. Wallahi one of the biggest pitfalls, one of the greatest downfalls to the Muslim ummah, I can strongly say, without any doubt, is that we are not a reading community. Knowledge is power. We've always heard this before. But knowledge comes from reading. If we are not gonna read, Wallahi we will not be an educated community. The very first thing that Allah says, اقْرَأْ, read.

Then He says, الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ The only way you can preserve knowledge is by writing it, documenting it, and not only that, but then teaching it, عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ That the human being they taught what they did not know.

So the only way knowledge can be transferred from one generation to the next generation is when people they come to the teacher, the teacher teaches them, imparts knowledge on them, and then they impart knowledge to the next generation. This is how knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next generation.

The Prophet's Priority on Education

So we see that knowledge was so important, even the fact that after the battle of Badr, after the battle of Badr, some of the people who were captured and they were kept as captives, what was their ransom? See, the Prophet ﷺ, brothers and sisters, he took education so seriously that their price of their freedom, if they wanted freedom, what was the price for their freedom? That you have to teach the Sahaba how to read and how to write. Once again, the Prophet ﷺ is prioritizing education, and they taught these people.

The Golden Age of Islamic Education

And not only that, go and study the lives of the Sahaba. Study Islamic history, brothers and sisters. From the 8th century to the 13th century of Islam, Baghdad was the capital hub for intellectualism and education for the entire world. People were traveling all over the world to Baghdad to study medicine, to study math, to study astrology, to study medicine, to study science.

This is why I've said this before in one of my other talks. You can go back and look at this. There's a book that is sold in the market. It's called the House of Wisdom. But this is where these great minds were created. Where do you think the people, the minds of al-Khawarizmi came from? Whether it was his concept of algebra, or whether it was Ibn Sina and his contribution to medicine, or when it came to al-Haytham and his contribution to optics and astronomy, or whether it was Ibn Rushd or al-Farabi, and their contribution to philosophy and so forth. Most people came, non-Muslims came, to the world. They had so much respect. The Muslim world has so much respect because of their investments into education.

Learning from Other Communities

Now today, when you look at our situation today, compare ourselves to other faith-based communities. Compare ourselves to the other faith-based communities. Look, this is where we need to sometimes, we need to reflect on our situation. If you go back and study, today when you talk about the Jewish community, everyone says, the Jews are sitting on top of the world. They themselves, they boast about this. When you talk to many Jewish people, they boast about this, that today we are in control of the world. We have control over everything.

And today as a Muslim, looking at their situation from a Muslim lens, we say, why do they have all that control? But brothers and sisters, you have to go back sometimes down memory lane. Sometimes you have to go back into history and study history.

There was a book, you can find this book on Amazon too. It's called, The Jewish Phenomenon. Go study this book. After the Holocaust, the World War II finished back in the 1940s, probably mid-1940s. What did the Jewish people they do? What did they do in order for their road to recovery? Because they had suffered immensely. But now what was their road to recovery? What was their step-by-step process to come back to the top of the world?

If you read this book, they have, the author has written seven things that the Jewish community did. The very first thing that he mentions in his book is that the Jewish world took their education very seriously. They took their education very, very seriously.

Learning from Other Communities

From post-World War II to the 1960s and 1970s, because of 25 years of constantly putting pressure on each other, motivating each other about excelling in education. This is why the Jewish people, the Jewish community, they began to become the dominant factor when it came to the top universities, when it came to certain areas of life that were controlling everything, such as law, such as medicine, such as finance. They began to immerse themselves through education into these fields, because they realized that no matter what happens, no matter what situation occurs in the world, these are areas that are always going to be relevant. Law, medicine, finance, science, these are things that are always going to be relevant. So they invested into their education. And this is why they are today where they are today. Now you may have a different opinion as where they are today. But when a Jewish scholar says, when a Jewish researcher says, that this was their road to recovery, and why they are today there? Because they took education very seriously.

The Current State of Our Ummah

Brothers and sisters, why are we here today as a Muslim ummah? Because you and I, we as a Muslim community, did not take our education very seriously. Today how many Muslim community members, so many of our young ones, they are not motivated when it comes to education. What is the percentage of our Muslim community when it comes to getting their PhDs, when it comes to getting their master's degree? Majority of our young brothers and young sisters, especially our young brothers, all they want is a bachelor's degree. Why? Because that's all that I need to take care of my family.

Once again, go back into Islamic history. It was not just about a bachelor's degree so that you can put food on the table. Because you and I, many of us, we were raised with this concept. We were raised with this idea, and it was drilled in our heads. That if you don't have an education... I'm sure you used to hear this, If you don't have a degree, you won't get a job. If you don't get a job, no one will give you their daughter. You used to hear this. How many times you heard this? And so how many times, you know what? All I need to get a job, and take care of my family, and put a roof over my family's head, and put food on the table, is all I need is a bachelor's degree. That's not how these communities they thought.

The Hindu Community's Educational Excellence

Let's go to the next faith-based community. One of the most thriving educational faith communities right now in America. Even above the Jewish community, say whatever you want to say about them. But you have to give credit where credit is due. It's the Hindu community. No matter, say whatever you want to say. But the Hindu community right now, nearly 80% of the Hindu community, they have at least achieved a master's degree. 40% are going into PhDs. When you look at them, they have conquered. You agree with me on this. They have conquered the IT world.

When you see where they are sitting today, slowly and gradually, when you saw the top companies of the world, and you saw that there were majority of them, there were majority of them Jewish people, there were some Christian people. But now slowly and gradually, look at the top executives of all these big, big companies. Now you start seeing Hindus coming into the picture. And believe it or not, brothers and sisters, we can either sit here and blindfold ourselves, or wake up to the reality, that even Hindus now are making their way into politics. What we see happening in India, can happen here also. This is a reality. Because they are making their way into politics. There are so many Hindus, very rich millionaires and billionaires, they are contributing to politics. They are giving money to local politicians.

But where did this all start from? It starts because even if you go to a Hindu family, the most important thing to them is education. You know this. I don't need to say this to you. But they put so much pressure on their kids. From day one, all the way to the last day, that education, education, education. And there's such a competitive atmosphere within that community, that they are always trying to push each other. When you look at the spelling bees, now you see so many Hindu kids sitting over there. I'm not against them. They worked hard. And there's a concept in Arabic. We were always taught this:

Whoever works hard, they will get the results. This is the reality of life. Whoever works hard, they will receive the benefits of it. They are working hard. They are putting education as a priority.

Our Call to Educational Excellence

So we as a Muslim community, brothers and sisters, we need to take our education very very seriously. Why are we stuck at a bachelor's degree? Why not master's degree? Why not PhDs and so forth? Why can we not become the best?

You know, it bothers me wallahi so many times. I'm being frank with all of you here when I say this. I'm not sugarcoating this matter. But so many times people will come and say, I want to have an impact. Okay, what do you want to do when you want to have an impact? I want to go and study at here and there, at this university, that university. I want to become a Shaykh. Brothers and sisters, my epic community members and everyone else, remember this. To have an impact in the world, you don't need to become a Shaykh. You don't need to become an imam or a Shaykh to have an impact on the world.

Excellence in Every Field

You can become a doctor and you can become the best doctor. I implore all the doctors over here, that just don't become just a regular doctor, become the best doctor. Why wouldn't? Why? Why not? Why can it not be? When you open up D Magazine, Dallas Magazine, it will please. And I'm happy when I open up D Magazine, if I go to a place and I see a D Magazine, I open it and I see a Muslim here and there, it brings me so much happiness and joy. But are we dominating that market? No, we're not. But can a doctor have an impact? Absolutely.

When it comes to the engineers, you can also have an impact. Become the best engineers. When it comes to the IT people, don't become the bottom feeders. Become the best at what you're doing. I had a group of young brothers one time, they came to me and they were saying that, you know, we're in IT, but we want to have an impact. I told them, you can also have an impact. Think about, just think about this for a moment. Is there a lack of IT people within our Muslim community? No, there's not. But of course we can always grow, we can always become the best.

And I told these young guys, that you know what, you want to make a difference, you want to do something that will be long lasting, look at every single social media account, or every single social media out there, whether it is Facebook, whether it's Twitter, whether it's Instagram, whether it is, there's so many, Snapchat, there's so many out there right now. I said to them, that all of these are controlled by people who can't control everything. Did you know that on Instagram, in this last one year, they deleted nearly 100,000 posts that were pro-Palestinian? They deleted 100,000 posts that were pro-Palestinian.

I had told those guys, that you know what, if you want to have an impact, put your heads together, grab a few other people, start your own social media company. A social media company that is run and operated by Muslims. We get to control the narrative. Why can we not do these kind of things? Why can we not get to the top of the world? Because majority of us were thinking, let me just do the bare minimum that I can put food on the table for my family. That's important. Let's be clear, that's important. But at the same time, let's excel. Whatever you are in, whatever field you are in, dominate it. Every single person sitting over here, whatever field you're in, dominate it. Get better at it. Let's bring the Muslim community forward. Let's bring ourselves up to the top. And that can happen only through education.

Civic Engagement: Following the Prophet's Example

The next important thing, it's almost time for the end of the khutbah, but the last two things, I want to quickly highlight, and of course I wish there was more time. But the second area where we need to dominate and we need to excel, is civic engagement.

Look, Rasulullah ﷺ, the biggest example from the life of the Prophet ﷺ is Hilf al-Fudul. Hilf al-Fudul basically taught us that there was a man who was a victim of injustice. And what happened was, that he went and he was a victim of some leader of the Quraysh and his cheating with him. So he went to the general Muslim, I'm sorry, not the Muslim, the Meccan community, and he told them about how he was a victim of injustice. They all came together, the Prophet ﷺ was part of that pact which was called the Hilf al-Fudul pact and agreement. And basically what they said was, that no one coming to Mecca will ever be a victim of injustice. But the point is this, Rasulullah ﷺ, he was part of that agreement. The point is this, he was engaged in his community.

Now today when you see all these elections that are taking place, wallahi it is so sad that I'm not talking about national elections. I've always said this, national elections don't mean anything more to us, it does not mean that much to us as much as local elections are important. But how many of us as a Muslim community, we have no participation, we have no engagement, I'm not saying that there's none, there is some. But in the grand scheme of things, it's a very small percentage of the Muslim community.

These people who are running for any position, it is our job to question them, it is our right to question them. Because their decisions will have an impact on our schools, it has an impact on our housing communities, it has an impact on our daily lives. Yet today when it comes to civic engagement, wallahi the Muslim community is absolutely oblivious. After all that we have gone through as a Muslim community, yet if we're still oblivious, wallahi it's not their fault, it's our fault. So that is why the second thing that we need to be very much part of is civic engagement. That also means that being part of social justice advocacy groups and so forth, we are part of all of them and being part of your community is very important.

Social Services: Building Our Institutions

The last thing I would say that we need to as a Muslim community excel in is social services. And here's what I would say. First of all is when it comes to charitable organizations, or when it comes to hospitals. Like for example, if you go to New York right now today, where you have the Jewish community where they live, you will go there to those communities and you will find hospitals. Hospital Beth Israel, hospital Beth Torah, you'll find all these kind of hospitals.

You go today to our just general society, you'll find a Methodist hospital. What is the word Methodist? Methodist is a Christian denomination. When you go to some other places and it says Presbyterian, some people think, oh, Presbyterian is just a name. No, Presbyterian is a Jewish, I mean, it's a Christian denomination. It's the name of a Christian denomination. When you go to all these places, you see this.

I'm asking where our Muslim community, our doctors, our medical professionals, I'm asking you, where is our hospitals? Why can we not create hospitals? Do we have a lack of doctors? No. We have amazing doctors in our community. And if you are a doctor, in my opinion, you are a very intelligent person. Why can we not have a hospital that is run and operated by Muslims, serving everyone, serving every single person. Just like a Methodist hospital is serving everyone. Just like a Presbyterian hospital is serving everyone. No discrimination against anyone. But why cannot be our hospital? Why are we lacking behind?

When you talk about universities, you have Notre Dame University, you have SMU, Southern Methodist University. When you have TCU, Texas Christian University. Where are we as a Muslim community? After all these decades, and after all these centuries, where are we as a Muslim community?

I'm not saying that the results will come about overnight. But it's something for us to think about. Something for us as a Muslim community to think about going forward. My job here is just to plant the seed in your head. To bring some awareness to this idea that where we are standing today, when it comes to, not only that, but when it comes to rehabilitation services, how many do we see? How many rehabilitation services, rehab centers, are there that are run and operated and started by Muslims?

Now someone may come to me and say, "I have an emergency care center, and I have a clinic." Those are good, mashallah, may Allah reward you with barakah in that. But I'm talking about bigger. Let's think bigger. If you aim for the sky, at least you will hit the treetops. That is how we need to think. We cannot just think about the treetops and hit the stump of the tree. No, let's think bigger, let's think greater as a Muslim community.

That means that if you want to bring some people together and think about this, and talk about this, I don't need to be part of it. You can be part of it. What I'm saying is, as a Muslim community, spirituality - there is no way of working around this. We have to do this. But education, civic engagement, social services - these are three areas that we can excel in.

We as a Muslim community, are we doing better than before? Yes, we are. But are we where we need to be? No, we're not. We're not even close to where we need to be. Look at what other faith communities are doing, and what kind of impact they have, and what they're doing today. We, as a Muslim community, should produce the best doctors, the best engineers, the best lawyers, the best scientists, the best mathematicians, the best historians. We should be producing all this. But we're not, because education is not a priority in our Muslim community.

So I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that may He bring within us this idea, this concept, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the tawfiq to do these kinds of things. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us Izzah and Nusrah, Ameen Ya Rabb al-Alameen.

Second Khutbah

Prayer Call and Congregation

There's plenty of space inside the main hall. Sisters, please make sure the rows are straight and complete. If there are any sisters in the mother's hall, please come inside the main hall. There's usually a lot of space in the side two rooms and in the main hall. Brothers, please come inside the main hall. Brothers in the back two rooms, please make sure the rows are straight and complete.

Prayer