Importance of our Actions - Mufti Abdul Hannan Nizami

صَدَقَ اللَّهُ الْعَظِيمُ وَصَدَقَ رَسُولُهُ النَّبِيُّ الْكَرِيمُ وَنَحْنُ عَلَىٰ ذَلِكَ لَمِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ وَالشَّاكِرِينَ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Respected elders, brothers and sisters, when we listen to the news and we find how Islam and Muslims are continuously attacked every other day there is something there on the media which has to do with being against Islam or Muslims but when we inspect the life of Rasoolullah we find what type of instructions Allah had granted him. In Surah Qalam, Allah mentions:

We have granted you the best of morals, the best of characters. No one has been granted such characters like that. And at that time we know how the opposition was, how the kuffar were dealing with Muslims, how the kuffar were dealing with Rasoolullah. They would leave no stone unturned in harming the Muslims and Rasoolullah. But after all of that, Allah the instructions that he's giving, the first thing he's telling Rasoolullah is that we have given you the best of characters and we want you to maintain that character. We don't want you to become like others. When others are opposing, we don't want you to turn like them.

And then the second thing that Allah mentions, and he says:

Those non-Muslims, they will be expecting you to compromise with them, show some complacency so that way they can also compromise with you. Allah is saying don't do any of these. Don't ruin your akhlaq and at the same time do what you're supposed to be doing. Don't worry about them.

And at that time when you look at the opposition, it started right from the beginning of Islam. When we look at our condition we might think that this is something new, maybe we have done something wrong, where there's somebody out there which is giving Islam a bad name. But right from the start, from the time of Rasoolullah, there were always oppositions. Right from the family of Rasoolullah, when the Prophet stood up and he said:

I have been sent as a messenger to the entire world, the first person that stood up against Rasoolullah was Abū Lahab, his own uncle, immediate family member. Because of which Allah had to reveal an entire surah against him:

There were some sahaba over there that would come to the Prophet and they would say, "Oh Prophet of Allah, they are doing this to us day and night. Just allow us, give us this freedom. We have certain contacts, we have some connections, we have people that can assist us and they can aid us and they can come to our help and maybe it's possible because of all of this our situation might change." Rasoolullah simply told them, "No, no, no. You just do whatever you are supposed to be doing and just leave them alone. Let Allah take care of them."

Because of this, within a short period of time Rasoolullah was able to make such a group of sahaba that now they became immune to all the situations and the conditions that were happening outside. They were totally immune. They would be continuously around the Prophet just learning from him to an extent that when an outsider would come and he would observe the gathering and the sahaba around the Prophet, he would say, "Ayyukum Muhammad?" Which one of you is Muhammad? "Yes, I have studied regarding Islam and I have studied certain things in our books and I have read certain descriptions regarding Muhammad. But when I come over here and I observe all of you people, you all of you are the same. I can't differentiate between you because every single person wanted to be like the Prophet."

Rasoolullah had created men like that and this was the best response to all of those oppositions. He would simply just tell them that I don't have to go out there and try to convince people and to tell people that, you know, I'm not a bad person, Islam is not a bad religion and Muslims are not bad and we're not like this and we're not like that. No, forget about all of that. He would just simply say, "Look at all these people around me. Each and every single one of them loves to be like me. If there was something wrong with me, none of them would have been around me today."

We are running out there, going out there trying to convince the world that we are not bad people. What's the need to convince people that we are not bad people when Allah has sent us with the best of deen? If we were abiding by the rules and the orders of Allah and the sunnahs of Rasoolullah, we wouldn't have to face this day today. There would be no need for us to go outside and try to convince people because people would have already automatically seen us and seen all of those descriptions upon us.

Now when a person is picking up the Seerah, he would have no excuse left in saying that I don't like Muhammad or I don't like Islam and the Muslims because he can see it on us. But unfortunately we left all of that. When they see us and they look at us, the first thing that comes to their mind is, "Well, he is cheating, he is lying, he is deceiving." So what good does Islam have if Muhammad was truly a good person? Then Muhammad would have at least taught them these basic things. Who is it there to blame? Is it them or is it ourselves?

Allah says:

He is telling us that the best example which is there for us is the example in the life of Rasoolullah. And if we follow that lifestyle we will succeed in everything. The entire world is looking for peace. The entire world is looking for success. And we don't even know that we have it ourselves. Is this like that person who possesses a diamond? He has a very valuable diamond in his possession and he doesn't even know about it. He is totally unaware of it and other people know about it. So now they are trying to come to him and they try to rob him of it.

Allah has granted us that Quran, that Sunnah, that diamond, but unfortunately we are running all over the world trying to find something else. What does Allah say in the Quran?

Every mischief that takes place in this world is because of what human beings have done, what you and I have done. They don't happen automatically. Situations don't just change automatically. Sometimes Allah has placed those situations in our hands. Allah himself is saying it that as long as you abide according to my book and according to the teachings of Rasulullah, the waves will be on your side. And no sooner that you turn against it and you start leaving it and you start seeking for it elsewhere, then you will start to see that everything is going against you.

It's not people from the outside that are coming and trying to destroy Islam. We are destroying Islam from within. We are the first people that are trying to take Islam out of our houses. We don't want this Islam and this Sunnah in our homes. We don't want to see it in our children. Ask our children what do they know about Islam. You can ask them about any celebrity and they'll give you the entire background and entire biography of that celebrity. But you ask them something very simple as the background of Rasulullah, who was Abū Bakr as-Siddīq, who was Umar ibn al-Khattāb, and they won't have any answer for it.

A person doesn't want to marry a wife which is hijabi. Why? Because if she goes out with me, people will look down upon us. And that woman doesn't want to marry a person who has a beard. Why? Because you know that beard, it doesn't look so good, it makes us look awkward. We are the first people that are taking Islam out of our homes, and now when the world is saying to take Islam out of the world or out of their country, what are we complaining about? Who is there to blame?

Sometimes we like a Sunnah and when we like that Sunnah we practice upon it. And sometimes we probably like a Sunnah but we're not really practicing upon it. But when we see somebody else practicing upon it, maybe I have a meeting or something where a lot of people are gathering together and there will be a huge function, other people are also there, and then you see that the time for Salah comes and one brother he stands up and he starts performing his Salah. The thought that comes into the mind is, "I just wish that he didn't pray at this time, not in front of all of these people. What will they think about us?" But if that same person was to stand up and go on the stage and start dancing, suddenly we'll see a smile on our faces right from the beginning.

We have taken Islam out of our own homes, out of our own lives. Why are we going around complaining? Rasoolullah didn't face all of these accusations through trying to convince people. He just simply stuck to whatever was ordered by Allah and then he left it in the hands of Allah that the situations are in the hands of Allah. Allah will take care of it.

And remember that Allah He also gave us a solution. He didn't just leave us like that and say, you know, you do whatever you feel like doing and then on the day of judgement when you come to me I will hold you accountable for all those things that you have done. No! Allah also gave us that option because Allah says:

The deen of Allah will spread everywhere whether people like it or not. And He says that it's in your hands to change it. When we start to see that masajids are becoming populated, when we start to see the deen entering into our homes, there will no longer be any time to start convincing people. People will automatically see that on us.

Anything that this ummah has lost was because of their disconnection from deen. And whatever this ummah has received and achieved it was because of their connection to deen. Pick up the books of history, pick up Seerah, pick up Islamic history and you'll see that whatever the Muslims had acquired it was because of their connection with Allah, it was because of their connection with their deen. And no sooner that they lost that connection, they started to face that downfall.

Umar ibn al-Khattāb — who hasn't heard of Umar ibn al-Khattāb? When the Muslims were sent to Jerusalem and at that time King Heraclius, he spoke to some of the Muslims over there. Those Muslims, there was no war, there was no bloodshed. He says to them that in our previous books we have studied that you people have a leader which has certain descriptions. Until that leader doesn't come to us, we won't be handing over the keys to you of Jerusalem. So now they said, "No, you know, just hand it over to us if you want to." He said, "No, no, no. First go call him and then we'll hand it over."

So now the sahaba, they go out to Madinatul Munawwarah where Umar ibn al-Khattāb was. Of course, you know, the leader, he never leaves his place. So he was stationed in Madinatul Munawwarah. They come to him and they said that the king is calling you. He wants to hand over the keys only in your hands because this is what they have read in their books. Umar ibn al-Khattāb initially he was concerned. Is this some sort of a plan? Is that a plot? Are they just trying to conspire against me to kill me? They said, "No, you know, let's just go, let's see what happens over there."

So he starts embarking this journey and he takes with him a camel or some animal along with a servant. And as they are walking, he tells his servant that the distance from Madinatul Munawwarah to Jerusalem, it's long, so let's just take turns on this camel. I know out of respect maybe you are allowing me to mount this camel throughout the entire trip, but I don't like that for myself. I want you to also get half of that share. So now throughout the entire way, half the time Umar ibn al-Khattāb is on this animal and half the time the servant of him is on this animal.

Somewhere along the way, Umar ibn al-Khattāb also falls into some mud and now his clothes are becoming very muddy and dirty. And he also had some patches on his clothes. Now you have to understand what these people over there in Jerusalem are waiting for. We are talking about the king, all the bishops are over there, the Jewish community was over there. They are all waiting for that one famous leader that they have been reading about all along in their books.

So now they are wondering who this mysterious man is. When suddenly Umar ibn al-Khattāb is coming and before he even enters into the city, they have this red carpet laid down for approximately a mile and a half. When he reaches near the city, Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrāh and Amr they see Umar ibn al-Khattāb in this situation and they start asking him that what happened to you. You know, it will be a shame upon us that you are going to go meet the kings and this is your condition. We want you to dress up nicely and put on the best garments and apply the best of fragrances. We want you to be presentable before the kings.

What do you think was the response of Umar ibn al-Khattāb? He says to them, he gets very upset and he says to them, "We were people that were so ignorant before we accepted Islam. Nobody cared about us. People used to throw us away like trash. People used to consider us as Bedouins, people who were totally illiterate who had no knowledge about the world."

Allah granted us that honor and dignity and glory through this Islam. And now you are telling me to leave out the same Islam through which I got this glory because of the position where Allah has kept me, it was through this Islam and you are trying to tell me to abandon the same Islam.

Look at their situation and look at our situation. Look at their understanding and their way of thinking and look at our way of thinking. It's a huge difference. They used to practice upon the Sunnah because it was a Sunnah. Today we are leaving out that same Sunnah saying it's just a Sunnah. See the difference.

And they knew that their connection with Allah was only through Salah. If they left this Salah, they have lost everything. And whenever Muslims would be residing anywhere in history, people were always happy. Why? Because they knew that if this person is a Muslim, he will never cheat, he will never lie, he will never deceive you. He will deal with you fairly with justice. He won't do anything which will harm you. But when you look at it today, do you think people can say the same about us today?

How many times are we missing our Salah? The same Salah that Rasoolullah was so happy to receive it was over there where Jibrīl takes Rasoolullah from Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsā. Look at the words that Allah is using over here. He uses the word عَبْدِهِ (abdi) which means no matter what you have, you may be the best of creation, but at the end of the day you are still my servant. He uses the word عَبْدِهِ which means slave, servant.

Jibrīl takes Rasoolullah to Masjid al-Aqsā and this was the place where 124,000 Anbiya, prophets, they collectively performed Salah and Rasoolullah led the Salah. And then further on he goes to Allah and he receives these Salah. Fifty Salah. He comes back down and he meets Mūsā on the way. Mūsā is asking what happened. He says, "Allah is overjoyed that Allah granted us some Salah. Now we can directly connect ourselves with Allah."

Mūsā said, "No, no, that's too much. Fifty Salah? I already had this experience with my nation. They weren't able to pray. Go ask Allah for some discount and bring it down." He goes back up. Allah reduces to forty-five. He comes back down. Mūsā is asking what happened. He says, "Now it's forty-five." "No, no, that's still too much. Go back up." He goes back to Allah. Allah reduces it to forty. And then this continuously took place where Rasoolullah is going up and he's coming down and he's meeting Mūsā and every time Mūsā is giving the same reply until Allah reduces it to five Salah.

After those five Salah, because when he presented it to the Sahaba, the Sahaba were just overjoyed. We have a direct connection with Allah! But today we are leaving that same Salah. This is where our downfall began. How can you blame others when Rasoolullah is telling us ways that we can become successful in this world?

Sometimes we think maybe we don't have wealth and we don't have certain influence or we don't possess certain things because of which the world is looking down upon us. No, go and check out those Muslim countries. What hasn't Allah given them? Look at that gold and silver and the luxuries of the world that they have. Are we lacking wealth? No, that's not what we're lacking. We're lacking something else, and that's our أَعْمَالِ (a'mal), actions. And until our a'mal are not there, believe me, the conditions will never change.

Rasoolullah is telling us that a person who starts off his day after Salat al-Fajr, early in the morning, he made this du'a for this ummah:

"O Allah, place barakah for my ummah in the beginning hours of the day." If you go to the Muslim countries, what do we see? What time do they wake up? What time do they go to work? What time are we going to work? What time do we start our day off? Ten o'clock, eleven o'clock. And then if you look at the non-Muslims, go to the non-Muslim countries, they're starting their day off exactly according to this hadith. What is it that they know that we don't know? Where is our success?

This is why it's very important that Allah He never abandoned us. He always gives us chances after chances, and especially with all these conditions around us, we have to bear in mind that no matter how bad the situations can get, if a person turns back to Allah and he repents and he makes this sincere intention that from now on I will try to implement as many sunnahs into my life and I will try to bring complete deen into my life and I will do whatever it takes to fulfill the orders of Allah, then inshallah we will start to experience that peace that we are missing.

May Allah give us this understanding and the ability to practice upon our deen.