Make Your Homes Into Madrassas by Guest Speaker Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

Make Your Homes Into Madrassas

Dear respected brothers, elders, beloved mothers and sisters, I apologize. We have a special guest coming from out of town. I didn't have anything prepared but he ended up with the traffic and not knowing the area. He missed the exit and just a few minutes late he's going to be. I thought I would begin by talking a little bit so that we are not — we usually don't wait this long — but alhamdulillah, as usual we start off by thanking Allah. We thank Allah for all of His bounties that He has given us, the bounties that we understand and know and the bounties that we don't even recognize and we can never ever acknowledge.

We thank Allah for the greatest blessing that Allah has given us — the blessing of Iman, the blessing of the Kalima لا إله إلا الله. My dear respected brothers and elders, we should ponder upon this blessing of the Kalima لا إله إلا الله. This blessing — if in this dunya we had nothing but we had this Kalima, we should be grateful for that.

As I was speaking to the Shaykh that is coming, we were discussing about a matter of us here in America, in Utah, in the States, and how our children are being raised in such a way that we are ungrateful for many things. We are ungrateful for many things versus the places around the world where the Muslims are struggling. We can take places like Gaza — those children, those people, they have nothing. Those people have nothing around them, yet they are still saying Alhamdulillah. They are still saying Alhamdulillah.

But our children here, when we raise them here, they are being desensitized. They don't see the bounties that Allah has given them and they are not grateful for every bounty that Allah has given them. Over there they are losing their families and you can hear them speaking and saying Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. They lose their family, they say Alhamdulillah. They lose their mother, their father, they say Alhamdulillah. This is how they have been trained and their Tarbiyah has been done. They have been raised in this manner, knowing that in every case, in every condition, you should be grateful to Allah.

But versus our children here today, if they don't get something that they wanted, they are so sad and they cry and they are ungrateful for all of the blessings. They forget the blessings. And this is what we need to address. This is one of the reasons why we invited our Shaykh here from Chicago. MashaAllah, he has done a lot of work around the states, and this is what they do — they do the Tarbiyah. This is what they are known for: that they raise their children with good Tarbiyah so that they appreciate everything that Allah gives them.

And if we look at the lives of the people that were the closest to Allah — whether it be the Anbiya alayhimus salam, whether it be the Sahaba, whether it be the Awliya of Allah — whatever Allah gave them, they never asked why Allah did this to them. They never said why did Allah take this from us.

In one such incident, a young individual — who became a prominent scholar — was invited by the kings to visit them. He took one of his sons with him. What happened was that the son was admiring the horses of the king, and the horse ended up kicking the son and his life was taken at that moment. He was trampled — the horse kicked him and his son passed away. He did not complain to Allah. Instead, he buried his son. And when he was coming out of the grave site, he developed some kind of bacteria on his leg. The king was so saddened and said, "What should I do? He came because of me." He had first lost his son, and now he lost his leg — but he never complained. He never complained. And so I believe Mufti Sahib has arrived now, inshallah.

The Greatest Blessing: Iman

My beloved brothers and sisters, my dear elders, my dear students and dear guests of the house of Allah — how great and grand is the blessing of Allah upon you and I, who has blessed us with the recognition of Allah's existence. Something which is so obvious, as the hadith mentions:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 48, Hadith 6)

"Oh Allah, You are the most apparent one — there is nothing more apparent than You — and at the same time You are the most subtle one, and there is nothing more hidden than You."

Allah guides whoever He wishes. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead. And whoever Allah forsakes, no one can guide. So the fact that Allah has guided us to Iman, guided us to be in the masjid, guided us to recognize Him — this faith is the greatest beautiful blessing.

My beloved friends, what is Iman? Iman is such an unbelievably powerful entity that if a person embraces it, it allows him or her — that individual — to be able to withstand and overcome the greatest of difficulties and challenges that a person can face. No matter what that challenge may be, Iman gives an individual the ability to fathom that there is something beyond this, that there is some hopeful moment beyond this, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, that there is a silver lining even in the bleakest of moments.

As an Imam, and many other Imams will relate with me on this topic, we are called to go to many homes to give condolences at great losses. Someone has lost a child — unfortunately, a young baby to a sickness. Someone's son has died of an overdose. Someone's daughter has committed suicide. Someone died in a car accident, and even in sinful moments, unfortunately. Not just "my old mother passed away in tahajjud, subhanAllah" — that also we have to go there to console. But the idea is there are some very horrible things that happen in our community. And when a person as an Imam goes to speak to these people, one thing I can tell you — as a fellow believer like you and I — the Qur'an and Hadith has taught us such amazing reflections on life, that no matter how bleak the moment may be, alhamdulillah, if you reflect on the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ and you reflect on the teachings of the Qur'an, you will always be able to find something by which you can console the person you are visiting — something that will at least, if not bring a smile on his face, at least help him control his tears.

This is the beauty of our deen, the beauty of our Qur'an — that it is so powerful. When that faith comes in, a person begins to realize that this world is not everything.

"This worldly life is just mere amusement and play. Indeed, the life of the hereafter is the ultimate one."

Tonight and today, failure is not good, but we can take it. The failure that we cannot take is the failure of the hereafter. And so that type of mindset — Iman creates it.

The Accusation of the Hypocrites: Who Are the Real Fools?

SubhanAllah, we see that the disbelievers and the hypocrites would call the Sahaba — as mentioned by Allah Himself in Surah Al-Baqarah — they would call them Sufaha, they would call them fools. Allah says:

When the hypocrites were asked to believe in Allah and have faith the way the Sahaba — النَّاسُ, the Sahaba — have, they respond and say: أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ — "Should we believe in Allah and His Rasul the way the fools believe?"

سُفَهَاء, سَفِيه — what we use the word بے وقوف, foolish. الَّذِي لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ يُمَيِّزَ بَيْنَ مَا يَنْفَعُهُ وَبَيْنَ مَا يَضُرُّهُ — the one who cannot distinguish between something that can benefit him and something that can harm him. This is called سَفِيه.

Allah said: القرآنُ يُفَسِّرُ بَعْضُهُ بَعْضًا — the Qur'an explains itself. So Allah uses the word سَفِيه in Surah An-Nisa:

"Do not give the fools the wealth that you have been made responsible for." Meaning: a child whose parents have passed away — he is an orphan. But he is not yet 16 or 17 years old. He is not mature, he is not street smart. You give him the keys to his parents' bank account that they left behind — all the money he is supposed to keep for college and future, for marriage, everything will be gone. Someone will come and say, "Hey, give me a thousand dollars and I'll give you something." He doesn't know.

Imagine a child — you give him a gift of $100. Your 5-year-old, 6-year-old, or 3-year-old does not know the difference between a $1 bill and a $100 bill. Someone can easily take them for a ride and say, "Give me this bill, I'll give you a Snickers bar." With $100, you can buy whole boxes of it. Similarly, Allah is saying:

Do not give the سَفِيه the wealth until he has reached the level of Rushd. Rushd is the intelligence where you know what's right and what's wrong — and beyond that, what's beneficial and what's harmful.

Now let us use these two verses together from Surah An-Nisa and Surah Al-Baqarah and put it together. We see that سَفِيه means someone who confuses and isn't sure what is beneficial and harmful. The Munafiqun are calling the Sahaba سُفَهَاء. Why? Because the type of decisions that the Sahaba took always were such that a person who does not believe in the hereafter will think this man has lost it.

Why? Why would you leave your family and go out and participate in an expedition when you have little kids? You have a loving wife. Why is it that when you barely have food to eat, you say, "Ya Rasulullah, I'm going to take with me some dates I was able to get from somewhere — this is what I'm coming with, I'm participating with you. Take care of your wife and your kids." Why is a young 15-16 year old on his tiptoes hoping that Rasulullah ﷺ would choose him to be part of the expedition of Uhud?

Why don't you just sit and enjoy life? Why are you fighting with another young Sahabi? As the incident goes, he tells his friend, "You have already been accepted by Rasulullah ﷺ in the expedition. I have not. Can you please..." — imagine, he's not going on a field trip, he's going on an expedition. He goes and tells Rasulullah ﷺ, "Ya Rasulullah, how can you take my friend and not take me? Can you allow me to go?" And the Prophet ﷺ is hesitant — he's young, there's a cut-off age. But he says, "No, please, please allow me. I am actually physically stronger than the friend you've accepted. If you give me an opportunity, we will have a duel, we will have a wrestling match and I will prove it."

So Rasulullah ﷺ is obviously very touched by this young man's desire and he says, "Go ahead, wrestle with this other boy that we have accepted." Now he goes and whispers into the other boy's ear and says, "You have already been chosen to be with Rasulullah ﷺ. I have not. Please allow me to win this wrestling match so that I can also join you." Which young 13-year-old would ever think and speak like this? And the other boy said, "You know what? You're right. I'm already in. If you want to join, I will act like I'm losing and let you win so that you can join this expedition."

This is an example from the hundreds and thousands of examples of the Sahaba — from Tabuk to Uhud to Badr to Ahzab. Everywhere you see: sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. The hypocrites just couldn't understand. Why would people sacrifice so much — give their wife, their husband, their wealth, their children?

We don't have time to get into the stories — subhanAllah, too many stories that you all have definitely, inshallah, heard and read. But it's necessary for us to read them again and again. When the hypocrites saw this, they said, "These people are سُفَهَاء because they're constantly making wrong decisions. They're constantly giving preference to something which you cannot see, which you don't even know is going to be true or not — which is the Akhira — over something you can feel and see, which is the dunya. Why do you give preference to the Akhira over the dunya? You're سَفِيه."

Allah says: The hypocrites who are accusing my Nabi's Sahaba of being سُفَهَاء — no, no, no, no, they are سُفَهَاء themselves. Little do they know, soon they will find out who the fool is. That is the gold standard of Iman. Faith makes you do things that one who doesn't have faith simply cannot understand.

The Modern-Day Reflection: Gaza and Our Youth

Now you want to see a modern-day reflection of that? That is in our Palestine, in Gaza right now. When you see young men and women who are constantly losing their children. I saw a video last week of a khateeb giving the khutbah of Jumu'ah. 95% of the masjid is gone, demolished. There are 2-3 rows of people. You can see the sunlight through the broken structure. And you see him quoting the verses of the Qur'an, going on and on giving khutbah.

And I think — today our youth don't come for Jumu'ah because they're in school. All the high school boys upon whom Jumu'ah is wajib, fard — if they continuously miss it, based on the hadith, without any reason, Allah seals the heart. Continuously across America we see people not establishing Jumu'ah in their schools, not coming to the masjid — not because they don't want to. Why? Because their parents don't bring them. That's it.

Any dad who says, "Son, you're going to come for Jumu'ah, I'm going to speak to the superintendent" — the son would say, "I'd love to skip school and come for Jumu'ah." But the dads don't have time for that, the moms don't have time for that. So the child gets accustomed to not praying Jumu'ah for the entire high school period. Now all of a sudden when he gets the freedom of college, and he's accepted into a university, say even out of state — what makes you think he's going to be excited to go for Salatul Jumu'ah, when he's been so distant from it?

What has happened — subhanAllah — over there: there's no masjid, it's broken, finished. All of them have lost big chunks of their family in the past week, yet the Jumu'ah khutbah is moving on. Salat is going on. I saw a young man two weeks ago holding his baby — a young girl — saying to the baby:

"Go say salam to the Prophet ﷺ and inform him that I love him more than I love you, and more than I love myself."

Allahu Akbar. If this is not Iman, a manifestation of the love of the Sahaba's Iman similar to that, then what do we see today? How far we are from that.

You may have seen a video that went viral. I have — a brother with a big beard, in the hospital, and he lost his two sons I'm told, and he's speaking to his cousin, and he's saying, "Say حَسْبُنَا اللهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيل. These boys of ours are shaheed. Don't think too much about it. This is something which we all are looking forward to. Don't cry over it, don't get upset, don't get angry, be patient." He's speaking to his cousin, and all the doctors and nurses in the emergency room — whatever is left of it — are shaken by this man's fiery, imani-inspired speech in the middle of that ICU or ER. Many of you have seen that. It shook us.

I just got the news before Jumu'ah that he has become martyred as well today. إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ. May Allah elevate his status. May Allah allow him to be joined with his sons, and daughters, and all those whom he lost in these past two months. May Allah raise his status with Rasulullah ﷺ, to enjoy the company of the Sahaba, Siddiqeen, Shuhada, and Saliheen.

What do we see, my brothers? We see a level of Iman that is unprecedented in our era. Children — 6 years old, 7 years old — all they say is حَسْبُنَا اللهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيل. Allah is sufficient, He is the best of caretakers.

On the flip side, as the Shaykh mentioned, I've been dealing with youth, alhamdulillah, for about 22 years. And what I'm dealing with mostly — people, youth who are leaving Islam, who are becoming atheists, who are becoming agnostic, who are turning to LGBTQ, who are becoming transgender. All of that is happening a lot now. And you wonder: why are you leaving Islam? "You know what, it's not fair. I'm unhappy."

What difficulty, my habibi, American young boy or girl, have you gone through that you think you have the right to say, "I'm done with Islam because I've had too much of a difficult life"? Where every single brother and sister — from Iraq to Afghanistan to Palestine — I have not seen any case where a bomb has fallen, or a drone has attacked, and a person says, "I'm done with Islam." I've never seen one video, one audio clip, one article of this — where this oppression and aggression, be it from outside or inside, upon our fellow brothers and sisters in the so-called third world (but in the Akhira, probably definitely first world) — where have we seen cases of people leaving Islam?

And now we see this left and right in our suburban homes, in the luxurious type of upbringing that we have — the private schools, alhamdulillah, nice cars. And today's youth are "enlightened." They say, "I no longer believe in Allah." My beloved friends, we have a very big, serious scenario here.

An Urgent Wake-Up Call for Parents

I want this issue of what's happening in Palestine to honestly wake all of us up — to say, if Allah were to put us into a thousandth of what they are going through, how would we have reacted? How would our sons and daughters have reacted?

I know, and you know — this is our belief — that before their blood drops on the floor, inshallah, their soul is already reaching Jannah. Allah says:

"Do not ever think that those who have been killed in the path of Allah are dead. They are alive, being provided sustenance by Allah." Especially children, especially women, especially absolutely innocent men who have never lifted an arm against anyone, never pointed a finger against anyone, yet they are being mercilessly gunned down. We have firm belief that they are shuhada.

But my question is — what is the trajectory for my kids? What is the trajectory for your kids? Let us ask this question honestly. Today, where are my children? Are they in high school right now? Same question — what's going on? If they are in college, have we given them the survival skills to be able to handle college? Have we taught them how to handle atheism, agnosticism? Have we given them the ability to say no to temptation — not temptation of sin, no, no, no — it is the forcing down of sin.

When was the last time any of you walked into a university campus and sat with the college students? When was the last time any of you walked into a high school hallway — the same school that your daughter and son goes to? If you haven't, please go take permission and do that. Go and walk and sit and see what happens in the high school hallways, the high school bathrooms, before school, after school. SubhanAllahil Azeem. Then you will know where your son and daughter spends 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

And then you wonder why my son doesn't want to come for Maghrib. There's a beautiful program after Isha. I'm telling him, "Come, come." And he says no. You wonder why? Well, of course — this is the answer. What is he being fed for 40-plus hours a week? What types of things are entering his mind, his eyes? That is why the Christians, and the Jews, and the Hindus — everyone is losing. There's no winners right now.

The fastest growing ideology in the world is atheism. And it's taking people from all faith groups. Whenever I speak to faith members or faith leaders of other groups, they're all crying. There are over 6,000 churches for sale. Over 6,000. Sometimes the brother — I remember in Texas, a security guard — he heard my sermon and said, "I've got to share something with you." He said, "I do security at a church and a synagogue. You couldn't be more on point. We are all losing. We are losing every single week. Our congregation gets smaller and smaller." And he said there was a $15 million, huge, massive church with huge land that went bankrupt because they lost attendance.

My brothers, the Jews and Christians and the others have been here longer than us. As an immigrant community — of course our indigenous Muslims have been here very long — but as an immigrant Muslim community, we are new. I want us to realize that we should not become so relaxed by seeing new masjids, new schools being built, and a bunch of adults sitting here. If we do not see our youth in the front, if we do not see our college-age and young professionals between 25 to 35 in the masjids, we are honestly looking at a very tough future. Whatever has happened to the churches and the synagogues — unfortunately, what makes you think that will not happen to our community? It has already happened in the past, and it is just a matter of time if we do not wake up and do something about our youth.

I implore you to allow these events of what's happening in Palestine to bring an awakening. Let us make this firm resolve that the masjid from now on will be our home. I can't do much. I can make some phone calls. I can maybe join a protest. But what else can I do? What you can do is bring your kids to the masjid and say, "We're going to repent, and we're going to dedicate our lives so that the sadaqah jariyah of this goes to those brothers and sisters who we couldn't help."

At least we say: "Ya Allah, from today, I'm going to start performing Salatul Fajr in the masjid with my son. From today, I'm going to start praying Isha salah with my children. From today, I'm going to come once a week to a weekly program with my family. Saturday morning, breakfast happens here — dhikr and stories of Sahaba and breakfast. I'm going to make sure I wake up all my kids." And we see over there — they're being bombed to death in their houses. The least you can do is get up, sit in a car, go to the masjid, pray Fajr, and have breakfast. Why not? The day we make this decision, things will change.

The House Is the Most Important Madrasa

The onus is upon us. The father is number one — us. We are the ones responsible, as husbands and fathers.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 893; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829)

"Every one of you is a shepherd and every one of you is responsible for his flock." Every one of us is in charge of our homes.

If we have failed the children of Gaza, we have failed our own 3, 4, 5 children at home — 10 times that. If our child has not learned how to make du'a, if our child has not learned how to come to the masjid, if our child has not learned how to turn his face away from haram — my beloved friends, we have failed that child. And that child will most definitely hold us accountable on the Day of Judgment.

With my own ears, I have dealt with youth coming to the masjid and all they do from there to here is curse their dads: "The reason I'm in this situation is because my dad didn't teach me. Because my dad didn't take care of my friends. My dad did not look after me. And today I'm in this — I'm an alcoholic, I'm in jail, I'm coming here for classes. The government is forcing me to be here." SubhanAllah. Why are we waiting for that day to happen?

As fathers and mothers, let us start building our homes. The masjid may have programs — fine. But the main program is going to be where? Tell me, my friends. The house. That's the most important madrasa. The house, the house, the house. The house is the most important madrasa.

Husbands and wives, start working together to build the environment at home. Please bring mahabbah and love. Please bring mahabbah and love into the home. Nothing happens with harshness. Bring softness and kindness. Make your children love you, and allow that love to become a means of bringing them to the house of Allah. Travel with them. Spend quality time with each child separately. Go for a walk, go for a hike. Spend quality time and then slowly listen to what they've got to say. Listen to things that they want to share with you. And then after that, speak about what you want to speak. And make sure that this deen is taught not through harshness, but through love and mahabbah.

I invite all of you, inshallah, today after Salatul Maghrib — I will be speaking here. And inshallah tomorrow after Fajr at 6:35 or 6:45, we'll be here — that's my last program. I request you, inshallah, to please attend. On the way out, there's a small booth about Darussalam that tells you information about our programs. I invite you, inshallah, next weekend — I know it's short notice — but there are brothers who can travel by bus or van. Next weekend we'll be holding our winter intensive at Chicago in Masjid Darussalam, virtual as well as on-site. December 23rd to 25th, for the entire family. Please join if you can, on-site in Chicago or otherwise virtually. Just take a picture of the QR code outside.

Inshallah, we hope the programs we're offering — that you can learn about from our website — will assist every father and mother who says, "What you told me shook me up. What you told me has awakened me. And now I want a way forward." Alhamdulillah, I am in the business of providing solutions. I'm not here to simply rain on your party and create depression. Instead, I'm trying to bring an awakening within myself and all of us, and then saying that we all need to start working towards solutions for the tarbiyah and the ta'leem of our children.

Du'a

May Allah save all of our youth. May Allah save us and our elders. May Allah allow the parents to have a genuine awakening in terms of the way they raise their kids. May Allah save every child from leaving the fold of Islam. Those who have left the fold of Islam — may Allah bring them back fully. Those who are struggling with doubts and desires — may Allah guide them. And all our brothers and sisters in Gaza and across the globe who are going through immense suffering — may Allah elevate their status, grant them patience, remove their difficulty, and never test them ever in the grave or in the hereafter the way He has tested them in this world.