Respect & Tolerance - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He leads astray, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.

O ye who believe! Fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for help and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O ye who believe! Fear Allah and speak the truth. He will set right your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed attained a great triumph.

The Foundation of Islam: Tawheed

Islam is the base of this religion. And everything within the religion of Islam goes back to the Tawheed of Allah. That is why our beloved Prophet ﷺ, after receiving the Messengership and Prophethood from Allah, he spent 13 years in Makkah al-Mukarramah, spreading the Tawheed of Allah. And then the other rulings of the religion were revealed to him ﷺ after he migrated from Makkah to Madinah al-Munawwarah. And this part of the Seerah indicates and shows the importance and significance of the understanding of the Tawheed of Allah.

That is why we always have to focus on this matter — the Tawheed and the Oneness of Allah. Tawheed and the Oneness of Allah has many aspects. And one of them is to demonstrate and manifest our respect — and also showing respect to Allah.

Respect: An Integral Part of Our Religion

Not only to Allah, because Allah is our Creator. Allah is our provider. Allah is الْخَالِقُ الْمَلِك. We have to respect Allah. And not only Allah — anything and everything that is connected with Allah is also respected. So respect is part of our religion, and it is directly linked to the Tawheed and the core and the foundation of our religion.

That is why Allah has said in the Quran:

Whoever venerates and shows respect towards the symbols of Allah, then this is the sign of the piety of the hearts.

Whoever venerates and shows respect towards the sanctities of Allah, then it is far better for him in the sight of his Lord. Showing respect is part of our religion, and it is an integral part of the religion of Islam.

The Symbols of Allah

Living in this country, we believe in respect and we believe in tolerance. This is one of the British values. And we as Muslims, we promote respect and we promote tolerance. And when it comes to the matter of respect, we must show respect. If we really want to receive respect, we have to show respect.

Allah says in the Quran that anything that is seen and defined as a symbol of Allah, they must be sanctified and they must be respected. Such as the house of Allah — Ka'batullah, that small building. The Ka'bah, the house of Allah in Makkah al-Mukarramah that we make the tawaf around — that is one of the symbols of Allah, and we have to respect it to the extent that our Prophet ﷺ has forbidden us to even spit towards the direction of the Ka'bah. To that level Islam has taught us respect.

The two hillocks, Safa and Marwah, are also from the symbols of Allah. Makkah al-Mukarramah, that sacred city, is from the symbols of Allah. Madinah al-Munawwarah, called Haram, is also from the symbols of Allah. The Quran, the book of Allah, is from the symbols of Allah. And for us, for the believers, our beloved Prophet Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ also falls in this category.

Belief in All the Prophets

It is not only our Prophet that we believe in and follow. Rather, it is part of our Iman, it is part of our faith and belief that we must respect and believe in all the Prophets — including Sayyiduna Musa, may Allah's peace be upon him, the Prophet Moses, and Jesus — we must believe in them. And we clearly say it is part of our religion, it is part of our faith and belief, that no Muslim can be a Muslim unless and until he believes in Jesus and Moses. This is part of our religion.

And part of the belief in the Prophets is also that we do not draw their images. It is not only that we see disrespect to our Prophet Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ only — rather, we see disrespect towards any Prophet to draw their images.

The Batley Incident and Our Response

But unfortunately, there are people in the society who do not believe — or they seem they do not believe — in respect and tolerance, and they try to spread hatred within the society. And you must have heard the recent event that took place in Batley, in Yorkshire, one of the schools where the teacher showed the image and the cartoon of our beloved Prophet Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ.

These people should understand that our beloved Rasul ﷺ is closer to us — he is dearer to us — than anything and everything in this world. Even he must be closer to us and he must be beloved to us than our own souls. And we believe that our Iman and our faith and our belief cannot be complete unless and until we take Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ dearer to us than anything and everything, including our own souls.

Our Stance as a Muslim Community in the UK

In this regard I would like to highlight a few issues. One of them is, as I said, we as Muslims — the Muslim community of the West, of the UK — we believe in respect and tolerance and we promote it. But it should not be one way. If you truly want to receive respect, you must show respect.

And if a teacher in the school is disrespecting our Prophet ﷺ, it is a clear sign that there are people in the society who do not believe — let alone it being part of their religion — they do not believe in the British values. Why is this, that the Muslims are blamed for not believing in British values? Unfortunately, we are at the forefront of promoting respect and tolerance, but other parts of the society must also be taught.

And it is also an indication of the failure of some parts of the education system in the UK. If the teacher — someone who is entrusted, someone who is expected to promote British values, someone who is expected to promote respect and tolerance — if the teacher himself does such a kind of act, then this is not good for the society. And it indicates failure and weakness within the system.

And secondly, we as a part of the British community, we have the right to demand and to request the authorities to take legal actions within the legal framework against such an individual. Because this is something that can cause bigger problems, and we do not want this. We are the people of harmony and respect, and we want to promote it. We are with the government, and we follow the rules, and we respect the rules and the laws of the land. But it must be both ways.

Acknowledging the Positive

One of the points I would like to highlight here, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, is that by facing these types of issues and problems within the society, we must not forget the positive side. What is the positive in this incident? The positive is that such incidents took place in the past in other parts of Europe. Our Nabi ﷺ was disgraced and disrespected by showing and creating his cartoon and his images in other parts of Europe — in France, in Denmark, in Holland. But unfortunately, their authorities and their governments failed to apologize.

But this is something that we find positive in our society in the UK — that straight away the school itself and the head teacher of the school has apologized, and the DFE has apologized. And we Muslims must be balanced. We are the people of balance. Our religion is the religion of balance. And if we see one negative, we must not forget the positive as well. And we must be working towards the betterment of our country.

In Every Trial There Is Good

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, when we study the book of Allah and we study the Seerah of our Prophet ﷺ, we come to know that our religion has taught us one very important lesson. And the lesson is that in every evil there is good for you.

Allah said in the Quran:

There perhaps be things that are not liked by you — you dislike them — but in the sight of Allah, they are good.

Allah said this when our Prophet ﷺ was hurt — when his wife, our mother Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, was blamed of doing wrong actions. Allah quoted that incident, and the hypocrites of Madinah spread those rumors against our mother, the mother of the believers Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. Allah revealed 18 verses in the Quran, and He began with the verse:

Do not count this incident as evil for you — rather, it is good for you. And this is also a lesson that we learn from the Seerah of our Prophet ﷺ.

Our Responsibility: Da'wah

What is the good in this? First and foremost, we as a Muslim community must acknowledge our failure, our shortcoming in spreading the religion of Islam and teaching the wider community and the wider society the reality of the religion of Islam. We have failed to a certain extent to spread the message of Islam to other communities. That is why these people take these types of actions and demonstrate these types of disrespect towards the religion of Islam, towards the Quran, towards the Prophet ﷺ. We must realize and we must acknowledge our shortcomings.

And the positive and good thing is that we should take such an opportunity — the opportunity for da'wah. We must realize that every one of us, every one of us without exception, has a responsibility towards the religion of Allah. There are millions of Muslims living in the UK. If every single one of us was to accept this responsibility and to realize this responsibility, we could spread the message of Islam to the whole community, to the whole society. And we must take this opportunity and we must learn a lesson from these types of incidents.

Closing Du'a