2015 05 29 Friday Prayer Sheikh Khalil Abdul Rashid

The Adhan

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Come to Prayer. Come to Prayer.
Come to success. Come to success.
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
There is no god but Allah.

The Parable of the Honey Bee

Allah Ta'ala gives us the example in the Qur'an of the honey bee. And in the chapter of the Qur'an that is named after the honey bee, He gives us a model or a paradigm to follow. And He first explains to us that the honey bee is a creature that is inspired by Allah. It receives wahi from Allah Ta'ala. Allah Ta'ala actually says:

Allah Ta'ala gives wahi, inspires the bee. Now there are different kinds of wahi — there is wahi in the shari'i sense, there is wahi or revelation in dreams as well. But when Allah Ta'ala mentions wahi in connection to the heavens, the earth, other things, and the honey bee, He is talking about a type of inspiration, a type of wahi that controls the bee — not in the shari'i sense but in the musakhkharah sense, the sense of being subjugated. He controls and subjugates the bee.

And so when He tells us that He inspires the bee to go and pollinate the flowers, and make their homes in the mountains and in trees, and in the various places where human beings live — He is inspiring the bee to do something, and to go to multiple fruits. And the mufassirun say that Allah Ta'ala inspires the bee to go to sweet fruits and to bitter fruits. And the bee discriminates — it goes from one flower to another flower but it doesn't go to every flower. It has an internal mechanism that allows it to know which particular flower and fruit to go to, to pollinate.

And then once it takes and it pollinates and it extracts from the flowers, Allah Ta'ala then says that a liquid is produced in its belly. In other words, it takes from those creations of Allah Ta'ala, it ingests it, it digests the content, and then it gives back a liquid that Allah Ta'ala says is a shifa'un linnas — a shifa', a healing for nas, for people. Not a healing for the believers or for the anbiya' or for the muhsinin, but a healing, a shifa' for all types of people. All types of people, and definitely for multiple illnesses.

The Story of the Man and the Honey

There is a man who visited the Prophet, and he said, "Ya Rasulullah, my brother complains that his belly complains." And the Prophet said, "Tell him to drink honey from the bee." The man left, conveyed that message, and the man drank some honey. He came back and said, "Ya Rasulullah, my brother tells me that his stomach still complains and the honey didn't help." The Prophet said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5684; Sahih Muslim, Book 26, Hadith 5489)

"Allah Ta'ala told the truth but the stomach of your brother lied. Tell him to continue drinking honey." He went back, continued to drink the honey, and then he found the shifa' by the hukm and the will of Allah Ta'ala.

The Message of the Parable

Shifa' for people. Why the story? Why the parable? What's the point?

This chapter of the Qur'an on the bee. This lesson about the bee — going from one place to another, taking from different sources, digesting it, synthesizing that material, and then reproducing something brand new that has universal healing ramifications. Heals universally. Doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, or black or white, or male or female, or old or young. Shifa'. That's a message there.

Now at the end of that chapter, Allah Ta'ala brings that point home where He mentions to the Prophet that when you're out there dealing with people, you'll come across multiple people. You'll come across different folks — just like the honey bee comes across different flowers. You'll encounter some folks that are sweet, some folks that are bitter. And they're going to give you something, they're going to put something in your presence. You'll digest it in some way. You'll internalize that experience. You will internalize that encounter. And that encounter — with that good person or that bad person, that sweet person or that bitter person, that righteous person or that hateful person — that's going to go inside you, affect you in some way.

You must respond. You must give back. You must produce.

The Three Methods of Da'wah

And so He tells the Prophet, and then us, that we have a job to do when we're out there. We have been inspired as well. And so our job is, as He said, to call other people to the way of your Lord.

And in reality there are multiple ways to get to Allah. But what unifies all of those ways — those multiple ways to reach Allah — the unifying door to those diverse ways is the Prophet. One Nabi. One Qibla. One Qur'an. There's one unified Bab. But then there are multiple methods once you enter that Bab, once you enter that door. You may take some from the sunnah of fear of Allah, some from the sunnah of rahmah, some from this sunnah, some from that sunnah. Each of them are different flowers to pollinate from, to benefit from, to ingest and digest, and then to share and give back to other people in a way that everyone can understand.

Because although our Prophet was an Arab, his message was not to be an Arab. His message was to be a Muwahid, a Muslim. Although our Prophet spoke Arabic, his message can be universalized to everyone of all languages. Although he lived in Arabia, his lifestyle is beyond Arabia and transcends Arabia, and applies to all places and all people with multiple lifestyles.

And so the point of the bee is that the bee takes from a particular and produces a universal. It takes from a part and gives back a unique whole. It gives back something that everybody can take benefit from. That is the way of da'wah. And most importantly, that is the way of da'wah with ilm, with knowledge.

And that's why He said: when you call to Allah:

Call others — with your tongue, with your body, with your body language, with your habits, with your norms, with your giving, with your withholding, with your institutions — call. But call to Allah, to the sabil of your Rabb.

1. Bil Hikmah — With Wisdom

Bil hikmah — with hikmah. When you engage with people, when you're out in public and you have an encounter, you must think of the best example to use in front of people. And the examples you use to call them to the way of Allah should be examples that are completely universal, but that are profoundly deep — and examples that nobody can give a counter argument to. That's hikmah. That's what they mean by hikmah.

Hikmah of course means wisdom, but here in the ayah it's not talking about philosophical wisdom. It's talking about giving people the direction to the path of Allah using evidence, using proofs, using examples that are not debatable — that are beyond debate. When they hit the person, khalas. The point is clear. Any person with a normal heart and a normal mind would find the answer to be true and sensible, and they would be affected by that hikmah.

2. Al-Maw'izah al-Hasanah — Beautiful Preaching

Wal-maw'izatil hasanah — and call to the path of your Lord with a preaching, a speech, a dialogue, a discourse that is hasanah, that is beautiful. Because people — all people, regardless of race, class, color, language, background — all people are attracted to beauty. And beauty is a sifah, an attribute of Allah Ta'ala. Because the Prophet tells us:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 164)

That Allah Ta'ala is beautiful and He loves beauty. And therefore to insert beauty into something — to act in a beautiful way, to speak in a beautiful way, to conduct ourselves with our neighbors and our co-workers in beautiful ways — is to mirror and to reflect and to remind others of the divine, of the beauty of Allah Ta'ala. It is divine.

Maw'izatil hasanah — in our engagements and dialogues and discourses with people, insert beauty there. The first part is hikmah. The second part is a wa'z, a speech, a discourse, a dialogue — with beauty.

3. Wajadilhum billati hiya ahsan — Debate in the Best Way

And the third is:

That some people that you interact with — sometimes you're going to run into some troublemakers. You'll run into some problems. You'll run into some people that want to debate and argue, and they're just obstinate and persistent and they're looking for a fight. So on some occasions you may debate with them, but on other occasions you do not. So when you debate — if you debate, if you have to get into that debate — debate with certain people in a way that is billati hiya ahsan, in the most beautiful and excellent of ways. Do not succumb to their level. Don't go down — go up.

Because the moment we get into dialogue and discussion about this deen, we become representatives. We become the examples. And so we have to present in the best way. And what we give must be a shifa' for people.

The Spiritual Sickness and the Role of Ilm

Because people who don't know Allah, people who don't care about Allah, people who are very distant from Allah — people whose hearts are in a state of forgetfulness and heedlessness and ghafla of Allah — those people are sick. And not in the medical sense, but in the spiritual sense. And if a person is sick in the spiritual sense then it will lead to medical and other psychological problems. It opens the door to other things.

So those three messages are there. Now why those three? Hikmah — when you engage with people, when you're out in public and you have an encounter, you must think of the best example. And the examples you use must be completely universal, but profoundly deep. Examples that nobody can give a counter argument to.

And then when you're making the point, when you're dialoguing with them, always speak in gentle tones, in a beautiful way. Always present the most beautiful examples, the most gentle lessons. And our scholars say that this is the asl, the foundation of the Prophetic message — that the reason the Prophet was sent was not about violence and warfare and aggression. It was about establishing what's called hujjah — proofs and dialogues with people — so that when they come out of that dialogue, when they come out of that discussion, they have a shifa', a brand new understanding of life. An incontrovertible proof of the beauty of Islam that they can apply in all aspects of their life. That's called a hujjah.

And so the point of Allah sending the Prophet is to provide hujjahs — true proofs of the beauty of this way of life. And true proofs involve use of the mind. It involves use of the tongue. It involves encountering people, speaking to people. It involves education and learning. It involves understanding the world people live in — our neighbors live in the world that we live in — and understanding the problems of that world, and the challenges, and how to navigate those challenges, and the solution that the Qur'an and the sunnah bring to that.

It involves ilm. Ilm. Ilm is not simply "knowledge." Geography is knowledge. Latin is knowledge. Philosophy is knowledge. History is knowledge. Psychology is knowledge. Ilm is not just knowledge. Ilm is sacred knowledge — a special category of knowledge. And it's knowledge that elevates, that raises. It raises the seeker of knowledge and it raises the person that benefits and hears that knowledge. And knowledge — ilm, sacred knowledge, ilm — is healing, is shifa' for dead hearts. It is honey. It's sweet.

Be the Bee, Not the Parrot

And therefore that's why the ulama say to their students: your job is to be like the bee. To go benefit from this teacher, from that teacher, from this teacher and that teacher. Take from here, take from there — like the bee takes from one flower and another flower and a third flower. But not to take from those flowers and then all of a sudden you go into a context and you just start regurgitating the same exact thing. Not to be a parrot. There is no chapter in the Qur'an that's called the parrot. It is the bee.

You take, you digest, and you deliver something more beautiful than what you received. You update, you relate, you translate. You make that ilm work even better than when you received it. You make improvements and updates and enhancements — but within the tradition, not something outside the tradition. For the source of the honey is the flower. And so you're consistent with your source, but you've not restricted your audience to that source. You've given shifa'. You've universalized that particular.

The Path of Ilm Leads to Jannah

We've got to learn to be honey bees. We've got to produce based upon the unique needs of this society. This society has unique needs that only Islam and Muslims with ilm can give practical solutions to. And when that person of ilm, that student of ilm, goes out like that honey bee — that honey bee that is inspired, that student that is inspired — when they go out, they go out with the barakah of Allah. And that's why the Prophet said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 35, Hadith 6518)

Whoever journeys a path and they are searching for ilm — where's the ilm, where's the flower, is it here, is it there — they are searching for that ilm. When that person continues on that tariq, that road of ilm, Allah Ta'ala will make a path, an easy path for that person to jannah. So the more they search, the easier path to jannah they find. Which means the opposite is true as well: the less we search, the harder the path to jannah we find.

Ilm, brothers and sisters — in the words of one of my teachers — does not come to you. It doesn't come to me. That's not the way it works. Ilm just doesn't arrive. You don't download ilm. It doesn't just arrive. You have to go get it. You have to go earn it. You have to go search for it. You have to make a commitment and say, "You know what — I want ilm. I'm going to keep my job, keep my profession, but I want to update my knowledge. I want to make my path to jannah easier. I want to be a better Muslim than I was before. I want hikmah. I live with non-Muslims. I operate with non-Muslims. I am here for a reason. I have a job to do. I need some ilm, because those people need honey, and I myself need honey first. I need the shifa' first. And the shifa' is in ilm."

And as my teacher said: if you give all of yourself to ilm — ilm is very funny, it's not an institute of democracy, it's not an equal opportunity employer — if you give all of yourself to ilm, it will give you some of it. Some of it. But if you give a little of yourself — a tiny bit of yourself — to ilm, it will give you none of it. You have to strive. We have to strive.

Closing: A Call to Action

We are living in a time where we, our neighbors, our children, ourselves — we cannot afford to live in an environment of sickness. I pray for our brothers and our sisters that are in Phoenix, Arizona today. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep them strong. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give them the tools and the knowledge and the practice to respond in a beautiful way. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us. Because this wave is coming and we have to be ready. But we protect ourselves — and we protect our families and others — by responding with ilm. Not with ignorance and anger and hatred and violence. But with ilm.

I hope all of you will join me tonight after Maghrib as we talk about our program of ilm here in the masjid, insha'Allah Ta'ala. Today after Maghrib. All of us should get involved. All of us should encourage our children to have a certain basic level of ilm so that our children can be protected from the things that are out here. They are targets as well.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put tawfiq in our actions and continue to bless this community. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspire all of us to pollinate and to derive benefit from multiple sources of khair, and to give back universal good to all.

Brothers, tighten the ranks. Make room for our brothers. Sisters, keep your lines straight as well. Please be mindful as you leave. Please do your best to contribute something to our first responders outside, insha'Allah, in the spirit of khair, in the spirit of supporting what is khair and what is good. Insha'Allah.

The Prayer

Allahu Akbar

Allahu Akbar. Sami'allahu liman hamida.

Allahu Akbar. Sami'allahu liman hamida.

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.