Civic Engagement in Islam

My dear respected brothers and sisters, respected elders and students in Islam. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Indeed Allah has places in this world for a test and a trial.

All of us are going through the test and trial in this worldly life. And as we mentioned last Jummah, sometimes the test comes in the form of shukr. Will we be grateful for the blessings of Allah? And sometimes the test comes in the form of sabr.

Will we be patient over the trials that we are facing as an Ummah? And in this day and age, currently we are facing many trials. Allah wants to test us to see who will be perseverant, who will remain steadfast during these difficult times, will hold fast onto their deen, will not give up the practices of their deen in the face of the bigotry and the hatred and the misconceptions that are being portrayed by those who are enemies of Islam, enemies of Allah and His Rasul. In our first session that we had regarding Islamophobia, we had very limited time.

MashaAllah there was great attendance. But we only spoke about the first aspect that we should have hope. And we should not become despondent in the mercy of Allah.

That Allah is watching over us. Allah is aware of our conditions. And if we trust in Him, the beautiful result will be for those who trust in Allah.

And those that may be mocking the believers today, mocking our sisters or our brothers, making fun of them, Allah will take them to task for that. Allah Himself says in the Quran:

Verily the sinners, they are laughing at the believers. And when they pass by them, they are winking to each other. And they are making fun of them.

And then when they go back to their family members, they go back in happiness, excitement.

And when they see them, they look at them. They say, look at these people. These have gone astray. These are fundamentalist. These are people who are following a wrong path.

Allah says, they have not been sent guardians over them. So their comments will not affect you. Do not worry what they say.

Today on the Day of Judgment, those who are the believers, they will be laughing at those who are the disbelievers. The tables will be turned.

Allah tries to bring the Day of Judgment close to us. To make it a living reality for us. Sometimes He brings it so close that He refers to it as tomorrow.

As in Surah Al-Hashr:

O those who believe, fear Allah. And let every soul prepare for that which they must present tomorrow.

Let every soul prepare for that which they must present in the court of Allah tomorrow. So the Day of Judgment has been brought so near as if tomorrow. One aspect of calling it tomorrow is that it's near. Just like tomorrow is near.

Alaysa subhu biqarim. It's not the break of dawn near. It is very near.

And another reason is that of certainty. Meaning just like tomorrow is certain. We are very sure we may be present, we may not be present. But tomorrow is definitely coming. There is no doubt in our minds tomorrow is coming. Likewise there is no doubt that the Day of Judgment is approaching inshallah.

This is through the will of Allah. He will decide between His creation on that day. He is the malik yawm ad-deen. He is the master of the Day of Judgment. So over here the Day of Judgment is called Ghad, tomorrow. But in this particular ayah, in Surah Mutaffifin, Allah is giving a glad tiding to those who are being persecuted or those who are being harassed.

And the Day of Judgment has been brought so near that it has been called today.

Today the believers will be in a position where they will be laughing at the disbelievers. At those who used to oppress them.

They will be sitting on their thrones in absolute comfort and relaxation and enjoyment. And they will be looking at the condition of the other people who are in dismay, who are in despair, who are sweating under the heat of the sun which has been brought close above their heads.

Are the disbelievers and those who are mocking and those who are the oppressors, are they not receiving that which they deserve? So Allah makes it very clear here. Another passage which is also a very similar subject matter is in the end of Surah Al-Mu'minoon. Where Allah speaks about the Day of Judgment.

Allah speaks about the blowing of the trumpet. First Allah speaks about akhlaaq.

Allah speaks about the blowing of the trumpet. But here he speaks about the trumpet will be blown. There will be no relations between people on that day. No one will be able to help their brother, their father, their mother, their sister, their child.

Whoever's scale of good deeds is heavier, they will be the successful ones. You have to have your good deeds heavier on that day. There will be no family members able to help you. No one else will come to your aid. If your scale of good deeds is heavier, then you are successful. If your thaqla is heavy, your scale of good deeds, they are the successful ones.

And whoever's scale of good deeds is light, they are the biggest losers, Allah says. They will be in the fire of Jahannam for eternity.

Their faces themselves will also be burning in the flames and they'll be roasted in the fire. Allah will say to them:

Were not My verses recited unto you and you were rejecting them, refuting them, disbelieving in them?

They will say that our wretchedness has overpowered us. Shaqqi is the one who is wretched. But bakht is he misfortune. We are overcome by our wretchedness.

And we went astray.

O Allah, O our Lord, take us out from this fire of Jahannam.

If we ever return back to committing sins, then we will be the true zalim and oppressor at that point. Give us another chance. Give us another chance.

So as we all know, there is only one chance. This chance of the dunya that we have, this short period of life, this is the only chance that we have either to make it for eternity, na'udhu billah, or a person who fails will fail for eternity. So Allah will respond to them:

That you remain in the fire, burn therein, and do not even dare to speak to me from this point on.

This is the last communication from Allah to those people.

Do not speak to me. And then what is the crime that they committed that is mentioned?

There were some group of my slaves.

They used to say, O our Lord, we believe in You.

O our Lord, forgive us, shower Your mercy upon us.

And You are the best one who shows mercy. They used to be making dua to Allah. They believed in Allah. And these people whom Allah is saying, do not even speak to me, there is no chance of forgiveness for you. What did you do? Allah says in Surah Al-Mu'minun:

Then you used to mock at them. Sikhryya is to mock and to laugh and to have an enjoyment and make fun of. Allah says, you used to laugh at them. You used to mock at them. You used to say bad things about them.

You were so busy laughing at the believers, you forgot to remember me.

You were overcome by laughter, just laughing at these people's condition. And what is the reward about those people who you were laughing at?

Today I am going to give them the full reward, all of those who were patient and steadfast over your troubling them, over your torture, over your mental torture, physical torture, whatever form of torture.

Today I will reward them fully

for their being patient.

They are the successful ones, they are the only ones who will be successful today. A person who had the most difficult life, most torturous life, he had sickness, he had difficulties, he had calamities, he had perpetual problems throughout his entire life, but he obeyed Allah.

Allah will ask him, just take a small tour of Jannah, look at Jannah from afar, not to live in it, not to enjoy it, just look at it from a little bit and come back. And then Allah will ask him, how was your worldly life? Can you describe to me how your worldly life was? So he will say:

لَمْ أَرَى شَرًّا قَطُّ يَا رَبُّ

In my entire life, in my worldly existence, I never saw any difficulty. I never had any difficulty whatsoever, I had no bad conditions ever.

One glance at Jannah will be sufficient for him to forget all the difficulties that he faced in his entire life. It is like the mothers they describe that when they see their baby in their arms, then they forget about the pain of the delivery. The pain of the delivery, how difficult the labor was, the pain, they forget about it when they see the enjoyment of their baby in their arms.

Subhanallah. On the other hand, there will be a person who had the most luxurious life, and he had every form of comfort, but then he will be asked to just take one small tour of Jannah, and see the azaab of Jannah, and the various different types of tortures of Jahannam, and then he will be brought back, and Allah will ask him, how was your worldly life? He has not entered Jahannam yet, he has just seen it from outside. And he will say:

لَمْ أَرَى خَيْرًا قَطُّ يَا رَبُّ

The first one said, I never saw any difficulty. He will say, I have never seen anything good, I have never had any enjoyment in my life.

One glimpse at Jahannam, one glance at Jahannam is sufficient for a person to forget his entire life of enjoyment. This is the reality. So let us keep our eyes on the final target, and let us not lose hope.

The best ending is for those who have taqwa and fear Allah. So this was the first topic about not losing hope. Second thing is that, what do we need to do in the face of what are the actions we need to take? Number one is that we have to become united.

Amongst the Muslims, we have to start intra-faith discussions, before we even do inter-faith. Amongst the Muslims that we have here, of all the different masajids, all the different organizations, this is the high time that we all become united. And we work together to support one another in our mutual struggles.

As Muslims here. Those who are against Muslims and Islam, they will not make any distinction that this person is Sunni, this person is Salafi, this person is Sufi, this person is Hanafi. They all regard us as the same.

Those who are Islamophobes, those who hate Islam, they hate Islam in all of its colors. As long as a person is practicing Islam, then they are the target of the Islamophobes. So we have to overcome these differences.

And we realize that we are all reciters of the كَلِمَةُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ kalimah la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah. And whatever background we come from, geographic background, whatever the color of the skin may be, whatever languages may be our mother tongues, the Muslims of America, it is a responsibility that we strengthen our bonds with each other and we create alliances. And this would have been done from the beginning, but if we were guilty of that and worried about ourselves and worried about our own efforts individually, now is the time for us to become united.

So that we stand for each other. If there is any problem in any Muslim community, all the Muslim communities should come together to support that Muslim community. Rasulullah has said, The believers are like the body parts of one body.

If there is a pain in the eye, the whole body will feel that pain.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5649)

If there is pain in the head, the whole body will feel that pain. So we have to become the body parts of the one body.

This is something that we all have to work together towards. And second thing is, with regards to our non-Muslim neighbors and our outside community, we have to go out and present to them the reality of Islam. And the best way we can do this and the only way that we have, is that they do not see our Salah, they do not see our fasting.

In fact Rasulullah mentioned in Hadith Qudsi that Allah says, Fasting is just for me, directly for me.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1894)

I will give the reward for it. You do not even see that you are fasting. It does not show. It is an act of abstaining, not an act that you are actively doing something. You are abstaining from eating.

No one knows you are fasting. No one knows the hidden Sadaqah you are giving. No one knows how much Tahajjud you are performing.

And that is the way it should be. That is between you and your Allah. So what do people see? What do people observe? Is our social services. So this is the time for civic engagement.

This is the time where we all have to increase our visibility in all of the acts of civic engagement, in helping others in need. And showing that we are not only concerned about ourselves, but also we have concern for our community at large. And this is not something foreign to our Deen.

It may be foreign to us. We have not been doing it, but this is something which is a part of our Deen. It comes from the character of Rasulallah himself.

What was the character and Akhlaq of Rasulallah before Prophethood, before receiving revelation even? We can see from the Hadith of Khadijah al-Kubra mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, when Rasulallah received his first revelation, and he was frightened and he came back home, and Khadijah al-Kubra, his beloved wife, how she consoled him. She said that, Ya, O my dear husband, you are the one who helps the needy people. You help the orphans.

You help the widows. Those who do not have anything, you go and provide for them. You go and serve the people.

Allah will reward you for your goodness, and He will not let you in any difficulty. He will not leave you alone, abandon you in any difficulty. Allah will come to your aid.

So this is the character of Rasulallah. Who were the people that he was helping? They were not Muslims. They were all Mushrikeen. This is even before his Bi'atha, before his Prophethood.

Likewise, we see Rasulallah has said:

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1969)

The best form of Sadaqah is that you feed the hungry stomach. Jaaah means the one that is hungry. It does not necessarily mean the one who is Muslim or non-Muslim, or the one who is righteous or not righteous.

It's the one who is hungry. So feeding the hungry is the best form of Sadaqah. Irrespective of their faith.

So we have to show number one, to Allah with sincerity. With sincerity for the sake of Allah, and at the same time it is not contrary to sincerity or Ikhlas. If we have this intention that our fellow citizens, our neighbors, our members of our community, we need them to know that as Muslims, we are concerned for the general welfare of the entire community.

And whatever is hurting the community is hurting us. Whatever the problems there are in the community, they are the problems that we are also concerned about. Na'udhu Billah, if there is any backlash, may Allah protect greater backlash than what we have seen against the Muslims.

Then it is these same people who have witnessed our Khidmah and our service, that they will stand up to support us. And on the other hand, if we remain insular and in our own cocoons and not engaged in our local community, then there will be no one who knows us. No one who can appreciate us.

And there will be, on the other hand, the forces of that are trying to lead the population against Muslims, are working non-stop. All those think tanks are coming out with greater and stronger ideas of how to change the opinions of the masses against Muslims. And such people are now in the loftiest positions of power in the White House.

So, they have their agenda in front of them. We have our agenda as well. And our agenda is we show to our fellow citizens the reality of the beautiful Deen of Islam.

Who Rasulullah was. How great his character was.

And Nabi, Allah takes the oath of the pen, and what he has written in the tablet, in the lawhul mahfuz.

With the blessing of your Lord, you are absolutely not majnoon and crazy as his enemies say.

Rather, you are the manifestation of moral excellence. There was a mushrik lady who used to throw garbage in the path of Rasulullah.

In thorns to prick his feet. But one day when she was absent from her regular task and she did not do so, Rasulullah was so concerned that he inquired about her condition and he learned that she was sick. She was so sick that she couldn't go out to put thorns for Rasulullah.

So what did our beloved Rasulullah do? Was he happy? Was he finally relaxed that I can walk without worrying about getting my feet bloody? Rather, as we all know and we learn in the seerah as children, this is the time to put these stories into practice. He actually went to visit that woman. Make iyadah to go visit her and to inquire about her health and inquire about her condition and to show his concern.

Is there anything I can do to help you? Obviously, what will happen? When she sees that Rasulullah came to visit her and she said that, how come you came to visit me? And he said that, I noticed that, I heard that you are sick, so I came to inquire and see if I can be of any assistance, any service I can do to help you. She was so overcome by the character of Rasulullah that she accepted Islam. This is what Allah says:

Repel the evil behavior with kind behavior, with goodness, with kindness.

So then you will see that the one between you and him is there is enemy, there is enmity, he will become your closest friend.

Your bosom friend. Of course there is one segment who are diehard enemies. They will perhaps not change. But there is a great segment of people who are ignorant. Those who have negative feelings against Islam are of two categories.

Those who know and despite knowing, their hearts are filled with hatred. That group perhaps will not change. Allah Ta'ala knows best.

But there are those who are ignorant and they have been misguided, misinformed. It is that great segment of people that we can change their opinion through our character. All the studies have shown that those non-Muslims who have relations with Muslims, who have interactions with Muslims, they have far more positive views about Islam and Muslims compared to those who do not have interactions with Muslims.

Those who do not know any Muslim, they are left in the dark. The only thing they have left to believe is that which they see on television or what they hear on the radio, what they read on the internet. So their views are far more negative.

And those that have interactions with Muslims, their views are far more positive. And from the seerah we see this, I conclude with, that Rasulullah, if you look in Makkah al-Mukarramah, he made 13 years strenuous effort and a handful of people accepted Islam. In Madinah al-Munawarah, for the first 6 years he made untiring efforts, very few people accepted Islam.

In Hudaybiyah, when he went to perform Umrah, there were only 1400 sahaba with him.

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 2778)

We were 1400 under the tree of Hudaybiyah when Rasulullah told us, you are the best people on the surface of the entire earth gathered here today. But after that, there was an amazing spike in the people who accepted Islam, in the numbers of those who entered the fold of Islam.

From the 6th year, only 1400, before that, Badr 313 only. In Uhud, 700. Now 1400 in Hudaybiyah.

But when we see in 2 years, in the 8th year of Hidrah, when Rasulullah conquered Makkah Mukarramah, it jumped from 1400 to 10,000. Such a huge spike. And then from there, in the 10th year and 2 more years, it became 124,000.

So Shahabuddin Zuhri, he explains this phenomenon. He is a great tabi'i, muhaddith. He says that this was the fatham mubeena.

We have granted you a great victory that Allah said when the Muslims were signing the treaty of Hudaybiyah. Which apparently was really one-sided and against Islam and Muslims. Because up till that point there was hostility and there was no interaction of the non-Muslims with the Muslims.

But after this treaty was signed, and there was a non-hostility pact for 10 years, non-aggression, there will be no fight, there will be no wars between the Muslims of Medina and the Mushrikeen of Mecca. And they can travel safely, the caravans of the Muslims throughout Arabian Peninsula. So the non-Muslims were the first time they interacted with the Muslims.

The Muslims were not able to travel safely before. Because they were afraid of being attacked. Now they could travel, they could trade, they could intermingle with the non-Muslims.

And when the non-Muslims had the opportunity to witness the akhlaa and the character and the business dealings of the Muslims, that is when they entered into Islam in large numbers. So there is no such restriction so far. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah upon us.

We can live freely, we can act freely, we can do these acts of kindness. And there is no limitation on our movements. So we have the opportunity now to do so.

Hopefully inshallah hoping in Allah, Allah will turn the tide in our favor and will remove all of the misconceptions people have against Islam. May Allah allow us to rise to this challenge.