The Honor Of Welcoming Refugees In Islam

The Honor Of Welcoming Refugees In Islam

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ بَلَّغَ الرِّسَالَةَ وَأَدَّى الْأَمَانَةَ وَنَصَحَ الْأُمَّةَ تَرَكَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَحَجَّةِ الْبَيْضَاءِ لَيْلُهَا كَنَهَارِهَا لَا يَزِيغُ عَنْهَا إِلَّا هَالِكٌ صَلَوَاتُ رَبِّي وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ

Allah says in His noble Book — after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan:

All praise is due to Allah. We seek His guidance and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and the whispering of our desires. Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide, and whom He allows to be misled, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone, having no partners, and that Muhammad ﷺ is His slave and His messenger and His perfect worshipper.

The Ansar and Their Welcome of Refugees

Allah describes the Ansar with an incredible quality. He says:

Those who dwelled in the abodes before the Muhajireen arrived. These were people who are welcoming refugees. And I want you to think about all of the discourse that we see globally with regards to refugee populations when they enter into countries all over the world, including the Muslim world — the conversations that are had, the attitudes that people have towards them.

And Allah describes the Ansar with a number of qualities:

Number one, He says: يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ — they loved those who migrated to them. They are welcoming them with open arms, they are welcoming them with love.

Number two: وَلَا يَجِدُونَ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ حَاجَةً مِّمَّا أُوتُوا — they do not find in their hearts resistance to the resources that the refugees are now receiving. The Muhajireen — yes, they might be getting some of our healthcare services, yes they might be benefiting from the taxes that we are paying, yes they might be getting benefit from some of the education that we have and the resources that we have — and I do not find any resistance in my heart to the fact that my brothers and sisters are receiving that.

And then it goes even higher. Allah says: وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةٌ — even beyond me not being upset that I am sharing my country's resources, my city's resources with them, I am preferring that they receive those resources over me. Meaning if there isn't enough to share, then I would rather they have it than me.

And where do we ever see that? We see it with the Ansar of Rasulullah ﷺ. We see it with the Sahaba.

The Concept of Ithar — Preferring Others Over Yourself

I wanted to speak briefly with regards to this word that Allah describes the Ansar with, which is ithar. Ithar is defined as preferring someone over yourself, even when you have need.

Ibn al-Qayyim talks about the levels of generosity and he says the first level is called sakhah. Sakhah is when you have excess of a resource and so you give from the extra that you have. That's general generosity — that I have a lot of wealth, I have a lot of money, and someone asks me, there is a fundraiser or something, and so I give, I write a cheque. That's basic level generosity.

And then he says the second level, which is higher than that, is jood. Jood is when giving is going to cause you discomfort, and so this person needs and I need, but I'm still going to give — or I'm going to split what I have with this person. You know, when I have a sandwich and I'm really hungry and they're really hungry, and I'm going to split the sandwich — now none of us are going to be full. That's jood.

And then ithar he says is even higher than that. Ithar is when I am giving from something that I myself am in need of. It's when I have a resource that I don't have enough of, and I offer that resource.

What that shows us is that a person's level of sakhah, jood, or ithar — a person's level of generosity versus sacrifice — depends on the resource. There are some people who, if you need money, they have no problem — they'll write you a check, that's no big deal. But what they don't have is time. And so if you ask them for their time, they can't give it. So for that individual, the resource through which they ascend to the level of ithar is not money — it becomes when they give from their time.

I've only got one day off, and on that one day off, that's the time that I have to rest up or catch up on my work, and now I have my brother who's moving, or there's a message that's sent out in the community that we need a number of people to come and help do such and such. Now, am I willing to sacrifice the resource that I don't have? That is the level of ithar.

Practical Examples of Practicing Ithar

I want to share a couple of quick practical examples that we can have to practice this quality that Allah loves and Rasulullah ﷺ loves and exemplified.

Number one is very simple: at the dinner table, that you take the smaller piece of food, not the bigger one — that you take the piece that is less desirable rather than the one that's desirable — and that we train ourselves and we train our family to sacrifice for each other.

Another one is with the parking lot here. I might have come early for Jumu'ah, and so instead of parking as close to the door as I possibly can, I park further out, recognizing that those who are coming later are going to need to, or maybe others might need to be closer than the position that I need.

SubhanAllah, alhamdulillah, we don't have this problem in this masjid, but in a lot of other masajid, if you want to see the opposite of ithar, all you have to do is look at their parking lot in Salat al-Jumu'ah — see the level of double parking and people blocking fire lanes. SubhanAllah, right before I came on for this khutbah, a friend of mine on the east coast messaged and said: "We were in Jumu'ah and there was a brother who had a medical emergency and the ambulance could not access the masjid because of the amount of cars that were double blocked." So this person is going through a medical emergency and they're making announcements — "Brother, can you please move your car?" — few things indicate selfishness like a person double parking, basically saying that my desire, my want, my need is more important than the possible need of anybody else. And unfortunately we see that throughout our masajid throughout the country.

Another one, which is very basic and very simple, is money. Allah says:

You will not achieve righteousness until you give from what you love. I had a brother of mine who told me a beautiful quality that he has with his family. He says that every Ramadan they gather together, and everyone — the kids included — they all pick an item that they love, whether it's a toy, whether it's a jacket, whatever it is. Everybody picks something that they love, and they train themselves to give that up for the sake of Allah, because Allah says you will not attain righteousness until you give from what you love.

And then of course for many of us, time becomes our most valuable commodity. And so the only time that I have to sleep in, the only time that I have to rest — that I give from that in sacrifice for Allah.

And the beautiful thing is that Allah promises, when speaking about the Ansar, He says:

Whoever is able to conquer the stinginess of their own soul — those are the people who become successful. We are taught, especially in American culture, the importance of self-optimization. It's a very individualistic society, and if I am to be successful then I need to place my priorities as number one. But Allah says: whoever is able to conquer the stinginess of their own soul — that is the individual who is successful. Maybe not successful in the eyes of the people, maybe not successful when the community is looking at this individual, but the most important audience for anybody is Allah, and Allah defines that person as being successful.

Second Khutbah

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ

The Prophet ﷺ as the Greatest Example of Ithar

Of course, when you're looking at examples of ithar, the greatest example is going to be Rasulullah ﷺ. As reported by Ibn Sa'd in his Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, Rasulullah ﷺ was in need of a garment in the winter. A woman made the Prophet ﷺ a garment and said: "Ya Rasulullah, I've made this for you and I want you to wear it." So the Prophet ﷺ wore it. He wore it out the first day — and on day number one, a person sees it and says: "Ya Rasulullah, that's such a beautiful cloak — give it to me." And Rasulullah ﷺ says: "Na'am" — and he gives it to him.

Could you imagine — you're gifted something nice and the first day you walk out with it, you don't even get to enjoy it or benefit from it, and a person says: "Can you give it to me?" The Sahaba criticized the individual after he left. They said: "Why did you ask the Prophet ﷺ? You knew that he was in need of it and you knew he doesn't say no." And he said: "I am more in need of it, because I want it to be my kafan — I want it to be my funeral shroud when I die."

But the Prophet ﷺ, even when he was in need of something, would give it up.

Aisha's Sacrifice for Umar

And the examples from the Sahaba are incredible, and there are many. One great one to me is Aisha radiAllahu anha herself. When Rasulullah ﷺ died, he was buried in her house because the Prophets are buried where they died. Then Abu Bakr passes away and he wants to be buried next to Rasulullah ﷺ, so he is buried in Aisha's house. And then Aisha says there was only space for one more grave — which shows you how small her house was, radiAllahu anha — there was only one space for one more grave, and she was saving it for herself.

When Umar was stabbed, Umar told his son Abdullah: "Ask Aisha permission that I be buried next to my two companions — and if she says yes, then ask her again after I die, because right now she might say yes because I am Ameer al-Mu'mineen, but after I die I become a regular civilian again." So ask her again. And so Aisha radiAllahu anha said: "I was keeping that grave for myself, but today I prefer Umar over myself."

Could you imagine? This is her father, this is her husband, this is her house — and she had every right, if she wanted, to say no. And if she had said no and she was buried there, then every time we go to visit, we would have said: "Assalamu alaykum Ya Rasulullah" — "Assalamu alaykum Ya Khalifata Rasulillah" — we see Abu Bakr — and then we see Aisha's grave and we say: "Assalamu alaykum ya Ummal Mu'mineen." That would have been what the Ummah was doing for 1400 years until the Day of Judgement. And she gave up all of that for Umar ibn al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu.

That is the spirit of sacrifice that the Sahaba radiAllahu anhum had. And we want to be people of ithar.

The Ash'ariyyeen — A Community of Shared Sacrifice

Rasulullah ﷺ describes the Ash'ariyyeen — a tribe — that when their food would become scarce in battle, in campaigns, they would gather all of their food together and they would divide it up equally amongst themselves. And he says: "They are from me, and I am from them." They would share their resources and they would sacrifice for each other.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2486; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2500)

Practical Commitments to Take Away

So to conclude — what are a number of commitments that we can have, inshallah, at the end of this khutbah?

Number one is that a person has a daily preference that they offer to Allah. Rasulullah ﷺ says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 45)

None of you truly believes until you love for your brother what you love for yourself. So I become conscious of this: did I sacrifice anything for my brothers or my sisters today? Something that I love.

Number two is that a person has a weekly or monthly goal. Maybe every month I say to myself: I need to sacrifice something that hurts me, something that's painful, something that's going to make me think twice — and that I learn to make these sacrifices for Allah.

And Allah reminds us and He says:

Whatever you give — everything that you give — it is for yourself.

So we ask Allah to allow us to overcome the stinginess of our own souls, and that Allah changes us until He loves us.