What Kind of Leader Would You Be?

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

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.

أَمَّا بَعْد، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ، وَأَحْسَنَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

What Kind of Leader Would You Be?

Brothers and sisters in Islam, we titled this khutbah: What Kind of Leader Would You Be?

One of the interesting comments that you hear all the time — because of what's going on in Gaza and in Palestine — we hear a lot of the blame on the Muslim leadership. And there's no doubt that a lot of the blame is on Muslim leaders. But it begs an interesting question: how is it that the Muslim countries always tend to have the worst leaders? And it's not just recently, but for decades it has always been the worst leaders.

Is it that Allah is always testing us with the worst? Or is it that the worst in every country just happens to rise up to power? Or could it be that everyone is the same — we're just like them, but we just haven't been given the opportunity and haven't been given that much power and wealth at our fingertips?

Meaning, let's look at it another way. For sure every single person in this room would like to believe that if Allah put them in charge of a nation tomorrow, they would run it like Abu Bakr or run it like Umar. And it's hard to believe that anyone in this room wouldn't plan it that way. Nobody would say, "You know what, I'll be corrupt. I'll imprison my opponents. I will steal the wealth of the citizens. I will favor my family and friends and give them advantages over others." Everybody in this room believes genuinely that they would run their nation like Abu Bakr, like Umar — with justice, with equality, and all that.

But now we have an exercise we can all conduct, and that is: every single one of us, Allah has put us in charge of one group of people or another. Either you're a husband — you're in charge of your household, you're in charge of your wife and your children — or you're a business owner and you have employees, or you're a manager and you manage people who work underneath you, or you run a da'wah organization. Every single one of us is in charge of one thing or another.

So in that small world where Allah has put you in charge — do you behave like a miniature Abu Bakr and Umar? If the answer is yes, then most likely if Allah gave you an entire nation, you would be like the big Abu Bakr and Umar. And if you right now behave like a mini — fill in the blanks, Gaddafi, Sisi, Mubarak, fill in the blanks, we're not going to agree on names, just put any name you want — do you behave like those people?

The point of this khutbah, brothers and sisters, is that when you dislike a quality in someone, make sure that quality is not in you. It can't be that we're drinking tea and talking about what is wrong with all the leaders — because they're corrupt, because they're liars, because they're unjust — while we're just like them. We're corrupt, we're liars, we're unjust. When we dislike a quality in someone, we have to make sure that we don't possess the same quality.

So right now, with your employer, with your family, with people that you're in charge of — do you behave like a miniature Abu Bakr and Umar? Or like a miniature, fill in the blanks, with any Muslim leader name? And if the case is that we behave on a miniature scale like a corrupt ruler, what makes us think that if we're in charge of a nation, we would be like Abu Bakr and like Umar?

The Example of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

Let's take the example of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was considered the fifth of the Rightly Guided Khulafa', even though in order he was number thirteen — the 13th Khalifa. But they consider him to be the fifth of the Rightly Guided Khulafa' because he was at that level.

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, in his home, had two oil lamps — one where the oil was paid for from his own pocket, and the other where the oil was paid for from the treasury of the Muslims. As long as he was doing work for the Muslims or for the government, he made sure he was using the lamp whose oil was paid for by the Muslims. And if he needed to stop for a minute and do something personal — wash his hands or attend to himself — he would put out that lamp and light the other one, the one whose oil was paid for from his own pocket.

You would think, why not just estimate — it'll probably be a teaspoon of oil. No. This is the level to which he was careful. And they would say that sometimes he would turn these lamps on and off multiple times a night as he switched from his government work to his personal work.

That's one example. The other example: one day he woke up and it was a cold morning and the bath water was cold. So he told one of the servants, "Go and heat up my bath water." The servant came a while later and the water was warm. So he asked him, "Where did you warm this water?" The servant said, "I walked into the kitchen of the Muslims, paid for by the treasury of the Muslims. Early in the morning, they wake up and they cook for the poor and the orphans and the widows. They had finished cooking," he said, "and the wood was just still burning. So I put your pot over it and I heated your water."

So Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was shocked. He said, "You used the fire of the Muslims, the fuel of the Muslims, to heat my personal bath water?!" The servant explained to him, "Ya Amirul Mu'mineen, they had finished cooking, and it's not like today where we can turn off the stove — the fire was just going to burn into the air. So instead of just burning it to the air, I put your pot over it." And Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz refused to use that water.

The Example of Umar ibn al-Khattab

Look at the example of Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Khalifa. One time a man came from a distant part of the Muslim empire and he had a large container of musk or oil, and he gave it to Umar ibn al-Khattab and said, "Distribute it amongst the believers." So Umar needed someone to empty this vessel into smaller containers so they could distribute it to the people. His wife volunteered to do it. He refused. She asked why. He said, "Because you're going to go with your finger like this and then go like this — it's inevitable that as you're emptying oils, some is going to get on your finger. And when a good odor gets on you, what do you do? You don't wash your hands. You're going to wipe it on your clothing, meaning you're going to get some of that scent."

And the man didn't say, "This is for the wife of Amirul Mu'mineen and for the believers." He said, "This is for the believers." And Umar didn't want his family to even get the scent on their fingertips or on their clothing.

Examining Ourselves in Our Daily Roles

This is the example. If we examine ourselves now — do we behave like Umar ibn al-Khattab or Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz with our employer? How long and how many minutes over does our lunch break go? How are we with our time sheets? Do we round off ten minutes here and fifteen minutes there? Do we use the copy machine for our personal use? Do we surf the Internet while we're supposed to be working for our employer? Do we use the color printer for our personal use? Do we listen to Islamic lectures — people are thinking they might make it halal by doing that — Islamic lectures even, instead of working?

So you answer the question to yourself: are we miniature Abu Bakr and Umar right now in the places where Allah has put us in charge or has given us some type of authority? Or are we miniature examples of the same ones that we critique and we blame for everything that is happening in Palestine?

How We Treat Our Wives

Let's look at how we treat our wives. Many of us are very mean to our wives. We threaten them. We raise our voices at them. And many people — though it goes primarily or mainly unchallenged — but many people hit their wives, even imams hit and strike their wives. And the Prophet صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ made it the measuring stick to tell if a person is good or not — how he treats his wife.

"The best of you is the best of you to their family (their wife), and I am the best of you to my family." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3895; also reported in Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1977)

The scholars said: why the wife? Because a man can be in the masjid and he can be outwardly showing signs of iman — yeah, and he has so much taqwa he is going to faint — but then when he goes home: profanity, hitting, beating, threatening. But the scholars said if someone is decent with his wife, then he's probably decent outside of the house as well. But the opposite is not necessarily the truth.

So if we're this way with our wives, and Allah has put us in charge of them, then what makes us think that if Allah puts us in charge of an entire nation, we're going to be fair, we're not going to be corrupt, we're not going to imprison our enemies and give preferential treatment to our family members?

Umar and the Camels of His Son

If you remember the narration: Umar رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ was in an area called al-Hima — where they would put the camels to graze — and he noticed some camels that were particularly fatter and in better shape than the other camels. So he asked whose camels they were. They said they belonged to his son, Abdullah, the son of Amirul Mu'mineen. So he called his son Abdullah and asked, "What's the story behind these camels?" He said, "I bought them and I let them graze here so they could get older and bigger and then I could sell them for a profit." Umar said, "Sell your camels, keep your capital, and get rid of all of your profit." He said, "Why?" He said, "Because your camels are in better shape and fatter than the rest because they got preferential treatment — people would say: ارْعُوا إِبِلَ ابْنِ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ، اسْقُوا إِبِلَ ابْنِ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ — 'Let the camels of the son of Amirul Mu'mineen drink first, let them eat better, let them graze in the better area.' That's why they're in better shape. So sell the camels, take back your capital, and put all the profit back in the treasury of the Muslims."

This was the example of Umar, and only you can answer this question for yourself. And only when we improve as a group will our situation improve.

Changing Ourselves First

Allah says in the Qur'an:

"And if the people of the villages were God-conscious and God-fearing, We would have opened blessings from the heavens and the earth upon them."

And Allah says:

"Indeed, Allah does not change the situation of a people until they change themselves — what is within themselves." And this verse is actually revealed concerning changing a good situation to a bad situation. But the scholars said it also applies to when you're in a bad situation and it's going to change into a good one — you also have to change yourself to the good.

What we're talking about, brothers and sisters, is beginning with ourselves — because it's always easy to point the finger and point out what someone is doing wrong or what is wrong with their character and their behavior. But we want to begin with ourselves and examine ourselves. Do we have the qualities of Abu Bakr and Umar? Or do we have the qualities of the same Arab leaders that we blame for everything that's wrong with the Ummah and dislike? And only you can answer the question for yourself.

Ask Allah for His forgiveness. Indeed, those who ask for His forgiveness shall prosper.

Second Khutbah: On Hatred Among Muslims

Sometimes even amongst religious people, you find intense hatred — and it becomes the worst when they think they're hating someone who is not a heretic, is not a mubtadi', is not someone from a different brand or sect of Islam or who follows a false prophet, but someone from amongst them, similar to them in belief and 'aqeedah — but they will hate him. And it's worse when they hate them thinking they're doing it for the sake of Allah. That is far worse than doing it for the sake of dunya.

Because if you hate someone because Allah gave him a mansion, you hate someone because Allah gave him a car — one day you're going to feel ashamed of yourself for hating them for what Allah gifted them with. But if you think you're doing it out of religiosity and obedience to Allah, what will ever make you give that up?

Ibn Taymiyyah and His Enemies

One of the students of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: "I wish I could treat my best friends the way Ibn Taymiyyah treated his worst enemies."

He says: one day one of the biggest enemies of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah died. So he came to his house and told him, "Good news — your enemy so-and-so has died." He said the imam got so angered with him, rebuked him, and said, "How can you rejoice? How can you be happy that someone died? There are people across town — this is the worst day of their life, for his children who lost their dear, sweet father. And this is the saddest day of their life for his wife who lost her husband. And this is the saddest day — maybe he left some siblings, and this is a sad day for them, and parents who outlived him."

Then he immediately got up, got dressed, went to the family of the deceased, and spoke to them ever so kindly and ever so gently. He told them, "I am to you his replacement. Whatever you need, you come to me before you go to anyone else. And if you need money, I will give it to you before anyone else."

And that's why the student said: "I wish I could treat my best friends the way Ibn Taymiyyah dealt with his worst enemies."

Muslims Calling the FBI on Each Other

One of our friends in Virginia was making a stand for the Ummah — he was reprimanding an FBI agent and telling him to leave the Muslims alone. This was after 9/11. And then the FBI agent started to reprimand him. He told him: "Do you know how many calls we get per day which we are required by law to pursue, when Muslims call on other Muslims saying, 'This person is an extremist, you need to look into this person'? We are required by law to look into it. And when we look into it, we just find that it was someone who owed someone money, or two people who had a business deal that didn't work. We're doing it to each other."

Look at this level of hatred. There was also in Virginia a businessman and a sheikh who made a business deal but they didn't write down the details. It didn't work out and both of them lost money. And the businessman was telling me personally, he said, "Wallahi, there is not a sujood that I make except I make du'a against the sheikh." And to this degree — and this was at a time when the U.S. was invading Baghdad, invading Iraq and Afghanistan — you couldn't save every sujood for George Bush, for Tony Blair — the sheikh of all people!

Closing Du'a

With that, I ask Allah to make us of those who recognize the truth as clear truth and follow the best of it, and to make us of those who recognize falsehood as clear falsehood and abstain from it.

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ وَبَارَكَ عَلَى نَبِيِّهِ الْمَبْعُوثِ رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ، وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَقُومُوا إِلَى صَلَاتِكُمْ وَرَحِمَكُمُ اللَّهُ.