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Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem.
Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family.
Dear, committed Muslims…
This is a very hot day so we'll make it a little shorter. May Allah reward you for your patience and your endurance.
Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/apps/podcast/podcast/306134 (05-31-2013)
ASABIYYAH AMONG AL MUHAJIRUN AND AL ANSAAR
As a reminder of the general social, political, combative environment that we are all in, (and we don't mean here in this immediate locale, we mean the Muslims in the world, ourselves included), this environment that we are in now seems to be charged what we spoke about earlier, (i.e.) that element of asabiyyah and unlike many individuals (may Allah reward all of them), who try to approach this issue with sincerity and with the attempt to defuse the tension we are trying to look at this issue of al asabiyyah in its formative stage and at its root level. We all agree, provided we understand what we are reading, in the time of Allah's Prophet there was no obvious and practical asabiyyah displayed by Muslims; that doesn't mean that this asabiyyah was not there deep down inside some people's psychology. It was there but it wasn't above the surface, it wasn't displayed in such things as a political party or a political trend or a political organised effort- it wasn't there. Now how can we detect that it was there beneath the surface? We spoke about some of this in the previous khutbah and we will continue in this khutbah to speak about this having in mind, (please when we have these examples come your way, recall), what Allah says to us.
Oh you who are securely committed to Allah guard against Allah as is due to Him in the full measurement of this guard and do not die except in a state of submission to Him. And hold firm to Allah's binding matter all of you- no exceptions- and be not divided; and bare in mind Allah's provision, favour and privilege upon you when you (who are now Committed Muslims), were once enemies of each other and then He reconciled your hearts and familiarized and acquainted you with each other and then, due to this provision, favour and privilege you became brethren of each other; you were on the edge of a pit of fire and Allah saved you from it; it is with this is mind and with understanding these dynamics and factors that Allah is going to guide us. (Surah Aal Imran verse 102-103)
This ayah was a living ayah with a living social character in the time of Allah's Prophet because they were all together regardless of what they internally processed as their priorities. There were people, whether they were from the Muhajireen (radi Allahu anhum) or whether they were from the Ansar (radi Allahu anhum), whether they came Makkah or whether they resided in Al Madinah they had their own take on different things but regardless of what their take was they kept this togetherness among themselves. One of the indicators that tells me and you that there's some type of latent asabiyyah was that the Prophet of Allah gave some of the Muslim wealth to the occupants of Makkah who were Mushriks and who were in a long drawn out struggle against him and the committed Muslims from the Islamic treasury. This wasn't like today's treasuries. It was something that was limited. The Muslim budget was a limited budget at the time. Out of this limited budget the Prophet of Allah gave some resources (or) some money to al muallafah qulubuhum (i.e.) those Mushriks from Makkah who were for over twenty years in opposition to him (and) in bloody conflict with him but now that they saw Islam was the wave of the future they expressed their willingness to become Muslims. They used to make money out of the as'naam, the idols they had around the Ka'bah. These were money making operations, they used to collect money because they used to claim a certain idol. So now the money has been taken away from them- there's no longer any idols around the Ka'bah and they were willing to become Muslims so let's give them a little push, let's help them financially. So out of the hard earned resources that the Muslims had in their budget, (as trivial as it was compared to today's budgets that Muslims have if we wanted to add them all up with the resources), we go back to that atmosphere, Allah's Prophet gave some of this money to these (who) just up until a few weeks ago were killing Muslims. How do you think the other Muslims i.e. Al Muhajireen and Al Ansar felt about that? It wasn't easy for them because they were giving out of their own resources (and) their own lives for Allah and His Prophet and here they see Allah's Prophet giving some of this precious commodity, (i.e.) their budget, their treasury, their wealth to this just yesterday Mushrikeen. Some people may think an issue like this is a passing issue. It's not a passing issue because it indicates that in their sub-terrainian feelings they have their own sense of priorities.
Another incident that would tell us that there was a subdued asabiyyah- even in this best generation of committed Muslims there was a subdued asabiyyah (or) a clannishness. On that famous occasion, (you probably all heard about this before), when one of the Muhajireen the word used is kasa'a rajulan which means either he kicked him with the front of his foot in his behind or with the palm of his hand he slapped him in his behind- an incident that is in all Islamic reference books. We don't care which reference book you go to, (look it up), as a result of that, (and this was in the aftermath of ghazwah Bani Mustaliq), after that this Ansari called out Oh Ansaris come to my help and then this was challenged by one of the Muhajireen who called out Oh Muhajireen come to my help. Now Al Muhajireen and Al Ansar are honorific titles. The Prophet of Allah wanted with these tribalistic people to part with their asabiyyah tribalism, with their clannish family relationship (and) he wanted them to break away from that so he gave them these honorific titles- one of them was Al Muhajireen and the other one was Al Ansar and (to) put all of that behind them. So what happened in this case was that some individuals, (we're not talking about everyone here- please don't misunderstand all this and take it out of its proportions), still had this asabiyyah in them so now they wanted to regenerate it and they wanted to make out of Al Ansar a asabiyyah and out of Al Muhajireen a asabiyyah and all of this affair was referred to the Prophet of Allah. When he heard this and witnesses came to him and expressed this to him he said to them what's wrong with you expressing words that come from the lifestyle of jahilliyah, of an ignogracy? What's wrong with you? Then the Prophet of Allah said concerning this asabiyyah that the first generation of Muslims had it in them and this is the best of generations. So if (from) the best of generations which is the generation that was supportive of Allah's Prophet, that was living with Allah's Prophet, educated (and) nurtured by Allah's Prophet some individuals had this asabiyyah in them do you not believe that we, with the distance of a thousand four hundred years, don't have among ourselves people who will make their affiliations an asabiyyah even if these affiliations in theory are impeccable? A person belongs to Islam- what are you going to say about that a person? Here is where it breaks down- a person considers himself or herself a Sunni first, that's an asabiyyah. Another person, countering that, considers himself or herself a Shi'i first, this is asabiyyah. They're making Sunnism an asabiyyah and they're making Shi'ism an asabiyyah just like there were individuals among the Muhajireen who wanted to make the hijrah an asabiyyah and there were persons among the Ansar who wanted to make the nusra an asabiyyah now we have that same character resurfacing again.
There was a person by the name of Shas ibn Qais, one of these Yahudi characters in Al Madinah. Yahud were disturbed- how come these people in Al Madinah who were erstwhile enemies for a very long time (and) they had wars among them that continued for generations and now they become one unity, one society? Yahud doesn't like Muslims to close their ranks and now they are beginning to see a new development. Muslims from Makkah and Muslims from Al Madinah coming together and forming a solid base with a solid leadership. So this guy, Shas went one time (when) there was a public gathering of Al Muhajireen and Al Ansar, particularly Al Ansar, and then he began to remind them of their hostilities before Islam. There was a day called Yawm Bu'ath. It was a day of intense conflict between the Aws and the Khazraj- these are the two components of Al Ansar (or the) two main power factions when amalgamated together are called Al Ansar. So some Muslim, some Ansaris, became tensed because this long history (of) a hundred and fifty or two hundred years, (depending on historians), that divided the Khazraj from Al Aws could not be stricken from their deep seeded emotions just because they said we are Muslims. Many of them did but some of them couldn't so they still had this Aws versus Khazraj polarity in them. So when this even is related to him, the Prophet of Allah says to them Oh community of Muslims- are you expressing the words of jahiliyah and I'm still among you (or) I'm still here (or) I'm still in your company and this is how you're speaking? See what Yahud does? In the time of Allah's Prophet they came to Muslims and they began to instigate residuals of past history to divide. You think they have gone or are they ever present and watchful of how Muslims are coming together? Then here they are- they want to instigate. They come to instigate whatever differences- nationalistic differences, sectarian differences, linguistic differences, racial differences; whatever can be done to divide the Muslims. When anyone hears this from these pundits out there (and) these mouthpieces of Yahud does anyone remember Allah's Prophet's hadith Oh community of Muslims- are you expressing the words of jahiliyah and I'm still among you (or) I'm still here (or) I'm still in your company and this is how you're speaking after Allah has guided you to Islam?
On the other side, there was a positive component of this asabiyyah. One of the Yahudi enemies of Allah and His Prophet whose name was Ka'ab ibn Al Ashraf was a wanted man by the Islamic authorities. So Al Aaws, one of the components of Al Ansar they took it upon themselves to take him out, (that's today's words). You think only the Kuffaar can use this language? We can use it also. And they did. They took him out. So the Khazraj, (and this is a very good competitive aspect), said OK- if Al Aws took out Ka'ab ibn Al Ashraf we're going to take out Salaam ibn Abi Al Haqiq another person who has his Zionist equivalents in our world today- many of them! So al asabiyyah can have a positive tilt to it.
That being said, there was an asabiyyah in Makkah. Remember, Makkah came under Islamic governance within the last year of the Prophet's life. So in all of those years prior to that there was another type of asabiyyah. We're not here to exhaust every shade of asabiyyah in that society but there was a particular type of asabiyyah between Bani Hashim and Bani Umayyah. Just make a mental note of that. When the Muslims (or) when the Islamic armed forces were in the process of liberating, there were like in today's armies, battalions or military units and one of the military units were Al Muhajireen and they had their own battle call. It was Yaa Bani Abd Ar Rahman. Al Khazraj had their own battle call, it was Yaa Bani Abd Allah. Al Aws has their own battle call, Ya Bani Ubaidillah. This was one army but in this there was this breakdown of units.
Now we come to a sensitive issue, i.e. so when did this asabiyyah emerge above the surface. When did it begin to show itself. When Al Muhajireen and Al Ansar were living in the time of Allah's Prophet, as we said, they complied without question totally with Allah and his Prophet. There's not one incident any Muslim with any affiliation or persuasion can point to that said that there was a crack or a division among the Muslims in the lifetime of Allah's Prophet- not one! It wasn't an operational asabiyyah and anytime there was a difference among the Muslims they'd refer to Allah and His Prophet. The ayah in the Qur'an
… if you disagree on something you refer it to Allah and the Messenger, period… (Surah An Nisa' verse 59)
That's what they did so there was no factionalism. We didn't have it. When the Prophet died we began to
sense now that some of these internalized feelings began to surface. Before that, the Muslims were one in their usul and in their furu' except for those who appeared to be agreeable but who internalized hypocrisy and multiple loyalties. OK- so after the Prophet passed away we begin to detect surface differences among Muslims. Now differences are normal. It's normal to have differences in normal life. It's normal to have differences among Muslims. Differences are a matter of tolerance and understanding and then cooperation with the presence of these differences. An ayah
… and you, meaning the committed Muslims, mutually cooperate in matters pertaining to birr or virtue and taqwa or the consciousness of Allah's power and authority presence and you do not cooperate when it comes to al ithm or breaking values and laws and udwaan or transgressions or aggression… (Surah Al Maa'idah verse 3)
The first major difference, (and we said these differences are a matter of acceptability; no one in his right mind who understands the Book of Allah and the Prophet of Allah should argue against differences- let's overcome this! Let's outgrow this! We are going to have differences. The issue is how do we live in a mutuality and in a social ambience of togetherness with these differences), or issue that surfaced after the Prophet passed away was who's going to lead us? Is it going to be a Khalifah? Is it going to be an Imam? Is it going to be an Emir? Is it going to be a Haakim? Who is going to be the one to fill in this void? When the Prophet passed away these Muslims, Al Muhajireen, Al Ansar, those who fought before the fath of Makkah, the combatants of Badr, Al Aws, Al Khazraj met in what is called Bani Saa'idah. This is a very important confluence of Muslim opinion at the time and they wanted to, more or less, come to some type of opinion on who is going to fill in now that the Prophet is no longer among us. The Ansar were motioning Sa'd ibn Ubadah (radi Allahu anhu), one of the two major leaders of the Ansar, to become the leader of the Muslims. Umar ibn Al Khattab (radi Allahu anhu) realized what was going on so he binded with Abi Bakr (radi Allahu anhu) and they both accompanied Abu Ubaidah ibn Al Jarrah (radi Allahu anhu) to the Ansar. So here we have a sense and this is in no way taking away from the honour and the status of that sacrificing generation with whatever convictions they may have internalized. Don't misunderstand what is being said. We are just trying to trace their characters and their behaviours because it will benefit us. If we don't learn from our own selves who are we going to learn from? You're going to learn from a Yahudi on television, on CNN? You're going to learn from those who are promoting war in the name of democracy today? Who are you going to listen to? Who are you going to learn from? We're going to learn from our selves. So here we sense that there's a difference of opinion pertaining to power and power in some people becomes a corrupting acquisition- you acquire power and that power corrupts you! One of these secular western people observed this: "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." We have something better than that. The ayah in the Qur'an says
But the social being, al insan, is given to excesses- the excesses of power and the excesses of self… (Surah Al Alaq verse 5)
When?
… when this person or social being sees himself as no longer in need of the other… (Surah Al Alaq verse 5)
For people to get in power they need your vote, they need your money, they need your support, they need your electioneering potential, they need your caucuses, they need your campaigning abilities and all this but once they reach power they don't need you anymore. So here, when the Prophet passed away there was this issue of who is going to have this power. Remember, the asabiyyah sits deep down in the psychology of these people. May Allah reward them for their sacrifices, may Allah give them al jannah for their lifetime sacrifices and all of this but this is human nature. Brothers and sisters- this is human nature. Life is an eternal struggle. No one is impeccable. There's some fault-lines in the psychology of societies, even that society. May we remind you here of what happened after one of the major battles in Islam. The Prophet of Allah came to the Shuhada' of Islam and he stood right next to their bodies and he said, Abu Bakr is right there next to him, I bear testimony of these, meaning the shuhada' on the ground in front of him. Abu Bakr says how about us? Remember, this is Allah's Prophet speaking- he is the impeccable, he is the perfect- I don't know what this generation that are still alive are going to do after I pass on. Some people will say "where do you get that information from?" Go to Al Bukhari, go to ibn Hisham, go to as sihah and you'll find this information there. So the Prophet in the tenth year of the hijrah in the month of Rabi' Al Awwal passes on and we begin to detect three trends. We're not saying at this point that these trends are of an asabi nature or that they spring from asabiyyah; later on we are going to find that al asabiyyah worked itself into these three trends. The first one is the Shi'ah who considered Al Imam Ali (radi Allahu anhu) to be the most qualified to lead the Muslims after the Prophet passed away. The second one was Al Ansar and they reckoned the best one to lead the Muslims was one of the leaders of the ones who made Islam a reality of life, i.e. the leader of Al Ansar in Al Madinah, Sa'd ibn Ubadah is the one who should assume responsibilities now. The third opinion was the one that agreed that- given the circumstances and given what is going on in this society, this is not a heavenly society, meaning that in it there were Munafiqun, in it was this residual of asabiyyah, in it were those who said that they are Muslims
And many of them do not commit to Allah except that they be Mushriks (Surah Yusuf verse 106)
All of these elements. Forget about the external obvious adversaries and opponents who were waiting for the right time to collapse this Islamic reality. All of these elements were there and people are looking at this and trying to figure out with their sincerity- no one in these three trends that we had was doing this out of malice or selfishness. Anyone who thinks that the Muslims who agreed that Aba Bakr is the most qualified is harbouring a hidden agenda here is wrong. Any one who thinks that the Ansar or the people in Al Madinah who thought that Sa'd ibn Ubadah is the most qualified to lead were thinking out of selfishness is wrong. Anyone who thinks that the Shi'is who think that Ali is the most qualified to lead the Muslims are doing this out of self-centredness is wrong. All of these were done out of sincerity and anyone who has a problem with these either can't read history right or they can't put all the pieces of this social reality together which, if that is the case, becomes the gap that the trouble makers work on to divide the Muslims.
(We'll make this one point; there's so many other points that have to be made but this day is a very hot day). Let us say that there was an undercurrent feeling among the Ansar that if they don't assume the position of leadership they are going to be oppressed. Why did they think like that? There's a couple of indicators here. First of all, the Prophet's hadiths. The Prophet said, and this is in Al Bukhari, because we know some people say "where is this person getting his information from?" OK- you go Al Bukhari. The Prophet of Allah says in this hadith in which he's speaking to the Ansar and the general Muslim public and he says what means something like you are going to encounter selfish decision makers after me. Persevere and be patient until you meet me at the haudh. This is the haudh of the Prophet in paradise. Haudh means an area where water is collected in a small artificial pond, it could be a natural pond. The Ansar recalled this hadith- hadith number one. Hadith number two, and this is also in Al Bukhari and ibn Hisham- we want to exclude these people who have this sectarianism in them. The Prophet said here to fore- Oh Muhajireen folks: I counsel you to do good to Al Ansar. Now why would Rasulillah say that if he didn't sense that there was an asabiyyah down there, way down in their psychology? Why is he telling Al Muhajireen that I counsel you to be good towards Al Ansar. The Prophet goes on to say people are increasing in wealth and status- the words wealth and status are not used in the hadith but they are inferred; to put it in today's language, the rest of the people excluding the Ansar are in a rising social mobility- meanwhile the Ansar are where they are. They haven't been climbing this affluent social mobility. They were my private shelter where I took refuge. They came to me when I needed them most, (we're trying to put this in the best possible language so you can understand the nerve in these words.) The Prophet of Allah is speaking to you and me and the rest of the Muslims concerning Al Ansar- be kind to the kind one of the Ansar and if an Ansari is at fault try to bypass that fault, (to use today's language), don't crucify him if he's at fault for something. So Al Ansar had a reason to believe that if Al Muhajireen, (who had their connections with Makkah- this doesn't mean that there was some conspiracy between Al Muhajireen and the population of Makkah that became Muslim in the last year; it means you give it some time and the family and social relationships and ties between the Muhajireen and their original society will generate a momentum of itself that's going to marginalise, if not pulverise the Ansaar because the Ansar participated (and) they were the backbones of the armies that fought in Al Madinah against Makkah so this issue may come back and haunt Al Ansar and they were sensitized to this. Sorry brothers and sisters- there's much more to say. If Allah gives us the time, the ability and the wherewithal to continue with this we will with His aid and assistance.
Dear brothers, dear sisters, dear committed Muslims…
Out of this asabiyyah fanaticism (and) out of this asabiyyah mania we now have certain types of Muslims- remember they belong to the Islamic condition and the Islamic predicament that we are all part of; we strongly disagree with them but they still are part of this Islamic condition. They present a character and a conduct that doesn't know what tolerance and acceptance means. They don't know it! It's not in their vocabulary and it's not in their planning. You never hear them speaking about accepting the other Muslim. Their literature and their sermons all want Muslims to kill Muslims! This comes from this asabiyyah that they have constructed out of their erroneous way of reading Islamic history. You know the Turks called the foremost religious authority Sheikh Al Islam. We hope you know who we're speaking about- you'll probably know in a few minutes. These types consider or call their most knowledgeable Islamic scholar who passed away a couple of hundred years ago Sheikh Al Wujud. Now you speak about grandiosity or you speak about an inflated ego or you speak about exceptionalism- well here you have it in their own words. So it becomes easy for them to accuse another Muslim of kufr. Why do you think right now there are certain Muslims in the world who are willing to acquire arms- they don't ask "where am I getting these bullets from? Where am I getting these machine guns from? Who is supporting me?" What they are interested with is killing the other Muslim! Brothers and sisters- there's an important statement or sentence among the Ulema'. We want you to enter the domain of the Ulema' of Islam, the Fuqaha'. They said "there is no adhaab due to a Muslim in matters that are disagreed upon among the Ulema'" We have Islamic Ulema' who disagree on things. If you accept one opinion of an A'lim that's in disagreement with another opinion of another A'lim you are not going to suffer adhaab for that. But these types, (let's blurt the name), these Salafis, (but we don't know what salaf they are related to), say "the Fuqaha', Abu Hanifah, Ash Shaf'i, Malik and, (to a lesser degree), ibn Hambal and their writings amount to shirkiyaat." This is their language and this is their words. Some of these individuals, (you're going to be surprised), you ask them, one of their loud mouths against other Muslims, could you grammatically- in the Arabic language it's called i'rabu ayah or the grammatical breakdown of an ayah, (i.e.) what's the fa'l, what's the faa'il, what's the maf'ul, what's the haal, what's the sifah- there's a whole body of knowledge to understanding the Qur'an in a grammatical sense and this is one of the requirements in understanding the Qur'an. They're ready to kill and they don't know how to compose the grammar of an ayah. This is no exaggeration. Of course some of them do but we're talking about others who are quick to pass judgment on the other Muslim "that he or she is a Kafir." This is serious when you say another Muslim is a Kafir that means that his blood is halal, his wealth should not belong to him, his ird should no longer belonging to him, he's no buried in Muslim cemetaries, he's not able to inherit neither does his inheritance go to any of his and then after all of this you kill him! This is what they're saying. We had to say these words simply because innocent Muslims are dying, innocent babies, innocent women. Some Muslim women, our sisters, our daughters, our mothers are forced into prostitution because of this asabiyyah and because of the bloodletting that they are responsible for. As we go on in the coming khutbahs we are going to expand in detail the gap that has developed throughout history that the enemies of the Muslims- the Mushrikeen, the Kuffaar and the Dhalimeen as well as the internal enemies of the Muslims, the Naaqifeen, the Maarikeen, the Qaasiteen, the Munafiqeen are also working in tandem to destroy any potential of Muslims locking hands and walking forward towards Islamic self-determination and the will of Allah that will be done in this world as its going to be done in the world to come.
A final point of note- this refuge of the takfiriyeen i.e. that royal monarchy that occupies the land of the Prophet and the land of the wahy and the land of committed Muslims (regarding whom) in just these past weeks (there were) three news items that we think you should know about that come from these enemies of Allah. We shouldn't be afraid to say it, we've been out here in the street for more than thirty years and we don't have the nerves and we don't have the brains to expose them?! If we don't have the nerves and the brains to expose them then the internal part of the earth six feet under is better for us than to be on this surface of the earth. Number one- thirty individuals were participating in satanic worship nude or butt naked in the land of the Haramayn on the watch of this family of Saud. That's number one and that speaks volumes. They bring in these types and some of them are Saudis and some of them are non-Muslims (and) all of them are participating in a satanic ritual without any clothes on. Number two- we heard about Bou Azizi, the one Tunisian individual who sparked the revolt in Tunisia because he set himself on fire because he couldn't be a vendor and sell some fruit and vegetables to make a living; an individual in this past month set himself on fire in Saudi Arabia. No one heard about it. Why? It's haram to express a fact of life when it comes to Saudi Arabia OK- Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia land of Allah
This khutbah was presented by Imam Muhammad Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 31 May 2013 on the sidewalk of Embassy Row in Washington D.C.
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