| THE STREET MIMBAR JUM'AH KHUTBAH (1 August 2014) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_street_mimbar/ PLEASE e-mail Suggestions & Criticisms to khutbahs@yahoo.com It is in such a manner that We make plain Our signs so that the course of the Criminals may become clear. |
Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem.
Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family.
Dear brothers and dear sisters of a divine commitment and its obligations and responsibilities…
Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/apps/podcast/podcast/344844 (07-11-2014)
UMAR AND ABU DHARR PART 1
In light of the developments in particular in the occupied Holy lands and because there is a sectarian warfare that is playing out its not our choice but we are left with no alternative except to revisit the psychology and the intricacies of this sectarianism that has made it possible for our common foes to do what they have been doing in the past few days, not to speak about the last few decades in the occupied land of Palestine. You are aware of what is happening in Ghazzah, you are aware that this is the month of Ramadhan and you are aware that during the past few years there has been a bloody and warlike policy of fragmentation and friction and fraternal fighting in the different areas in that particular geography of the world. We know that you and I have gone down this avenue before but sometimes if we approach it in a different manner it will sink into the minds that have been, (in a sense), chained with traditions and with customs that make it impossible just to touch base with the facts. The issues that divides Sunnis and Shi'is are not issues of ritual- as they have become; they're not issues of traditions- as they play out; they're not issues of customs as they are ingrained in certain individuals. These are issues that have a much healthier context. If we can see the overall picture, which we're going to try to relay to you maybe in the coming few khutbahs, so that we can purge our minds and our psychology of this sectarianism that make certain individuals say awful words towards Abu Bakr and Umar (radi Allahu anhuma) not understanding what they are saying. All of this comes from ignorance and from a slant of the information. Then the others who say satisfactory praises towards Muawiyah and Yazid which also comes from their ignorance of who these two kings were. Each side is ensconced in their fortress of ignorance. The ayah that is leading us to try to come to terms with this condition that we are living out- we are probably comfortable here because we take a look at this at a distance. None of us are harbouring "kill the other" mentality. When sectarianism takes hold and then it becomes the feelings and the motivations of individuals and peoples they feel like they have to kill the other Muslim- that's how they feel and they don't want to place the word Muslim on that other. They'll call them anything and everything except a Mu'min or a Muslim. The guiding ayah in this, once again, is Allah's words around the ayah one hundred in Surah Aal Imran
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… (Surah Aal Imran verse 102-103)
And the ayah goes on as we've stated it and repeated it many times before. This ayah, we think, is crystal clear in its meanings to the average Muslim even though the translations that are done and all of this need much improvement. The way sectarianism is today it tries to distil the historical differences and therefore the contemporary differences between two people, two personalities (or) two individuals. On one side there's Umar and on the other side there is Al Imam Ali (radi Allahu anhu). They want to have us believe that all of the differences today that we are privy to from our rituals to the way we interact with each other to our separate Islamic centres and Masajid and all of this can be traced to these two individuals. This is not right. This is not correct. We're going to exert an effort to refocus the individuals. We're not going to concentrate on Al Khalifah Umar and we're not going to concentrate on Ali. We're going to try and take you out of this psychology and this stereotyping that goes on and we're going try and have you basically think about two other individuals so that the facts are not smothered by individuals and personalities. We want to look at the facts. We identify people through facts, we don't identify the facts through people (or) through personalities or individuals. One of them is Uthman ibn Affan (radi Allahu anhu) and the other is Abu Dharr Al Ghifari (radi Allahu anhu). Now you have to be patient with us because not all of this information can be expressed in one khutbah so we're going to have probably a few other khutbahs. We are responsible for ourselves (and) if we manage to unlock ourselves from this sectarianism (then) we have accomplished something very significant. So we're going to try to speak the facts about these two individuals so that we can identify the issues that were distorted throughout the centuries and became the sectarianism that is literally killing us today and making it possible of the Zionists to do what they are doing in Ghazzah and for the rest of the international criminal political military syndicate to get away with the policies that have made us to poor and so marginalised. At the bottom of all of this we attribute these developments to our own mistakes, our own shortcomings (and) our own ignorance. Our ignorance is our number one enemy! People who are in charge of Islamic centres and Masajid don't want a person who comes and speaks to your mind. They want someone who can come and dilly dally with your emotionalism and the sectarianism one in particular. So your humble speaker here is going to begin by familiarising you with Abi Dharr Al Ghifari. We know we're leaving some information out and that is necessary because some of this information does not relate to closing in on sectarianism.
Abu Dharr Al Ghifari was born in a place that falls on the commercial route between Makkah and Ash Shaam in the tribe of Ghifar and that is why he's called Al Ghifari, (i.e.), pertaining to the tribe of Ghifar. We don't like to mention this because we're trying to break out of sectarianism and there's an equal and a counter evil to sectarianism which is racism. Both of these are evils but in describing Aba Dharr he turns out to be a person of a dark pigmentation. We know we're going through a mine field here but we don't want to get involved in racism. He had a dark pigmentation, he was tall and he was a thin man to the extent that some descriptions of him say you could see the veins in his skin. He was one of the very few individuals in the Arabian Peninsula at that time who parted with idols and graven images before the Prophet pronounced Islam to the people. Three years before the appointment of Muhammad as the Messenger Abu Dharr was a person who committed himself to one deity (or) to one divinity, not all of this other stuff that goes on. He was called by his own tribe (or) by his own people as sabi'. As sabi' is a word used in those times to refer to a person who left his people's religion. In today's world the meaning is something like he's a renegade or he's an alien. He no longer belongs to us. He is a sabi'- that's how his own people referred to him even before the advent of Islam and the Prophet. He was one of the first to become a Muslim and the argument is whether he was the fourth or the fifth. Remember he didn't live in Makkah. This was a person who in his depths was looking for the truth, for the facts, for al haqq. So when he did become a committed Muslim the Prophet of Allah told him to return to his people which was at a distance of, (what is called in ancient literature), thalatha amyal. A mil is like speaking about the horizon, (so) you're looking at transcending three horizons. You have to understand this meaning in its origins- when you go out there (and) you stand in the desert, the desert meets the sky. Where you're looking and you see those sands meeting the sky- that's one mil. A mil here is a stretch. In today's language it's like saying one stretch. So he was living at three of these stretches. If you're looking out there at the sands, (i.e.), if you're standing in Makkah and looking northwards and you look at the desert and the sun and you see a particular line there- that's one. So you go three of these and that's how far he was from Makkah. When he became a Muslim the Prophet didn't say "come and study Islam with us." What was Islam at that time? We're still speaking about Islam when Islam was an underground da'wah. These first five or three years in Makkah when the Prophet told him go and explain Islam to your people he didn't say oh, there's some fiqhi issues here, there's some information, there's some furu', there's some usul, None of that! A simple fact- Allah is the divinity and authority of all people. Refer to that fact and have them acknowledge that fact. That's your mission, that's your responsibility. So he went back to his people (or) to his tribe and he pursued that with them.
This is very important to keep in your minds. This khutbah is seed information for the coming khutbahs that will develop the facts that are massacred by the psychology of sectarianism. The Prophet of Allah said describing Aba Dharr (a statement) which means there isn't an individual who has ever taken shade or who has ever walked the surface of the earth who is more honest in his speech than Abu Dharr. Ali, and anyone and everyone should know the status of Ali, described Aba Dharr in these words: Abu Dharr was conscious to knowledge that people are unable to display or incapable of acting out meaning that people were not able to behave with the knowledge that Abu Dharr has. For those who are engrossed in hadith literature, if you go back to the books of hadith you will find scores of those who related the hadith from the Prophet cite in their ahadith Aba Dharr. So we are not just talking about a few here and there (or) selective muhadithin. Almost all cite Aba Dharr in their ahadith.
Now what happened? Well before that, because Abu Dharr lived in an area way from both Makkah and Al Madinah he was not a participant in the battle of Badr. Abu Dharr was not one of those who were in that first battle in Islam. When Umar became the decision maker of the Muslims (or) the Khalifah of Rasulillah he considered Aba Dharr to be from as sabiqin. One of the definitions of as sabiqin is that you attended the battle of Badr, Abu Dharr did not attend the battle of Badr yet Umar considered him just like someone who attended the battle of Badr. Which tells you what? Is there some type of friction here? (Or) some type of bad feelings? You do the calculation and the results in your mind. So what happened? This is where we are going to try to begin to identify the facts and the issues away from this simplistic approach that Sunnis are followers of Umar and Shi'is are followers of Ali- a very simplistic misleading and misguided understanding of the facts; and the facts are what we are concerned with. What happened later on? We are going to fill in the blanks later on in the other khutbahs. Abu Dharr took issue with Uthman because Uthman showed favouritism towards his own clan (or) his own blood-relationships. Abu Dharr took issue with that of course after Uthman became the Khalifah; before that, there's no information we came across that there was a clash of opinions between Abu Dharr and Uthman. They may have not been the best of buddies, (so to speak), but there is nothing that indicates that there was some type of "you're right and you're wrong" issues between them. Abu Dharr also felt uneasy with the popular mood that was swayed during the reign of Uthman. Public opinion sort of looked the other way while things were happening that were not supposed to happen during the rule of Uthman. Abu Dharr took issue with that public notion, (i.e.) you can't just sit here (and) you can't just watch while things are going in the wrong direction he was saying. Not only were they going in the wrong direction because Uthman was deviating from the policies and the procedures and the politics of the Prophet but also from that of Abi Bakr and Umar because we don't here about Abu Dharr. Forget about the books that are in their own writing and wording biased. We try as much as possible to judge books about history in light of the Qur'an and the verifiable sunnah not because we have a whim or we have some type of bias or prejudice in ourselves. So Abu Dharr saw this taking place and he couldn't remain quiet about it because the element of social justice and equality is being violated in an Islamic society and when this happens an average normal Muslim should feel "wait a minute, something has to be done here" and that is how Abu Dharr felt. He also criticized some of the Sahabah. He was a Sahabi and there's nothing in the Qur'an or sunnah that says a Sahabi can't criticize or doesn't criticize another Sahabi. Abu Dharr criticised some of these Sahaba when he saw them flocking towards wealth and the accumulation of money- that disturbed him as it should disturb anyone who sees that society right now is becoming imbalanced (and) we're having a wealthy class and we're having a poor class in the making. Because of that he was exiled more than once. He was forced to leave Al Madinah to Ash Shaam. He was forced back from Ash Shaam to Al Madinah riding on a pony, (so to speak), without a saddle hundred and hundreds of miles. You try riding on a pony for a few miles without a saddle and see how comfortable that is! He was forced to go that way for hundreds and hundreds of miles and then when he went to Al Madinah because of his outspokenness he was forced into exile in Ar Rabdhah, another area outside of Al Madinah.
In the thirtieth year of the hijra when he died- this goes to show you (that) those who speak the truth feel lonely. Truth is like a mountain. The more you climb that mountain of truth the more people you leave behind until you reach the summit of the mountain (or) the peak of the mountain and you find that you're almost by yourself. There's no one around. It's lonely at the top. So when Abu Dharr died the only one present was his daughter. Before he breathed his last breathe he told his daughter place me (or) position me in the direction of the Ka'bah and she did. His last words were with Allah and on the millah of the Messenger of Allah and he left. There was a group who had come from Al Kufa. They heard that Abi Dharr was ill so when they arrived, they arrived just a little too late, (i.e.), just after he had passed away; probably within the twenty four hours or so after he passed away. Among them was Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Abu Dharr's daughter said to them (what's) like saying God bless you. Behold Abu Dharr. They said where is he. Then she pointed to where he was. They went and of course they saw his body and they took care of the funeral procedures.
A person that we have identified here who is very clear as a living conscience of what Islam stands for in this living capacity. This is just the beginning. We will, with Allah's help, continue to shed light on his positions vis a vis those he disagreed with to understand, at least, the facts and try to rid ourselves of this of the psychological damage that sectarianism has done to us and has made it possible for the wars and the conflicts the bloodshed and the bloodletting that is going on.
Dear beloved fasting committed Muslims, brothers and sisters…
This information in the khutbah is presented while just in the past twenty four hours – you know when much of us think that there are Sunnis and Shi'is killing each other immediately the mind goes to Syria and Iraq- in the past twenty four hours the news items that come our way say that there have been families that have been displaced. There have been clashes that have taken place between, (we're using these words because these are the words that are used by we, the Muslims who have a vocabulary that is moulded by our traditions), Sunni Arabs and Berbers. There's been clashes in Algeria Egypt Jordan
And hold firm to Allah's binding matter all of you- no exceptions- and be not divided… (Surah Aal Imran verse 103)
The tension is rising between Kurds. It shifted from sectarianism in Iraq Baghdad and Kurdistan . Is this
And hold firm to Allah's binding matter all of you- no exceptions- and be not divided… (Surah Aal Imran verse 103)
You who are ruling in Baghdad and you who are ruling in Kurdistan, in Kirkuk Iraq Qatar and Turkey United States Egypt
This khutbah was presented by Imam Muhammad Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 11 July 2014 on the sidewalk of Embassy Row in Washington D.C.
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