| THE STREET MIMBAR JUM'AH KHUTBAH (29 May 2009) webpage: www.geocities.com/khutbahs 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. Committed Muslims… Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/khutbassermons.htm (08-05-2009) INTROSPECTION – PART 2 The ayah that is hard for many of us to come to terms with, (even though many of us may read and translate it), but the practical meaning of the ayah that we're just about to quote is extremely difficult for us to assimilate and produce the right behaviour by understanding and applying its meanings in our life. In a short ayah in Surah Al Qiyamah Allah is saying I shall not express an oath pertaining to the Day of Resurrection nor an oath pertaining to the voice of the conscience. (Surah Al Qiyamah verse 1-2) This voice of the conscience, (as it were), when someone does something wrong or falls into sin or is guilty of an offence or crime, there's a voice in your conscience that comes out and wants to sting you from inside. This feeling of guilt inside ourselves is a major component of the Islamic character. Muslims are not dead people if parts of us die; we have a limb, hand, leg, foot, eye, ear or any other part of our body that doesn't work (when) people have incidents or accidents in life that result in the disability of the physical body, but if we are true to Allah, never will we have a disability in our conscience. The fact of the matter is the Day of Resurrection/Accountability are live in our feelings and thoughts and because of that, we maintain a lively, sensitive and responsive conscience. If you come across a person with a dead conscience, you have come across a person whose Islamic character is nil/void- (the two) can't be combined. You can't have an nafs al lawwamah and a carefree, hardened, insensitive, passive, and indifferent Muslim- this does not blend with an nafs al lawwamah. On the other hand, an nafs al lawwamah doesn't mean we are suffocated by feelings of guilt. We're not habitual wrongdoers or cultural violators of Allah and His Prophet- whoever has such type of personality in life is outside the realm of yielding to Allah. So, if we are located in the waves and forces of real life, (we don't live in a society that doesn't have sin or crimes in it or in a society that is against Allah and His Prophet, (it's all around us), so how does our conscience react to that? The problem becomes one in which when many Muslims reach the age of understanding and thinking and begin to develop deep thoughts, they join Islamic Organisations, Associations, Parties and Movements; they become member s in these and that (as it appears and sounds) is a step in the right direction. Muslims are required to come together, consolidate their efforts and move forward; this is the beginning of what is supposed to be an Islamic effort with a pay-off somewhere along the course of life or here-after, but what happens is we have individuals, (you may be one of them or related to one of them or know one of them- Allah knows best), whose conscience and mind is vibrant (who) joins an Islamic Organisation of whatever rank or background, (this seems to be a broad statement that is inclusive of all, if not all of them), i.e. once this an nafs al lawwamah enters that crowd of like-minded and similar individuals, it begins to lose it's lustre and negotiate it's conscience and we have a problem. Then, when we begin to put these different Organisations together, we begin to have complex problem and we don't know where this comes from! If we wanted to go back to Allah's Prophet and understand some of the moments that are indicative of this an nafs al lawwamah, we take him, himself (or) a moment in his life. He wasn't shielded by a party or a person who would give orders without the motivation of those who were around him and he is the impeccable or al masoom. Al one time, these most important personalities of Quraish wanted to speak to him. They said OK- you've been speaking all of this talk throughout all of these years, let us sit down and try to reason all of this affair out, but when we speak to you, we don't want these lesser human beings around. It would be like saying in today's world, (we don't want to use the N-word as that would probably give you the meaning of how they were speaking to Allah's Prophet), we don't want these inferiors or bums or coloured people around; it's just us and you. Can we just sit and try to discuss this matter? Some of us may have heard this and others not. Information such as this is usually taken out of discussions. Think with us- the Prophet could have gone to these poor people around him, i.e. the ones who don't count in the eyes of the elites/big shots and said "look- the Islamic interest dictates that you stay out of this meeting. If we can convince these decision makers, officials and policy makers of this Islam then you would have the reward because you didn't attend the meeting. I would be able to speak to them, but they're not going to speak to me in your presence;" he could have done that, (but) he didn't. Just by thinking this- he didn't do it, but just because it was an idea, Allah addressed an idea before it became an idea … don't exclude those who are calling upon Allah early and late or who are seeking and striving for him… (Surah Al-An'aam verse 52) And Allah's Prophet never excluded what is called this riff-raff of society and Allah's Prophet was transparent, unlike the type of Islamic Parties and Organisations that we have. In the 1st instance, they are not transparent. There may be some limited issues that leaders only have the right to know, but not the program itself! We have Islamic programs in which the Islamic base is unaware of! Is this an ayah or hadith or the Sunnah and Seerah of Allah's Prophet? You have an Islamic Party, Orientation or Program, but the average person who belongs to this particular orientation doesn't know anything about it! The only thing they know is that they belong to this type of "Islamic (whatever you want to call it.)" (We don't want to get into names, because we're sure that you have enough knowledge to know what we're referring to because there's plenty of them out there and you can't go wrong. Just think of a few of them and you're right!) Within this (what is supposed to be) an Islamic Action Group, some Muslims feel the pangs of their conscience and the sting of their better judgement inside of them- what do they do? This has happened all along and it's still happening; they leave this Islamic Party/Organisation or whatever it is because they can't live with the pinch of their conscience everyday when they know there is room for improvement but the people they're supposed to speak to are impervious; you can't penetrate them with advice or criticism. This comes from having an nafs al lawwamah. Our Islamic decision makers don't have an nafs al lawwamah. They don't have the voice of their conscience that will tell them to open up and listen to what other Muslims have to say. This is a degradation of other Muslims and their potential (which is) something we didn't see in the days of Allah's Prophet. In the days of Allah's Prophet, we had the same approaches, types of personalities, inclinations and reservations that we find in human nature everywhere, but these were people who were working together. They had the freedom to express their conscience and if they were wrong, they were corrected. Today, we are supposed to believe we don't have the freedom to pursue the direction of our conscience; we're supposed to be bottled up within a particular Islamic Organisation. This has no Islamic foundation, no Qur'anic rationalisation and no Sunnatic precedents- it doesn't exist! (If) they wanted to do something, they were encouraged to do it, and if they did something wrong, the encouragement from all around was to correct them; but nowadays, there's one pf two attitudes. If you are encouraged to do something and you do something wrong, they make an example out of you so that no one else will have the courage to try and do what his/her conscience is telling him/her to do, or you can't express yourself to begin with. You have to bottle that up and true/sincere/motivated/sacrificing/struggling types can only bottle that within them "so much" and after that, they say "I'm leaving." There's been an attrition rate in these Islamic Movements and Organisations because of that and it goes back to the fact that we've made these Islamic Programs and Parties like tribes. We've tribalized Islam i.e. if you belong to my tribe, (read) Islamic understanding of things, then we belong together in this, but if you belong to another Islamic understanding of things, then somehow there's a rivalry that may turn into a misunderstanding that may develop into conflict because we don't have an nafs al lawwamah. If we- leaders and led- carried this with us, the assortment of Islamic Programs and Movements in the world would complement each other and welcome the other Islamic view. This doesn't necessarily mean we are going to adopt it 100%, but we are willing to listen to it, consider it and if there's a type of agreement that it is better than our opinion, then we will adopt it. The Prophet of Allah realised that even among the people who were being educated, thoroughly influenced and remade by him had within them tribal instincts. It was always the "we" in exclusion to the others. We are supposed to be altogether, but at one point, it was about to break out into hostilities. This is down the road in building the Islamic character; this is not the 1st couple of years of Islam. Let us tell you- in those 1st years in Al Medinah, when Islam became what it had become, some of those who were outside of the Islamic circle would make fun of Bilal (radi Allahu anhu) and call him that black crow. (You) see- this information doesn't come out because if it begins to come out, then we're going to begin to sense that just like we have discrimination in our societies, there was also words and individuals in the society of Allah's Prophet who echo the discrimination, ethnicism and racism that we have in today's world; but no! We're not supposed to link the Prophet's world with our world today- that's a NO! NO! in today's Islamic discourse. In the time of Allah's Prophet, when after he put all of these years in building the character of these committed Muslims, one of them says I call upon you O Muhajireen- come support me; and the other one says I call upon you Ansar- come support me. Wait a minute here- aren't we all Muslims?! You're calling upon the Muhajireen as if the Muhajireen are going to be opposed to the Ansar and vice versa- where did this come from?! This indicates that deep down in the Muslim psyche- even in the presence of Allah's Prophet who was still there, he didn't pass away- them trying to tribalize the innocent and complimentary concept of the hijrah and the nusrah i.e. the Muhajireen and the Ansar are supposed to complement each other, (but) here by the expression of these two Muslims- one of them belonging to the Muhajireen and the other one to the Ansar- they're supposed to conflict instead of complement with each other. We began by speaking about an nafs al lawwamah i.e. a person's psychology that has a voice of conscience, and then, Allah says in another ayah, to build on that Certainly, if those who are ever conscious of Allah's corrective power in their lives are as much as influenced or touched by Ash Shaytaan… (Surah Al A'raf verse 201) Shaytaan has his way of insinuating, tempting, gradually drawing in a person in the wrong direction, planting disturbing thoughts, working on the instinct of man and flaring up the passions in human nature- there are many avenues that Ash Shaytaan has… Allah is saying if those who are ever watchful of Allah's corrective power presence catch wind or merely sense Ash Shaytaan is having an effect in/on their lives or if a fleeting influenced of Ash Shaytaan comes their way, then they are conscientised… (Surah Al A'raf verse 201) They go back to an nafs al lawwamah; the voice of their conscience comes alive. Some people say what do you mean?! Ash Shaytaan doesn't intend it that way, Ash Shaytaan wants to cripple you and smother you in sin and crimes, but Ash Shaytaan has no access to your conscience; your conscience has a 6th sense and it knows when Ash Shaytaan is approaching so it re-doubles and what happens? … the result of that is that they've gained more insight or can now see more clearly. (Surah Al A'raf verse 201) But you tell that to people who think it's better to "maintain the status quo, don't rock the boat or don't express your deep felt voice of conscience" to Islamic decision makers and (take a) look- we've been where we have been for so long because of this. Mind you- these Islamic programmers, (who are writing and implementing whatever type of boy-scout programs that they have), are comfortable speaking to the FBI; they're not comfortable listening to the conscience of Islamic individuals who are with them, (supposedly in the same boat in the choppy waters of jahiliyyah that we are in); they feel more comfortable speaking, communicating, sitting down and listening to At Taghut- functionaries of Imperialism and Zionism. OH- they can do that, it's alright, but to listen to what the average you-and-me have to say because our conscience is telling us to say that and we may improve the performance of our Islamic program, (then) they don't want to hear it. What type of Islamic Organisation is that? Where's the transparency and confidence? What have they accomplished? An nafs al lawwamah is what we need and that's what qualifies decision makers to be in the position they are in, (i.e.) when they have an nafs al lawwamah; not when they don't have it. Most of those who are now making decisions don't have an nafs al lawwamah and they prove it from year-to-year and incident-to-incident. Then, Allah says Certainly, if those who are ever conscious of Allah's corrective power in their lives are as much as influenced or touched by Ash Shaytaan are conscientised and the result of that is that they've gained more insight or can now see more clearly. (Surah Al A'raf verse 201) Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims... The ayaat and the Seerah of the Prophet become our reference points and after so many years of Muslims of inferior thoughts/feelings its time for us to open our eyes to the reality of the world that we are in. We have people who are making decisions for us (which) are impacting our own lives and who have sold their souls to Satan, (what's wrong? Does anyone have any problem with expressing the truth?) If we are being burned by a God denying society and system, we don't have the vitality of conscience to express it. Because of the co-ordinates- psychological and physical (and every other sense of the word)- that we are in, we begin to react. The Zionists are digging under Al Masjid Al Aqsa, and if they continue like this and there's no proportionate and appropriate response to this, Al Masjid Al Aqsa is going to collapse. There's nothing that we know of from the Qur'an and Sunnah that says that Al Masjid Al Aqsa is a structure that will never collapse. There are physical laws in this world and they work everywhere in the world, including Al Masjid Al Aqsa, so what do you expect? These Zionists who have been busy digging under the foundations of Al Masjid Al Aqsa and we are busy looking the other way. They wouldn't have been able to do this to Al Masjid Al Aqsa if they didn't do it to other Masajid around the world. There's no spiritual or mental foundations to these Masajid; if they take the mental Islamic content out of these Masajid, then they are able to take the pillars away from Al Masjid Al Aqsa. If they are able to control, administer and do whatever they want to with Makkah and Al Medinah, then why can't they get away with doing what they want in Al Quds, Jerusalem? Why can't Muslims bring themselves to look at what is happening? That's all that is required- just open your eyes and look at what is happening. These Arabians is something that is also not spoken about! Before the Qur'an and the Prophet, the Arabians on the Peninsular used to attack each other- tribes, clans and extended families used to go into skirmishes with each other. The tribe that would launch hostilities was the strongest, so they'd prey on the weakest and victimise those with lesser powers. When this Islam came, (one of the miracles that we don't speak about, and there's not enough light shed on it is), the understanding by these same Arabians transformed them from a people who would attack the weakest when they were pre-Islamic Arabians to a people who would attach the strongest. When they became committed Muslims, they were not afraid to take on the super-powers and the mega-powers of their time; but what do we have today? We have pre-Islamic Arabians who will take on and look for a fight with those who they perceive to be weaker than they are. We're back to Al Jahiliyyah; and those who are stronger than them? "NO! These are super-powers- let's buy weapons from them and let's invest in their economy." One thing we can say of Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl, Abi Mu'eet, Abu Sufyan and the rest of that crowd that we can't say of the current mental and psychological (and probably) physical descendants of them is that that generation of war against the Prophet didn't go and invest their money in Byzantium or Persia; they were not buying weapons and relying on the two superpowers of the day- Byzantium or Persia- for their survival. Brothers and sisters, (we know that we're going to be swimming against the tide), we speak a lot about the occupation of Palestine/Al Quds/Al Masjid Al Aqsa, and there's no two Muslims who in their right mind are going to argue about this- that's a given; our problem is not with that, our problem is with the buffer that the Zionist Occupiers have! Our problem is with the Occupiers of Makkah and Al Medinah. Can we ever wake up to this fact? These are the ones who just this past week heard some of their own people at The SAR Foundation and IIIT had an ongoing court battle that said that "the authorities violated their rights when they carted off everything they had at their offices, and when to their homes and physically abused some of them and got away with it." They said "let's take them to court," What did the court tell us day before yesterday? "The court authorities had all the right to do what they did!" Why did the authorities do what they did to these types? Remember- we're speaking about there (being) no nafs al lawwamah and no (one from among) those who are ever conscious of Allah's corrective power and when they are touched by Ash Shaytaan they are conscientised and the result of that is that they've gained more insight or can now see more clearly. Since this is absent, their pay-masters point the finger of accusation at them and they've been living the consequences of this throughout all of these years. We yearn for the day when Muslims can be independent of this Saudi regime and all that it has caused. We pray for the day when these Muslims- who share a commitment with Allah- who have been victimised by this Saudi regime can be liberated from its dependence and it can stand on its own; and if that means they have to be in the street, then that's the 1st step and they're in the right place or do they prefer the hundreds of millions of dollars coming their way out of which we've seen no concrete results? We wish they'd listen to Allah. OK- they've lived the experience of the past 20/30 years of dealing with Ash Shaytaan in his Islamic clothes, can they not learn from that experience and can we not learn from their mistakes? This khutbah was presented by Imam Mohamed Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 8 May 2009 on the sidewalk of Embassy Road in Washington D.C. The Imam previously led the daily and Jum'ah prayers inside the Masjid. His speeches were revolutionary and thought provoking, and eventually irritated and threatened the Middle-East Ambassadors who control the Masjid. Finally, the Imam, his family, and other Muslims faithful to the course of Islam were forced out, into the streets. This khutbah originates from the sidewalk across the street from the Islamic Center, currently under seige. Introspection PART 1 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THE_STREET_MIMBAR/message/906 |
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