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بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالمُرْسَلِينَ، نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا كَثِيرًا، أَمَّا بَعْدُ.
If you see how our Prophet presented his message to them, to the Quraysh, he started basically from his image with them.
So he said to them, if I tell you there’s an army behind this hill, will you believe me? Why is he saying that? because he’s reminding them that I am somebody who even if I tell you there is an army behind this hill, you will believe me.
So I am somebody you know, I am somebody you trust, I am truthful, I am trustworthy.
So you should believe me when I’m telling you something else. There’s nothing about the army. But he’s starting with that. He’s saying, if I told you that there’s an army behind this hill, will you believe me? He said, of course we believe you.
Of course we believe you. You never lied to us. You never said anything wrong to us. And of course we believe you. He said, therefore, now believe this. That if you do not leave idol worship, if you do not leave worshipping creatures and your own figments of your imagination, if you worship anyone other than your creator, Allahﷻ, Then I warn you of a punishment, severe punishment hereafter.” And the moment he said that, it was gone.
Now if you think about this, that’s why I say no compromise, that’s the key lesson out of this. Because if you think about this and you say, supposing Rasool Allah came to you and said, I have been given this Risalat. I am supposed to convey this message to the people. Give me some advice. How shall I do that? Tell me which one of us would have said there is the mountain, go climb on that and announce.
Would you say that?
I certainly would tell.
I would have said to him, Ya Rasool Allah, first build a base.
Right? Build a base. So do something good. Start a social network organization. Start a, you know, welfare organization. Look after the widows and the orphans and, you know, people who are on drugs and this and that. Get them out to the thing. Some kind of good welfare work. Build this, become a social activist. Right? Get some political power and get whoever you think you can influence, Let’s do some fundraisers. Get some money because we have no money. We have nothing. The last thing in the world you will say is, there is a hill, stand on that and announce. You never say that.
He had credibility, of course. He had credibility. But I’m saying, you say build that more, right? Maybe your credibility, personal credibility as an individual, but maybe not in terms of political power. There is no group around you. I mean, he didn’t have a group around him. He was alone. Right? So, build a group. You need someone to cheer you. You need somebody to support you. So, build a group. This kind of advice. One of the great Sira scholars, in his book he said, they could have he could have also because he came from the Quraish and the Arabs didn’t have this royal family business I mean they didn’t have royal families and stuff they didn’t have nobility and stuff right but they had some tribes and some sub-tribes who were considered to be the the the which was the sort of you know honorable people so and the the Banu Abdul Muttalib, Banu Hashim, these were the Shurafa because these were the people who took care of the Kaaba, they fed the Hujjaj, they used to give water to them, they used to… Hashim, the name itself, he got the name Hashim because he used to crush bread into soup and feed the Hujjaj. Instead of giving them just soup, he gave them bread and soup and to crush is called Hashim. so Hashim, the one who crushes bread. So, he got his name as an honourable name. So, all of this was there. So, he could have claimed to some kind of chieftainship, some kind of political position.
Or, as I mentioned before, he could have become a social reformer or something. Or he could have diluted the message and gradually… This was something which some of the people also advised him later on. When the people of Hunain came in Madinah and they said, we will accept Islam, we will pray but we will not give Zakat, there were Sahaba who advised him, they said take it, accept it, let them come, it’s a big tribe, they are powerful people. people. So, you know, slowly they will come. It may not be the same day. Never. The Anbiya never diluted the message. La ilaha illa Allah. Khurras. And the Quraish presented to him many options. They said, one day we will worship your God. They said, we will worship. The The other day you worship. He said, no. He said, we will accept your God as one of our gods, as the head God. They already knew, they already had this word, Allahﷻ was known to them. And Allahﷻ as a deity was known to them.
So they said, okay, we will make him head God. He is the chief God. But the others also, we need them. And after this, these others, we are not really worshipping them. They take us to Him. This is the wasta, this is the wasila.
We are too small to go directly to God. So we go through this Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and this one and that one. Like today people want to go to some grave or the other and say, no, this, we are not worshipping that so-called saint. I am asking him, make dua that I should get close to Allahﷻ. They are only means of us getting close to Allahﷻ. What’s the difference? Same thing.
Rasulullah SAW not accept anything. Now the logic of this if you think about it is that the moment you start making compromises everything gets very murky, clarity goes. And the Ambiyas were very clear. They tried to compromise and say okay we will give you money, we will make you king, we will do this, we will do that, all your desires will be fulfilled. He said nothing. If they give me the sun in one hand and the moon in one hand, I will still say what I have to say. Because differentiation is extremely critical in leadership. If you do not differentiate, nobody can follow you because you can only follow somebody who is clearly in front of you.
A flag is saluted only when it is flying high on the standard.
The same flag, once the ceremony and so on is over, you bring it down, you wash it, and then you are drying this flag, you will put it on the clothesline along with, you know, other clothes and so on. Nobody salutes the flag. Same piece of cloth.
Same color, same everything. But when it is on the clothesline with everything else, nobody will salute that flag. If somebody salutes the flag, people will say, oh stupid, why are you saluting this piece of cloth? But the same flag when it goes high up on the standard, on the flagpole, then it is saluted because then it becomes a symbol, then becomes a sign of something. So this is the importance of differentiation. differentiating because differentiation creates brand, brand inspires loyalty.
As I mentioned this story, you know this story, when the Banu Saqeef came to him, Nabiﷺ refused to accept because they separated Salah from Zakat.
Sayyidina Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, رضي الله عنه actually used this when in the wars of Riddah. And he said that Rasulullah refused to accept the Islam of these people. So today if somebody does not give even the rope of a camel that he used to give at the time of Nabiﷺ, I will go to war with him.
Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab said to him, how will you fight Muslims? He said you were tough in your days of Kufr and now you have become weak.
We are not fighting Muslims, we are fighting people who are refusing to give zakat. People who are separating Salah from zakat, they are saying we will pray but we will not give zakat.
Which means if you do that, you have left Islam.
So this is the importance of not compromising the standard for any reason. Only when the standard is clear, then people will be drawn toward them.
So give it some thought.
This Senator was just one, Al Sayed.
His victory speech is very interesting. He said we have moved from Inshallah to Alhamdulillah.
He’s saying this deliberately. The man is not a fool. He didn’t win the election by being a fool. He’s saying it deliberately. He’s using those words. He’s not saying God willing. He’s not saying thank God. He’s using the actual Arabic of the Quran.
He said you would have noticed that I always said Inshallah, Inshallah this, Inshallah that. He said, Alhamdulillah. Now, we have moved from InshaAllah to Alhamdulillah.
So, point I’m making is that when you differentiate and do it in a positive way,
you are not at war with anybody, you are not fighting anybody. The idea is to attract people to Islam, not to drive them away. way. So differentiating in a positive way. Opening your doors. I always tell people don’t translate, use the words. Say Rabbul Alameen, don’t say Lord of the universe. By all means if you want to translate after that no problem but use the Arabic first. Because if you say Lord, the person understands Lord in whichever way he understands Lord, the word. He’s not thinking Allah.
Say ayat of the Quran, say ayat of the Quran, don’t say verse.
Verses are in poems, in poetry. The Quran is not a book of poetry. Ayat, Allah said ayat. Ayatil li’ulil alba, signs for people of intelligence.
and ayah is a sign. A sign has a meaning. A sign points in a direction. A sign tells you to avoid something or to go to something. A sign is something that demands that it should be understood. Not about the verse. The verse is the verse. You like it, you don’t like it, whatever is sitting there.
So these are all important things too. Don’t say God. Say Allah.
Say Allah. Allahﷻ has a name and his name is Allah. His name is Ar-Rahman. Don’t say God. God is a generic term. Allah is not God. Don’t say we worship one God. We don’t worship one God. We worship Allah. We do not worship one God. Right? We worship Allahﷻ. Specifically. Be clear.
It’s not about one or two. We worship Allah . He is one. He is Al-Ahad. He is not Al-Wahid.
The Arabic word for one is what? Not Ahad. It’s Wahid.
But we don’t say La ilaha illa Allah wa Wahid, no. Al-Ahad, which has no division, which is unique. unique. It cannot be said, there is no half, there is no nis, a ruba, there is no ithna in, a salas. Allah is Allah. So use that. This is something for us to do that with confidence inshallah. And that was the way of the Anbiya alayhimus salam. No compromise, directly. So, Nabiﷺ gave his message clearly and directly.
رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَكَفِّرْ عَنَّا سَيِّئَاتِنَا وَتَوَفَّنَا مَعَ الأَبْرَارِ. رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنْفُسَنَا وَإِنْ لَمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ. لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنَّا كُنَّا مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. رَبِّ اغْفِرْ وَارْحَمْ وَأَنْتَ خَيْرُ الرَّاحِمِينَ. وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى نَبِيِّهِ الْكَرِيمِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. بِرَحْمَتِكَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِينَ، وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ.