If you read Zakat somebody said Hajj. Rasul Rasool Allah said no. So they said, Ya Rasulullah please tell us what is the biggest sign of Islam? And he said muhabbah. He said muhabbah is the biggest sign of Islam, of being Muslim. Muhammad is brotherly love for one another because the other person is a Muslim. No other reason. Because the other person is a Muslim. I ask you and I ask myself, where should we place ourselves with this criteria? State of our Islam, our words, our actions, our thoughts, our society, where should we place ourselves? The correct position with respect to Allah’s Ahkam and the Hadith of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, all of which, not all of which, most of which I will tell you now in this Qutba, that every Muslim is a brother of every other Muslim. Every Muslim Moan is a sister of every other Muslim. This is our position in Islam. We have two issues. One is brotherhood of humanity and brotherhood of faith. Every human being is a brother or sister of ours, no matter what their faith is, irrespective of the faith. And every Muslim is a brother or sister of ours. Allah SWT said in Surah Al-Anbiya, Inna hadhi ummatukum ummatan wahidah wa ana rabbukum fa’budoon Allah SWT said which means, truly, this ummah, this brotherhood of yours, ummatukum is one ummah, ummatan wahidah, and I am your Rabb and therefore worship me alone. ana rabbukum In the Surah after that, alternate after that, after Surah Al-Anbiya, in Surah Al-Muminun, Allah SWT said, wa inna hadhi ummatukum ummatan wahidah wa ana rabbukum fa’budoon and verily this ummah of yours, this brotherhood of yours, is one ummah and I am your Rabb, so have my taqwa. In these two ayahs, Allah SWT told us that we Muslims are one ummah, defined on the basis of our unity, that we worship only Allah and we have taqwa only of Allah. We worship only Allah and we live our lives in obedience to Allah SWT alone. Allah SWT honoured us by saying ana rabbukum. He associated his rubbiyat with us. ana rabbukum Allah is not only Rabbul Muslimin, Allah is Rabbul Alameen. But Allah said ana rabbukum. We have one Rabb, one Nabi, one book, one faith. That is our brotherhood of faith in Islam. Allah SWT mentioned differences of opinion. And Allah SWT said, wa a’tasimu bi habli Allahi jami’an wala tafarraku wa adhkuru ni’mat Allahi alaykum idh kuntum a’ada’an fa alaf bayna quloobikum fa asbahatun bi ni’matihi yiqwana wa kuntum ala shafa hufuratin min an naar fa ankhadakum minha kathalika yubayyinu Allahul lakum ayatihi la’alakum tahtadoon Allah SWT said in Suratul Al-Imran, which means, and hold fast all of you together to the habli’Allah, to the rope of Allah, which is the kitab of Allah, which is the sunnah of His Nabi SAW, which is this deen of Islam. And Allah said, do not be divided la tafarraku, do not be divided among yourselves. And remember Allah SWT has favour on you. For you were enemies to one another, but He joined your hearts together, so that by His grace you became brothers in faith, brothers in Islam, and you were on the brink of a pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus Allah SWT makes His ayat clear to you that you may be guided. Allah SWT warned us against converting difference of opinion into points of opposition. A difference of opinion is not opposition. If somebody disagrees with you, he is not your enemy. This is a big problem with us. I am your friend only as long as I agree with everything. The minute I disagree on something, I am your enemy. Then instead of focusing on the point of disagreement and saying, this is my understanding of something, this is the understanding of my brother, my teacher, my Sheikh, my father, my whoever. We say he is a lousy Sheikh. He is a lousy brother. He has no Iman. He is a Munafiqi. So from going, from addressing the argument, from addressing the point of disagreement, you start attacking the individual. This is the worst kind of humanity. Absolutely the worst. Allah SWT told us and reminded the Sahaba that when they used to oppose each other and they had enmity over trivial things, and that enmity divided them and made their own lives miserable. Just look at ourselves today. Who is miserable? Allah SWT said, Allah said I joined them. I remind myself and you that Allah SWT said, He did not say, He said do not have a difference. He said don’t have a difference. There is a difference between this and that. The difference between the two is good. Welcome. No problem. But the difference between the brother and the sister is bad. Not my Fatwa. I will tell you the Fatwa of the Prophet in a minute. Allah SWT said, La tafarraku, la taqtatham, Qasam bayna hadhi bayna hadhi. A difference of opinion only means that several intelligent people are engaged in thinking about a particular matter. So they have differences of understanding their matter. That’s all it means. But when the intelligence leaves the arena and egos take over, and when solving the problem is not the objective, but dominating the discussion takes precedence, then the intelligent difference of opinions turns into ignorant posturing and opposition. Intelligent difference of opinion is welcome, it is desirable, and it results in bringing people together. In my corporate consulting practice, in any corporate organization, what’s the name? We deliberately introduce differences of opinion. The company may have a particular policy. Then we do what is called what-if analysis. We say, what if this is wrong? You do that with Muslims. Instant Kufr fatwas, at least three. Say, what if this is wrong? So when you say, what if this is wrong, then you are forced to look for evidence. And the purpose is what? Show that it is wrong. Prove that it is wrong. So what happens? One of two good things. If you can prove it is wrong, Alhamdulillah, you found the truth. And if you cannot prove it is wrong, Alhamdulillah, now you are absolutely firm on the truth from a position of understanding. This is the way. We have… I don’t even want to go into that. I mean, we have the number of problems we have in our traditional education system, especially Islamic education. That’s why I don’t want to go into that here. But believe me, today we are in this mess, not without reason. And that’s good news. Alhamdulillah. We are in a mess, no problem. But we know why we are in a mess. So do something about that if you want to be in a mess. If you love the mess, stay there. But we have to get off our sit-up arms and take action. We have to stand up and speak that which is unpopular. We have normalized what are signs of deficiencies. We have normalized dysfunctional behavior. We have normalized things which should be alarm calls in our mind to say, we have spiritual sickness. We say, no, no, that’s not sickness, that’s good. Let the rest of the world modify itself to suit by sickness. This is the tyranny of feelings. This is what we are going through. Believe me, this is what is happening in the rest of the world and it is happening also with Muslims in our societies, in how we approach our religion. Allah did not discourage questioning. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala not just discouraged but prohibited and made haram attacking another Muslim, attacking another person because you disagree with them. No other reason. No other reason. Till yesterday you were fine. Today what happened? The same guy. How come suddenly he is your enemy? Because you changed your mind. He doesn’t agree with me, therefore he is my enemy. He doesn’t agree with me, therefore he is my enemy. I won’t pray behind him. I won’t go to his house. I won’t invite him. I won’t… And what is the result of that? Allah said, then obey Allah and His Messenger, do not dispute with one another. Do not form differences. Otherwise you will lose courage and your strength will disappear. Allah said, be patient. First, be patient. Be patient. Surely Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, He is the one, He is with those who are patient. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, Rizal, make up your differences. Allah said, so fear Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Have Allah’s taqwa and reconcile whatever differences are there among you and obey Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and the Messenger, if you are believers. I leave you with that. May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala cause us to look at our lives, look at differences that we have with people. Go and make up before you go and make up before you go. Go and make up before we face Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
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