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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his companions.
Peace be upon him, and upon his family and his companions.
My dear respected brothers, sisters, elders.
Ask any Muslim today to name the biggest problem with the Ummah.
And he or she is likely to say, lack of leadership.
Coming from 40 years in leadership training and development, and my study of the seerah of Rasulullah , resulting in two books, I differ.
In my view, the crisis is not lack of leadership, but lack of followership.
Let me explain with two examples from the seerah.
The first example is the second bay’ah of Al-Aqaba, which was taken in the 13th year of the Hijr of Prophethood, in June 622 CE, by 75 people from Madinah, which was called Yathrib at that time.
Ka’b bin Malik , who was the leader of the Muslim community, said,
That night we slept with our people in our camps.
He is talking about Mina, where they had camped at the time of Hajj.
After a third of the night had elapsed, we began to leave quietly and met at a hillock nearby.
We were 73 men plus two women.
Nusaybah bin Ka’b , who was also called Umm Mahmara,
from the Bani Najjar,
and Asma bin Amar, Umm Muni, from Bani Salama.
We gathered, waiting for Rasulullah , until he came in the company of his uncle,
Al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib, who at that time was still following the religion of his fathers,
but who always wanted to be with his nephew,
and to participate and look after him in any matters that concerned him.
Al-Abbas spoke first, and he said,
O you people of the Khazraj,
The Quraysh used to call all the people of, from Madinah, from Yathrib,
whether they were Aus or Khazraj, as Khazraj.
So he said, O you people of the Khazraj,
all of you know the position that Muhammad ,
holds among us.
We have protected him from the people as much as we could.
He is honored and respected among his people.
He refuses to join any party except you.
So if you think you can carry out what you promise,
while inviting him to your town,
and if you can defend him against his enemies,
then assume the burden that you have taken.
But if you are going to betray him,
after having taken him away with you,
you had better leave him now,
because he is respected and well defended in his own place.
Ka’b bin Malik says that we listened to him,
and then we said to him,
we have heard your words,
and now, O Messenger of Allah ,
it is for you to speak to us,
and take from us any pledge that you wish,
regarding your Rabb and yourself.
Now Rasool Allah then spoke,
and he said three things.
Now before I tell you what those three things are,
listen very carefully.
Put yourself in that position,
and ask yourself what you would have done,
what I would have done,
if we had been in that position.
Every time I read these kinds of
stories from the seerah,
I thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala,
that I was not among those people.
SubhanAllah, wallahi.
That I was not among those people.
It is the great mercy of Allah,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala chose to send me into this world,
1400 years after all of this happened,
I am reading this as an account.
On a side note, think about this.
Maryam alaihi salam comes out of the blue,
this young girl known for her piety,
and all the rest of it,
out of the blue comes with a baby.
And when the people say,
what is this?
How do you have a baby?
She points to the baby.
She doesn’t speak.
Now we are hearing this,
and we know this,
because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala described it for us.
For us, this is a matter of aqeedah,
this is the Quran.
If somebody says this did not happen,
or didn’t happen, like this and like that,
he is out of Islam.
Khareed ul Islam.
Khalas.
Very easy for us to believe,
because this is the kalam of Allah.
But the people who are standing there,
in front,
alive,
looking at this,
imagine the kind of test they went through.
You really feel sorry for them,
I mean, wallahi.
Right?
You are condemning them.
Don’t condemn them.
Just put yourself in that situation and say,
wallahi, alhamdulillah,
Allah did not put me in that position.
I don’t know what I would have done.
So also here now,
Rasool Allah is about to ask them to do something which,
listen to this,
and thank Allah that you and I were not,
I at least speak for myself.
I am very grateful I was not in that place.
Rasool Allah ,
here is a man who is seeking protection
to do his work of Deen.
He is not seeking protection from himself.
To do his work of Deen.
From practically everyone who came for Hajj.
Right?
For two years.
The only people who gave him that protection,
who offered that were the people of Yathrib.
So what would you do if you were in this place?
Nobody wants to help me.
You want to help me.
No, no, no.
I will tell you what I want.
You tell me whatever you want.
I will do it for you.
So that I get protection.
Right?
See what he says.
First condition.
You will obey me,
whether you agree or disagree.
Or whether you like or dislike whatever I order you to do.
So you are not going to say,
alright, good, I heard you.
Now, you know, it doesn’t make sense to me.
Right?
Let me think about this critically.
Let me analyze it.
It’s not logical.
No.
You will obey.
Without question.
You will obey me,
whether you like it or don’t like it.
Whether you agree or disagree with whatever I command you to do.
First condition.
Second condition.
You will give when I ask you to donate for the sake of Allah.
You will give in times of plenty and in times of scarcity.
You’re not giving when you have.
No, no, no.
Even if you don’t have, go find it.
Do what you have.
I want it for the sake of Allah.
You will give it whether you have it or you don’t have it.
And the third one.
You will protect me like you protect your own wives and children.
Your own women and children.
Like your family.
Meaning what?
Meaning you will take the bullet for me.
You will come in front and you will get slaughtered to save me.
Just think about this.
Today when we have a hadith of Prophet , we have all kinds of arguments.
What does it sound like to you?
Is it reasonable?
No.
I’ll tell you what is even more unreasonable.
And that is why the Ansar have the position of the Ansar.
Kabir Malik Abd al-Anas says, we heard this.
We listened to these three conditions.
And then we asked, Ya Rasulullah, what will we get in return?
Once again, at the risk of repetition.
You will obey me whether you like it or not.
Whether you understand it or not.
Whether you agree or not.
You will give whether you have it or not.
And finally you will lay down your life if you need to do that to protect me and my message.
What will we get in return, Ya Rasulullah?
He says Jannah.
He says Jannah.
Right?
So I need to give you all of this in this life.
And you are promising me some pie in the sky.
After I die.
La halwa lakhuwata illa billah.
Naudh billah min zalik.
Astaghfirullahil-Ladheem.
May Allah have mercy on you and me.
Same Jannah, right?
Was it a different Jannah?
We make, Ya Allah give me Jannah.
Sure.
You get Jannah, these are the conditions.
You want Jannah, these are the conditions.
I didn’t make the condition.
Nabi said, these are the conditions.
You want Jannah, these are the conditions.
No arguments.
What are we seeing here?
Followership or leadership?
And then, and this is the punchline.
He asked these things.
What will we get, Ya Rasulullah?
Jannah.
What is their response?
Their response is, Subhanallah.
What a bargain.
What a bargain.
Alhamdulillah.
What a bargain.
What a bargain.
What’s a bargain?
When you get a valuable thing for very little, that’s a bargain.
You go, you buy something in a thrift shop.
Every once in a while you hear this, right?
Somebody goes and buys something in a thrift shop, they go clean up that vase, and that
vase is like some Ming dynasty worth a million dollars.
Wow, fantastic.
I paid 10 bucks for it.
That’s a bargain.
Paying a million bucks for something which costs them, which is valuable, that’s a bargain.
They’re saying, what a bargain.
That is why the Ansar are the Ansar.
Rizwanullahi alaihi majma’in.
And then Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala, Allah is Allah.
All of this is conversation, right?
Then Abiy asks something, and you say, fantastic, what a bargain.
Okay.
But Allah is Allah.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is Allah.
He says, what a bargain.
He says, what a bargain.
Okay.
But Allah is Allah.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is Allah.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala is Allah.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala tests.
Allah tests.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala to save us from His tests.
And may Allah’s blessings and blessings be upon the noble Prophet and upon his family and companions.
By your mercy, O you who are merciful, and by the praise of Allah, Lord of the worlds.
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