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Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ash-sharafi al-anbiya wal-mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ. Tasliman kathiran kathir. Humbabado. My brothers and sisters, we were talking about the issue of how do we approach learning the knowledge of Islam. As I mentioned to you yesterday, if you approach it from a non-practical angle, meaning that you are there to listen to some lecture or you are reading a book intellectually, then you don’t gain anything from it. Because Islam is the name of a practice. It is not the name of a philosophy or a theory. If there is a philosophy or a theory, or you are reading history, for example, then nothing to do. You are just acquiring some information. So, say, supposing somebody says, let us read about the theory and the evolution of communism. You can read that. You will have knowledge of that. Similarly, anything else. But supposing somebody says, let us read about the evolution of judo. You can do that also. You can become the greatest scholar of judo. You can memorize entire books on judo. But you go out on the street and somebody attacks you, you are on the floor. You cannot defend yourself. Even though you are the world’s greatest scholar on judo. Because judo is a practice. It’s a martial art. Aikido is a martial art. Karate is a martial art. Right? How do you learn a martial art? Not by reading. Not by watching a video on a judo match. You learn a martial art only in one way. The same way like you learn cycling. The same way like you learn swimming. By doing it. There is no other way. Find me a way of how you can learn cycling without getting on a bicycle. Is there a way? You can do us. You can watch videos on cycling. But can you learn to cycle without getting on a cycle? Not do it. Can you learn to swim without entering water? You cannot. Similarly, you cannot learn Islam without doing Islam. As simple as that. You can learn about Islam. But learning about Islam will help you only as much as learning about cycling will help you to cycle. Or learning about swimming will help you to swim. Or learning about judo or karate or Aikido will help you in a fight. It won’t. It will not help you. What will help you is if you can do it. Right? And that is the reason why in Islam if you look at it, the first thing that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says as soon as you get Iman, “La ilaha illallah” (لا إله إلا الله), “Fa’budni” (فعبُدني)
and “Aqim al-salah” (أقم الصلاة). Immediate action. First thing, bring Iman. Have faith that Allah is Allah and there is no one worthy of worship except Allah. And the next step is worship Allah. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala did not say, Now, therefore, reflect on my glory, reflect on my majesty, look at all my creation. All of this has come in the Qur’an. Nothing, “Inna fi khalqi al-samawati wal-ardi wa ikhtilafi laylin wan-nahari la ayatin li uli al-albab” (إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ لَيْلٍ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٌ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ). All of this has come in the Qur’an. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has said, Look at my creation, look at this and so on. There are signs for people of intelligence. But the sequence of action is very simple. As soon as you say, “La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah” (لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله)
All the rest of it comes later. Establish Salah. Immediate action. You know, in the world today, yoga is very popular. People are doing yoga all over the world. How do they teach yoga? Any of you, have you actually gone to a yoga class? No. I have gone to the Bihar school of yoga and I learnt yoga. To me, the most powerful thing about yoga and the reason why it’s so powerful is because the person teaching yoga does not even tell you one word about yoga. Nothing. Suppose you go there and say, I want to learn yoga. He says, okay, sit down. Fold your feet like this. Shut your eyes. Put your hands like this. Now breathe through this nostril. Inside. Hold the breath for two seconds. Then breathe out through the other nostril. This is called Pranayama. In through one nostril. From the word go, he’s put you into, actually, straight away. He does not tell you, yoga is this, yoga is that, and this muni, and this rishi, and this guru, so and so invented yoga. And in those days, thousand years ago, it was like this. Nothing, nothing. He will not tell you one word. There’s no bayan about yoga. There is no khutba about yoga. Nothing. From the word go, the moment you enter the room, I want to learn yoga. Okay, sit down. Lie down. That is the power. From the minute the word go, you start acting. Because results come from action. There’s no other way of getting results. You want to do business, what must you do? Do business. Don’t talk about business. I have an MBA from, I am Amdavar. I teach MBAs. And I tell people, never do an MBA. It’s a waste of time. Go and do, go and do business. You want to learn business? Go sell something, man. Go sell something. Take your chappals and go sell them. The more worthless thing that you can sell, the bigger, the better sale money will be. Take a rock, take a stone and sell it. If you take a diamond, it doesn’t need selling. It sells itself. But take a useless thing and sell it. It builds your selling skills. I’m not saying deceive people. I’m saying sell the thing. Show people the value of that thing. The same thing with Islam. You want to benefit from Islam? You have to do Islam. You must do Islam. Then you benefit. Yeah? So, extremely, extremely important. And, that is the reason why in Islam, there is so much focus on morality, wisdom, and virtue. Nikiyabadi. Yeah? Hassanat, Maasyat. There’s so much focus on this. Because, these are the things which either support or destroy civilizations. Civilizations are not destroyed because they did not have money, or they did not have military force, or commerce, or this and that. Today, this is the story we are told. That, the secret of success is good commerce. You must have a strong economy. You must have high technology. I’m not saying you should not have, of course, have a strong economy. There’s nothing romantic about poverty. But, the point being, this is, this will not support your civilization. Your civilization will still be destroyed. Take, read, that’s why history is very important. Today, people don’t read history. That’s an absolutely stupid thing to do. You must read history. When did the, take any civilization, and see the moment of their decline. And, you will always, without exception, you will find the moment of their decline was when they were economically the strongest. When did the Mughal Empire start going down? When it was producing, in terms of GDP, 25% of global GDP. One empire. That’s when it started going down. When did the Muslim empire in Spain, in Al-Andalus, when did it start going down? Same thing. When it was at the peak. Peak of the economy, goes down. Roman Empire, same story. Persian empires, Persians had several empires, not just one. Take the Achaemenid, which was the earliest, from Cyrus. And then, take the Sasanian, then take the Safavid. Take the Ottomans, Ofmani. Everything. Take Asafjahi. When did it go down? When Usman Ali Khan, by himself, was the richest man on the face of the planet. So, it is not money. It’s not lack of money. Right? It’s not lack of money. It’s not, you know, there is no strength in the economy. It went down, it goes down, when vice and virtue become one. People, people become immoral. It is better to be immoral, than to be immoral. If you are immoral, you are doing, you know,
Bad things, at least you know they are bad. But when people are immoral, which is that, they don’t even know what is right or wrong; they are just doing things. Like we have today, we have so-called global leaders who have zero conception about what is right and what is wrong. They have money. The classic example of people who are very wealthy is that the wealth brings with it arrogance, and arrogance brings with it blindness. So, they do wrong things and put themselves into trouble. That is why Islam comes with a moral code—a moral code which is very, very clear regarding what is right and what is wrong. This clarity does not change because of how much money you have or whether you don’t have any.
The peak of Islam, if you look at it, was also the peak in terms of military power, as an empire, and as an economy. I am not looking at the peak in terms of Islamic theology or morality here. I am saying the peak as in military power, as an empire, and as an economy. The peak of Islam was when the Sahaba were the poorest. The peak of Islam was during the times of the Khulafa Rashida (the Rashidun Khilafah); that is when the conquests were made. That is when Iraq was conquered. That is when Persia was conquered. That is when the Roman Empire of Heraclius, the Western Roman Empire, which is Byzantium, was conquered. They had no money. So, it’s not a question of material; it’s a question of vice and virtue.
That is why there is a famous quote from Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷺ: “Don’t let a man’s prayer or fasting deceive you.” He refers to his outward, visible behavior. He says, “Don’t let a person’s prayer or fasting deceive you.” Anyone can pray and fast if they want, but the one who has no trustworthiness has no religion. It’s not a question of prayer and fasting; it’s a question of whether I can rely on your word. Will you deliver on what you promised? And the simplest, most common form of this is: if you say, “I will come at a certain time,” will you actually come?
Today, that is something we don’t even speak about. You tell somebody, “I’ll see you tomorrow at 9 a.m.” Nine o’clock in the morning is a specific time; it’s not open to interpretation. Nine is a number, right? Now, next morning, you see no sign by 9 a.m., no sign by 9:30, no phone call, no information—nothing. Then you turn up at 10 o’clock. What happened? Oh, “this happened, that happened.” Or perhaps someone promises, “I will give you this thing, this project; I’ll finish this, complete it, and give it to you on so-and-so date. I’ll give it to you in two days.” Two days pass, two months pass, two years pass, and nothing happens. Reliability means doing what you promise. It means that you have self-respect, that you have respect for your own tongue and your own word. If you have no self-respect, then how will anybody respect you? If I tell you I will do something and I don’t do it, what’s the good of that? That means you can’t trust me. I am telling you, please don’t trust me. I am not worthy of being trusted.
That is what Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab ﷺ said: “Don’t be deceived by prayer and fasting, or the length of the beard, or the size of the amama.” A person who has no trustworthiness has no religion. He also said, “Don’t be impressed by a person’s talk or outward show.” The true man is the one who fulfills trusts and keeps away from people’s honor. Keeping away from people’s honor means that this person will not engage in *ghibah* (backbiting), will not indulge in any activity which is harmful to somebody else. They won’t try to harm someone; they won’t bad-talk anyone, slander, or so on. So, that is the real side: trustworthiness and keeping away from people’s honor. If you can do good for somebody, do it. If you can’t do good, stay silent. Go to sleep. Don’t harm people.
So, I remind myself and you that Allah sent us this beautiful deen for us to understand it and to practice it—not just to talk about it. Practicing it is important because Islam teaches you to convey this good thing to other people. But the most powerful way of conveying it is through your own conduct. Because if you say something and do something else, then it destroys credibility. Allahﷻ mentioned this in the Quran:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ
O you who believe, why do you say what you do not do? (Yaa ayyuhal-lazeena aamanoo lima taquloona ma la taf’aloona)
If I tell you not to smoke but I am smoking, or I tell you to pray on time but I am not praying on time, or I tell you you must pray in the mosque—it’s very important—but I am not praying in the mosque, there is no credibility. Then you will tell me, “Okay, what you’re saying is good, but why should I believe it?” You mean, if it is so good, how come you don’t do it? So, that is very important.
Many years ago, I think probably 20-something, maybe 30 years ago, I was speaking at UMass in Amherst, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. It was an introduction to Islam lecture. Usually, you expect two or three questions which always come, such as, “What about women’s rights in Islam?” That’s one standard question. So, I was expecting the question again: “What about women’s rights?” So, I had a whole list of women’s rights in Islam; I was prepared for the question. But then I decided against giving the whole thing. I said, “To this day, in other places and so on, these rights are not there.” The questioner says, “I’m very impressed. Thank you very much. Where can I see this?” Which country? Which place? You are saying Islam gives women these rights, so where can I see it implemented? What is the answer? Where? So, what is the good of talking about women’s rights in Islam? Allah Ta’ala gave the rights, but Muslim men don’t give the rights to the women which Allah gave them. So, effectively, for the women, where are the rights? They’re not there.
What is Islam’s view? How should a Muslim treat the poor? What is Islam’s view on charity? You can have a list of these questions. And then, the next question is, “Where can I see it?” That is why we are the way we are. There’s no answer. People don’t respect us because from their perspective, you talk about the glory and greatness and wonderful things about Islam, yet you are a Muslim who doesn’t practice it yourself. Then don’t waste my time. Why are you telling me about it? What should I do? Why should I follow it when you don’t follow it yourself?
So, I remind myself and you: let us not become witnesses against Islam. Let us make sure that we practice Islam because Alhamdulillah, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la gave Islam to us as a gift. We didn’t work for it; we get what we will have. So, let us treat it with respect and let us practice it in our lives in every single way, Inshallah.
Rabbana faqfilana dhunubana wa kafirana sayyatina wa tawaffana ma’al-burati Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa illam taqfilana wa tarhamna ala nakumana ma’al-khasirin wa taqfilana ma’al-khasirin. Rabbana atina fi duniya hasanatun wa fil-akhirati hasanatun wa qinaatun wa n-naqa. Wa sallallahu ‘ala nabiyyil kareem wa ‘ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatillah wa barakatuh.