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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ. Tasleem al kathira.
Fahma Badu.
My brothers and sisters, I… Let me tell you a story. I believe it is true, but even if it is not, it’s a nice legend. And the story is that we are talking about identity. As Ibram Bhai said, what is the identity of the Muslim, especially in South Africa? The story is that when Persia was conquered by the Muslims, a shipload, a small group of Persians who were Zoroastrian, they left Persia and they sailed and finally landed in India, in Gujarat. So when they landed there, the shipload of people, the king of that place, they landed there and they came to the king. They intended to request him to settle in his land. Now the king was very reluctant. He didn’t know who these people were. They were from Persia. Everything is different. Their language is different. Their religion is different. And so he didn’t want any issues or problems of integrating. So in those days, you didn’t just say “get out,” right? You said it in a nice way. So what the king did was he asked for a bowl of milk, a bowl of milk completely full to the brim. And he presented this bowl of milk to the leader of the Persians, the Zoroastrians who landed there. So obviously the matter was clear: there is no room; it’s full. That man asked for some sugar. And very gently he sprinkled the sugar in the milk and it dissolved. And he presented that bowl back to the king. Meaning that you gave us this milk bowl which was full, and we have returned it to you now sweetened. So our presence will sweeten your milk. So with this I would like to conclude my speech. Because I don’t think there is any need to say anything more, isn’t it? This is the issue of identity. The issue of identity is as simple as this: How can we make ourselves invaluable and precious to the people of that place? That’s it. Because the reality is true. You cannot live in any place as a minority if you are adversarial or seen as adversarial to the majority in that place. I’m not saying you’re necessarily adversarial. No, this is how you are portrayed. Rightly or wrongly, by manipulation, or in whichever way, you’re portrayed as adversarial. Now there is only one way or one situation in which you can, as a minority, being adversarial, being seen as adversarial, still live and prosper in a country, and that is if you are the rulers. In India we have… all of you are Indian. This is it anyway. In India we have 700 years history of that. Small minority ruling the vast majority. Obviously adversarial and 700 years of that. The result of that we are now paying the price off where we are no longer rulers. The alternative is to accept and understand that in any society, if you are a minority, you cannot live in an adversarial state. You cannot live in an adversarial position. The alternative is to become invaluable. Become unique. Become people who are seen not only as beneficial, but as critical to survival, critical to development, critical to happiness for the majority. Now how exactly you do that will differ from place to place and so on and so forth. But no. None of that is rocket science. It’s very simple. Use your resources in order to benefit the people to such an extent that they make you the go-to person for all resolution of their problems, right? So I think maybe what needs to be done is for you to have brainstorming sessions and then say: What is it that we can do to be in that position? What will it take? What will it take exactly? What exactly do you need to do? What investment do you need to make? And so on. Now obviously we have reached a stage where I think it is now becoming more and more urgent. So I would strongly recommend that. Allah sent Rasool ﷺ as an example to all mankind. And it is my contention and I have written two books on seerah. One is called *The Leadership Lessons from the Life of Rasool* and the other one is called *Seerah is the Answer*. I teach two; I design two courses based on these books or the book is for the course anyway, whichever way, whichever comes first. There’s a course, there’s a four-day residential course called Leadership Excellence Course, which is based on the book *Leadership Lessons from the Life of Rasool*, and there’s another course called Seerah Solution Workshop, which is a two-day course which is based on the book called *Seerah is the Answer*. And my contention is that for every question that we might have in our lives, the answer is to be found in the seerah of Rasool ﷺ. So since we are talking about the issue of identity and what should be the identity of Muslims, then let’s look for the answer in the life of Rasool ﷺ. It should be there. So if my contention is correct, then we should have an answer. If you take Rasool ﷺ and we are now looking at the Makkan period, the beginning, he and the few people around him were… I won’t say they were exactly as, or their situation was exactly like ours is because that is not true, their situation was much worse. Ours is far better. But there is some similarity. And that similarity is that they were a small group of people who were powerless. They had no political power. They had no military authority. Obviously they were too small to have any military power. They were poor. They didn’t have money. They were not seen or they were not the leaders of that society. They were a small group of people and they were surrounded by a majority who was hostile. Different levels of hostility. There were people who were hostile enough to actually harm them, kill them. You know, physically try to harm them. There were other people who were not that hostile but they were still hostile. And this continued. This continued for an extended period. And it got from bad to worse to worse. From the beginning, if you take it, it was just a downhill slope. Conditions got worse and worse and worse. Until they got to a point where this small group of people was effectively evicted. Some had to flee for their lives. Others were sent off. And all their wealth, their property, their houses was confiscated, was robbed. I mean things could hardly get worse than that. Especially if you look at it from the perspective of our tribal society. Some of these things we have to really sit and think and reflect. Because today, we just tell the story. We really have no understanding of that because our society is very different. But in a tribal society, your identity is so deeply embedded in the tribe, in the family. That to be taken out of that situation and sent away is literally a death sentence. You no longer have the protection of your tribe. You have been uprooted and removed. And wherever you might go, you are a stranger. You have no roots. You have no backing. You don’t have a family that you call your own. So it’s like a death sentence. It’s something we can’t identify with because that’s not how our society is organized. But this is what happened to them. So all of them who went from Makkah to Madinah, and some went to Abyssinia and then they went to Madinah, they were refugees. We call them muhajirin. And we call them people who migrated. They didn’t migrate. They were chased out. They were refugees. Not one of them went of his own free will. Not a single one went to say, “Okay, let me see what Madinah is like. I’ll spend a few days and come back.” No. They were refugees. And completely deprived of all their resources, all their wealth, property. Some of them were wealthy. They lost everything. Yet, in a period of one generation, the same generation as Rasulullah ﷺ. These very same people who were chased out of their homes, who had to fear for their lives, became the leaders of that society. They became the rulers of that society. They became the role models of that society. And the amazing thing is that all of this happened without any bloodshed. There’s a handful of people, maybe eight, ten people, twelve people or something, would have died in Fatah Makkah. But nothing else happened. Without any bloodshed, without any violence, these very people who found themselves in that situation of complete deprivation, became the leaders of that society. I want you to think about this for a bit and ask this question: How did this happen? If I give you this… I mean, let me give you this job, it would be wonderful if you do it. This is what you and I are in that situation today. See, if you, if we are given this task, to say in this same generation, I’m not talking about your children, I’m saying you. Say that Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a., when he became the Khalifa, that was the peak of the Khilafah Rashidah, and the conquests of the Khilafah Rashidah, he was the same generation as Rasool Allah ﷺ. He was not of the generation of the children of Rasool Allah ﷺ. So if I give you this task, or I give myself this task and say, how can we create that situation where the same generation will be seen as the role models and as people who are looked up to, in the nation that we live in, where currently we seem to see the winds of change are blowing and they are not blowing from the right direction, what would you do? How would you bring this about? And the condition is, we’re not talking about some military takeover, or we’re not talking about any violence, we’re not talking about anything wrong, illegal, no, no, no. With complete peace and harmony, how would you become leaders and role models in that society? And that’s the thing I think is something worth… you know, thinking about very seriously, and something worth doing some brainstorming on. How will you do that? A couple of things to understand. How Rasool Allah ﷺ and his Sahaba did it? Was one: with complete and total dedication to the principles which I will talk about in a minute. The principles on which all their actions were based. They did not compromise those principles at all for any reason. Number two: was they invested whatever was required to be invested, whether it was money, whether it was time, whether it was literally lives, to achieve their aims. They didn’t hold back anything. Because this is one of our problems today. We think that we do some tokenism, and we say, “At least I did something.” At least does not help anybody. Please understand that. At least does not help anybody. At least is a figment of the imagination. It gives you false sense of achievement. Right? If you are studying for medicine, for example, you need to study enough to pass the examination with the required numbers, required marks, right? You can’t say, well at least I studied. Who cares? You failed the exam. If at least you study, what does it matter? So we need to do what is required in order to succeed. And you have to meet that mark, whatever that mark is. So what did they do? The first and foremost thing they did was complete and total obedience to Allah ﷻ. Allah said, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ. Allah said, O you who believe, fear the displeasure of Allah. Have taqwa of Allah. اِتَّقُوا اللَّهَ. Have taqwa of Allah. How much? حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ. As it is His right that you should have His taqwa. وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ. And do not die except in a state of submission, except in a state of Islam. First and foremost principle of Rasulullah’s life, and of what the Sahaba did, was this: the taqwa of Allah ﷻ. Now if you’re talking about taqwa, taqwa is a combination of hubb and khashyat or khawf, of love of Allah ﷻ. Because Allah said, وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّهُمْ بَلَاءَ اللَّهِ. Allah described the believers. And Allah said that they are those who have, who not only love Allah, but love Allah extremely, more than anyone or anything else. Now think about this, because I’m not reciting these ayats for you today from a perspective of tasawwuf or, you know, something else. This is… I’m talking about nuts and bolts. Politics, money, government. Why must you love Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala more than anyone or anything else? How does that connect with what I’m saying with regard to your identity? Because unless you love Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, unless I love Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala more than anyone or anything else, I will not do what is required for me to succeed in what I’m saying. Always I will hold myself back and say, “Okay, this is enough.” But when you love Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala more than anyone or anything else, there is no boundary to what you will do or can do in order to please Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. So Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala honored the believers by saying: The believers are those who love Allah more than anyone or anything else. And Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala also mentioned the position of the Muslim. He said: These are the people who wake up in the night and they stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, between fear and hope, fear of punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and hope in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, and they spend from what We have given them. So this position of taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is saying… and when and how and for how long must you have this taqwa? Not only in your masajid, not only in your businesses, not only in your homes, until you die. Do not die except in that state. And since death, we don’t know when it comes, it means that this state of taqwa must be the state of the Muslim 24-7. No matter when death comes, when I meet Malakul Maut, I will and I can only meet him in this state because this is my state. Yes? So if we are to have this connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, connection of taqwa which is based on hubb, which is based on the love of Allah ﷻ and the khawf of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s punishment, if we disobey Him, we ask Allah to forgive us and to keep us safe from His disobedience, it is necessary to know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Because by definition, you cannot love Allah, somebody you don’t know. Right? You cannot love somebody you don’t know. So the question is: do we know Allah? Who is Allah? Do we know Allah?