Love for humanity

Summarised transcript from Ustaadh Nouman Ali Khan’s Jumu’ah Khutbah at The Faith Centre, Bradford

[The Ustaadh opens the Khutbah with Du’aas.]

                       

Allah says in the Qur’an:

“Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided.” [28:56]

In today’s brief moments khutbah that we share together, I would like to talk to you about just a single ayah of the Qur’an and some reflections from this ayah. It belongs to Surah Qasas, and in Surah Qasas, in the beginning, Allah teaches us many of the most powerful lessons from the story of Musa (as). And after that, Allah talks about the transition, speaking about the destruction of Fir’aun. Allah talks about the Fir’auns, living at the time of Rasulullah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), an element of the Quryash, whose behavior and arrogance was similar to that of Fir’auns.

So after talking about the stubbornness and destruction of Fir’aun and his people, Allah then compares their stubbornness to the stubbornness of Quraysh, which is supposed to be a revelation….that if they don’t change their ways, something will happen to them, like what happened to the people of Fir’aun.

But right after that, Allah talks about the people of the book, and a group among the people of the book. This group are a people who heard the word of Allah, just once. Allah says regarding them: “…you’re going to see their eyes rolling with tears.” These are jews and Christians who heard the word of Allah, not many times, but just once, and they started crying. And they say: this is what we knew to be the truth! “We used to be Muslims in our hearts even before this.” ‘We had already accepted Islam.’

Now the Rasul of Allah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam) has a comparison in front of him. He’s got these people who he has been inviting to islam for decades, and they don’t listen. These people are being compared to Fir’aun.

And then on the other hand, you have people who heard the ayah of Allah, one time, that’s it, and as a matter fact, not only do they become Muslim. Actually, when they became Muslim, the people of Quraysh begin messing around with them and saying “What you doing?” “Whats wrong with you guys?” “Why are you coming to Islam?”

They start talking trash to the people who just became Muslim – the people of the book!

This is an added embarrassment for the Rasulullah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), because the people of Makkah are misleading the people. And because people are coming from outside and accept the message, yet the worst hosts are his own people - the Makkans, they are the ones pushing people away from Islam.

So before the messenger, there is this incredible dichotomy. It is that: ‘My own people don’t listen and outsiders are willing to listen!’

I brought this up, because not that this is the subject of my khutbah, but because the underlying theme, I want you to understand.

When you try to give a message of Islam, or any message for that matter, and people don’t listen, and not only they don’t listen, but their hatred towards you and aggression towards you, gets worse and worse and worse. They start making fun of you, and the examples of them abusing you, and the examples of them putting down you religion, and scheming against you, the examples don’t decrease they increase.

This, give you more reasons to understand that they have become your enemies. It is also understandable that you will develop a kind of aggression, a kind of hatred towards these people too. They hate you so much for so many years, it is only natural that humans will hate back, those who hate them. Just like love is reciprocated, hate is also reciprocated… isn’t it?

Yet, at the end of this discussion, Allah reveals something so remarkable about the Rasul (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), a great Sunnah of the Prophet of Allah, that is recorded in the Qur’an.

Before I tell you about this Sunnah, I want you to know that this is not only the Sunnah of the messenger of Allah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam). This is the Sunnah of every Rasul that came before him. Every single one of them followed the same, exact Sunnah. Now… what is it?

Allah (swt) tells His messenger:

“Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like/love, but Allah guides whom He wills.” [28:56]

Guidance is in Allah’s hands. See, messengers are told over and over again, Remind. You just keep reminding. Don’t worry about what they do. If they make fun of you, don’t worry about it, if they lie against you, don’t worry about it, even if they try to kill you, don’t worry about it, you just do what you have to do. “You’re not incharge of them.” Here, the messenger (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), is being told, you do not guide who you want. 

There are several people being mentioned in this Surah, there is Firaun being talked about, then there’s Quraysh being talked about, then there are some people of the book who become Muslim, who are being talked about, and in the middle of this conversation, Allah tells His messenger (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), guidance is not in your hands, you do not get to guide whoever you love, it is Allah who guides.

Now, the mufasiroon (interpreters of tafseer), are almost in agreement, that this ayah is talking about Abu Taalib. Abu Taalib is the uncle of the messenger of Allah (Salallahu alayji Wasallam), he does not accept Islam, but he supports the messenger (Sallahu Alayhi Wasallam). He takes care of the messenger, he even protects the messenger on a number of occasions. A lot of the dawah that he (Salallahu alayhiw wasalla) did, could not have been done if it wasn’t for the support of Abu Taalib, Allah made him a means to by which he could carry on his work, because he was one of the seniors of Quraysh, that became a shield for him so he could carry on his work.

Now Abu Taalb, is about to pass away, and Rasulullah (Sallahu Alayhi Wasallam), tells him to take the Shahadah before he dies. He refuses to do it and he passes away and the messenger is extremely hurt, and then the ayah comes…

“Indeed, [O Muhammad], you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided.” [28:56]

The mufassiroon say that this ayah is about Abu Taalib, BUT some musafiroon commented that the Arabic language is very specific, very accurate, very remarkable, Allah can say something that refers to one matter, and at the same time, He can say something that is universal, and this is the message I am trying to get across.

If this ayah is only about Abu Taalib, then they have this concept in Arabic called ‘Al-‘Aa’il.’ The Arabic word for ‘like/live’ in this ayah is, ‘Ahbabta’. If there was a ‘hoo’ at the end of the word, the meaning would have been that, the ayah is specific to one person. Now, the mufasiroon are correct in saying this is about Abu Taalib, but they are also correct by saying that this can never be limited to Abu Taalib. The principle of Arabic here is that the meaning is open. And also, Allah used ‘man’ to open the meaning even further.

In simple English, it means, we are being told about the messenger (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), that he has indiscriminate love for all of the people. To be the messenger of Allah, to want guidance for humanity, you cannot want the most beautiful thing for a person, if you do not love them.  

That is the Sunnah I want to talk to you about today. The Sunah of all messengers. They LOVED all their people. I started saying that they (the people) start hating you, start becoming enemies to you, they start making fun of your book, they start making fun of the messenger to his face, they start making fun of Allah. They start saying all kinds of words of Shirk and Kufr, and no one is more allergic to words of Shirk and Kufr than the messengers of Allah. So when they hear that kind of language, it is only natural that they should become angry at the one who says them. Yet, their Sunnah, consistently, throughout all of history, is that they loved their people.

If you think about Nuh (as), about someone who put up with Kufr for 950 years, for 9 centuries and more, he puts up with the most ridiculous things. There is even commentaries where it mentions he even used to give dawah to children. And those same children, then grew up, and they had children, and they would bring their children, and say ‘Don’t listen to that old man son, he used to try and preach to me when I was little too.’ Can you imagine how much hurt that would be… generations of people are coming to his face and insulting him! What kind of anger must be building inside of him, but no, even in the Surah, which reveals the final dawah of Nuh (as). Nuh (as) addresses his people as: “Ya Qawmi!” not “Ya Kafara!” – “My people! I am just here for you, I am just trying to warn you!” You know, like a mother who is concerned for her son and she says ‘don’t go out late at night.’ And he says ‘mum you are always trying to stop me.’ And she says, ‘I am just worried about youuu.’ When she speaks like that and she’s trying to warn her son because she loves him.

Then the question that arises, if that is the consistent Sunnah of our prophets and especially our Prophet Muhammad (Sallahu Alayhi Wasallam), if that’s the case, then how are we supposed to live that sunnah of the messenger?

Before I complete this brief khutbah with you, I’m half way through, I wanna share with you another confusion that many Muslims have, that the Quran is very clear about, but the Muslims are not unfortunately very clear about. The Quran makes a distinction between the nations and the leaders of the nations. The Quran makes a distinction, between the non-believers and the enemies of the prophets. They are two different things. Not every non-muslim, not every member of the people of the book, is an enemy of Islam. Not according to the book of Allah.

In the book of Allah, Allah mentions specifically, who are the enemies. Allah says: For every single prophet, Allah allowed for certain people to be their enemies, these enemies we consider them, Shayaateen; they are considered devils. And these devils are amongst the human beings and the jinns. Allah says every single messenger in hIstory had certain people who were meant to be their enemies, and these enemies are the devils amongst human beings and the devils amongst the jinn.

Now who are these people?

First and foremost, they are people who don’t listen to the message of IslaM. They are ghaafil. They ignore it. There’s people who do shirk and don’t listen to anything else. You know, the people who don’t use their intellect.

BUt then there is a person who not only says that I do not want to accept the deen, but I will spend my life trying to destroy it. Its not enough that I don’t listen about it, but I will spend my life dong everything against islam.

In Makkah itself, there were lots of people who were not Muslim. Yet, not all of them were enemies of islam. There were certain people that Allah gave a particular label too, Allah says in this ayah ‘amongst the human and jinn.’ Why human beings and jinn? Because their armies of shaytaan that are from the world of the jinn and their job is to give constant waswasa to the enemies of Islam that are human. Just like Allah gives constant revelation to the messenger, Shayaateen give constant waswasa to the enemies of the prophets. So they spew more poison and try to find any way to hurt Islam. There are two forces at work.

Having said all of this, even in Quraysh, not everybody was an enemy. The term used for enemy - who you’re supposed to fight really, are the leaders of Kufr, the perpetrators of Kufr, the worst enemies! We don’t make this distinction.

We can’t say every person who is a non-muslim is a kaafir, is an enemy islam. We have non-muslim neighbors, our children go to the same school as them, we shop at the same shops as them, we get gas at the same gas stations them, but you know what, this guy… he is from the people of Jahannam, this guy says Salaam to me, and I am going to spit back at him! You know, cos we have to watch out for the kufaar!

This is NOT the way of any prophet. This was not the attitude of any of them. As a matter of fact, the only examples you find of the shaaabah being tough against the non-muslims, was when it was clear that those individuals, had done something against the Muslims.

You know at the time of the conquest of Makkah, when Makkah was finally conquered, Allah gave victory to the people. What happened? There are different types of people in Makkah, pretty much most of them are non-muslims, some of them people were still enemies of islam, some of the people were just people, not enemies. You know how some guys just play video games all day and night and they don’t know what’s happening outside, and they don’t keep up with the news, the sun go’s up, the sun go’s down, but they’re still on the next level, or whatever.

There is some people like that in Makkah, they have no idea what is happening outside in the world, when Islam became victorious, some of the mushrikoon come out and saw that all the idols are missing, and that all of the people that are leaders have disappeared! What just happened, is there a new government? T

Ans then they find out Islam has been victorious. Now, when Islam is victorious, Surah Taubah has come out and Surah Taubah isn’t soft… it has a very tough policy against the people of Makkah.

So this Mushrik comes up to Rasul (Salalllahu Alayhi Wasallam) and says ‘ I don’t know anything about Islam. I don’t know anything. Can you give me some time so I can think about it? Now you and I could turn around to this person and say ‘you kaafir’ ‘its been 23 years, 12 years of struggle in Makkah, we’ve gone through wars man – Badr, Uhud…and where have you been dude? Where were you? What do you mean you don’t know about Islam?

You could say this. But Allah reveals, in the Surah which is supposed to be the Surah of punishments, Surah Taubah, “If one of the mushrikeen come to you and ask you for some extra time, [or he’s seeking your protection]… Rasulullah (Salllahu Alayhi Wasallam) is told… give him protection! “Until he gets to hear the word of Allah.”

In other words, don’t judge. You don’t know. Maybe the guy was deaf for 23 years, you don’t know! He just woke up, fine, let him hear the word of Allah, even if he hears the word of Allah, he is under the protection of the Muslims, so he’s scared.

Allah says: “Make sure you get him to a safe place” where he feels completely unpressured and can think about Islam. Don’t put pressure upon him. This is Allah, on the day of victory for Islam, protecting the rights of the Mushrik. Allah is making excuses for him. Go easy on them. SubhanAllah

How easy do we go on non-muslims? We may disagree with the policies of the government but not ever non-muslim on the street is a government? They probably hate the government more than you do. We should not have this judgmental attitude towards people around us.

As a matter of fact, one of the precursors of delivering the messagee in the sunnah of the messenger of Allah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam), is that people around us, they have to testify we are truthful and honesty. That’s when you can say we are delivering the message of islam.

We sometimes think we have to protect our deen, protect ourselves and the non-muslims outside, all of them are fitnah, so stay away from them. Actually, we were not sent on this earth to stay away from people. The Ummah was chosen so they can engage with people, so they can spread goodness among people.

Even Rasulullah (Sallahu Alayhi Wasallam), when Allah told him “you cannot guide whom you like/love.” Allah, on one hand told him, don’t worry if they accept guidance or not, but Allah did not stop him from loving them. He acknowledged his love for them, even for the non-muslims.

May Allah soften our hearts so we can carry this legacy of the messengers, in the society in which we live in. That Allah makes our muslim communities a good examples for non-muslims. A way of engaging…they need this message, wallah, they need this message. They need the beauty of Islam, they’re dying for it too. We just haven’t showed them anything beautiful. That’s our fault. We just haven’t stood up to the challenge.

I pray our Ummah rises to the occasion and develops the love that it’s supposed to have for all of humanity, not to mention for itself.

And in my final comments I will share with you, when you don’t have love for the outside, when one sunnah of the prophet is lost, then the next one gets lost and as a result of the loss of this sunnah – genuine concern for the human being, you know what happens next to the Ummah? They claim they only love each other, but actually, that’s just a claim. When you see it practically, they even lose love for each other. They are no longer able to act like a brotherhood.

On thing that unites human beings is a cause, and what is that cause? ‘You’ re the best of the people, you have been extracted for the benefit of humanity; to serve people’ When that cause is gone, people start pulling and drifting apart. Causes are what unite us. The Ummah that loses its cause, its concern, it starts emphasizing on other things, it takes very little for one muslim to get angry at another muslim, or for one muslim to judge another muslim. And yet the big challenge that Allah gave us, to carry forward the message to all of humanity. We are forgetting that challenge and it takes so little to make us angry.

Now, remind yourself, what kind of things used to make Rasulullah (Salallahu alwayhi Wasallam) angry? How often was he angry? Something needs to change.

In Surah Ankaboot, the people were about to leave Makkah, the sahaabah were about to leave Makkah because they were tortured, they were leaving the place where the kaabah is, the place Ibrahim (as) built the kaabah, where the heart of rasulullah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasallam) is, he was crying when he was leaving. Yet, Allah reveals to him…”My earth is vast”

See, people used to think, “Allah’s land is Makkah” “That’s Allah’s land”. Yet, Allah took he entire earth and called it “My earth.” Which means, whether your living in Bradford, or your living in London, or Texas, or Sydney, that is Allah’s land, so slave yourself only to Him.

Don’t make the excuses that ‘I live in the land of the kufaar!’ No! It is the land of Allah. Don’t make that excuse. Don’t worry about where you are, worry about who you worship, who your master is, who your focus is, who is giving you purpose.

I pray we don’t become people of excuses like so many who came before us. May Allah make us a cause for so many others to enter this beautiful fold of islam. May Allah unite our communities and make them a source of goodness s for each other and others around us.