Jumuah speech: Imaam Muhammed Shoayb Mehtar, Khadeeja Islamic Center; August 22, 2014

When Allah (SWT) wishes good for a person and wants a person to be in a good environment, Allah (SWT) brings that person in at the appropriate time so the person can gain the maximum benefit. Just as certain days and months are important, there are certain times of the year that are also important to our youth. Our youth are going back to school, evaluating the classes they are to take for their college semester. As we mentioned last week, one thing remains very important – how do we link our youth to Allah (SWT)? How do we link chemistry, geography, or American History and ourselves to Allah (SWT)? This is an important and fundamental question. If we don’t link what we are studying to Allah, we will link it to something else. We will link it to the moment or what the teacher is saying. Once we let other factors influence our religiosity, then there is a greater chance that our Imaan is going to be tampered upon and made weak.

When the Imam was a kid  at an Islamic school or a secular school that had Islam in it that was run by the government and had accredited Muslim and non-Muslim teachers, they had approximately 2 hours for Islamic studies. They had a subject for history, Qur’an, Hadith, etc. One thing the teachers always taught, regardless of how impressive a figure (literal or historical) may be, we always give credit to Allah. This is nothing about being fundamentalist – like our children, the students wore shirt and pant or a uniform from the British school system influence. The teachers used to say, when you are impressed, bring Allah into the equation. If we don’t, then we will be impressed by the subject, which eventually, as all things, will come to an end. But if you bring Allah into that subject matter, then Allah has no end, and therefore, the subject matter, it’s brilliance, it’s awe, it’s impression on us, won’t come to an end either as an indirect result.

The following question was asked by a young boy regarding last week’s Khutba, “How can I bring American History into Islamic thinking? I don’t see any compatibility, any comparison”. If a Muslim says that the Qur’an is something that he/she believes in and is their daily constitution, we will say that they are a fundamentalist. But if we say the same thing about the American constitution, we will say that person is a loyal American citizen. It is not considered fundamentalist to debate the 1^st amendment (freedom of speech amongst other things) as one can be pro for it and one can question aspects of it. Same thing with the 2^nd amendment (the right to keep and bear arms) and gun rights. The same thing applies to Islam as well. There are many different interpretations of the Qur’an: how to eat meat, how to pray, when to pray – for every aspect of Islam for the most part, there is latitude. For example, there is one group that says to perform Fajr salah at the beginning time, another group says you can pray towards the end of time. Both groups agree that you cannot pray after sunrise so there are parameters in our religion as well. For Dhuhr salah, one group says to wait to pray as the heat of the time when it starts represents the fire of Jahannam, so to wait and pray when it is a bit cooler. There are difference of opinions for Asr salah. For Maghrib salah, we are all pretty much unanimous given the small timeframe to pray after sunset. Isha salah there are slight difference of opinions. The Qur’an and Hadith give us latitude. We have a problem as Muslims and with narrow thinking; it is time to open our thinking a little bit beyond. We learn something very important, especially at a time of the year when we are going back to school, we have to look at all of these various examples. We talk about numbers in math, the Qu’ran and Hadith talk about numbers as well. One hadith says to read Subhanallah 11 times, another says 33 times. No matter what subject in school we have, we can link it to our Imaan and Islam to it. Another example of how we can link what we read out there to Islam is by looking at the topic that comes across known as strategic thinking. We get so bogged down  and impressed by secular theory, we forget to ask ourselves: what does my Allah say about this topic/issue.

Let me share an example as to how strategic thinking theory can come into our Islamic script. There is a professor at Harvard University (Michael Porter) that teaches strategic thinking and we will focus on what he says and show how to link it to Islam. In brief, he says there are certain things that must be observed by a company so as to ensure success within an organization.

1. A unique product. That product has to give value to people and also at the same time, the company has to give out a great value to the consumer. We don’t need to get wowed and impressed by this theory. It is a good theory, but does ‘our’ product offer any less? Our religion is very unique. Our Allah (SWT) is One, no partner, no son, no daughter, no child. Allah (SWT) is so One and such a One, that we cannot even describe Allah (SWT) in human terms. Allah’s (SWT) mercy, kindness, compassion, etc. is vast. Allah (SWT) is unique and the most valuable. When we cry towards Allah (SWT), the feeling is very different than when we cry to someone else. No book is so unique like that of our Holy Qur’an, our Hadith, our Sunnah, our Hajj, our Zakah, or our belief in Allah (SWT). This gives us as Muslims, uniformity, uniqueness, and value.
2. A thing that gives your company a lot of leverage is choosing what not to do. You must choose what not to do and if your company knows what not to do, your company will be successful. In other words, follow that which works, not fails. Our religion already does this – thou shalt not steal, lie, cheat, do adultery, gamble, go to bad places, hang around with evil individuals, etc. Do we see what is happening? We realize our Islam is no different. It takes us to the next level by setting do’s and don’t’s.  In everything there are do’s and don’t’s. The don’t’s of religion is looked upon negatively; we see it as something that is stifling our opportunities, but the do’s of the business world and worldly life is viewed as positive because of the impression of the good it presents. This is wrongful thinking.
3. Creating a fit and aligning ourselves with what others may need. Again, this is exactly what Islam is all about. The Qur’an says let us get on a common platform and share commonality with one another. We do the opposite, we look for what is different between ourselves and our Muslim brothers and sisters. As for Jews and Christians, the Quran is saying, seek a common platform, even though  they may speak a different language than us, even though they follow a different Shari’ah than us. If we must seek similarities in others, what about our brothers and sisters? We seek continual differences between ourselves. It is as if we continually ask, what is the differences between me and my Muslim brothers and sisters in Islam. Even though Christians and Jews are bombing Muslims in Palestine and doing bad things to Muslim citizens, we are admonished to follow and be with them on that which is good. Despite the destruction that is often created on a political scale, we have those amongst us that promote marrying Ahle Kitab but say ‘we can’t marry a Muslim boy or girl because they are from a different tribe than us.’ What is wrong with our Muslim mentality? It doesn’t add up to a bunch of sense. We must align ourselves with people that have similar values and spread those values.

 

There was a Harvard professor that wrote: if you want people to tell you the truth about something then ask them to give you a picture of something out there that represents what you are all about. By virtue of example, dentists tell us to go and perform a dental visit every 6 months to maintain our oral health and detect and solve problems that we may have. He was asked, what do you think about this claim made by dentists to have our teeth checked up every 6 months? This man gave a picture of Little Red Riding Hood. As we know from that story, there is an element of deception in it. This person is basically saying, if you want me to go and visit a dentist every 6 months, I think there is a lie in going to the dentist and having a dental check-up and having all of my oral problems get straightened out. What is the lesson that we derive from this? We all have a big dialogue about who I am, what I am, who are you, or what are you. Just go and ask your child what do you think about so and so through a picture, you and I will be shocked of people’s understanding and perception of you and I. We all think that we are better than what we are, this is generally true for all of us as humans. That my understanding, image, socializing skills, etc. are right. If we are so right, then why do we have so many problems in our community? Why are Muslims falling apart spiritually all over the world including in America? Why are we facing health issues? Why do we have this raging problem in our society? Because we are not so perfect, that’s why. One solution is to tell people to bring a representation of what they feel about us and reflect upon that reality and strive to change the image or picture that people have of us from something negative into something positive.

Another point we have to remember was the strategy of Rasulullah (SAW) and how Rasulullah (SAW) won over people. Our goal is to get into Jannah, we understand that. To get into Jannah we have to do certain things. What did Rasulullah (SAW) do to get us to get to that perfect outcome? An elderly lady is walking and as she is walking Rasulullah (SAW) goes up to her to give her assistance and carry her belongings. All the while they are walking she is saying there is a man in our community who is a liar, a sorcerer,  doing witchcraft, breaking up our community, in short, doing every type of wrong. Rasulullah (SAW) could’ve dropped the luggage and walked away. That’s probably what you and I would’ve done if we were being insulted like that. But no, Rasulullah (SAW) walked her to the endpoint where she said that what a wonderful and magnificent man you are. Who are you, what are you? Rasulullah (SAW) said exactly who he was and she was shocked. Give value when you have a product. What people are doing and not doing, align yourself with that which is normal and sensible out there. Rasulullah (SAW) did a very unique and valuable thing. What did Rasulullah (SAW) not do? Rasulullah (SAW) didn’t say you are picking on me and want my help? Forget it, you are on your own. No, Rasulullah (SAW) aligned himself with integrity. What was the end result? She said, “I believe that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad (SAW) is His final messenger”.

In conclusion, with school starting, we have to teach our children one very important thing – link our theories/ideas/education that we learn in school to Allah (SWT) and our religion. This will result in a win-win situation regarding our environment and our Islam and Imaan as well.

May Allah (SWT) help us and guide us at all times.