The Spiritual Activist Fulfilling A Life Of Purpose

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah wa he was so happy woman Serbia. Isla de Nova.

salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

This topic of spiritual activism, and particularly this first session about our responsibility, and the need to engage with the community, and to go out there, and for all intensive purposes, roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty, and work with people, I want you to understand one thing about this concept of working with people getting involved with the community, this is not just simply the need of the community, that the community needs us to go out there and get active and be activists and be involved. But it is our own personal need. We need you need I need we all need ourselves individually, for our own spirituality and for excellence within spirituality, to go out there and

work with the people and to be active in our society and our community, in all different aspects, whatever might suit you, whatever might be your area of expertise, or your level of comfort, according to that, but we need to go out there and we need to engage with humanity. And that is at the core of not just activism. But that is at the core of spirituality. And what I wanted to talk about here in the time that I have to basically elaborate upon this. And to also backup this, the statement that I've made is I wanted to talk about the greatest activist, and also the the the individual who has achieved the greatest excellence within spirituality, throughout the history of

humanity. And that is, of course, Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him. The Messenger of Allah, the prophet of Allah, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there was no greater spiritual master. And there was no greater activities, and something very profound and very interesting from his life. And when like, when this occurred to me that this would be the right issue to talk about. And to address here, I realized the need to kind of break things down just a little bit, particularly in conferences and programs that are for the general public, and it's all inclusive, everyone is there. It's very important that we don't assume anything on behalf of the audience. And we discuss every

single item, with its proper in giving it its proper do.

The first thing I want you to understand isn't the temperament of the prophets allottee some his personality, you could call it his personality, his temperament, the prophet alayhi salam, the way that we know about his personality, his temperament and his conduct even before Prophethood is actually in the very first chapter, the very first chapter within Sahiba hottie his Bible, by the way, the chapter about the beginning of Revelation, that chapter talks about the blessed day on which the prophets a lot of a sudden received divine revelation. And that mission of prophethood began. And it talks about how when he came home, very overwhelmed and shaken up by this profound

experience that he had just had, he comes home asks his wife to wrap them up in a shawl or blanket, and he's sitting there shaking and feeling the weight, the burden of what's just been laid on your shoulders. And as he's sitting there, and his wife is holding his hand trying to console him, trying to inspire him, she actually says she says, What are you worried about? Allah will not waste someone like you, why would not waste someone like you what is so unique and special about you? And then she actually the things that she rattles off the items that she lists are very interesting, she says that the you are there for the poor and the needy, the orphans and the widows know they can depend

on you the destitute they know you on a first name basis, you are there you are constantly your entire life is based on serving humanity, you have been chosen based on those qualifications, you have been chosen for a very, very divine purpose. And that is to bring enlightenment and guidance to humanity to deliver this message to all of mankind.

And that is who the prophets a lot he said, um, was even before Prophethood. Now what happens is that I'm going to talk a little bit about before the era of prophethood. Again, I just wanted to highlight. This is a type of person that he was well in the few years and a couple of years before that divine message arrived, and that Prophethood was bestowed upon his shoulders. That revelation of this middle began that the hell up before that came. All right.

The Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. He became so concerned with the situation of people, and he all at the same time was trying to make sense of everything that was going on around him, because he obviously understood and knew that the wave

Are is not right, it can't stay this way. It's there's no status quo here, things have to change, things have to get better. Exactly how, why, what, that's what I got to go figure out. And so when he became extremely concerned with society's current state, he went, he started practicing something which is referred to again in the habit of body, as can they get a handler at the handler, which basically means you would go and he would isolate himself. He would spend sometimes weeks at a time, weeks at a time, he would go up to the cave of his jaw. Right, remove himself from society from community. And he would go to the cave of Hira and he would isolate himself and there you would

meditate, you would ponder, he would think, and he would just try to figure out exactly what's going on and what needs to be done.

Well, eventually, one day, in this process of being there and meditating and pondering and thinking, do you believe that he said, outcomes, the divine message is given and the mission of profit has been restored. Now fast forward to what I was talking about the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him goes home, he shaken up, his wife is controlling and telling him, you're an amazing person, you must have been chosen for this message for this for this mission, because of how amazing of a person you are in what your contribution to humanity is, and what it could further be. All right. At that time, now we really figure out what's going to happen. So he has naturally by personality, he's

somebody that goes and works with people, serves humanity,

to try to figure out exactly what's going on and to spiritually preserve himself, and to also figure out the deeper the big answers about life and about society's current state. He started practicing isolation, separating himself from people so that he could protect himself and also figure out what the right answer here. But when the divine message comes, when Prophethood comes, look what instruction he's given by Allah, Allah subhanho wa Taala tells him in Surah, number 74, sort of adapted, Allah tells him boom,

stand up.

Yeah, you will move.

What are you doing standing sitting there wrapped up in a blanket and a shawl? Well, what's what are you doing? Boom, stand up. for under, go warn people, about the about the dire situation, and about the about the dangers of their current circumstances.

And then he tells them what Bukka Kabir

stand up, go warn the people and proclaim the greatness only of your Lord. And then further instructions are given. further instructions are given well under shirataki law carabin. Going one, the closest of your family members, your tribesmen your own people,

go and warn them, dialogue with them, talk to them, try to make them understand what this message is and why it's so necessary.

further instructions are there. We'll have e sabini. a doe in alarm.

And now proclaim tell the people have the ECB Lee, this is my path. This is my job. This is the purpose of my life. This is what my contribution to humanity. This is my service to Allah my service to God. How did he severely What is it? isolation reclusion

other Illa I call humanity anyone and everyone to Allah. What's interesting about the grammar of this ayah is that you there are certain sentences This is a verbal sentence, or there are a lot of verbal sentence typically, and a lot of times and this is one of those instances. It requires a an object.

I call who I call what to a loan, it requires an object must own. And there's no object provided here. And this is done intentionally within classical Arabic. This is one of the rhetorical functions of classical Arabic and operatic language, that when that object is not provided, it basically creates versatility and variety and diversity in the meaning means anyone and everyone I call actively. It's the it's the past, present and future tense and verb. I actively call anyone and everyone to Allah. Allah basura them with foresight, with vision, with understanding with knowledge with wisdom.

So I have the foundation, but what do I do with that foundation? Do I just benefit myself? Do I just take care of me? Am I just watching out and looking out for number one? No, no, I call people. I take this message to people, everything I have in my life, all the benefit. I have all the knowledge, all the wisdom, all the experience I had, I invested into the betterment of humanity and their condition.

This was the message that was delivered to him and this

Is the divine instruction given to him? No more reclusion for you, you got to go out and mix it up with the people. Get your hands dirty.

All right. Now this brings about a very important question. You have somebody, you have someone of the spiritual stature of the profits a lot isn't

the greatest, like I said, the greatest, the the person who has achieved the greatest heights, in spirituality to ever walk the face of the earth.

So you have someone of the spiritual status and stature of Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam?

And who is he having to go and talk and dialogue and discuss and even debate and go back and forth? And you don't mix it up with? What is what what what? How are these people? What is the nature of these people? What is the condition of these people, these people are the lowest of the low. I mean, think about how low this time must have been that that time period, that era is referred those people of that era referred to us at

a time of ignorance. I mean, just think about what that means. So these people are at the lowest of the low. And you have somebody of the spiritual stature of the prophets, a lot of them having to go and mingle and mix and talk and discuss and work and spend all day with those people in the neck of in a hurry. subhanho wa Taala you got to swim all day long throughout the ocean of humanity.

You can't take a break from this, none of this is your life longer. And you know what that parable is? In the Quran, Allah gives the parable of swimming the wheel along swim, imagine being a float swimming out in the middle of a huge lake, or even out in the middle of the ocean, and you start to get tired and you look around and land is nowhere in sight. Is it stopping an option for that swimmer? It's not. He's got to keep going and keep going and keep going otherwise he will perish you will drown. A lot told the Prophet tells him doesn't matter how difficult it gets, doesn't matter what the circumstances become. There is no end in sight. You got to keep going, keep going, keep

going. Because there's a sea of humanity out there and they need you.

They need you. But the question that remains here is does this damage his own personal spiritual condition? That's the question I want you to think about somebody of the excellence of the prophets of Salaam, dealing with horrible nefarious people that negatively affect him. Is it justified for him to say, Man, I spend all day long talking and working with these people, and it's just killing me.

My email miked up while mine Me, me, me. It's just I'm dying here spiritually. Is that a valid assessment? Is that a valid conclusion? The answer again lies within the life of the Prophet salatu salam, and the sequence of events that unfolded

when things reached their very worst

10, nearly 11 years after the preaching and the message began

10 nearly 11 years after the message began, and things were at their absolute worst. Things were at their absolute worst.

And at that point in time,

was the prophet SAW some becoming spiritually tainted by dealing with these people by talking to these people know,

an incident from the life of the prophet SAW Selim occurred and we call that incident straw when we are on

the journey by night, and then the ascension of the heavens. And on that night, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam achieved greater heights than any human being has ever experienced and will ever experience. On that day that night. He became closer to Allah than any human being has ever experienced and will ever experience.

Film Madonna della Akana paga pulse a NEO Adena the Quran tells us that then he draw drew closer and then again, he drew even more near than that.

For canon Ababa post in the arena, it was literally the distance between them was the distance of two bows like a bow and arrow was the distance of two bows or even closer than that. Only those two people only Allah and His Rasool Allah His Salam know exactly how near and how intimate of an experience was achieved on that night.

No, it's almost to the point of it's like saying it's nobody else's business.

And I I'm going to paraphrase here and when I do this a lot of times, especially to explain for an understand please I'm not trying to disrespect for on but I'm trying to put it into context. I want younger people to understand young people are too used to hearing the Koran translated as thou art forgive it, Tao give it take it. Right. And a bunch of words with th th th at the end of it, they're too used to hearing the Koran translate into like that. And it doesn't talk to me it doesn't speak to me because I don't even understand what that just said. Right? But it's

almost kinda like when you are really close with somebody and you have a real personal relationship with someone. And when somebody asked you about and say, Man, that's my homie and I mean your business, meeting him or her, man, we're homies.

Right? Allah subhanaw taala is letting us know Uranus, intimacy closest was achieved on that night. And it was the length, the distance of two bowls or even close in that only they know.

And a very valuable lesson was learned on that night.

That when you go out there, and when you work with humanity, and you serve the people, and you work with people to improve the human condition in the human experience, it doesn't taint you, it doesn't lower your own level in any way. Rather, what it does, it further elevates you and brings you closer to Allah.

That's very important to understand. And I'm going to also logically quantify what I just said, You know, I can speak about this from a personal perspective. But this is an MSA conference. So y'all well, and y'all won't understand what I'm talking about. But I'm still gonna throw it out there. All right, when you have children, once you have a child, you know, what is more impressive and more endearing to you than somebody giving you a gift

is when somebody gives a gift to your child.

If somebody gives me a nice gift, it's like, thank you very much. somebody gives something to me, for my daughter, it's just, I won't forget it. Because that's my title.

I love that child more than I love my own life.

I would sacrifice my love, I would sacrifice my life for my child.

Human beings are the creation of Allah. And Allah loves each and every single human being so much more than their own mothers do. The love of a mother which is unbelievable. The love of a mother is such an amazing thing. Allah has praised it. The Rasul Allah is Allah has praised it. But Allah loves each and every single human being exponentially more than their own mother loves them. So when you go out there, and you serve humanity, and you take care of human beings, and you serve the people, you become extremely near and dear to a lot. That is an extremely endearing act to a lot because you just took care of his creation. And he loves you for it.

And that's what we find here in the example of the prophet SAW. So he went out there did not hesitate and got his hands dirty with the people. And the last panel, Allah gave him a station, Allah gave him an experience that no other human being will ever experience.

Because he was willing to go out there and literally give up everything for the sake of the people and serve the people. Be an activist. Now, this does not preclude In fact, I would go as far as saying it is still necessary at the same time to maintain your spirituality. And this is where balance comes into play. I emphasize the aspect of activism and serving the people in working with society, because that is being drastically and completely overlooked today.

All right, we, we, we sometimes can overemphasize spirituality to the point where we make we make it seem impractical. I've had many, many young people come up to me and tell me that they're getting this idea of practicing Islam or achieving excellence spiritually, that it requires them to recluse themselves from society. And that's the farthest thing from the truth. And that's why I act. That's why I emphasize activism. But at the same time, it is important that we maintain a sense of balance. And that's something that one of my teachers told me.

One of my teachers told me this, he actually told me a little phrase in Urdu, right. And it was very interesting. He was talking about that when you graduate and you go back and then you start, you know, working with the community, and you're doing clipboards and lectures and youth group and jalapenos, and doing programs and activities and conferences and seminars. Then he told me that as you continue to get out there, and be public and work with the people, make sure you also continue to take out time, regularly and consistently. To find a personal close connection with a lover. Achieve intimacy with a man.

Find the personal, strengthen and reaffirm your relationship with Allah.

Because that's extremely important. Balance is always necessary.

But understand that you will spiritually also benefit from serving people from serving humanity and from getting active in society. And the last thing I wanted to point out and this is something that fascinates me, and that is even in the area of worship, what is the primary means what is probably the best means of connecting to Allah and establishing or reestablishing your connection with anyone any suggestions, Salah prayer, Salah, the prayer is the prime the most optimal method for reestablishing, reconnecting yourself with a law and coming

closer to a lack of bonding and spiritually accelerate, this is the primary means of doing so. And Subhanallah one of the key features of Salah you could almost call it the essence the core of the experience of Salah is actually sort of the fact that

there's a hadith bootsy which means that the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him has told us that Allah himself has said and it's a beautiful Hadith footsy and it details that when we stand in our prayer, and we recite Sultan Fatiha as we recite each and every single verse ayah of Sultan Fatiha Allah responds directly to us. When we read an Fatiha in our prayer. It is a direct conversation between us and Allah. It is the essence in the core of that experience of prayer. You're directly talking to a love back and forth he's making time to respond to you.

It's an amazing experience. But Subhanallah look at total Fatiha. And I always tell people that sort of Fatiha is like the table of contents for the entire put on.

It gives you a list of the key themes concepts, the core themes of the Quran and then the rest of the Quran goes on detailing those things. And one of the things that certain pratyahara emphasizes very, very eloquently

and very subtly is yaka.

yaka only you Naboo. Do we worship? All right? Do we enslave? Do we commit do our do we dedicate ourselves only to you? Only you do? We worship. Right? Now I want you to pay attention to what I'm saying only you do.

What's the next word? Everybody? We

is that singular or plural?

That's plural.

But then that's a little bit confusing. What if you're praying by yourself? Can you change it to the singular?

Anybody?

Now you can. That's the way it is. That's the way it's been taught. That's the way it was revealed. And that's the way we read it. We always read it in the plural, even when we're by ourselves, even when we're praying by ourselves, because it's emphasizing something and it's emphasizing unity. It is a collective experience. Even worship and devotion, dedication to a lot has a collective element to it.

Go on a little bit further and sort of it is you know, shiratama sapim II, Deena, show us the way guide us singular or plural, everybody.

Thank you all for people for answering. All right, singular or plural, everybody. plural. There we go. That's a little bit better. It's plural, guide us, show us the way.

It's a collective experience. There's a beautiful supplication of the prophets, Allah.

The Quran, Sunnah. zerah, Allah maggini, Freeman, Hadith.

Allah guide me, show me the way. That's that's a pretty amazing supplication. But it doesn't end there. Fi man had eight among those people whom you have guided, meaning don't guide me individually, all by myself, don't leave me stranded. Don't leave me off to dry. But guide me and put me in the company of people in a group of people that are also guided.

So this is something that is emphasized in the Quran even emphasize through the beautiful prophetic supplication.

And that is, we have a collective experience. We have a responsibility to ourselves, to serve humanity. And that's where I started. And this is where I want to end that serving humanity. When talking about it, we should never ever get the idea or get the impression that we are doing human beings, we are doing society a favor. We are sacrificing our personal time to serve people and to serve the community and society. No, but we need it. Because we will be spiritually incomplete.

We will be spiritually inadequate. If we do not roll up our sleeves, get our hands dirty, and go out there and work with society. work with people deal with the issues and the problems that they have. and be a part of the solution. Because you know what it is? When you if you isolate yourself and you're worried about me, me, me, not only are you not solving the problem, but you're actually becoming part of the problem.

You're becoming part of the problem. And I didn't want to take the talk in this direction, because

I personally think that these type of forums are to motivate and to inspire and to encourage. But if the talk kind of leads there, that I got to go there. All right. And I apologize in advance if this offends anyone. All right. Sorry, y'all. All right. But the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him tells us about an individual in the people amongst the people in a time before us.

That he was extremely devout and pious and righteous. And this society was absolutely corrupted.

And it came to the point where

the

decision in the decree from a law came for the destruction of these people.

And at that time, there's the question remaining Well, well, what about this individual?

Is he included busy grouped into this punishment that will be unleashed upon this upon the society?

And the response was that, yes, you start with him, because he saw all of this corruption and chaos going on around him. And it never troubled him. It never bothered him. It never made him step out of his comfort zone and his comfort level. But he was satisfied he was content with doing what he did. I'll take care of me, you worry about you. That was his mentality. And so he became part of the problem.

He shall be a loved one how the mother of the believer she asked Rasulullah sallallahu set up

a novel Aquafina sorry, how can we be destroyed and there are still righteous, pious people amongst us. And he said no harm either.

Yes, when evil dominates a society and a community, then everyone gets enveloped, because those righteous pious people that are there, they actually became a part of the problem, maybe without even realizing, because they didn't do anything to better the condition of society and of community. Of course, the results aren't in our hands. We'll do what we can. But we got to put forth that effort. And realize that if we are true, and we are sincere in our desire to become close to Allah, and I don't think there's any human being, I'm even talking about outside of the realm of being Muslim. I don't think anybody would ever deny the fact that they want to find peace and tranquility

and meaning of life, which we define as a man and a connection with Allah. Every Muslim wants to have an extremely close, deep, meaningful connection with a relationship with Allah, then then becoming active, serving the people going out there, and dealing with the trouble and the difficulty that might come along with it. Nobody said it's going to be easy. It's not going to be easy. I'll tell you right now, there will be difficult times there will be there'll be truly tough times. But remember what happened with Russell Lazzara? When the going got tough.

Then the mercy of Allah came to his rescue. And that was a moment that he tasted the sweetness of a true meaningful connection and intimacy with a lot. And that opportunity is available to all of us.

That when we go out there and we serve humanity and society, and things do get become negative or tough for us, that is a moment we will taste the sweetness of our humanity. May Allah subhanaw taala give us all the ability to practice everything that's been said or heard. Does that come along later on. Thank you for your time.