Friday 18 November 2016

Friday Sermon from the University of Adelaide Mosque, South Australia

Story In Surah Munafiqun Explained By Nouman Ali Khan

You can watch the sermon on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZW99SBd59M

Read by Brother Mohamad Kourghi

Alhamdulillah, Alahamdulillahillathi hadaana li hatha wa ma kunna linahtadiya lawla an hadanaAllah. Wa a’oothu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyi’ati a’malinaa. May-yahihillahu fala mudhilla lah, wa may-yudhlilhoo fala hadiya lahu wa ash hadu alla ilahe illa Allahu wahdahu la sharika lah wa ash-hadu anna sayydina wa habibana Mohammadan (SAW) abduhoo wa rasuloohu Salla llahu ‘alayh, wa ‘ala alihi wa ashabihi ajam’in.

Yaqulullahu SWT fi kitabihil majid, ba’da an authoobillahi minas-shaytabir-rajim:

Allahuma thabitna ‘indal mawti bi la lilahe illa Allah. My beloved brothers it is my honour to be with you in another Khutbah in another blessed day of Friday. I’m sure today you have the same special feeling that I do, and perhaps we are in the most blessed time of this special day, the time of Khutbah, I ask Allah SWT to bless every single of you.

My brothers today I want to share with you a very important topic, something we have talked about previously, the topic of unity and brotherhood, Allah SWT says in the Qur’an:

And indeed this your Ummah, one ummah, and I am your Lord, so fear Me. Surah Mu’minoon verse 52. But today in light of this important topic I want to share with you the tafsir of one or two ayats Surah Muanfiqoon. So we will talk about an incident, a story which is behind the revelation of Suratul-Muanfiqoon which I believe is extremely important and relevant to myself and you my brothers to learn a lesson from.

This Surah was revealed to the Prophet SAW in Madinah, so it’s a Madani Surah, a few years after the Prophet SAW had already migrated andwas living in the city of Madinah for a few years, and a few battles have already taken place between the Muslims and Quraish. One of those battles is the battle of Uhud. In the battle of Uhud the Muslims suffered some heavy losses. Because of those losses some Arab tribes near Madinah they thought this is a good opportunity, the Muslims are injured right now, if we attack them we can make easy money.

So they were not the enemies of Islam, they were just capitalist. They hoped that they could just rob, this is how they made good money back then, they just robbed each other. So one such tribe Bani Mustalaq, they figured it is a good time to attack the Madinah. But the Prophet SAW had very good intelligence in the region and he found out about their plan. Before they attack he pre-empts their strike, prepares a group, goes with them and heads towards Bani Mustalaq, it’s actually not much of a battle and very quickly over 100 of their soldiers have been taken as prisoonors of war, and the battle is over, with minimum casualties.

Among those who were captured was the daughter of the leader of Banu Mustalaq, and she accepted Islam, when she accepted Islam, the Prophet SAW marries her. And then he gives her a marriage gift, the gift is those 100 prisoners of war are returned. They go home. On the other side you have people who are crying over their lost family members, the care takers of their home and they come walking back in, how did you get back, well we are a wedding present. And when that happened the entire tribe became Muslim, they took the Shahada.

So this is one of the easy and profound victories of Islam. One that really boosted the moral of the Muslims, especially because of the circumstances of Uhud. Anyway, from this good experience on the way back, a strange incident occurs and this is what this Surah is about. On this way back there was a well and people were lined up to get water at the well.

In this line there are the Muslims army made up of people who from Makkah, the Muhajiroon the migrants, and Muslims from Madinah, the Ansar. If you don’t know already the term Muhajir means a person who migrated for Allah’s sake, they sacrificed everything to be with the Prophet SAW and came with loyalty to him, so Muhajir is a very noble term. They left their buisnesses. Their homes, their family members in some cases and came only because of la ilahe illa Allah, MuhammadurRasulullah SAW.

And the other group in that line is Ansar, people from Madinah, who aided, who provided not small but huge amounts of aid. The term Musa’id is someone who helps, but An-Nasir in Arabic is someone who helps a great deal, a huge amount of help to these Muahjiroon that has come from Makkah, with home, they are not well of themselves but their share their home with them, their livelihood with them, they share literally every part of their life with them and put themselves selves in inconvenience.

Nowadays you and me live in 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, , 4 bedrooom, 5 bedroom homes and a guest comes over and you can’t use that extra office room and that agitates you. Back then, their homes are one room, that’s all there are, and if you want to make a separate bedroom draw a curtain, and they are not coming over for an hour or two, these are now families living with each other like this. It is not a small thing what the Ansar did. Allah even says: Wa Yu’thiroona ‘ala anfusihim wa law kana bihim Khasasa, they gave others preference over themselves even if they are starving, not just hungry but starving.

So these are the Muhajroon and the Ansar and they are all in one line at this well and it just happens that one of the Muahajroon, one of the people of Makkah, his name is Jah Jah, he is the servant of Umar RAN,  he is in line and he gets into a little argument with another member of Khazraj, Sinan ibn Wabar. So this Sinan fellow with this Jah Jah fellow start arguing with each other, fighting with eachother other and Jah Jah basically kicks him. He kicks him hard.

And when this happened the Ansari, the sahabi from Madinah got very upset, and he said “you from Makkah  get to do this to me, you can’t do this to me.” And so he cried out, he said Ya Ma’sharal Ansar, o people of Madinah come, look at what this guy did to me. And the other guy Jah Jah said, wait you gonna gang up against me, I got my gang too, so he goes “Ya ahlal Muhajirin” And all the Muhajiroon at the camp they gather behind him.

So what was originally an argument a misunderstanding between two people turned into two groups, ready to fight eachother because they are stressed out. So where does all these mess come from before we continue, when you say la ilahe illa Allah then your nationality becomes secondary, your ethnicity becomes secondary, your language becomes secondary, what connects you to another person now is stronger than any of those things.

What connects you now is la ilahe illa Allah, it is thicker than blood. And the Sahaba understood this, it is not like they didn’t understand this. But you have to understand our bond of Islam with eachother is not the only bond that human beings have, human beings also have tribal bonds, we also have national affiliations, we also have ethnic affiliations, language affiliations.

There are neighbourhoods that are entirely Mandarin, even the signs are in Chinese Mandarin, there are neighbourhood that entirely Greek, other neighbourhoods that are entirely Arab, others that are not just entirely Arab but just Yemeni. Others entirely Punjabi others just Bangla or Pakistani, that happens. Naturally people want to move closer and they gravitate to people that are familiar with them.

That is a part of being a human being, Allah actually made us that way, wa ja’alnakoom shu’ubaw-wa qabila li ta’arafoo, He made you into nations and tribes so you get to know one another. But what I want you to focus on, when they called each group, it wasn’t about ethnicity, it wasn’t ya ahal Yathrib or ya ahla Makka, people of Makkah, people of Yahtrib, they didn’t use those words. They used the words Muhajirin and Ansar, these words have nothing to do with ethnicity. They have nothing to do with nationality or region, they actually have to do with contribution.

The contribution of the Muhajiroon is that they migrated, the contribution of the Ansar is that they aided.  So they used words that are in of themselves are very beautiful words, these are words that Allah uses in the Qur’an to describe the greatness of these people. These are words dignified far more than any ethnicity. On one hand a fight breaks out, one one hand there is a thing of beauty imbedded that the Sahaba before they see themselves as people of Makkah they see themselves as the people of Muhajiroon, and before they see themselves as people of Madinah they see themselves as Ansar.

But something is in there that says you can’t treat me this way, you came from outside and we help you, and you gonna kick me like that, wait a second and some tribalism is in there somewhere and it kicks out. So these report comes to Rasulullah SAW. And what was the Prophet SAW’s response to “he kicked him”, he says “la ba’s” no big deal, don’t worry about it. Rasulullah SAW is teaching us something powerful, sometimes Muslims have arguments among each other, sometimes things get ugly, and when they get ugly temper flares.

And you want justice for what happened. Somebody has to pay, and when you calling for justice, making you voice heard, and you are raising your voice, gathering people around you, reminding people of what one Muslim has done against another Muslim you are creating division in the name of justice, and you need to learn the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW when he says you need to let this go and make not this a big deal.

Because when you blow this out of proportion, you are not just seeking justice, you are causing a lot of problems in your persuade of justice. You are making way too much noise for something that can be handled much better. Much more quietly, in a much more civil way. In a much less provocative way. It was just two people arguing with each other at a well, something bad happened, fine, but its two people. But in a split second it’s the entire group of Muhajroon and the entire group of the Ansar, how quickly something small became something big.

One could just say man I lost my temper, I don’t know what got into me, I had a long day, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have kicked you, done. Finished, you don’t have to make a bigger deal out of it. But there are those who would love to make a bigger deal out of it. There are those who capitilise, they hope something small happens, a spark happens, and they can turn it into a forest fire. There are people who wait for that opportunity. That is a reality that will always exist. There will be people that will find the differences.

There are people who are so sick in their minds, they’ll listen to this sheikh, that sheikh, that sheikh, this Imam, that Imam and then they’ll know that they have a difference of opinion on that issue and they’ll purposely go “you know by the way do you know what they say about this issue, they have a difference with you.” And then they’ll exagurate because they want to see clash. They find it entertaining. They want to see Islamic groups, scholars, Imams speakers, they argue with eachother, they debate with eachother, this is their sport, this is their entertainment, it is sick.

When this fight broke out, the Prophet SAW basically gave the advice to defuse the situation, but there was another person on the other side, Abdullah ibn Ubai ibn Salul, (la’nahullah). The head of the munafiqin, he obviously doesn’t wear the label of munafiq, he is among the Muslims, he saw an opportunity, he called all the people of Madinah that he could into his camp, his camp was further away from the Prophets camp, SAW. He calls them, sits them down.

Hatha ma fa’altum bi anfusikum, look at what you did to yourself, these people of Makkah, these immigrants, they take our jobs, they take our money, they take our homes, we provide them everything and look at how they treat us. This what you get, see? All they wanted was your money, all they wanted was your welfare, I tell you we are so dignified, these people are beggars. These people have no respect, we are the ones that have respect, they can treat us this way?

You know what they remind me of, kama qalal awwal, sammil kalbak ya’kul, he gives this speech, he says they remind me of the old Arab saying when you give your dog until the dog gets fat and it bites you. He called the Muhajiroon dogs. In his speech, in his camp he did this. And his doing this to capitilise to build this emotion of the Ansar against the Muhajirin, and he swears he says “you know guys the moment we go back to Madinah, la yukhirijannal-a’athu minhal athal” We the most dignified should get rid of these humiliated people, watch, stop spending on them. He swears to God, he says if you just stop giving these people charity, watch them disappear and they’ll live on welfare somewhere else.

La tunfiqa ‘ala man ‘indi Rasoolillahi hatta yanfad-dhu, don’t spend on all these people around the Messenger, watch them disappear, they’ll just disappear, they are only here for your money, and they treat you like this. So he is giving this poisonpus speech. See on one hand the Prophet SAW is saying let it go, end it, it is a disgusting, filthy word, don’t exaggerate it. And on the other hand this guy is putting fuel into the fire, he want to make the fire bigger and bigger. What he didn’t know is a young  boy sitting in there, Zaid ibn Arqam.

10, 11 years old, he sat in the audience, listening to this entire poisonous speech, he runs over and tells his uncle what Abdullah ibn Ubai said. His uncle goes to the camp of the Prophet SAW, where Umar is sitting there too. And he is saying what Abdullah ibnu Ubaid said, who narrated, a 10, 11 year old Zaid. The Prophet SAW didn’t say well this is a child, he could make anything up, no, no questioning. As a matter of fact Umar said I know a guy, Ammar, I want you to give permission I will tell Ammar, he will slowly walk to their camp, to Abdullah ibnu Ubai whose giving this speech and slit his throat.

Rasool SAW says “la ya Umar, no Omar, this is not what we gonna do, because the people will say Muhammadan Yaqtulu ashabahoo, Muhammad kills his people. Before we go on why did Umar say kill him, isn’t that barbaric, like shari’a law gets you to kill people. Understand what’s happening here, they are military, they went out as a military, and inside a military when they are actively on the battlefield someone within the ranks of the army tries to create discord between the army that is considered an act of high treason punishable by death because you are putting an entire army at risk.

This is a military protocol in every military in the world from history and now. It is high treason, so when Umar says kill him his not saying some Islamic law of killing him, he is saying this is how we deal with treason in a military, but Rasul SAW says no we won’t do that. Even though they are well withing their rights, if it was any other military that this happened then nobody would say anything, that’s what you do. But he doesn’t.

He calls ibn ubai instead, call him let his explain himself, because he doesn’t know that the Prophet SAW will hear it. But he did, so now Abdullah ibn ubai and his khulafa they come inside the camp, the boy Zaid is outside the camp, he has no idea what went inside the camp. He told his uncle. His uncle went inside, he didn’t go in. Abdullah ibn ubai goes inside, starts swearing at the top of his lungs, Wellahi, I swear to God, who would make this lie against me, I believe you are the messenger of Allah, why would I say something like that about you.

Why would I say something like that about our brothers, I have given so much to Islam, I came to the battlefield didn’t I, how can you question me like this, whose words are you taking over mine, why have I not proven myself. And his giving the Prophet SAW a lecture, at the top of his lungs, and the Prophet SAW you can go. He doesn’t want to hear anymore nonsense, he doesn’t want to argue with him, he says you can go.

We are learning something else, there are people who cause trouble, you question them, they get very loud, and when they get loud, what is the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW, it’s ok you can go, thank you. Some people are not worth talking to. When he lets him go, Zaid ibn Arqam is outside, he sees this man leave, he thinks wait, his not in any trouble, I told on him and his not in any trouble, so he says “asabani hammun lay yusibni qat” a sadness overtook me that never hit me before. I was sad that die like I was never before in my life.

So he says Kathabani Rasoolullah was saddaqahoo, the Prophet SAW thought that ibn Ubai who was yelling and screaming is telling the truth and the Prophet didn’t believe me because I’m just a kid. That’s not the case, the case is the Prophet SAW believed him right away but he doesn’t know that, because he was outside, so he says I went back to my tent and I just laid down crying. The Prophet SAW has no idea about this boys feeling, we learnt about that later. Then Allah SWT releveled surah Munafiqoon.

In Suratul Munafiqoon, basically Allah SWT revealed 11 ayats, in 2 ayats He quoted Zaid ibn Arqam word by word, Zaid told his uncle who told the Prophet SAW that they said “

Words of Abdullah ibn Ubai, this is what he said.

 

When we go back to Madinah, we dignified ones, will expel the humiliated ones, Quran comes and says:

 

 

 

Word for word the narration of Zaid is now part of Quran, he said also, he said don’t spent on all these people around the Messenger of Allah until they dissaper,

 

Ayah comes down

 

 

When this Surah is revealed to the Prophet SAW he calls for Zaid, who was crying by himself, he calls Zaid, he sits him down, puts his hands on his knees, and says laqad SaddaqakAllah, Allah proved that you are telling the truth, and he recited the entire Surah to Zaid, the 11 year old boy. Beofre anybody else heard this Surah, Zaid heard this Surah.

This Surah has so many purposes but one of its purposes was to care for the sentiments of this kid, who spoke subhanAllah.

BarakaAllahu li wa lakoon filQur’anil-hakim wa nafa’aani wa iyyakum bil-ayat wa zhikril hakim. Aqulu qawli hatha astaghfirullaha li wa lakum wa li sa’ril muslimina wal muslimat innahu huwal Ghafurur-Rahim

My brothers, what I want from you to take away from this Khutbah is a profound lesson. With the brother next to you, you might have a difference of opnion, one or two, before you think about that, think about why is this person here, he could be outside, somewhere else, doing something completely different. But if he is here than something has brought him here, which is the love of Allah and His Messeneger, the same feeling that is inside your heart, and the same feeling that that has brought everyone of us together here today.

The difference of opinion was welcomed by the Prophet SAW so long as its based on correct opinion and action. We have the case where the Prophet SAW was sending some of him companions to banu Quraidah for some urgent matter, and he told them don’t pray ‘Asr until you get there. So on the way the time of ‘Asr prayer was expiring, some of the companions decided to pray because the understood that the Prophet SAW meant to get to that place urgently without wasting time, the other group said no, today Asr prayer is connected to a place not time.

When they went to the Prophet SAW he said both were correct, because both followed what they though was the instruction of the Prophet SAW. There’s the other case where there were 2 companions travelling in the desert and there was no water, so they both made tayyamum and praid. While travelling a bit further they found water, one of them decided to make wudoo and pray again. When they went to the Prophet SAW he said to the companion who prayed 2 times, for you is 2 rewards and to the other companion he said “you have followed my Sunnah.” So there will be always a difference of opinion among each-other so long as we base them on correct intention and action, following the Sunnah, after all, all of us our intention is to please Allah.

If there is a need, rather than holding it in your heart, holding that grudge and letting it grow to something big, go and speak with the brother with evidence, where it is felt that our intention is to come closer to the truth, to educate each other, to come closer to the teachings of Muhammad SAW, but not creating enmity and dispute among eachother. After all we all share a shahada together, don’t we? We are all part of one big family, known us the Ummah of Muhammad SAW.

May Allah unite us all with him in Janatal-Firdousal-‘Ala, amin.