indeed all praise is due to Allah and as
such we should praise Him seek his help
and seek his
forgiveness and seek refuge in Allah
from the evil which is within
ourselves and the evil which results
from our
Deeds for whomsoever Allah has guided
none can
misguide and whomsoever Allah has
allowed to go
astray none can
guide and I bear witness that there is
no God worthy of worship but
Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad
s. wasam was the last messenger of Allah
[Music]
indeed the most truthful form of speech
is the book of
Allah and the best source of guidance
was the guidance brought by Muhammad
s.
wasam and the worst of all Affairs are
the Innovations in
religion for every innovation in
religion is
cursed and all cursed
Innovation lead to
misguidance and All misguidance Leads
ultimately to the
Hellfire brothers and
sisters to
today on this jum
this I would like to
focus
on the
concept
of Islam being a way of
life we hear it all the
time Islam is a way of life
meaning
what
meaning that it is supposed to
guide all aspects of Our
Lives it
determines how we should
function the decisions that we make
every
day should be guided
by the teachings of
Islam this is a way of life meaning it's
connected to all aspects of Our
Lives we live
it we live
Islam it is not just a set of rituals
that we do at certain
times in certain seasons in certain
places but
something which is with us
247 24 hours a day 7 days a
week it is always with us as long as we
are
conscious as long as we are aware of the
world around us we're not in a
coma we're not
asleep
then we are
required
to perceive that world to look at that
world to understand that world to
operate within that world in accordance
with the teachings of
Islam Islam is a way of
life and this is
something that the West just cannot
grasp it just just sticks in their
throat religion is supposed to be
something you keep in your back pocket
for special occasions you take it
out and the rest of the time you put it
away so this Islam 24/7 is just
something it is Extreme in their mind
that means
extremist Islam is just supposed to be
fulfilling your
personal spiritual need that you see you
believe in a spirit so fulfilling that
need on special occasions you use it but
keep it there don't bring it into school
don't bring it into the workplace don't
bring it into government don't bring it
into education
Etc that is Extreme
that's how they perceive
it but that is
Islam that is
Islam and that is what we need to get
back
to we have been
colonized
suppressed
overcome
enslaved
exploited all around the world our
resources are not in our
hands and in that
process we were also
indoctrinated
brainwashed into seeing
Islam the way that they see
religion and that is the her
itage that most of us if not all of us
have inherited from our
parents yes do your namas do your Salah
do your
prayers but don't be
extreme you have a
life you have a life to live
pray on Fridays it's
good in the days also it's not bad time
to time but don't be
extreme be
moderate not knowing that moderation
means that we live our lives in
accordance with
Islam we don't go to extremes whereby
we go beyond the boundaries of Islam
this is where the extremism comes it
comes when we cross the
bounds the bounds which Allah has set
that's when you are extreme either to
one side or to the
other but as long as you're doing
Islam as long as you're living
Islam it can never be extreme
it is not
extreme it is the way of life which
Allah has prescribed for human
beings so
this
understanding this
Consciousness which is growing
slowly in all parts of the
umah the are
Awakening taking place it may not be
said in these terms people say it in
many different terms these just the
terms that I chose to speak about it
in but we all know there is an
Awakening we all feel it in all of our
countries from all the different parts
of the umah that we have come there is a
Consciousness now of what Islam is that
was not understood 50 years
ago 100 years
ago it was not understood as it is now
being understood that's
reality
however that
Consciousness has to be
guided that Consciousness has to be
properly guided otherwise it gets
hijacked hijacked by those with limited
knowledge who have their own
agendas based on their own
interpretations following the ways of
other
revolutionaries social
revolutionaries whether it's
Castro or it's
Mong or Len in or somebody out there
who's done something following their
example instead of following the example
ofo
wasallam they're looking in modern
terms trying
to twist
and uh divert and and warp the teachings
of Islam so that they can fit into this
particular Channel and that channel is a
violent
Channel where they begin by unleashing
violence against those who they perceive
as the enemies of
Islam but shortly
thereafter you find them unleashing that
violence against Muslims themselves
in the name of
Islam that is an
extreme
expression it has different names in
different
countries the popular one we hear in the
news now is Boo
Haram in
Nigeria that's one we hear before we
heard kaaa that was the big still we
hear it from time to time
the Islamic State
of sham
and were supposed to be fighting for the
Islamic State in
Syria and
others and brothers please the doors can
you close the doors please with US Open
Doors hot air is coming in here and
making it difficult for everybody here
the the place is closed the mid is full
can you just close the door and find a
place thank
you
so that extreme
Wing that chooses
violence as its
root distorting the image of Islam
globally harming
Muslims and not
producing anything but destruction
corruption and harm to the
umah and on the other
side we have others who have gone to
another extreme that is the extremes of
modernism the extremes of modernism
reinterpreting
Islam in modern terms brothers please
close the door please close the door
there is no room close the
door those Brothers at the door there
can you just keep that door
closed those who
feel that Islam needs to be
reinterpreted
Ed in these modern
times
so because there is an attack on Islam
from a number of different
perspectives they start
to
compromise and say that though Islam
says this you know that's ancient times
and we have changed now and it's not
anymore because this thing of cutting
off
hands it's just cutting off
heads Prophet Muhammad wasallam married
to
Aisha the law of apostasy these are the
things
which right now the West is focusing on
big big issues forcing trying to force
Muslims to back off these rules rules
these
laws which are part of our Shar and we
find Muslims today in circles in Harvard
in big discussions and you know uh
debates Etc you find Muslims oh no no no
we don't really believe that there's
difference of opinion and all this kind
of
stuff that's an extreme opinion extreme
opinion to cut off person's hand for
stealing in
Islam the Quran is not clear
cut off their hands is not
clear of course when presenting
this we don't present it as meat cleaver
in the hand saying we should cut off the
hands of all
thieves this is our way no no
no There Are Rules there is a legal
process evidence has to be brought
circumstances have to be looked into all
these different things after all of that
then
yes if you are found guilty your hand
will be
amputated that's the
law and we should not be ashamed of it
because to be ashamed of it is to be
ashamed of the Quran
itself and what does that say about
someone's Faith ashamed of what Allah
subhana wa ta'ala has said in the
Quran but it is the how how do we
present it of
course reality is that no matter how you
present
it in the
end they want us to stop
it to cancel
it that is the bottom line
so we cannot escape the
attack but if we have control of the
media then at least we can express our
point of
view the point is we don't have access
to the media this is our big
problem we have not focused on the
importance of the media in conveying The
Message of Islam to the
world so we have many
channels there many
Arab National
Pakistani you know Indonesian Etc
channels around the world but what is on
those channels
nonsense just
nonsense those channels could be used
for conveying Islam globally and
conveying Islam
nationally but the consciousness of the
umah has not reached that point this is
reality there's what we would
like and then there is the
reality but what concerns us most and
what should concern us as
individuals you and I as individuals we
cannot buy channels we say yeah it's
good it's true we should do it let's go
out and buy a channel no we can't it's
millions of dollars we don't have the
money so what does Allah expect of
us
towards defense of Islam promotion of
Islam Allah wants us
to live
Islam if all of us here for
Juma made
that spiritual commitment to Allah
subhana wa ta'ala
that when we leave the jum
today we will
strive to make a Islam our way of
life in all of its aspects what we don't
know we
learn as Allah told
us ask those who know if you don't
know we find out truly yes of course if
you ask the average person what do you
need to do here there there there oh I'm
not sure I don't know find
out but have that commitment to know
leave here with that commitment to live
Islam make it
real we will make a
difference we will make a
difference we might not see it right
now this
week this
month but
know that we will make a difference
so I ask
allaha to strengthen our
hearts to firm our
feet and to give us the
courage to make that commitment to
him as it is only the commitment to him
that matters
and we ask Allah to forgive what has
gone before of our negligence our
ignorance our malpractice our
Disobedience our
sins and to forgive the sins of our
parents our grandparents our
families and we ask
[Music]
him to turn those sins
into righteous
Deeds
living
Islam living
Islam means living every aspect of
Islam and the most important
aspect about
which we will be asked first on the day
of judgment will be
Salah
Salah the last words of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi
wasallam leaving this
world
was take care of the
prayer look after the Salah
Salah how do we
live the
Salah well first and foremost we must
know what the Salah
is we need to
know what are the goals of the
Salah and what are the means by by which
we get to those
goals because if we are focused on the
means and we don't understand the
goals then we cannot live the
Salah so it is worth
reflecting in order to bring our lives
Liv in Conformity with
Islam it is worth reflecting on what are
the means and the goals of
Salah the
means we
know begin with
woo
woo and they
proceed to the outer movements
that we
learn the things that we say
Al
prostration
bowing
sitting those are the
means those are the
means the Salah is incorporated within
that but those are not the goals
many people
today have confused goals with
means so we think
that the goal of
Salah what we are supposed to do is woo
and the
prayer but that is only the means
because we
think of the means as the
goal then we look at it as a
burden we look at it as a
burden getting up for
fer stopping what we're doing and going
to pray and
and pring Isa it's a
burden which we take off our back at
those different
times and we will do it
quickly most of the times we will do it
quickly as quick as
possible if we catch ourselves maybe we
slow down a bit but otherwise we do it
quickly get it done out of the way
finished carry on with
life that's how we treat the
Salah as if the Salah was something we
have to give
Allah you know at these times of the day
we have this burden we need to put it
okay here it is Allah here it is here it
is there done
but that is not
Salah that is not the Salah which Allah
has
prescribed the living
Salah that is a dead
Salah that's a dead set of rituals that
we go through
daily about which non-muslims
complain look at this guy
he prays five times he's in the
workplace he's there he's going he's
praying
and but he cheats us he doesn't pay our
salaries on
time he makes us work more than we're
supposed to
work he
lies what is this
Salah I've heard it many times from
non-muslims what is the value of this
Salah this
prayer and I have to say I agree with
you I agree with
you that Salah which that individual is
making is
valueless it is a valueless
prayer virtually
maybe Allah gives him 1% or something I
don't know I can't say zero but
virtually
valueless of no real
value yes he removed the obligation of
prayer from
himself so okay there's a value
point but the reward
the
impact the effect on his or her
life not
there so how can Salah be a part of a
living
faith it's just a
ritual which we are doing mechanically
like
robots at those times that have been
prescribed we do
it but that is not the
Salah which was
prescribed Allah doesn't need our Salah
we all
agree I'm sure there's nobody here who
thinks yeah Allah needs my
prayer no if you think that then you
don't don't know who Allah
is we all know
Allah he has no
need he depends on no
one and all depends on
him so that Salah is not for
him he didn't prescribe it out of a need
that he had that's what we do when we
tell people do this we have a
need they do it we benefit in one way or
another but this is not Allah that's us
human
beings we have those needs Allah has no
need so Salah is prescribed for us
as a
lifechanging
event at five times a
day seven days a
week throughout our
lives it has been prescribed because we
need it
our worship of Allah is out of a need
that we have he prescribed it because we
need to worship
him all of that is for
what so that we can
get the
reward the
prize Jenna
for which we were
created Allah created us for
agender but he gave us a
choice some people say so why did he
give us a choice why didn't he just put
us in Jenna and be done
finished huh why why do we have to go
through all of
this why didn't he just make us and put
us in gender finish end of story we
could just live happily ever after
finish people ask that
question because he already created
angels he already created
angels who live happily ever
after he didn't want to create more
Angels he wanted to create another set
of
beings who would
choose to be
there so he created
humankind and he gave them a
choice for that choice to be
meaningful then there had to be
hell people ask if this God of yours is
a good god and he's all power ful why
did he make
hell is a good God yeah yes a good God
so why why why hell why make hell if
he's a good
God is the question people
ask the point is that when he created
beings with a
choice without there being hell there's
no
choice if there's only Paradise I no
choice so then what was the point of the
choice
pointless so for the choice to be
real hell is the
natural
consequence there is heaven and there is
hell we choose which one we want to go
to
so Salah what is Salah about Salah is to
help us get to
heaven that's what Salah is all about
for us we need it to help us to get to
heaven
simple but the only Salah which will
help us get to
heaven is the living Salah
the real
Salah the way of life
Salah not the ritual
Salah
dead Rights
Acts
empty that is not going to do anything
for
us so Brothers
sisters as we make that
commitment to leave
today at the end of our
jum to
leave with a new perspective on living
Islam making Islam
real begin with
Salah this is the beginning point
to make it
real and this topic is actually a huge
topic not a topic which could be covered
completely
in the
Juma our time is
limited the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam left us with
a simple
principle a simple
principle sufficient in and of
itself to make Salah
real if we can just grasp its
implications and try to
live its
meaning very simple he said
[Music]
said
pray the farewell
prayer
Pray the prayer of one giving farewell
to this
life every one of us knows this
this doesn't require
special understanding special vickory of
some people say you have to do this with
your head and you have
to it is very
straightforward and that was the
dean very clear straightforward it
doesn't involve special practices and
philosophies
and you know each and every one of us
knows that if somebody told
you you only
have three minutes left in your
life only enough time to make
woodoo and make Salah
how are you going to make that
woodoo like we do it
now are we going to do it like that
surely
not I think you all agree we would not
do it like that at all we' be very
carefully washing
that everything that we do we do it so
carefully we try to do it perfectly
and the
Salah no no way we would
bebar we know it we know how we would do
it nobody needs to teach us
this we just need to do it
of
course it's not
easy it's not
easy because we have so many
distractions but at
least try to
remember and try to come as
close as you and I
can to that
ideal an ideal which is
achievable not something which is on the
moon that you can only look up at this
is something we actually can
do so I ask Allah subhana ta'ala
to help us
make our
prayers farewell
prayers to make our woodoo farewell
woodoo to make our commitment to
Islam that of one who has no other
commitment in his or her
life to keep off Hearts
firm to remove the
doubts and to raise our
children fearing Allah as he deserves to
be
feared I ask Allah subhana tala to give
us long lives in
righteousness and to bless
us with righteous husband husbands and
wives and righteous
children and to give us at the end of
this
world an
exit which is pleasing to
him where our last words are