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A lecture presented in Sydney on Monday 15 May 2000,
organized by the Federation of Australian Muslim Students and Youth, NSW
branch.
To my beloved brother and sisters, those standing, those sitting, those in the front, those in the back, those trying to get in, I
greet everyone of you with the greeting of peace,
Assalamu Alaikumwa rahmatullahi wa barakatu./
Brothers and sisters, I pray to Allah, the Almighty that tonight Allah will bless me to articulate what I feel in here (pointing to
his heart). I ask Allah to bring what’s in here (heart) so that I may articulate with my tongue and help every one of us. If we are
Muslim, a Muslim scholar (aalim), haafith Quran/ (who have memorized the entire Quran), the
muttaqeen (those who fear Allah)
I pray to Allah that you will get closer to Allah. I pray to Allah
that those Muslims who are weak in faith, some of you barely holding
on, some of my sisters struggling to be a good Muslim but weak, some of my brothers struggling to be a good Muslim but weak, I pray to
Allah that you will be stronger tonight and will get closer to
Allah. Those of you who are not Muslim in the audience, Christians,
Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and even atheists I pray tonight that Allah
guides you to His truth.
Tonight I want to talk about you, all of you… and all of us, 1 billion 500 million Muslims around the world. A third of them (500
million Muslims) left Muslim countries, scattered throughout the world. Where are they? They are in America, 9 million Muslims in the
United States of America. They are in the United Kingdom. Muslims…
in Germany, France, India. Where are they? Four hundred thousand
Muslims in Australia. I want to talk about you and our role in this
country, in this city of Sydney and in Melbourne and in Perth. Why
are we here? One third of the Ummah in minority countries.
Migration to non-Muslim countries.
Why are you here in Sydney? Why are we in Australia? What are we doing? What do the people think about us? The Australians, the
Aborigines, what do they think about us? What goes through their
minds when they hear Muslims, when they hear Islam, when they hear
Quran, when they hear /Sunnah/? What do they think about us? Some of
you might say "so what!" You don’t care what they think about us! If
you are Muslim, you care what people think about you. Because in
effect everything, and you better know every time you walk down the
street and somebody sees you as a Muslim they are thinking about
something. What are they thinking about?
When I was a little boy in school, sometimes I would go home from school and maybe somebody in school laughed at me, made a mockery of
me. Like most little children who run home they tell their mother,
they tell their father. I'll never forget what my mother told me.
She said son, say this: "Sticks and stones may break my bones but
words can never harm me". You know, sometimes children can be real
cruel, they laugh at you because your skin is black, because your
skin is white, because you’re a little bit heavy, because you’re
skinny, because you have a beard, because you’re young, because you
dress differently, because you wear a kufi, because you wear
hijab, because you wear long dress, people are cruel. My mother
did not have to tell me son don’t worry about that, don’t worry
about what people say, words don’t harm, but my mother was wrong.
Words do harm you!
Sometimes a true word is more harmful. How many of you brothers are not married? Raise your hands. You think
words mean anything? If you want to get married and that woman hears a bad
word about you and she doesn’t want to marry you because of what she
heard, you don’t think words mean anything? You want to get a job
and they won’t give you a job because of what they heard about you!
You don’t think words don’t mean anything! Words mean something and
what people think about you has a tremendous effect on your life!
This is why for a Muslim not only is our property sacred, Kullu Muslimin ‘alal Muslim haram,
maaluhu… my property is sacred, /wa
damuhu/, my blood is sacred, /wa ‘irduhu/, my reputation. Reputation is important to us and my question is what is the reputation of
Muslims in Sydney, among the non-Muslims? What is the reputation of Muslims in Australia among the non-Muslims? What is the reputation
of Muslims around the world? This is what I want to discuss tonight.
Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you about an African American man named Haroon. He took /shahada/ four years ago. He is the first
Muslim in his family. Let me tell you how he became Muslim. One day
somebody gave him a CD, on the CD was /ayat/ from the Quran in the
Arabic language. Haroon speaks no Arabic, he doesn’t even know
/alif/, /baa/, /taa/. Haroon was a songwriter and a poet. But when
he heard the Quran on the CD he said: "I have never heard anything
like that." And he became a Muslim right on the spot -- when he
heard the Quran. Months later somebody said: "Haroon, let me tell
you the translation of what you heard of the Quran on the CD that
you didn’t know". Somebody translated the verses from Quran to
Haroon. When Haroon heard it he started crying. And all he could do
was cry. He couldn’t believe that something so beautiful sounded so
good can be this what we call Quran. How many of us here born in
Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, born in a Muslim country, who know
Quran, who know Arabic and we can’t appreciate the greatness of this
book, but an African American knowing no Arabic learns to appreciate
the Quran.
I want you to listen to me tonight. In this society we have all kinds of music. We have jazz, blues, rock and roll, hip-hop and all
have a beat and sometimes you Muslim, standing on a corner, and
somebody plays some music, all of a sudden your foot starts moving,
you don’t know why, it’s the beat of the music. The music has a beat
and you begin to respond to the beat of the music. The Quran doesn’t
have that kind of beat, the Quran has a rhythmic sound, it has its
own cadence. So therefore when a Muslim has the Quran in his mind
and the people of this society want to commit zina
(adultery), a Muslim has on his brain laa taqrabuz-zina (do not come near
adultery). He has a beat in his brain, it’s the beat of Allah (swt),
the cadence of the Quran.
Brothers and sisters, I am saying this for a reason. I only pray tonight that Allah can move us to become servants of this book (the
Quran). How many of you have in your name, first, middle, the name
of your father, the name of your son, Muhammad? Raise your hand.
Muhammad is the most famous name on the earth. Many Muslims have the
name Muhammad. I know a Muslim with the name Abu Muhammad Muhammad
ibn Muhammad. Yes, because we love the name Muhammad, and even
though we love the name Muhammad the name most loved by Allah is Abdullah and Abdur Rahman. Why Abdullah? Because Abdullah is a
servant of Allah, wa maa khalaqtul jinna wal insa illaa li
ya’budoon - Allah only created men and jinn to worship Him.
Abdullah, yes. You’re Abdullah. If he comes from Indonesia, Abdullah, Malaysia, Abdullah, Somalia Abdullah, Bangladesh Abdullah,
Jordan, Syria, Iran, Turkey Abdullah. And if you’re in Australia -
Abdullah. We are the servants of Allah. Therefore everything we do is for Allah (swt).
We’re not like everybody. Our wives go shopping, she’s in the store looking for food, she picks up a loaf of bread, she’s looking. Why?
Nobody else is looking, you’re looking. You’re looking at the
ingredients to make sure that there is no pig in the ingredients.
You want to make sure everything in it is halal. Why, Abdullah.
You go to the store to buy something to drink but before you buy
you’re looking. What are you looking for? No wine. Why? Abdullah,
You brother, you want to get married, but you don’t marry any woman.
You want to marry a woman who believes in Allah (swt), who believes
in Prophet Muhammad (s), who believes in Quran. Why ? Abdullah!
So now brothers and sisters, everything that we do we must do it because it is in
kitabul Allah. Khairu hadith kitabul Allah, the
best speech is the book of Allah. I am telling you today every one of you, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK AL-QURAN everyday!
/Khairukum man ta’allamal Quran wa ‘allama -/ the best of you are those who learn
Al-Quran and teach it. Teach it to whom?
Tonight brothers and sisters, I want to talk about the perception of the people of this society. They say Muslims are terrorists. We as
Muslims say Islam promotes tolerance not terrorism. Wait a minute,
we have a problem, a problem in definition, what do we mean by
tolerant? We are tolerant. What does that mean? Tolerance doesn’t
mean "live and let live". Tolerance doesn’t mean you can do whatever
you want to do. You do your thing and I do my thing. That is not
tolerance. What is tolerance?
In New York city we have a very infamous mayor named Juliani. How many of you have heard about him. He is famous for fighting against
crime. Forty thousand policemen in New York City, and you know what
the mayor says, he says we have a zero tolerance level. Zero
tolerance level for crime, and so what. He has no tolerance for
crime. What crime? Who’s crime? Who determines what crime is? I am
telling you tonight that Muslims are the most tolerant people on the
face of this planet earth if you understand the true meaning of
tolerance.
We understand that people have different religions. We know that. Many of you, yourself and your parents have migrated to this
country. In the United States, my country, there are people who left
Cuba on a boat, risked their lives, to go to America. To live in
America, a land of opportunity. A land of freedom. Yes, some of them
die. How many Muslim countries do you know where non-Muslims risk their lives because they want to go there? Think? How many
non-Muslims lost their lives because they want to go to Pakistan?
How many non-Muslims risk their lives because they want to go to
Syria, Jordon or Lebanon or because they want to go to Bangladesh or
Sudan? Or because they want to go to any Muslim country, how many
non-Muslims have risked their lives so that they can go to our
countries? Even though we might not know many, if any, let me tell
you something, in the united States of America I know African
American Muslims, born in America, packed their bags and there is a
college of them now in Cairo, Egypt. A college of Muslims from
America in Cairo, Egypt because they went there, left America, they
didn’t go to Egypt for money. They went there because they went to
seek knowledge and they thought they could find knowledge in Egypt.
I know Muslims in America who got on boats and went to Yemen. They
went to Yemen to study.
I know a Muslim in America, a white European American Muslim, Hamza Yusuf. He left America and went to the west African country
Mauritania and studied the religion of Islam. These Muslims left
America to go searching for Allah’s /deen/. So while there are
Muslims coming here, Muslims born in Australia, Muslims born in the
United Kingdom, migrate to Muslim countries. My question to you is
this, then what are we doing here in Sydney? What are we doing here
in Australia, what are we doing in America?
Now brothers and sisters, some of us are very foolish. I don’t mean you, you are probably the smartest people on the earth, so I’m not
talking about you. I’m talking about others. How can you be on a
ship and you hope the ship sinks? It doesn’t make sense, because if
the ship sinks, you sink. But yet there are Muslims in Australia who
say I hate this /kaafir/ country. But you are here in Australia. The
Prophet (s) made the parable of people on a boat, the good people
and bad people on a boat, and if the bad people put a hole in the
boat, if you let them go you kill them and yourselves. If you hold
back their hands you save yourself and you save them. We’re on a
boat, so it’s in our interest that we make sure that the boat stays
afloat. We are here in Australia, we want to make Australia better,
but we want to get guidance to Australia.
What is tolerance, don’t get excited with what I am about to say, some of you are going to get very excited. The Prophet (s) said
whoever sees an evil let him change it with his hand? Is that
tolerance? If you cannot change it with your hand, change it with
your tongue. Is that tolerance? If you can’t change it with your
tongue change it with your heart and that is the weakest of faith,
but you must change evil. Tolerance doesn’t mean you let everybody
do what they want to do. We want to be tolerant, but we want to be
tolerant like Muhammad (s). We want to be tolerant like Issa (as).
We want to be tolerant like Moosa, like Ibrahim (as). We want to be
tolerant, but we want to know what tolerance is!
If Muslims speak out against homosexuality it doesn’t mean that we are intolerant. How can you say we have a free democratic society
where people have freedom of speech, but yet when we stand up to
speak our freedom of speech you condemn us and plead intolerance
because we are in disagreement with the lifestyle of what Allah has
condemned. What is tolerance? Tolerance doesn’t mean everybody do
what you want to do, that’s not tolerance. The truth of the matter
is that everyone has their own perspective of what is right and what
is wrong. If a mayor of the city says zero tolerance for crime, what
crime? Murder is wrong, we all agree. Rape is wrong. Stealing is wrong.
But we live in a time that is called the evolving standard of decency. What does that mean? In one country, in one state something
may be permissible in one state, but not permissible in another.
Something may be permissible in one country and not in another
country. Something may be permissible in one time in history and
changed in another time in history. Things change. If you go back to
the law book, I don’t know about Australia, if you go back to the
law book in the United States of America adultery used to be a
crime. It is no longer a crime. I bet you if you check the archives
in Australia you will see at one time adultery was a crime. I
guarantee it. In some societies the punishment for adultery was
death. Why did it change? Who changed it? In a democratic society
they say people determine the law, government of the people, by the
people and for the people. People determine what is right and wrong,
what is a sin and what’s not, what is tolerant, what is intolerant.
But for us as Muslims there is but one lawgiver and that is Allah
and His Messenger (s). Whatever Allah makes /halal/ (permissible) is
permissible -- 1400 years ago, a hundred years ago, five years ago,
a thousand years in the future, it will always be the same because
it comes from the same one lawgiver that doesn’t change. Adultery
will always be wrong, murder will always be wrong.
Having said that brothers and sisters, let me take a moment and make sure that you understand the Islamic principle about tolerance and
let me tell you what tolerance means. Prophet Muhammad (s) was
tolerant. How do we respond to someone attacking us in the street?
Human nature: if somebody attacks you, you fight back. If somebody
spits on you, you’re angry, you fight back – human nature. I want to
tell you something, this Quran, it is one thing to know what it
says, but it’s another thing to know the historical context. What
was happening when it was revealed? This /ayat/ /uthina/, permission
to fight, was revealed in the first year of migration. There was no
order for the Muslims to fight back until this verse was revealed.
Muslims were oppressed but they never lifted their hands to fight
back. Why? Because they are cowards? NO. Because they are servants
of Allah and they didn’t move until they got the word from Allah, and Allah ordered them to fight back. You can do anything to them.
You can spit on them, you can stomp them, you can kill them but they
will not lift their hands against you because Allah is their
commander and Allah did not order them to fight back.
So what happened? Muslims were oppressed so much that they had to make migration. They had to leave Makka. At first they went to
Abyssinia. They had to make migration and they left Makka and went
to Madina. But in the second year of /hijra/: /qaatilu fee
sabeelilaahi latheena yuqaatilunakum wa la ta’tadu, innallaha laa
yuhibul mu’tadeen/. Now fight in the way of Allah those who fight
against you even then do not go beyond the boundaries, Allah does
not love those who go beyond the boundaries. Now the battle of
Badr. Now the battle of Uhud. Now they are going to fight back. Why?
Because Allah commanded you to fight back and you are Abdullah, you
are the servant of Allah. But you are not fighting because you want
to take somebody’s land, you are not fighting because you want to
take somebody’s property, you are not fighting because you want to
take somebody’s woman. You are fighting now to defend your faith.
Now you are a /mujaahid fee sabililaa/. Now you obey the
commandments of Allah (swt).
So, you want to know if Muslims are terrorists? This is the book you have to look at (Al-Quran), you have to look to the hadith. If you
show me in this book (Quran) where a Muslim is a terrorist and show
me the hadith where Muslims are terrorists then I would agree with
you. But you can’t find it, you won’t find it. If you look to the
practice of some bad Muslims you might find terrorists, yeah, but
not if you look to this book, the book of guidance. And everything
we do, everything we say, must be based upon this book, the Quran
and the /Sunnah/ of Prophet Muhammad (s).
How many of you have ever made /hajj/? When you made pilgrimage how many of you had to make a sacrifice? In 1978 I made my first /hajj/
and I had to sacrifice a sheep. I had never killed an animal before,
so they brought me a sheep to sacrifice for my hajj. They gave me a
knife, and I’m looking at that sheep and it looked at me. And I did
not want to kill it, but I remembered prophet Ibrahim (as) when
Allah ordered him to sacrifice his own son Ismaaeel (as) and he was
going to do it for Allah; so I looked at the sheep again. I said:
"I’m sorry… /Bismillah Allahu Akbar/!" And notice the sheep, the
sheep did not run. You can take a knife, a blade and put it to the
neck of the sheep and the sheep won’t run. Why? Because Allah (swt)
has given you control, "Don’t you see Allah has subjected to you
what is in the heavens and what is in the earth." Look at you, even
the weakest of you, you go and you slaughter a lamb, but before you
do that what do you say? /Bismillah/. Why? Because you say "Allah I
slay this in your name, by your permission. You gave me the power to
eat, you gave me the lamb to eat, you gave me the camel to eat."
Now I must make sure my knife is sharp because I don’t want the animal to suffer. It’s an animal, but it is a creature of Allah.
Don’t take life that Allah has made sacred, it may only be a lamb,
it may only be a sheep, it may only be a cow, whatever it is it is a
creature of Allah. And you be careful, don’t you go hunting animals
for sport. Some people take guns and go shoot Allah’s creatures for
fun. Not Muslims, Muslims don’t kill animals for fun. Even Allah
(swt) admonished a prophet who burnt the house of an ant. An ANT.
Muslims don’t go around indiscriminately killing animals, they don’t
go around killing insects indiscriminately. Why? Because you are not
a terrorist, you don’t even terrorize animals.
Bear me witness the Prophet (s) said "/imra-atun fi naar li hirr/, a woman in the Hell fire for a cat." She tied up the cat and would not
feed it until it died. This woman is in the hellfire because of a
cat. Not for harming a prophet, not for harming a human being but a cat.
A prostitute from the Bani Israel was thirsty, she went to get water, and when she drank the water she saw a dog thirsty just like
her. A prostitute, she climbed in the well and took off her shoe and
put water in the shoe, put it in her mouth and climbed out of the
well. And gave water to the dog and the Prophet (s) said because of
that act Allah (swt) forgave her her sin and in another narration,
gave her Jannah. A dog! Muslims are not terrorist, we don’t harm
innocent people, we don’t do indiscriminant acts of violence.
I close with these words, "/wa maa arsalnaaka illa rahmatan lil aalameen/ - I have only sent you O Muhammad as a Mercy to all the
worlds." The people of Australia, you have something, brothers and sisters, for them. You know what your gift is? Your gift is
/Al-Huda/, guidance, that’s your gift. Your strength is the knowledge, the Quran and Sunnah. That is the gift that you have for
the Australian people. Guess what, you have to promote it. Do you
know what the biggest business is in America? General Motors. In
1978 GM spent $2.2 billion to advertise their product. $2.2 billion
to convince you to drive their car. That is more than the Gross
National Product of many countries, and they spent that just
promoting advertising. You should ask the question, if they spent
that much in advertsing how much revenue did they get? Over $161
billion in revenue.
I don’t want to stop there. It doesn’t mean that because you advertise and promote you have a good product. Philip Morris, what
do they sell? Cigarettes. In 1998 Philip Morris spent $1.2 billion dollars to convince fools to smoke their cigarettes. I don’t want to
hurt your feelings, I’m sorry… I want all the brothers who have cigarettes in their pockets, before you go I want you to throw it in
the garbage bin. Seriously… I know it’s hard, I am saying it to you for many reasons. They spend $1.2 billion to advertise their
product, get people to smoke their cigarettes. They get over $57 billion, out of your pocket. And now they have some great
spin-doctors - Public Relations. And they try to convince you that its okay even though 500,000 people die a year as a result of
smoking cigarettes. Still they puff away, puff away!!! They puff away their lives. You get poorer and poorer and sicker and sicker.
And they get richer and richer. They spend money, good money advertising. And they get some of the best scientists in the world
who know psychological affects on people. They move people, so you turn on the TV and they got the beat of the music and there is your
foot, before you know it you light one up with your foot like that
(tapping away). Because it’s a beat in your brain. It’s a psychological game they are playing on you and I. Who are the
terrorists? 500 000 people a year dying!! Dying because of
cigarettes, but its okay. You know why its okay? Money, money!!!
They make money.
We contribute to the society. We pay taxes, we make money. Yet people die. You talk about AIDS, but gays in comparison to
cigarettes is so minor, so small, so insignificant.
I say Muslims are not terrorist, if truth be told, we are the saviors of the society. Believe it or not! When we as Muslims do
our job. What is our job again in Sydney? Our job is very easy. Number one: to live a good Muslim life. The people in Sydney
brothers and sisters, they may never pick up this book (the Quran) and read one verse of it. They may never read one hadith. Can I tell
you something, somewhere along the line they are going to run into a
Muslim. A neighbour, a schoolmate, a classmate, a professional
worker at a business. They are going to run into a Muslim. What will
they find when they run into a Muslim? What will their attitude be
when they run into you and I? And ultimately, they are going to
judge Islam by what they see in us. Don’t be an excuse for someone
to run from Islam. You can say, don’t judge Islam by the Muslims.
Judge Islam by the Quran, judge Islam by the sunnah. Right, but they
can’t get to the Quran. They can’t get to the sunnah, because they
are looking at us. You represent the Quran to them, you represent
the sunnah to them. Number one, let us have the best examples as
individuals.
Number two: to all of the imams I make a recommendation. I make the same recommendation to you as I make to myself in the US. We need a
national policy on how to deal with non-Muslims. Consistent, uniform
not sporadic policy. A spokesman so that the people can better
understand Islam.
We are not here to kill the people of Australia. We are not here to hurt the people of Australia. We are here to help these people. And
I admonish you and myself to be patient. Some of them will say bad
things against you, don’t worry. They said bad things against the
Prophet (s). Many of them will laugh and make a mockery of you,
don’t worry about that. If they laugh at you, make mockery of you,
it doesn’t matter. You are a servant of Allah, smile and still be
the best person. I remember a long time ago, there was a dog that
was wounded and the man went to help the dog, and when he went the
dog bit him. Sometimes in trying to do good the one you are trying
to help will fight you. But don’t worry about that.
I give my last example and then I’m finished. Aisha (ra) asked the Prophet (s): "Was there a day harder on you than the day of
Uhud, (when the Prophets tooth was knocked out, when Muslims died)" and he
said: "Yes. You know what day that was, it was when the people of
Taif rejected the Prophet and then /Al-Malik ul Jibaal/ (the angel
of the mountains came) and said Allah has heard what the people have
done to you. Just give me the commandment and I will rain down on
them mountains." And the prophet said: "No. I hope that Allah will
raise from among them one who worships Allah, not associating gods
with Him." That is our Prophet (s). When they angel could send down
mountains, the Prophet (s) said no. Why? He was a mercy.
We did not come to kill the people of Australia, we came to give them guidance. May Allah bless us brothers and sisters, bless all of
us and bless us to be patient.
(Transcribed by Sr Faiza Abdullatif)
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