What defines you??

Salaam Alayk~


What defines you?

University of Warwick

16^th September 2011

(adhan)

Alhamdulillahi nahmaduhu..

Amma ba’du,

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Praise be to Allah for His ni’mah and blessing upon us, as in a very tight schedule we are still able to sit together and share a few reminders that would benefit all of us, biiznillah..

My dearest brothers and sisters,

How do we define ourselves?

Are we a Pakistani?  An Arab? A Malaysian? Or any other nationality it may be. Or do we define ourselves as muslims?? I’m sure that all of us already have the answer.

But then, some of us might say, I’m a Malaysian muslim! A Pakistani muslim! An Arab muslim!

And to some extent, some of us might even say “ I’m a good Malaysian Muslim. He’s a bad Malaysian muslim. We don’t want to be friends with each other. He’ll surely end up in hell. I don’t want to be in hell with him.” Nauzubillahi min zaalik..

Be careful! How we define ourselves will determine how we treat others.

Allah swt says in the Quran :

$pkš‰r'¯»tƒ â¨$¨Z9$# $¯RÎ) /ä3»oYø)n=yz `ÏiB 9x.sŒ 4Ós\Ré&ur öNä3»oYù=yèy_ur $\/qãèä© Ÿ@ͬ!$t7s%ur (#þqèùu‘$yètGÏ9 4 ¨bÎ) ö/ä3tBtò2r& y‰YÏã «!$# öNä39s)ø?r& 4 ¨bÎ) ©!$# îLìÎ=tã ׎Î7yz ÇÊÌÈ

" O mankind! we created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and Tribes, that ye may know Each other (Not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the Most honoured of you In the sight of Allah is (He who is) the most righteous of you. and Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). "

[Surah Al-Hujurat : 13]

Subhanallah, this is such a wonderful ayat. Allah said to us that we as human being are all from the same source, Adam and Hawa. You and I were from Adam and Hawa. We are of the same creation, some are men and others are women. Then from the same kind of species, Allah grouped us into nations and tribes. I’m from Malaysia. Some of you might be from Pakistan, some from Egypt and some from Britain. Above all, none of that matters. The purpose of all these differences is to make us learn from each other - li ta’arafu.

Brothers and Sisters,

What make us better from others is nothing other than Taqwa (note: there is no error in this sentence, however, the phrase ‘nothing other than’ would emphasize your message) – inna akramakum ‘indallahi atqakum. But hey! How can we know who are more righteous than others? There is no clear gauge to measure the righteousness in a person. Even in the Quran, Allah only tells us the characteristic of the righteous people.

This superb ayat make me wonder why we have to discriminate others. When we see someone we don’t like, we would start to say so and so. Then, we start to distinguish ourselves from others.

This is totally wrong brothers and sisters. Differences don’t give us the right to discriminate anyone but from the differences, we have diversity. The uniqueness of each unit and component would give us greater advantage in achieving something. 10 men that have varied skills can beat 10 men with the same capabilities.

Subhanallah!! 10 craftsmen won’t be able to cross deep water until one of them know how to make a boat. Well.. Unless they can swim. That is a different context I suppose.

Then, Allah finishes the ayat with innallaha ‘alimun khabir. Allahu akbar! Allah told us that Allah knows who is more righteous. Thus, what we have to do is to learn from others and to improve ourselves. There’s no need to be bothered by other people’s perception that we are better from another person because in the end, only Allah can determine who is better.

(pause + sit)

$yJ¯RÎ) tbqãZÏB÷sßJø9$# ×ouq÷zÎ) (#qßsÎ=ô¹r'sù tû÷üt/ ö/ä3÷ƒuqyzr& 4 (#qà)¨?$#ur ©!$# ÷/ä3ª=yès9 tbqçHxqöè? ÇÊÉÈ

“ Indeed the mu’minin to each other are brothers, so make reconciliation between your brothers, and fear Allah, that You may receive Mercy,”

[Surah Al-Hujurat : 10]

Brothers and sisters blessed by Allah,

The biggest ni’mat in this world is the ni’mat of Iman and Islam. Under these blessings, the mu’minin are like family to each other. So why do we have to argue with each other? Why are we betraying the ni’mat from the Almightly Allah for His mercy and love to us? Aren’t we afraid of His wrath and anger??

Äd“r'Î6sù ÏäIw#uä $yJä3În/u‘ Èb$t/Éj‹s3è? ÇÊÌÈ

“ Then which of the Blessings of Your Lord will You both (jinns and men) deny? ”

[Surah Ar-Rahman : 13]

And not only once, Allah repeated Himself on this message, but for 31 times in the surah Ar-Rahman and yet, do we still want to be amongst the ungrateful?

I leave the answer to you.

InsyaAllah my dear brothers and sisters,

At this moment, let us raise our hands together and make du’a for all our brothers and sisters around the world..

(dua)

(iqamah + solat)

p/s : After giving 3-4 khutbas.. Huhu.. still nervous..

:: lifeisanAcademy ::