Positivity in Islam: A Present Reality and a Future Necessity (2)

Occasion: Summary of a Friday sermon (the second sermon) delivered on November 4, 2016Source: A transcription of a video sermon by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

In the life of Nūḥ (peace be upon him) there was not a single moment of rest, let alone an hour or a day, neither by night nor by day. He left no means by which he could offer a service to the society in which he lived, to save them from the Fire, without making the best use of it. These are the prophets of Allah. Do we have an example in anyone greater than them? Is there anyone on earth greater than them? And if they were of the greatness that the Lord of the worlds decreed for them, did their greatness show itself except through their service to people, and their being devoted to serving these individuals and the homelands in which they lived?

A Man Came Running

Allah has given us examples in the Qur'an: ﴿وَجَاءَ مِنْ أَقْصَى الْمَدِينَةِ رَجُلٌ يَسْعَىٰ﴾ [Yā Sīn: 20] ("And there came from the farthest end of the city a man, running"). A positive man who sees what is right and sees what is wrong and distinguishes between this and that, who offers his testimony for Allah even if no result follows from it, and who speaks the word of truth in its place even if he is killed after it. No matter: in life we fulfil a role, and if we fulfil it in the most complete way, we have done our part, and whether we die or are killed or whatever happens to us, we are only moving on to the mercy of the Lord of the worlds, to an abode better than this abode, and a life better than the one we are living.

The Hoopoe and the One Who Had Knowledge of the Book

And it is remarkable that Allah gives you the example of positivity in Sulaymān's hoopoe: when it learned of the existence of a people who worship other than Allah, it set off quickly and did not wait to take permission from the supreme commander, in order to investigate the news, then it returned to present its report and receive instructions, and its resolve did not slacken until it had brought the news.^[1]

And perhaps the whole society there was positive: ﴿قَالَ عِفْرِيتٌ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ﴾ [al-Naml: 39] ("A powerful one from among the jinn said"), then ﴿قَالَ الَّذِي عِندَهُ عِلْمٌ مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ أَنَا آتِيكَ بِهِ قَبْلَ أَن يَرْتَدَّ إِلَيْكَ طَرْفُكَ﴾ [al-Naml: 40] ("Said the one who had knowledge from the Book: I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you"). Each of them wants to say: I. And not in order to take, as we do; rather he says: I am most entitled to it, I will fulfil this role, volunteering his effort, his wealth and his knowledge to serve this society. I paused before this text: he brings the throne of Bilqīs, the throne of a queen, lofty and ornamented; imagine the presidential palace or the White House: how is it moved in the blink of an eye? And what science has today reached anything like this? I kept reading on the subject and did not find that people have discovered anything of the sort, but we believe the Lord of the worlds, and we will not be like those who said it was magic or a kind of fantasy. And when some said it was a miracle, I paused at that: a miracle would be if it happened at the hands of Sulaymān himself, but for one of his followers to do it, I do not think it is a miracle; rather it is the act of one of those who are morally accountable, not the act of a prophet or messenger;^[6] so that indicates that this society, through its complete positivity, excelled in every field of knowledge until it reached a level whose secrets we have not yet come to know in the twenty-first century. Say what you like about energy and electromagnetic forces and the like, but reality declares that the positive people in society are able to reach the sky and what is above it.

The Prophet ﷺ as a Citizen in His Society

Servants of Allah, the Prophet ﷺ never once abandoned fulfilling his role in society as a citizen living in it. Some reports relate the War of al-Fijār, which took place between Quraysh and some of its neighbors, when the Prophet ﷺ was about twenty years old and the message had not yet come to him, but he took part with his uncles and prepared for them the arrows they shot at their enemy.^[2] And likewise the Pact of al-Fuḍūl, in which they agreed to support the wronged in their place and to restore the right to its owner.^[3] Muhammad son of ʿAbd Allāh ﷺ did not hold back from taking part with his hand, his effort, his knowledge and his work in everything that reality required and the needs of society called for; among that was his taking part with the people in the matter of the Black Stone, and the trusts of the polytheists that were in his keeping;^[7] was that not a contribution from him to the society in which he lived?

And the Mother of the Believers, Khadījah (may Allah be pleased with her), said a sentence of the utmost simplicity: «والله لا يخزيك الله أبدًا، إنك لتصل الرحم، وتحمل الكَلَّ، وتكسب المعدوم، وتقري الضيف، وتعين على نوائب الحق» ("By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you: you maintain ties of kinship, you bear the burden of the weak, you earn for the destitute, you honor the guest, and you help against the calamities that befall people in truth").^[4] Look at what she is speaking about: at the beginning of the revelation of the message, is she speaking about the future or about the past? About his history in serving this society, or about what is expected of him? He served them while they worshipped idols, and he served them while they fought him ﷺ and attacked him on many occasions, and the evidence of that is beyond counting.

We Must Be Part of Society

We are now speaking about a movement in society that is beyond debate: we must be part of the society in which we live, people must see the effects of development coming from you, and you must be a help to people as much as you can. If a person comes to you in your workshop, lower the price for him because you are a Muslim. And when you sell, or export, or borrow, or do anything, present yourself as a Muslim with the utmost character, manners and respect for those who live around you. Establish your presence by every means available to you, and praise Allah that they are available to you, for if we are deprived of them one day, we will weep only over our own mistakes, if we are stripped of rights that Allah blessed us with and then we disowned them.

And in the Hand of One of You Is a Sapling

We are the people of a religion that says: «إذا قامت الساعة وفي يد أحدكم فسيلة فليغرسها» ("If the Hour is established and in the hand of one of you is a sapling, let him plant it").^[5] The Hour has been established, and still we do not break the principle of positivity in our lives. Please, enough of these words that have been repeated on our tongues: "Let us keep close to the wall and live under cover," "We are poor folk, what can we do?" Sentences we inherited, which killed us and killed those before us, and which are meant to kill those who come after us. And let our standing remain in the eyes of our children, who look at our movement and positivity, or at our sluggishness and failure. By Allah, your son may disown your very existence when he sees that you, beside him, are a weak person with no ability to take part in anything. We want our children to take pride in us when they see from us participation, positivity and work: learn with him as much as you can, share his opinions with him and engage him in dialogue, so that he does not feel that you are too small for him to take an idea from you.

I ask Allah to help us fulfil this trust. And we ask Allah to take us by the hand toward what is good, to return us and the Muslims to His religion in a beautiful return, to make us an instrument of good and righteousness for this society in which He has favored us with living and enjoying its bounties, to benefit us by what we have mentioned, and to make us among those who listen to speech and follow the best of it.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The story of the hoopoe is in Sūrat al-Naml (verses 20–28). The speaker did not recite the verses. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The War of al-Fijār is among the reports of the Sīrah before the prophetic mission; the speaker mentioned it with the phrase "some reports relate" without attribution. There is disagreement about his ﷺ age at the time: Ibn Kathīr, in al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, transmitted from Ibn Isḥāq: «هاجت حرب الفجار ورسول الله ﷺ ابن عشرين سنة» ("The War of al-Fijār broke out when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was twenty years old"), and from Ibn Hishām that it broke out when he ﷺ reached fourteen or fifteen years. And Ibn Kathīr cited his saying ﷺ: «كنت أُنَبِّل على أعمامي» ("I used to gather arrows for my uncles"). ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The Pact of al-Fuḍūl is among the reports of the Sīrah before the prophetic mission; the speaker did not attribute it. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: From the ḥadīth of the beginning of revelation, agreed upon from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) (al-Bukhārī 3 and Muslim 160), and al-Bukhārī's wording is: «كلا والله ما يخزيك الله أبدًا، إنك لتصل الرحم…» ("Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you; you maintain ties of kinship…"). The speaker's wording is close, with some disturbance in the transcript. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: Aḥmad reported it (12902) from the ḥadīth of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), and al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (479) with the wording: «إن قامت الساعة وفي يد أحدكم فسيلة، فإن استطاع ألا تقوم حتى يغرسها فليغرسها» ("If the Hour is established and in the hand of one of you is a sapling, then if he is able to plant it before it is established, let him plant it"), and al-Albānī graded it authentic in al-Silsilah al-Ṣaḥīḥah (9). ^[6]: Editor's documentation: This is the speaker's opinion. On the identity of the one who had knowledge from the Book: Ibn Kathīr transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he was "Āṣaf, the scribe of Sulaymān," and transmitted that he "was a ṣiddīq who knew the Greatest Name," and that he called upon Allah and the throne was brought; Ibn Saʿdī said: "a learned, righteous man in the company of Sulaymān called Āṣaf ibn Barkhiyā," and that he knew the Greatest Name. And al-Bayḍāwī mentioned several opinions about who he was, among them that he was Sulaymān himself. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The report of the Black Stone was before the prophetic mission, when the Kaʿbah was being rebuilt: Quraysh disagreed over who would put it in place, so they made the first person to enter upon them the arbiter, and it was the Prophet ﷺ; he placed it in a cloth, each tribe took hold of one end of it, and then he set it in place with his own hand; Aḥmad (15504) and al-Ḥākim (1683) reported it, and al-Wādiʿī included it in al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Musnad (578). As for the trusts, al-Bayhaqī reported (12823) that ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) stayed in Mecca after the Hijrah for three nights and their days until he had returned on behalf of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the deposits that people had left with him, and then he joined him; and al-Albānī said in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (5/384): "Its chain is ḥasan."