Crisis of Followership – #2

Auto-generated transcript:As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Faqala ta'ala inna allaha wa malaikatahu yusalluna ala nabi ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallimu taslima. Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala ahli Muhammad kama sallita ala Ibrahim wa ala al Ibrahim innaka hamidun majid. Allahumma barika ala Muhammadin wa ala ahli Muhammad kama barikta ala Ibrahim wa ala al Ibrahim innaka hamidun majid. I remind you and myself that leaders come from the people. The leader is not sent from heaven. Leaders come from the people. If you have good people, you get good leaders. If you have a gang of bandits, you will not get Omar bin Abdulaziz as the leader of that band. Right? You will get the biggest. Bandit who will be the leader of that bandit of that gang of bandits. So when we look at leaders and we criticize leaders that of course our leader, our leader, mashallah, are worthy of all criticism. But the point is that before we criticize them, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, this is my leader because I am who I am. And I did not say this. Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib said this. A man came to him and he said, how is it that in your time? There is so much fitna when there was no fitna in the time of Abu Bakr and Umar. Radhi Allah anhu ma. Sayyidina Ali radhi Allah anhu said. The reason there was no fitna in the time of Abu Bakr and Umar. Radhi Allah anhu ma. Was because the followers were like me. And the fitna in my time is because followers are like you. Huh? So let us think about this. As any Muslim today, what is the biggest problem of the Ummah today? And they will say the biggest problem of the Ummah is lack of leadership. Right? Anybody. Lack of leadership. We don't have good leaders. My submission to you is that, yes, that is a problem. I agree with you. But equal. If not equal. But bigger problem is lack of followership. Not only leadership. Lack of followership. And I will tell you what that means. It is not only lack of leadership. Let me explain to you what is the meaning of followership. By two examples. Now take yourself back. Take yourself back. To the 13th year of prophethood of Risala. 622 CE. It is in the Ayam-u-Tashriq. Days after Hajj. Dark night. And some people are gathering. In groups. Twos and threes and fours. And moving very quietly. They are collecting in one place. And Kaab-in-Malik Radhialanu narrates this whole story. And he said that in the night we slept in our camps. And then when the third of the night had elapsed. So roughly middle of the night. We began to leave quietly. And we came to this Hilak. Which today we call this place Aqaba. And there were 73 men and two women. And the two women were Umm Ammara Radhialana. And Umm Muni Radhialana. And we waited there. And the reason they did that was because quite literally their lives were in danger. The Quraysh were looking out for people who were. Ready to support Muhammad and they would have attacked them. So they gathered there. With their lives at risk. Just think about that. This Deen began. With people ready to put their lives on the line. For the Deen of Allah. This Deen began. With people ready to put their lives on the line. For the Deen of Allah. By supporting Muhammad . Just reflect on this fact. They did not hesitate. They didn't say hold on a second. I mean I'm not going in there. This is a dangerous meeting. What happens if I get caught? So they gathered. They gathered. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. They were all in the same place. And Rasool came with his uncle. Al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib. And we don't know at that point whether he was Muslim or not. Because he had become Muslim and he was hiding it. We don't know whether it was before this or after this. But anyway he was the supporter of Rasool . So Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib, he came. And when they got there, where al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib, he addressed them first. And he said, in effect, he said that my nephew, Muhammad, he's here, and he is willing to join you, and you have invited him to go with you to your town, but take him with you only if you are ready to protect him and defend him. But if you are going to take him and then abandon him, then don't take him. Because here he is with his family, he is protected, he is honored, and we don't want him to go to your place and then he has nobody to help him. So Ka'bin Malik says, we heard him and then we said to him, we have heard your words, and now, Ya Rasulullah , you speak to us and tell us what pledge you want us to make. Take from us any pledge you wish. Now, before I tell you, what he asked them, understand the situation. Here is Rasul Butter Packal, who has not been 앞ened to security. No one has told him not to speak, ör husuk anabas kadar no preguntanc developeri Elif暉政府 His life was in danger in Makkah. Whatsupak After the death of his uncle Abu Talib He had no more support in Makkah. Life itself was in danger in Makkah. 셔לشک Anne, again no more support in Makkah, cupboard by Deswegen was in Macca. He had tried to seek the help and support of the different tribes of the Hajjahs and also elsewhere when they came for Hajj. He went from tent to tent, tribal tent to tribal tent. And various, if you read the seerah, it's a very interesting part to read. Different people gave different reasons, but effectively they said, sorry, we can't help you. Except the people who came to be called Al-Ansar, the people of Yathrib. So in the first year they came, few of them, second year, which we know as the second Bayatul Akhaba, 73 men and 2 women, 75 people, they came. So here is Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He's asking them for help. And in a material way, if you think about it, he has nothing to give them. They don't need him. He needs them. But see what he's asking them to do. They said, give us, let us know what do you want from us? He says three things. He says, pledge. He says, give us your promise. Give me your promise that you will obey me. Whether you like what I say, you agree with what I say, or you dislike or you disagree, you will obey me. Think about this. You will obey me, whether or not you like what I say, whether or not you agree with what I say. Give me your promise. And pledge that you will obey me. Unquestioned. Number two. Pledge and promise that if I ask for assistance, material assistance. He said, pledge and promise that you will give me in times of plenty, and you will give me in times of scarcity. You will give whether you have it or not. Find it from wherever. Give it. And number three. Pledge that you will protect me like you protect your own women and children. Which means, put your life on the line. Die for me. Obey me. Give me whatever I ask you, whether you have it or not. And get ready to die for me. This is in short what he's asking. Now think for yourself. Does it even make sense? Does it even make sense? You are going to people. You need them. If they tell you, Salam alaikum, we are not interested, you got nowhere else to go. Because you tried everything already. What does it tell you about where his own Tawakkul is? Does anyone who actually depends on those people, if he in his mind and heart, if he is depending on those people, do you think he will? Does he tell us this? This pledge, in my opinion, is one of the many, many evidences of This pledge makes no sense. This pledge makes absolutely zero logical sense. Nobody who needs somebody will go and dictate. You can't dictate terms like this to that person. You will say, man, you have no leverage. What are you talking about? You can't dictate terms to me when you got zero leverage. You talk like this when you have power. You don't talk like this when you are asking me for help. Unless, unless you are incidental. I am not asking you. I am giving you an opportunity to earn something which you cannot get. Unless. Unless you give this. I have come to give you. The Rasool does not ask. The Rasool does not need. Because his Rabb gives him. He came to teach us to take from the Rabb and give to the people. We became beggars. We became beggars. We became beggars. We go to the people with our hands like this. Please help me. Please help me. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. You stand here on the Musalla and you recite Iyyaka na'budu wa Iyyaka nasta'eel Then you go to the makhlook for istiyanah. Junaid Baghdadi says, He said I was a small boy and I used to go to the mother's side. My hair grew long. So one day my ustaz said to me, Tomorrow come have a haircut. Don't come without a haircut. So he said now I have no money. I have got nowhere to go. My ustaz says cut your hair. Otherwise don't come. What do I do? So he said I went to the Babar shop and the Babar was giving somebody else a haircut. So I went and stood outside there. The Babar asked me what happened. He said to him, please can you give me a haircut for the sake of Allah. Can you give me a haircut? Can you give me a haircut? For the sake of Allah. He said the Babar immediately stopped cutting the hair of the man he was cutting. He told him please sit here. On the side he called me. He made me sit in the chair. He kissed my head. And he gave me a haircut. And Junaid Baghdadi said I was, he did it. He said I was very happy. I thanked him and so on and I went my way. Several decades passed. Maybe 20 years, 30 years, whatever. Now Junaid Baghdadi is Junaid Baghdadi. He is a great Sheikh and a great Alim and he is a great. He has got hundreds and thousands of murids and he is you know. And he said I remembered that suddenly one day I took a haircut from this guy and I never paid him. I should pay him. So he said I went to his shop. And he said the man was there. Obviously he was not an old man. He said the man was there. I made some money.