Maktab is the shield

Auto-generated transcript:My brothers and sisters, ideology can be combated only with ideology. Since we have a lot of my brothers and sisters from Egypt, Egypt for centuries was an idol worshiping society, just like India and unlike the Quraysh in Arabia. Unlike because in India and Egypt, idol worship was developed to a point where there was an elaborate mythology. There were gods and goddesses, there were priests for each class, and there was an entire hierarchy of priests. There were stories, there were books, there were teaching schools. With the atoms, that was not the case. They used to worship idols, but for them the very famous story of Sayyidna Yawar Malik Khattar Wodeelanui, he said, I didn't have an idol, so I took some dates, I made the idol, I worshipped it, I got hungry, I ate the idol. No, Hindu does that. No Egyptian did that. So, there was a big difference. Now, what happened to Egyptian idol worship and the Egyptian religious? Where is it? Today, it's a tourism thing, right? You go and see the temples. I remember I went, and as I went in a boat, as we got off the boat, there was this guy there, he's telling me, Shaif, this is the god of fire, and this is the god of, I said, what? Then he suddenly looked at me, said, no, no, it's not philosophy. No, no, I didn't mean that. So, but he got used to that. That's what he got used to telling the tourist guy, to telling tourists. So, he's telling me, the god of this, god of this, god of this. I said, excuse me, you are a Muslim, don't talk like this. I mean, just say it what it is. Point I'm making here is ideology is defeated only by ideology. It was not the army of Amar-e-Malik, the last Wodeelanui, which conquered Egypt, it was the ideology of Islam which conquered Egypt. To the extent where the Egyptians today, they speak Arabic, it's not their language. The language of Egypt is not Arabic, but today they speak Arabic, and today they worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Alhamdulillah. Some of the best, Allah has given different things to different people of this religion. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave the voice to Egypt. The Korah are from Egypt, subhanAllah. The Muhaddithun are from my country, from India and Pakistan, that area. Great Muhaddithin, and so forth. So, ideology. The reason I'm saying this and I'm giving you this example is, today's ideology, and this is a global ideology, America is the, is the markers of this, but it's a global ideology. And that ideology is the ideology of commercialism. Do this as an experiment. Randomly ask any group of people to name for you three role models, three icons. I will guarantee you, they will name for you three businessmen. And also I will guarantee you, they will be three white men, right. Try this. In your college, may ask, ask students. Three, I did this in our masjid, and we had the same, same, same story. I told, this is a masjid for God's sake. Nobody says Abubakar and Omar and Osman and Hali, Radhe-i-al-anum, Ajmaeen. Nobody, Jeb Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffett. Why? Think about this. Forget about the Islamic great people and, and so forth. Leave that. How come they don't name three scientists? How come they don't name three musicians, right? I'm not talking about music, ha-la-ha. I'm saying in this country and in this world, music is, how come they don't name three musicians? How come they don't make, they don't name three film, filmmakers? Steven Spielberg, they know, they see the films, they'll never, they'll never mention his name as an icon. How come they don't mention anybody except three business people? Because this is the ideology. This is the ideology. Take yourself back in the time of the Sahaba, Ridwanullah-i-Alaihi-majmaeen. Ask people to name three icons. Who would they have named? Even though Abdurahman-i-Minaf, Radhe-i-al-anum was one of the biggest, wealthiest businessmen in history, even though Osman-i-Minafman, Radhe-i-al-anum was one of the biggest and, and, and most wealthy businessmen, even if they named them, which itself I would have doubt, they would have, there are other people they would have named, but even if they named them, it would not be because they were businessmen, they had money. They would be for their piety, for their commitment to Islam, for their, for their, you know, issue as, as people in Islam, not because of business, not because of money, because the ideology was different. Today's ideology is commercialism. Now commercialism, you might say, well, so what's so bad about the ideology? I'll tell you what's bad about the ideology. And that will also explain to you why people seem to be against Islam. They're not against Islam. There's another, another big thing, you know, people are, they're not against Islam. They are against that part of Islamic ideology which Islam preaches. Nobody's against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as one God. They don't care. You worship one God, you worship this, this Mike, you worship 10,000 gods, it makes 21st of them. What does it matter? You don't eat pork, no problem. You eat pork, no problem. You drink alcohol, no problem. Don't drink alcohol, no problem. None of that is a problem for them. Their problem is that Islam and Islamic ideology hits at the core of commercialism. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with commercialism is based on one single overriding principle. And that principle is that whatever I want is right. Whatever I want, no matter what it is, my lifestyle choice, my food choice, my work choice, right, who I want to be with, not be with, all of this, just it is right because I want it. No, there is no other reason. My nafs is my God. This is very good for commerce because this is the way commercialism influences you to buy more and more and more and more and more. And that starts with the destruction of the family because the number one thing that must be destroyed if somebody wants to follow his nafs is a sense of responsibility and accountability. Three problems. If you have a sense of responsibility, I have to take care of these kids, what will happen to them? You will not buy. You will not indulge yourself in all kinds of wasteful activities because you will say, no, no, no, my money is there, I have to save the money because the children are there. But somebody says, I don't care, children, let them go somewhere. Not a problem. Let the state take care of them or something. I want to go have a holiday, I have a holiday. That's good for commercialism. Islam hits at the root of that and the root of that is that we are accountable to Allah. Think about what the Quraish fought Rasoolullah s.a.w. about the most. I mentioned that in my Seerah lecture. The biggest fight of the Quraish was what? Accountability to Allah. The translation of this is Allah s.w.t is saying that they say that we will die and be disintegrated in the earth and then we will be resurrected again to be held accountable. Allah s.w.t says, They are denying the meeting of their Rabb. They are denying the meeting with their Rabb. Say that Malakul Mawth has been placed on you with this job of taking your soul and bringing you back to your Rabb. The core is accountability. About this feeling of my nafs, whatever I want is the best. Allah s.w.t, see the beauty of the Quran. Allah s.w.t made it very clear. Allah s.w.t said, Allah s.w.t said in Surah Al-Furqan, Have you not seen those who have taken their nafs, their hawa, their desires as their ila, as their God? They are worshipping. They are not ibadullah. They are ibadullah nafs. And Allah said, this is shirk. Allah says this is shirk. They are worshipping their nafs. And on top of that Allah s.w.t, are you going to intercede for them? Meaning what? Don't intercede for them. Allah is denying the intercession and the shafaat of Rasulullah s.w.t for those who worship their nafs. That is the problem that people have with Islam. Nothing to do with the ideology. Nothing to do with the theology of Islam. It is to do with this one part of that theology which is accountability to Allah s.w.t. One day I will die, I will stand before Allah, I have to answer. And that is the reason why these schools are so important. That is why the maqtabs are so important. Because these kids, if you want your child to grow into a responsible Muslim, feeling accountable to Allah, it has to start at age 2 and age 3 and age 4 and age 5. It won't happen at age 20, believe me. It will not happen. You can talk till the cows come home to college, college students, and you call professors here. You call professors here. Nothing will happen. What is there is there. College. Maybe one, you know. I said, I forgot. How did it come? So that kind of person, one person you might be able to, majority of them makes no difference to you. You can talk till you die. What they said is said. Finished. You have to start. It is a war, believe me. Treat it like a war. It is an emergency situation. The house is already on fire. You are not preventing a fire. You are trying to put out a fire. Fire is set. Fire is already set. You can't stop it. But you can prevent yourself from burning in it. And that comes from this primary education. Again, no high schools, no colleges. Primary education, which begins with Bhagati. The Adama of Allah, the Azmat of Allah, the Khushu and the Khashi'at of Allah must come in the heart. The Hub and the Muhabbat of Rasulullah must come in the heart. And this feeling of saying, I am accountable to Allah, this has to come in the heart. Modern education does not create maturity. This is another big problem that we have. I've been in the field of education for 40 years and other places. Modern education delays childhood. It does not bring out majority. It delays the child. The child remains much longer than he should be a child. We tell this story very easily. Muhammad bin Khasim was leading an army at age 17. Right? Okay. Ask how? How? You are 17 years old. You can't let him out on the street for,