Men in the 'Hood - Imam Siraj Wahhaj

Salam alaikum bismillah r-rahman r-rahim alhamdulillah la illaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah or shadow ana muhammadan abduhu wa suleman bad run sis I'm very happy to be here mm Zaid Shakir may Allah bless you and by the Tareq and a wonderful group for gathering us together brand sisters a couple of weeks ago myself and somebody say me man's that you see here were gathered together in Washington DC that is no conference and at that conference there was some 30,000 people over 200 speakers and that night in ma'am I had the opportunity to have dinner with all of these speakers around the country around the world but the night that I came in and they died didn't have dinner with any of those speakers rather I had dinner with three young men from an organization called the global deaf Muslims one of the brothers couldn't hear at all he had to use sign language just as we have here two of them they could hear barely and I reminded something that Allah the Almighty revealed in the Quran to our beloved Messenger Muhammad SAW Allah naval Southern cool in near 'soul hola alaikum Jimmy I say o o mankind I am The Messenger of Allah to all of you I am so pleased that this organization and this great work of united against poverty United for change united against poverty has had fit to have an interpreter so that even if there is one person in the audience who can hear they'll be able to get the message how often we go to the Masjid and enjoy the Juma prayer we go to surah Fatah we we enjoy that and don't realize that there's so many people that can't have that same sweetness I can't experience the same sweetness as us Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him is the Messenger of Allah for everyone what I'm going to say this afternoon thank you and by the way um mm I don't know who to give credit to I'm telling you Imam this water I don't know if is Connecticut is the best water I've ever tasted in my life for real um I'm going to say from the beginning I don't I hope that what I'm going to say is not going to be misunderstood I know that it might so I'm going to take my time one of the things that almost any Imam will tell you who have a Masjid in the inner city we don't have to read The Wall Street Journal to recognize the difficulty of our society economically right now there's not a data go by all day long where people are knocking at the door of the Imam Imam and Neil Sedaka Imam I'm about to be evicted Imam I need money for food Imam all day long every day and if we would give money for everyone who came we would have no money every man will tell you that the reality of where we live right now one block north of master the taqwa is a man's homeless shelter Atlantic Avenue and Bedford Avenue 1,000 homeless men many of them Latino American african-american men and you'll be shocked to learn that there are a number of Muslim Muslims and that homeless shelter poverty is real everywhere you go someone is begging for food begging for money the other morning I went to my newspaper stand to buy my newspapers it's in a grocery store owned by Muslims and there was a man outside saying sir can you can you give me some money and the thing that I always do our acts the question why why do you need money he said I need I need some some food or something to drink I said okay come in the store with me I said this man wants something to eat or something to drink I'll pay for it and he said I'll get something to drink he wouldn't got a soda and that was it I got into my car and I was about to go running so I wanted to write a couple of notes so I stood there for a while and I noticed the same young man was standing outside of the store and I wrote my notes and when I looked up I noticed that he was gone but the soda was still there and so I drove to the corner made a right turn and I saw him and he was begging people for money I blew the horn got his attention and said come and so you came to me you said you wanted money and I gave I gave you what you said you wanted and yet you left that soda there had that cheapest smiling so I had to go to the bathroom but yet he was going around asking for money every day all throughout now for me I'm going to action I want to know why you need the money if you need the money for food I think we should help people to eat so every day we have examples of people in extreme poverty but poverty is relative isn't it I mean when you think that you're poor when you look at people around the world then you realize you ain't as bad as you think you are for instance to add it's European city the average person drinks 375 liters of water a day in America is like 450 litres of water a day in Arizona thousand liters of water a day the average American uses in Arizona in Phoenix in United Kingdom the average person uses 50 liters of water a day just to flush their toilets I'm a private person it takes a lot for me to go to bathroom on a plane I mean I'm horrified I don't know if you feel the same way I mean honestly I could I mean if I go if I go to use the bathroom on the plane and if I come out of that bathroom there's a long line of people there I'm like I would die so I'm you know I'm private in some places of India 1440 people will share the same toilet and yet you have some places like Muslim Mozambique in I'm dollar keen quickie nose the average person uses less than ten liters of water a day I'm not saying 10 litres of water to drink I'm saying 10 liters of water to drink to wash their clothing to wash their bodies we complain about our homes oh I like my home my home was this if you want to complain about your home go to Haiti and see 400,000 people still living in tents and Haiti from the last earthquake so poverty is relative and this is why the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him said under or under o Allah and who is Philemon como Ella tendra illa huwa Falcone for Esther oh allah tester oh no - la alaikum look to those who are less than you and don't look to those who more than you because it is more appropriate that you don't look down on the blessings that allah have for you so the first thing we want to talk about is that poverty is relative having said that having acknowledged how poor people are having acknowledged how we have to help the poor and by the way i want to i want to give out a shout out to the nation of islam right now they have a massive campaign to go on to the community all throughout america they're going to the community talking to the people and if i would have a complaint against muslims i would say that we are not connected to the people to the masses of the people they don't really know us and one of the things that i hope that we would do that our imams our leaders will go back to our own cities and you will go back to your cities and develop programs to deal with the people i hope that this conference is not just hearing wonderful speeches me and inspired and motivated but rather being inspired and motivated to do something i hope that would happen having said that let me tell you my message for today the the perspective that islam takes for the direction that islam takes is holistic and I would argue that many of the people they deal with part of the problem while Islam deals with the complexity as brother Shakur mentioned the complexity of the problem and that's what I'm going to talk about for the next few minutes insha'Allah one of the things that the Quran has done one of the things that the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessing beyond the opponent has done one of the things that all the prophets prophets have done for the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him said l mb l equatorial Latin uma hat Concetta but Dino Hawaii the prophets all of them are brothers but they're their mothers are different but their religion is one so you want to find a similar chord throughout the teachings of all the prophets so the Quran and the Sunna and the Prophet and all the prophets conjoined together have a very cohesive consistent message and you will find I'm going to give you one or two examples are inshallah one of the things that the Quran is done that the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessing has done that Jesus has done and are the prophets is put this whole issue of poverty in perspective now I'm going to ask you a question how many of you have ever flown a plane okay Imam Imam do they have to have the lights off but you need it for yourself you do need it okay cuz you know I don't like be honest me I don't like looking at you in the dark I don't like that I won't look at you the way you're looking at me I'm gonna look at you non-serious how many of you ever flown first class raise your hand Imam they don't first Imam yes they're beautiful for his class come on man come on get out of here I don't believe that I believe you huh series 3 above same thing first class Imam his first class now I'll be honest with you I love first class none sir well lie I love it no no I know I have I have never made anyone who invited me to a city ask them I never made them put me on for his class but when they do Allah Akbar this is you know and but I'm telling you something happens to you when you fly first class I'm honest first of all you have your own entrance entrance you walk on the carpet if you're not first class you can't walk on that carpet I'm telling you you got to go on the other side so no no you can't you got to walk over here and and and you know there's some amenities like for instance when you go to first class you don't have to stand on the same line you go to a separate line you know you're the first want to get on a plane the first want to get off the plane when you get your luggage you the first one to get your luggage I like that but then there's something else about you you know I was sitting on first class in the first class they have their own bathrooms and I'm sitting first class and somebody from economy see coming first class I'm like looking at that like you're doing in my bathroom I'm sick I've got it I'm sick but you know burn sis's but there's a desert disdain that people have been in society for poor people they look they look down on people that are very poor the way they are dressed you know and it's a kind of sickness of our society to look down on on on the ball so what Islam is done what all the prophets have done but Prophet Muhammad peace and blessing did the apartment has done it's changed that whole idea about the poor people in looking down on the poor people and they do it in a number of ways one of the things that was done by the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him he said it allowed to feel general for I to Authority hell and Iraq I looked into jenna and saw that the majority of the inhabitants were poor so this whole idea of poor people being less than was changed with Islam in the Prophet peace and blessing be upon him said Yahoo al Jenna cobbler ugly ugly ugly yeah I become Samir to Amman and poor people were into Jenna 500 years before rich people so the thing that was been has been done is that the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him made poor people dignified some of his great companions were dignified having said that also the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him made the the wealthy people made them feel responsible for their brothers because in the heavy unethical omerta Waheeda we honor a book on fabu do this owner of yours is one oh man and I am your Lord so worship me so the Prophet peace and blessing be upon him made a bond of brotherhood between these Muslims the blacks and the whites and the Arabs and the non Arabs and the Persians and the men and the women and the rich and the poor they were one OMA and they were a magnificent brotherhood so that the Prophet SAW was said about the Prophet AHA rasool ullah sallallahu baina Abdul Rahman even al-assad even RBI and the Prophet peace and blessing be upon him made a bond of brotherhood between some of the pork Mujahideen and the answer he made a bond a brother because some of the Muslims who left Mecca like Abdul Rahman even of who had been rich but gave everything for its land and therefore when he came to Medina he had nothing so the Prophet in his wisdom appeared him with sad even arabiya the wealthiest of the answer and he didn't do he didn't do what are you know he wasn't afraid of what Governor Romney like night will where we were we're gonna redistribute no will shut up ignorant he didn't hear in tax he didn't tax them like that so I'm so sorry my Rabia he said to a dramedy banana he said listen I'm the riches of the answer this is my wealth take half of it and that's really a fake who of us would say that it's like you know being paired with Bill Gates Bill Gates or old man at twenty eight billion take half of it well the same thing in Seoul the Prophet peace and blessing be upon him Islam the Quran helped us to go to agenda Babel sadaqa the gate of sadaqa so that you can give to the poor mandatory zakat one thing but even given extra sadaqa for the poor and be a gate for you to go to Al Jenna so the whole idea was changed changed the thinking and made a real Brotherhood that people were concerned about one another and really he said that the food or one person could feed to the food of two people can feed for the food of four people can feed eight this way once this is the Brotherhood of Islam now I've gone all across the country and I've seen some great communities measured at Islam right here in New Haven doing wonderful work for the people in the community there's another master master that Islam in Dallas Texas it Kadri you know ya say you know that mastered right african-americans primarily they've done unbelievable work in the community they have given hundreds or tens of thousands of tens and thousands of people over the years have given clothing out to the people in the neighborhood they're not Muslims the people in the neighborhood not Muslims and the Muslims they give if they don't care who they give to but they give it to the people in the neighborhood Los Angeles to oma clinic on a free clinic these Muslim doctors who give health care health services to the poor people in the Los Angeles area and while all of that is good and it's wonderful to me that's not the signature of a Muslim that's not the signature of the Muslims it's good we should be do it we give zakat yeah but that's not you know I mean by the signature more than the identity the signature I'll give an exam first example give to is going to be real bad I'm admitting to you is real bad email my dollar King quick I'm not sure you know exactly how old you are I know you from Canada and Jamaica and all that stuff right have you ever heard of the temptations you did not Charlotte all right Charlotte well the temptations you know my wife will tell you words she she said love the Tim take yeah there she love the temptations even once and walk in here you know but the temptations had a signature about them when you when you hear them so that's the temptation Stevie Wonder signature um what's her name um Aretha Franklin signature for those who serve what are you talking about I put it this way you know to me there's nothing better on this earth than good recitation of Quran to me that's really to me my love all the love I used to have when I was young for the for the music nothing touches good recitation of al-quran nothing nothing comes in there so there are some recitals you know everybody recite the Quran you know but then there's others who recited is like okay shaykh abdul halim it's two days as two days right the Imam of the Harmony mashallah when you hear him right it's like his signature that yet that that's him so what's the signature of the Muslims while feeding people is good we should do that and don't get me wrong since the asthma is right we should help that you know the shelter the woman shelter in Baltimore I think it's about all right it's important we should help there even if we raise money while we're at this one one day it'll be good give it to them and let it do the work I've seen the work that she she's done you know food pantries like mash it out Islam it's good we should continue we should do more but that ain't our signature this is our signature kuntum hi Roma 1003 gentle and not only been my rule for 10 honeymoon core 2 min only be laughs that's our signature you are the best of people Yvonne for mankind because you enjoying the good and you forbid the evil and you believe in a lie these people in these societies especially the poor are taken advantage of in this society they getting ripped off who's ripping them off in the inner cities you can see you want to make some money come young man and you sell some drugs you make plenty of money to in the inner cities you see those who have to change the gold change and they have all of the money and they're getting enticing our youngsters to sell drugs not only that don't get mad at me you ma'am they're gonna remember they're gonna get mad at me what I'm gonna say gonna get they're gonna get mad at me I can still say any man don't be afraid say it brothers and sisters one of the most destructive teachings in my opinion of some of the people in the church not all of them because that many people in the church is against what I'm going to say this gospel of prosperity it's a trick what is the gospel prosperity the gospel of prosperity right amen you know imagine is that you masha'Allah I shouldn't see you there man yeah a little pretty or pretty man no no serious looks real he's both handsome and pretty the gospel prosperity is when the preacher tells the congregation basically listen if you appalled you're poor because you're disobeying God that's why you poor you know and some woman she was criticizing that philosophy dick they said that they have a guard that's a vending God a vending God a vending machine God which means that you know you you put you pressing something a prayer and you get these blessings automatically but ain't always like that so they're teaching the problem is is that it's like okay if you're poor is your fault God wants you to be rich and if you're poor if you're sick is your fault and once you understand the Bible you follow the Bible you're going to be prosperous you want to have a lot of money you're going to be healthy now the preachers have a lot of money they get it from the congregation now see that teaching ain't real because what happens when the majority of the people are poor what happens then now it somehow is your fault man you pork is your fault because you ain't doing it right and that's wrong and I'm gonna give you one example and then I'm gonna close Oh incredible hadith Abdullah even Omar the lion who man Abdullah even an ostrich Allah and who man he said to attack he said shall I show you my attainment an agenda shall I show you a woman from the people of Jannah he said of course he's a healthy mother - so dad this black woman this black woman people paradise because she came to the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him and said o Messenger of Allah I have epilepsy and whenever have this fit of epilepsy I'm exposed so federal Ollie McDowell for me his of his a faithful believer she's asking a mission and make dua for for her and the Prophet peace and blessing be upon him said in shifty sibility wellick in general if you wish you be patient and you will have Jenna but if you wish I make dua there Allah heals you she said us people I'll be patient she said but you know what when I have epilepsy I'm exposed so at least me do either I'm not exposed and the Prophet did it and I looked at that I studied that thing for years it makes me I love The Messenger of Allah peace and blessing be upon him because he's teaching us a lesson man a no guarantee because if you follow Islam if you become half into Quran if you memorize every hadith in Bukhari and Muslim a book about diode until MIDI even magic memorize all of those hadith practice everything of the Sunnah is still no guarantee that you're going to become rich or you're going to be healthy in no guarantee so we have this worldview this Islamic real world view what we have to do in my opinion be advocates of the poor as imam zain said yesterday master talk about hood bar that the Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him as a champion of the poor that's true we should do that we should help those who are poor but on the other hand brothers and sisters we have to teach them the whole picture if you don't believe me that this is the way of the prophets I give you one example from the Bible you find this in Matthew you find it in Luke and you find it in mark a young man came to ISA Jesus peace and blessings be upon him according to the Bible and said o good master what shall I do to get eternal life and according to what the Bible said Jesus said that if you keep the commandments then you will have eternal life if you you know thou shalt not steal thou shalt not commit adultery need and name some of the commandments and young man said oh I I've been doing that sense since I was a youth a young man what else what how would I be perfect and according to what they say Jesus said in words it all your wealth [Music] and sell it and give the money to the poor and you have treasures in heaven and the man he walked the way said and Jesus said hardly you will find a wealthy person in in paradise he said it is easier for a camel to go to the needle of I of a needle than a wealthy person to go to paradise it doesn't mean that wealthy people won't be in paradise they will be insha'Allah but it doesn't mean that we have the right have the right attitude the right attitude yes give to the poor but teach the people teach the people the beauty of Islam and the guidance of Islam the last one want that bless you bless this conference and bless us to do something to help the poor thank you assalamualaikum

Channel: unitedforchangetv

Views: 67,909

Rating: 4.8199053 out of 5

Keywords: siraj wahhaj, united for change, united against poverty

Id: 0xgImB_3e9I

Length: 29min 47sec (1787 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 10 2012