Lets discuss rebel with a cause as opposed to one without. Rebel in Arabic
means mutamarid. Rebel means the one who exalts himself or is so insolent and
audacious, in pride and acts, in rebellion or disobedience. This is the stigma
that Muslims have attached to them by being called rebels. Mutamarid also means
bold, but not bold in the positive sense. It means bold in the sense that he is
audacious when he does things. It also means immoderate, that his views are not
controlled. He is loose and cannot function properly. This is the description
that media puts on us. It also means to be proud, overbearing, and presumptuous
in dealings. It also means corrupt, unprincipled, and fraudulent in discourse.
Allah says in the Quran, Allah protected the sama from all the Shaitin, the
evil ones, the persistent rebels. The one who argues about Allah without
knowledge and follows every Shaytan is the persistent rebel. It is written for
the one that actually follows him that this person will be led astray by the
Shaytan, the rebel, into the fire.
The devil is a persistent rebel. This is what a marid is.
This is not the right epitaph for Muslims. Muslims do not rebel, they try to
straighten the things
they try to put thought out there
to make things better.
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that the believer is simple and noble. The one who
is a transgressor has no nobility. Rebel for the Muslim means he is baseless,
false, contrived and downright dishonest. Therefore, we have to be careful how
we depict the Muslims.
With rebellion you become angry. And the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that no one
becomes angry without drawing closer to the brink of hell. You rationalize
things that are not right. You will do stupid things and do things that are
wrong. Prophet (s.a.w.s.) asked of his sahaba, Who do you consider the
strongest person from among you? and they answered, The one that cannot be
defeated. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, No, it is the one who controls himself
when he is angry. This is a difficult to thing to do. In rebellion, you become
angry and arrogant. Arrogance leads to denial. Allah says, The one who denies
Our signs and his meeting with Allah in the hereafter, their works are in
vain. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that in whose heart there is an ounce of
arrogance shall not reach the garden. Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that friendliness
to people is half of intelligence. Now we have all this khibr which makes us
not talk to certain people, whereas the Messenger (s.a,w.s.)
and his sahaba used to talk to anyone. Friendliness is how you communicate
your ideas to them. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that the smart questions are
half of knowledge.
Anger does not bring anything but ruin. It brings frustration in our masjids
and these are not places of frustration. You should come into the masjid with
happiness and greet people - people you havent met. This is what leaders
should do. They should be approachable and they should approach others.
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, The one who brings the salam, he is devoid of
khibr, so brothers and sisters should bring salam.
Hatred leads to malice and finding faults of others. You shouldnt think
about the wrongs of others, but rather you should think about what you did
behind closed doors. Anger also leads to a lack of stability. Nothing can be
accomplished in rage except havoc. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, Once you get
angry, change your position. Usually when you are angry, you dont want to
change your position.
Anger leads to confusion. The youth are confused and listen to all this rap.
They go out in gangs. Muslims are not gangsters! We do positive things, we
build things. We dont learn anything from people like 50 Cent and Eminem who
curse things and boast about being shot 9 times!
Arrogance brings you closer to the devil. The Messenger said that three
things will destroy you:
Avarice that is obeyed,
Passion when it is followed, and
Admiration of a man for himself.
Arrogance gives you delusion. Allah says that the promise of Allah is true,
dont let the life of the world deceive you, and dont let the chief deceiver,
the devil, deceive you. A scholar once said, Leave the dunya because her way
is to make someone that was high to be low; and someone that was low, high.
There is a lot of wisdom in this.
Arrogance gives you the desire for position. Nowadays, everyone wants to be
president of this and that. You have to be careful in seeking position. Ali
(ra) said, Seek modesty, not fame. Raise not yourself above others. Guard the
secrets of people and maintain silence. One of the salaf said that a person
who loves fame, lacks sincerity. Another salaf said, See which things will
please you that if death were to meet you at that time, you will continue
doing it; .and see the things that displease you that if death were to meet you
doing that action, you would feel regret and stop doing that. If you are doing
good, keep on doing it, and if you are doing bad, leave it.
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said There is no clement one except that he has some
stumbling, and there is no wise person except through experience. Nowadays,
all we have is roughness with people who think they know everything. This is
the rebel part. I will now talk about our cause.
Muslims should be rebels with a cause. We should be righteous men and women
with a right cause. One of the main causes is to know Allah. Do you apprehend
who your Master is? Do you know where you are heading? Do you know Allahs
attributes? How many people know how Allah has described himself, and do you
know how much love Allah has for his people? He is the Beneficient and
All-Knowing.
Allah Al-Latif, the Benevolent says that his benevolence is known by knowing
his actions and the subtleties that are found in them. If you look at the
foetus, how the human feeds from the mother, think who gave it instruction? How
did it come about? You need to find out.
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, The one who eats his food and gives thanks to
Allah is like the one who fasts and is patient. Allah is wise insofar as He
plans things; He is generous insofar as he creates them. He is just insofar as
he puts each thing in its proper place. He is benevolent; He does not overlook
any subtleties. Look at your face. Allah looks at the cheeks, the eyelids, the
nose, everything you can see are the signs of Allah.
Your cause should be to promote the deen of Allah. Your cause should not be
vandalism and fighting. You should fight your own nafs. When you become great
people then you will put the deen forward. To increase the knowledge increases
the anger of the enemy and the beauty of knowledge is doing good works. We
should think about that, and about how much kindness that Allah has given you
and has asked of you only for a few things, little things. He has given you the
money, the houses, the cars
. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that the love for
something will blind and deafen you. For instance, consider your love for a
sister. You think you cannot be with anyone else. Yes you can. There are other
sisters out there. Life is too short to be thinking that this is the most
important thing to think about.
Non-Muslims ask, If there is a God, why is there so much hunger in the
world? The answer is very clear. It is because there are so many greedy people
in this world. Allah gave the manual for zakat calculations to keep everything
safe. If all the Muslims paid zakat, there wouldnt be any hunger.
This deen is complex; it is comprehensive. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said that
there is nothing wrong with a rich person if he is conscious of Allah. This
Ummah is blessed. The sagacious person sees that the ship is sailing fast and
everyday that is going, you are losing something precious. This should be your
goal and not to rebel. When you know Allah, you will know every other thing.
The son of Adam lies that he cannot be created again and he abuses when he
says that Allah has begotten children. Allah says that to Him belong the earth
and the sky and everything in between it. He is free of all wants and worthy of
all praise. So we should really praise Allah. Keep the names of Allah coming
out of your mouths instead of this ghiba. Ghiba is worse than adultery. This is
a very big problem in our community.
Allah says that He is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The love of
this life is the head of all stumbling.
Rebel is a wrong name to be used for Muslims. In the Arab world you will see
a lot of good people. We should not label them as rebels. I now pick one sahaba
to show how he actually knew Allah and what his cause was.
Aishah said that no one follows the Prophets (s.a.w.s.) steps in coming and
going like ibn Umar. He would pray the whole night because the Prophet
(s.a.w.s.) said that the best of people is the one who prays the whole night.
He would not eat food whilst a poor person was sitting because this was the
custom of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) who said there is no better deed than
satiating the hunger of a person.
When Ibn Umar heard the verse that said, That day humans will stand in front
of Allah, tears began to roll, and he felt so sorry due to his regret that he
fell down. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said, The person is with the one who he
loves. If you love the sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), you will be with that
the person. Ibn Umar told his son, You left the hungry behind and you fill the
filled ones. Look at our gatherings today, look at our marriages. We invite
the filled ones because we want a social status.
Ibn Umar was brave. In front of Al Hajjajj who distorted the book of Allah,
Ibn Umar told him that he was a liar and Al Hajjaj said, I will punish you
with the worst of punishment. Ibn Umar said, Do what you want if you just
promise that there is no wonder about it because you are a foolish imposed
ruler. Look at the dignity. Once you know Allah, you will be grounded.
Ibn Umar said loyalty to people is centred exclusively on selfish worldly
interests and such endorsements bring its people nothing but havoc. We choose
our friends for what they can give us. Our friendships are not for the sake of
Allah so the friendships are no good. You need to count who your friend is. Ali
said, I swear by Allah, that even if your eyes were to melt from the crying in
fear of Allah, and even if you were to live in this world as long as it would
last, making constant offering combined with every type of worship, thanking
him for his countless blessings and his magnificence, upon you it would not be
sufficient for his guiding you to Islam.
Remember Allah after salah. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) would make istighfar after
every salah and he was the best of creation. We wish to run out of the mosque
as if someone is beating us. We are not rebels with a cause; we are righteous
people with a good cause. We do not cause harm. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said,
The best of people are the most beneficial to human beings. This is not
exclusive to Muslims.
There are a lot of good people out there and there is a lot of good in the
society. We need to capitalize on this. We need to get understanding of this
deen. We cannot answer questions that the non-Muslims ask us and give very
ignorant answers.
Ali said, Do not take knowledge except by six:
intelligence,
desire to learn,
patience in learning,
tools that facilitate learning,
guidance from the teacher, and
length of time needed for learning.
saiyed shahbazi
www.shahbazcenter.org
