From Protest to Engagement [Abdul Hakim Murad]

Asalamalaikum.

Here is the next part of my notes. Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad spoke second, and it was a good thing he did so. Everyone still seemed relatively fresh and aware, and with Shaykh Murad's deep analogy into ever matter, with his great long intellectual explanations, trust, one needs to be awake! Mashallah, seeing Shaykh Murad, i am always, every time in awe at the intellect of man all granted by our Creator. Allah grants different people different talents and gifts, and seeing someone so academically aware, who forces you to not only think of the topic, but also forces you to contemplate the long words-Allahuakbar! I am always intrigued by his talks and such interesting perceptions.

[Short bio: Timothy Winter (also known as Abdal-Hakim Murad) is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge and a leading British Islamic Scholar. Originally from a Norfolk non-conformist background, he is a convert to Islam. He graduated with a first-class honours MA in Arabic from Cambridge, going on to study at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt. In 1989 he returned to Britain and studied Turkish and Persion. He o then obtained a doctorate at Oxford University were he studied the religious life in the Ottoman Empire. He has translated into English some sections of the Ihya Ulum al-Din of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali - "Remembrance of Death and the After Life" ]

Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad

La illaha illallah -> The simple thing without which nothing can go right.

Nowadays we are focused on dividing tribally, we divide between muslim and non muslim, we have a tribal mentality. Before, the Ulema only looked to truth and falsehood, they only looked to the light and darkness. They looked to the right and the wrong and that too not merely in the sense of this material world.

Allah has granted us a fitra, which can understand betwen the light and truth and the darkness.

This tribal and divisionalist mentality that we now carry, this is a backword mentality.

Behind all the doctrines and differences there is still human consciousness. A soul- just like yours.

When we think of differenciating and attacking another, we should remember, that they too have something special inside them, they too have a soul.

It shouldn't be 'them' vs' 'us', but rather 'truth' vs 'falsehood'.

It is imortant to remember that eveyone can potentially be of the Ummah of Rasoolullah.

We should make sure that even our enemies do not have something to speak out against us of the Day of Judgement, that they do not say "so and so, who i used to see every morning on my way to work, did not invite me to the deen, did not embrace me"

If we want to be taken seriously as an ummah, we should not continue our tribal mentality, we should not continue behaving like a tribe... how then can we be taken seriously?

[ The Shaykh then related a Rumi story, about the mother whose baby was crying and wouldn't stop. She had tried to give the baby everything, some dates, some coffee, some sweets, but still the baby wouldnt stop crying. It didnt occur to her, that what the baby was craving the most, was what she was not giving him, the baby needed the natural milk of his mother to put him at ease. Similarly is the case with humanity and the ummah..what we need is dhikr, and the best form of dhikr is 'la illaha illallah' -'there is no God except Allah'. ]

Strength is with the believers who dont merely say 'la illaha illallah', but have it engraved in their hearts.