Imam Ziaullah Khan – Rebels with a Cause

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

Let’s 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 haven’t 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 shouldn’t 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
don’t 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 don’t 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, don’t let the life
of the world deceive you, and don’t 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 Allah’s 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
wouldn’t 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 Prophet’s (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.”

Transcribed by Rizwan Rahman. Edited by Karen Nooruddin.