Radical Middle Way Transcripts

Mufti Ali Gomaa on:

‘From Protest to Engagement’
[Opening du’ā]

Thank you for this generous invitation and wonderful gathering on this blessed
night. This with which I’d like to reach your hearts with tonight is connected to how
we relate to the Prophet (saw). The Sīrah of the Prophet is different to the ahādīth of
the Prophet – different in a way that we’re in great need of today.

The hadīth of the Prophet are the source of Islamic law after the Qur’an, but the sīrah
of the Prophet needs to be read in a new way so that we can live the life of the
Prophet in our daily lives. If we live with the Prophet in our daily lives, then all the
real problems would disappear and we would only be left with those problems that
the Prophet (saw) met with when he presented his message to the people. And the
solution to these latter problems is to be patient with them. But these other problems
that we live with are our own creation, by living far away from the Prophetic example
(saw).

What I’m afraid of is that our own problems that we are living through will be written
amongst our bad deed on the day of judgement.

We think we’re doing good works, but in reality we’re doing harm to Islām. We don’t
want to be of those who Allah has said ‘we think we’re doing good, but in reality
they’re doing wrong.
How should we read the sīrah of the Prophet? And how should we live the sīrah of
the Prophet? This is something that we’re all able to do, no matter what level of
culture we have. We need to examine our lives and take from the sīrah lessons we can
implement in our daily lives. I’ll give you a few examples.

The first example is when the Prophet (saw) dealt with children. He would stop
everything for children. He was giving a khutbah and he saw Hassan and Husseyn
coming towards him so he stopped giving the khutbah which is an integral part of
Juma’a. It’s one of the signs of Friday, and he is the Prophet – the Mustafa (saw) –
and he went and embraced Hassan and Husseyn.

Another time he was praying and Umāma, his granddaughter, the daughter of
Zaynab, came. So she climbed upon his back so he prolonged his prostration so that
she could finish playing on his back whilst she was praying.

Once when he was praying as Imām of the people he heard a child crying so he sped
up his prayer and he finished it quickly. What is this? This is a beautiful person. He is
our beloved (saw). This is the Islām that we were taught. He said to the Companions
‘I am like a faiher to a son to you, to all Muslims – no, to all worlds – to the ‘ālamīn’.

Allah subhāna wa ta’āla said ‘I have not sent you except as a mercy to all the worlds.’
We return to ourselves now and we see in the Prophet of Allah a good example. For
those who seek Allah look forward to the Last Day and make much remembrance of
Allah. What do we want from our lives or after our lives? Do we want the Prophet to
be our example? Or do we want something else? Everyone should ask themselves this
question. And if they want the Prophet to be their example, we should make him
their example.
I sigh for the sake of our state and the state of the Muslims in the world. If we take
notice of the way in which he dealt with the idolaters in Mecca we would see; they
hate him and make war against him – he used to keep property for them and before
the migration to Medina, he returned their property to them. This means that they
trusted in him. They used to call him the trustworthy one. They had faith in him. A
man came to him and said ‘Oh Messenger of Allah, let’s kill them, let’s fight against
them.’ The Prophet’s face turned red in anger. When his face turned red in anger he
didn’t get angry unless that which is sacred to God has been trespassed. So when
these men asked to defend themselves and to go and fight against the idolaters he
had trespassed one of the things sacred to God. He said ‘Am I not the Messenger of
Allah?’ And Allah will give me victory until the day comes when the traveller will
travel from Mecca to Sana’a and they won’t fear anything except for the wild beast in
the desert.
He rejected this idea of a clash with one’s society. His entire life is guidance for us.
There’s no difference between its beginning, middle and end, but it has variety. At
one time he was in non-Muslim lands, and another time he was in the lands of the
Muslims, once he told his Companions to emigrate to the Habesh whose king was
one of the People of the Book. So Muslims lived in all different situations imaginable
and the Prophet lived in all different situations.

He was an unmarried bachelor. He was married to one woman when he formed a

family with her and he was married to more than one woman. He did not have
children from them. He was a trader and a shepherd and he was a leader of the
armies, a judge between people, a mufti for people, a teacher of knowledge and a
Prophet (saw). He was everything, all possibilities. Every one of us, who wants to see
the Prophet in situations he found himself in, will find him in those conditions.

When you record the sīrah examine how the neighbours were with the Prophet
examine how he was with those he worked with, whether they were servants or other
workers. Examine the sīrah and see how he behaved working for other people. Look
and see how he lived with the non-Muslims in a country that was governed by
idolatry or a country of which he was the ruler. Look at the pact of citizenship; read
in great detail the emigration of the Muslims to Abyssinia. Look at the Muslims when
they’re in Abyssinia and they go to the King Najash to fight in his army, against his
cousin that wanted to take his power. The King Najash told them ‘no’ the first time.
So the Muslims followed him until the point the King won the war and they were all
very pleased and made takbīr. Another time they offered again to fight in his army to
defend the country they were living in. And again, he agreed.

You won’t find any of this in the book of hadīth instead you find it in the books of
sīrah. Examine him, and then live. Live in the Sunnah of the Prophet and his sīrah.
People that are occupied with the hadīth only and not the sīrah are taking the hadīth
out of the context from which they arose. Like someone who says ‘woe to those who
pray’ or say ‘don’t pray‘and leave off saying ‘when you’re intoxicated.‘ This is nothing
to do with knowledge and you’re all members of a nation of knowledge.

‘Read in the name of your Lord who created’ and then repeat saying ‘read, and your
Lord is most generous, who taught with the pen. Verily only the ones who know fear
God.’
This is a nation of knowledge. Say ‘are those who know and those who know not,
equal?’ without knowledge we lose the way and we lost the Sunnah of the Prophet
(saw) and we lose his example. I listened to our brother Mu’iz Mas’ud and I think the
main thing is affirming the importance of an authoritative reference. Ask the people
of remembrance if you yourself do not know.

There should be a member of every community that stays back to learn knowledge so
that you can go back to them in your time of need.

And I listened to Shaykh Abdul Hakim as he affirmed his concept of co-existence,

which we find in the sīrah of the Prophet (saw)

Let us get to know the Sirah of the Prophet (saw) then let us live it and apply it in our
daily lives.

[Closing du’a]
About Mufti Ali Gomaa

Shaykh Ali Gomaa is the Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt - the second
highest religious position in the country, after the position of Shaykh al-Azhar, one of
the most respected religious authorities in the entire Muslim world. As Grand Mufti,
he oversees the premier institution in the Muslim world for religious legal direction,
Dar al-Ifta’.

Since his appointment as Grand Mufti in 2003, he has become a leading advocate for
moderation, and an outspoken critic of extremist ideologies, which he says are
antithetical to Islam.

Born in Bani Suwayf, Egypt in 1952, he received a Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty
of Commerce at Ayn Shems University before transferring to the College of Islamic
and Arabic Studies of al-Azhar University, the world’s leading Islamic institution of
higher learning. He went on to receive a Master’s Degree and a Doctorate in Islamic
Juristic Methodology (usul al-fiqh) from the same institution.

Prior to his posting as Grand Mufti, Shaykh Ali served as Professor of Jurisprudence
at al-Azhar and served as a member of that institution’s Fatwa Council from 1995 to
1997. In addition to his duties as head of Dar al- Ifta’, he is a member of the Council
for Islamic Research at al-Azhar University, a member of the Fiqh Council of the
Organization of Islamic Conference, a General Advisor to al-Azhar University and a
member of the Islamic Fiqh Centre in India.

Over the years Shaykh Ali has been involved in many activities aimed at
strengthening Islam throughout the Muslim world and communicating a more
balanced view of Islam in the non-Muslim world. He serves as expert advisor to the
Council of Arabic Languages and participated in the preparation of the organization’s
Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence Terms. He participated in formulating the curricula
of the College of Islamic Law in the Sultanate of Oman, and the School of Islamic and
Social Sciences in Washington D.C. He has also been a participating advisor at
Harvard University in Egypt, within the Department of Near Eastern Studies.

His sermons at Sultan Hasan Mosque, one of the Islamic world’s greatest
architectural monuments, have become among the most popular in Egypt since he
began delivering them in 1998.

A prolific author and writer on Islamic issues, Shaykh Ali writes a regular column in
al-Ahram newspaper and has published many influential papers and over 25
acclaimed books on various aspects of Islam.

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