Speaking against the backdrop of the material conditions in Mauritius, Imam Azim (aba) urges fellow citizens to be deeply grateful to God for the available social blessings of peace, relative prosperity and global standing of the nation, and at the same time, Hazrat Khalifatullah (aba) gently reminds people to be conscious of long-term societal trends, and also be aware of the moral and ethical obligations the people owe to fellow beings in their midst- especially those in suffering and are vulnerable due to their difficult circumstances. In this eloquent discourse, Hazrat Azim (aba) invites our attention to the obligations of our common humanity towards the refugees and the vulnerable migrants. Warning against the pitfalls of indifference, silence and negligence, Hazrat Saheb (aba) urges one and all to stand up for the less privileged and try to make a difference in our surroundings for our collective welfare and shared progress. Muslims especially have a duty to be the forces of good; fighting evil within and outside; standing up for justice and equity. Indeed, true faith and allegiance to Divine worship requires us to be mindful of the needs of our fellow beings and ease up their travails, and engage ourselves in the larger causes of humanity, reminds Hazrat Saheb (aba).
Read the Friday Sermon Below:
The Fate of Emigrants & Our responsibilities to a United Mankind
Today, by the grace of Allah, I will talk about the favour that Allah has given us here in Mauritius and how we need to thank Him for this favour and think about our other brothers, sisters and children from around the world who are suffering, because one day surely, we all have to leave this temporary world.
As you know, Muslims all over the world, as well as other human beings are suffering, especially minorities like the Rohingyas, Uyghurs and others who have to leave their native countries and emigrate to other countries.
This is the sad fate of
millions of men, women and children who are victims of the economic, political,
social and even climatic catastrophe from which their countries are suffering.
It is now recognized that global warming causing drought and desertification,
among other things, has contributed significantly to the emergence of conflicts
whether in Syria or in the Sahel.
There are many who
dream of taking up residence in Mauritius. The passport and Mauritian
nationality are accessible to the wealthiest, when it is not through marriage.
But for the thousands of foreign workers who are essential to our economy,
coming from Bangladesh, Madagascar or India, staying beyond their employment
contract in Mauritius is impossible as we – Mauritians – do not have a culture
of welcoming refugees. Mauritius has had few Syrians or Sri Lankans who tried
to stay but we cannot say that they were received with great enthusiasm. Both
the Chagossians and the Rodriguans are sometimes greeted quite coldly even
though they are our compatriots. And yet, we are all here in Mauritius
descendants of immigrants, whereby some of our ancestors came less than a
century ago.
It could be that
Mauritius is one of the last islands on the planet where men have settled. The
formidable history of the settlement of human civilization finds its
conclusion, in our island, a case remarkable as Mauritius is known both for its
natural beauty and for the diversity of its population. Everything suggests
that, without departing from our high population density, from 2030 we will
experience a demographic decline. And a serious aging of the population with
all that that implies. It will not be tourists or investors, and other promoters,
who will drive our economy, take care of our elderly, take care of our sick, and
accompany our lonely people. If we are Mauritians, nothing says that our
children and grandchildren will choose to be – Mauritians – because, unlike
unfortunate migrants these days, the doors of other countries are open to them.
Many of them think the grass is greener elsewhere.
Let us return to the
fate of migrants to remind ourselves that… they are human beings. We cannot be
insensitive to what happens to them. The miscible – and all kinds of armaments
– that kills 53 innocent people in Libya is manufactured, sold and financed by
those who are our dear country-friends. Comorians who seek refuge in Mayotte,
very often for medical care, may be among those we welcome with dignity in our
hospitals. When we ponder over the fact that Bangladesh have more than 15
million climate refugees, this requires us, at a minimum, to treat with dignity
the workers of this country that we welcome today [in Mauritius].
Today we are
experiencing a planetary imbalance which is economic, political, social and
environmental with all these dimensions closely linked to each other. But the
cause is above all the fact of having forgotten that the earth, God has
extended it for all living beings, all creatures without any exception - all
humans, as well as the rest of creation too. We no longer recognize where we
come from and we are not aware of our life, and our death escapes us [we don’t
realize that day after day we come a little bit closer to our own death]. As a
result, our selfishness and thus the individualistic outlook that dominates the
conduct of our worldly affairs can only lead us from one crisis to another. Do
we not realize that we are all migrants during our short stay here on earth?
The answer lies above
all in the lethargic indifference of a large fringe of our populations, the
silence of a majority too preoccupied with material gains and the passivity of
those who have the capacity to resist, to propose alternatives, and to make
constructive difference (i.e. to say those who have the means and abilities to
bring positive changes in the world but who don’t do it – they remain inactive).
Consequently, destructive forces of all kinds, even in the minority (forces),
impose some kind of domination on society, the economy, and politics, and even nature
suffers atrociously. In other words, indifference as well as silence and
passivity brings calamity.
We know the story of
those who wanted to make a hole in the hold of a ship to get a supply of sea
water (instead of using the obvious means to take water from the sea, they make
holes in the same ship without realizing that this will make them sink). So, if
indifference, silence and passivity persist, they (i.e. the indifferent ones –
those who do not take into account these problems and do not give a hand to
bring solutions, make positive changes in the world and in their own country)
will all perish - those in the hold as well as those on the bridge. So let us
remember the words of the Messenger (pbuh): “Different peoples are about to
unite against you (i.e. the Muslims) like people who eat around a dish.”
One person said, “Is it that the cause of this will be that we will be few
in number on that day?”
The Messenger (pbuh) said: “On that day, you will be quite numerous. But you will be like the foam of a torrent. God will remove from the hearts of your enemies the fear that they had of you and He will put in your hearts ‘wahn’.” A person said: “O Messenger of Allah! What is ‘wahn’? He said: “The love of this world and the fact that you will have an aversion (you will hate) death (you will hate to die).”
How many holes will we leave in the hold, drawn by the love of this world and hating the fact that we will have to leave it one day? The fate of ex-President Mohamed Morsi - like I told you in my previous Khutba - reminds us how much we resigned before our responsibilities. He ended up suffering a terrible fate, but like him, there are many others who ended up suffering terrible fates. As we say, it is innocent people who pay for the broken pots. Like him, many innocent people have been imprisoned, and this was the case yesterday as it is today. Khashoggi’s assassination also hides countless cases of non-violent political opponents who are targeted, including in countries that call themselves ‘Islamic’ – Thus, in the political world, cases such as the assassination of Morsi, and Khashoggi have a hidden face, whether they are from the non-Islamic countries or even those countries that are Islamic. Whether it’s the Rohingyas in Myanmar, the Uyghurs in China or the Kashmiri in India – there are terrible plans against them. It is enough to accuse them of Islamism and terrorism in order to justify all the persecutions (that is, against them - the minority). Most people won’t say anything. The complicity of certain ‘mainstream’ media is also very clear in this affair.
But as there are some
people who are stubborn and who do not understand, there are also exceptions
that exist in the political world and also in the media, including those found
in the West, where we must salute the courage of all those journalists and other
people of dignity who finally raised their voices against injustice. For
example, “Washington Post” took a position to remind that the unjust death of
Morsi shows how far Egypt has regressed. “The Post” has finally written that
the Sissi regime (in Egypt) is guilty by far of the worst violations of human
rights in the history of modern Egypt. Another remarkable fact is that at that
time, for the first time, the United Nations clearly requested that an
international investigation be conducted on Morsi’s death.
There are other actions
that the West has finally taken to establish justice - we can’t blame them all
because of the tyrants who want to reduce Islam to zero and create a
humanitarian bloodbath in order to enrich themselves. So, there are people who
raise their voices against injustice. Be it from the East or the West, the
Muslim and non-Muslim world, there are people who are fighting for justice and
peace, and Insha-Allah, it is my duah that Allah enable those who
have a pure heart among them to find the truth of Islam and submit to Allah
alone. May Allah enable the pure-hearted, the good souls to prosper in Islam. Insha-Allah.
Although the fear of Islam still exists in the hearts of many people, we must keep hope in Allah that He will facilitate our task in order to bring justice to the oppressed in the world. Be it from the political side, the media and others, be it concerning the question of Palestine, the minority of Burma or even the refugees of Chagos.
It is not for nothing
that Allah in this century has chosen the land of Mauritius to raise His
Messenger, His Khalifa - Khalifatullah. The divine revelation has been poured
upon the land of Mauritius, and among all the islands, this island has been
blessed. May Allah make the birth (natal) land of His humble Khalifatullah to
prosper and become a model for others and not regress and lose all its value in
the eyes of Allah and those of the world. Mauritius as well as all the
countries of the world need to wake up and stop regressing, and return to
kindness and understanding and stop hankering after the world like a dog aiming
to get a bone. This world is temporary, all that wealth and power is temporary.
If today we exist in human form, but tomorrow we need to leave the body here
itself and return to our Creator. We will turn back into dust. And this world
will also meet its end one day.
So, we need to have
empathy (sympathy and generosity and understand other people’s problems). Human
beings need each other, and evil and bad intentions should not spoil the
humanism of the people. If evil exists, God will also give us the ability to
fight against it through our prayers, because without the powerful help of
Allah, without our invocations to Allah, we will not be able to achieve
anything. God, with the prayer of His servants, can make everything impossible
become possible, and make everything possible become impossible as well. All
power is in the Hands of Allah.
I have this message for
all Muslims: We need to really know who our enemies are really, because we need
to remember that hatred and fear for Islam has always existed. The solution is
never found in the elimination of those who oppose us. And one of our greatest
enemies is our own selves, i.e. that Satan which resides in us and tries to
make us deviate from the right path. It’s up to us to make that Shaytan become
Muslim. And when we finally succeed - to a great degree - in reforming ourselves,
then we need to do good, and if the enemies attack us everywhere, then we need
to defend ourselves without going beyond the limits of Islam – which Islam has established
for us when we fight against our enemies, because there are some people that
Shaytan has gained the upper hand over them, so much so that this type of
reform does not have an effect on them, and thus they seek to end the reign of
God on earth, but they will never succeed. When the decree of Allah will come,
all their plans will stop functioning, but before that, the Muslims must stop fighting
among themselves (i.e. we must stop fighting among ourselves) and we must stop
hankering after this temporal world, and love death and the decrees of Allah
and we submit to the will of Allah.
All the Messengers of
God (as) have faced the worst trials that we have ever experienced. But despite
all the hard trials, they did not retreat or abandon their people. They taught
the detachment from the love from this world and the acceptance of death as a
return to Allah. If Allah had willed, we all [humans] could have become Muslims
and would not have encountered any adversity. These trials or tests exist to
see who among us are best in the doing of good deeds. So, we need to refuse
indifference, silence and passivity. And we need to show a deep goodness of
heart, so that in heaven we can be counted among those who fight for the cause
of God and we need to help our neighbour – our fellow human beings – in
goodness and save them and ourselves from evil. If we have a good thought for
our fellow human being, in return God will look at us with love and mercy.
So, be it the Muslims or the whole humanity, we all need to
make efforts to return to God, the Only God, the Unique One and do not worship
anyone with Him, and we need to struggle through prayers and deeds so that we
can relieve the suffering of those who are suffering and give them the good
news of the Kingdom of God, be it on earth and in heaven as well. Insha-Allah,
Ameen.