Uniting for the Prophet (Peace and blessings of God be upon him)

Wembley Conference Centre 2005


Jakallah Khair Ghalib Hussain (I have other notes on this blog, scroll halfway down in January 06 http://sheikhynotes.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html )


Shaykh Jihad Brown

The ocean of Muhammad, peace be upon him, is an ocean of unlimited muhabba. It is okay if you find yourself drowning in that ocean…as long as you don’t emerge from it…

Shaykh Babikr Ahmed Babikr

How can Muslims come into this country and live here, benefit from being here, and then curse this country and its people? Where is our thankfulness?

Are we being good neighbours, good citizens as Islam asks of us?

Commended the scholars and Muslim intellectuals in the West for their efforts including Sidi Yusuf Islam, Shaykh Hamza, Dr Lings, and Sidi Hasan le Gai Eaton.


Shaykh Muhammad Imdad Hussain Pirzada

Highlighted some of the miracles of the Prophet, peace be upon him, including the Palaces of Sham that his blessed mother, Sayyida Amina, saw upon his birth.

There was once a Christian man who read the hadith, 'Beware of the insight of the mu'min for he sees with the light of God'. On reading this, he pondered heavily upon its meaning and as he thought himself a man of God, he wondered how it was that this was the case. So one day he got up and was determined to find out more about the meaning of the hadith. He put on a cloak and turban and dressed exactly like a Muslim. Underneath his garments, he wore his cross. As a 'muslim', he then went to a Shaykh and asked him what the hadith meant, the Shaykh replied, 'I don’t know'. He then went to an Imam and asked the same question, the Imam said, 'I don’t know', the seeker then went to a Mufti, and asked him about the hadith and received the same reply. Finally, he made his way to Junaid al-Baghdadi, who said, 'I will explain to you what the hadith means, but first, you will have to remove the cross you are wearing from beneath your garments. The Christian was astounded. (He had received the answer to his question). The man said the Shahada and became Muslim. He turned to Imam Junaid, ra, and said I have one more question to ask you. ‘I asked the Shaykh, the Imam, and the Mufti the exact same question; why were they not able to tell me?’ To which Imam Junaid replied, ‘all three of them knew exactly what I knew. They could see your cross. The reason they didn’t tell you was because they also knew that I would be the one who would have the honour of making you Muslim.’ The Shaykh concluded by saying if these people were the result of the teachings of the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, then what about the teacher?


Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

It is chivalrous to listen to your brother speak without interrupting him. [Hadith]

What destroys a people is arrogance – Greek Proverb

To those who say we (Muslims) should leave Europe, we say: England became a Christian country in the 8th century. We were already in Europe by then.

Everywhere Islam went it attracted a huge following. Many people, including many Christians, accepted the new religion. Examples are North Africa and the Visidos of Spain.

Everywhere Islam spread to it revived the people and brought them to life. They expressed this in their songs. Islam never came to take away a peoples’ culture.

Deal with others in the best of way. When the Prophet, peace be upon him, was verbally insulted by the Jews, he would reply with greetings. The Sahaba said, ‘O Messenger of God, they revile you and you greet them?’ To which he replied, ‘Vessels can only pour forth that which they contain.’

A great Shaykh gave a talk at a masjid and was greeted by the congregation afterwards. Outside the masjid, more and more people gathered to shake hands with him, and he continued to shake hands with the people until he had shook the hands of the entire village. One of his students later suggested that he needn’t have shook hands with everybody and it would have sufficed to shake hands with a few people and they would have been happy. The Shaykh replied “these people had a good opinion of me and considered it worthwhile to wait for me, should I not have a good opinion of them and wait for them too?”

We are not people of hatred. We are people of compassion.

Have compassion towards those who have no hope in the Meeting with God.

Everything that we are comes from light. In plants the green chlorophyll works in photosynthesis to create food from light. Everything, including the meat that we eat, therefore receives its energy from the visible light that God gives to the plants first. Is the Quran and Sunna not another light from Allah ta’ala? If the light needed to make our energy is important for our bodies to function then how much more important is the light of this deen for our spirits to function and prosper.

Green was the Messengers’ favourite colour, peace be upon him. Green is the first colour our eyes can see in the morning and the last colour our eyes can detect before the sun sets. He was the first and the last Prophet, peace be upon him.


Sidi Hassan le Gai Eaton

Two Shia’s were discussing Islam and one said to the other, ‘Sunni’s are wrong and we are in divided into two groups. The other group is wrong too, and most of the followers in our group cannot really be trusted in their views, which pretty much leaves the two of us and, frankly speaking, I’m not too sure about you either!’

We need to rise above this mentality, we have in the Messenger, peace be upon him, a wonderful example.


Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller

When we talk about being Muslim, what does it mean?

Islam should be manifest on our body; Iman on our intellect; and Ihsan on our soul.

The Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe.

If your knowledge doesn’t work forever – leave it.


Shaykh Muhammad al Yaqoubi

On being introduced with great praises – he cried with humility saying that it hurt him to be praised with such lofty titles, as he was not worthy of any praise especially when he was there to speak about the best of creation, peace be upon him.

Don’t you wish you were the dust that he, peace be upon him, stood on; the vessel he drank from; the water that exited his body as this was not only pure but a cure?

Don’t you miss him?

The only way to Allah is through love of the Prophet, peace be upon him, there is no other way.


Shaykh Habib Ali al-Jifri

Even though the Prophet, peace be upon him, suffered much at the hands of the people of Taif, he, peace be upon, never complained about the people. They shouted abuse and obscenities at him and eventually took to throwing stones at him so much so that his blessed feet started to bleed. It got so bad that he, peace be upon him, couldn’t walk any longer and sat down. At this point some of them started to push him in the back in order to get him to stand up and keep walking. Habib Ali said that this would be a cruel thing to do to anybody, but to do it to a man that had come to bring you nothing but salvation is worse. Still, the blessed prophet, peace be upon him, never complained to God about anything save his own weakness and shortcomings. In this the Shaykh said were tremendous lessons for us, if we reflected.

When God sent angels to destroy the city on the Prophet’s command, he, peace be upon him, said he did not want this as he hoped that from amongst their descendents there would be people who would worship the One God.