Rebirth in April: What an Honour to Witness Times of Crisis!

Subtitles: English, Russian, русский

TRANSCRIPT

A’uthu billahi min ash-shaytani-r rajeem. Bismillahi-r Rahmani-r Raheem. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi-l aliyyi-l atheem .

Welcome to you. Welcome! May our days, may your days be days of happiness, be days of honour, be days of peace, be days of goodness! May our days and your days be days of light, full of beautiful perfumes.

April! April is announcing spring, is announcing rebirth, is announcing rebirth, new life. April is announcing hope. April is announcing healing for us, humanity.

We need healing. Humanity needs healing because we are forgetful. You know, in Arabic the word “insan” which means human, insan means that one who forgets. And the spiritual path is called “dhikr” which means remembrance.

So how to make that one who forgets, to remember? And one thing to think about and it came to my heart to speak about it today, in this rebirth of spring, is to see how lucky we are! How lucky we are to be witnesses at this period, of this period.

We are witnessing the honor, the amazing honor to be alive today in these difficult times and to be among the honored ones who are witnesses of difficult times. Indeed, humanity accumulated a wealth of information and of technical prowess. But also we moved away from the Source of meaning.

We moved away from important elements because they were not market elements. See, we gave so much importance to the market and to wealth, and we did not give importance to what is not sellable because it’s, there’s no price you can put on it. Meaning, depth, vision, faith, you cannot put a price on them. And because for the ego, it’s easier to forget. It’s easier to pursue power, will of power, some philosophers would call it.

Our privilege is to be witnesses to this time, because light is more intense when there is much more darkness. When there’s darkness, light, even a small portion of light, would show, would be so much more bright. Us, in these times we have to know one thing. In traditional teaching from Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him… Jesus before him said the same things. Moses before them said the same things…

He said, Rasulallah (s.a.w.) said: Akhir al ummah, akhair al ummah. He said, the best of humanity, or amongst the best of humanity, are the last ones. The last ones are the niche of light for others.

It is said in traditional teachings that Moses peace be upon him, when he went to the mountain, six times he asked, O my Lord, I am so honored to be a prophet messenger to the people of Israel. I’m so honored to be receiving the Torah, but I know it’s much more honor to be a member of the last generations, a member of the last nation. We call it the last nation, or the last community. It’s the last community witnessing to the revelation, the last community, the last nation carrying the revelation, the last nation honoring the revelation, the last nation fulfilling the revelation, the last nation defending the revelation, the last nation carrying high the flag of the revelation.

So prophet Moses peace be upon him, he knew how much more honor to be one of those. And Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him honored, though so much he described for prophet Jesus peace be upon him, who is the last prophet of the people of Israel, he is the Messiah of the people of Israel, the last one of a line of a hundred and twelve thousand prophets among the people of Israel. But he will, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, he will come back. He will come back.

That’s why Muslims are expecting, just as much as Christians, the return of Jesus peace be upon him, even though the narrative is different, the perspective is different. So Jesus peace be upon him, the Prophet said will come back as one, not as a prophet, but as one member of the last community. One member. He will have the honor which Moses peace be upon him was asking for, to be a member of the last community.

To Moses peace be upon him, the Divine answer was O Moses, peace be upon him, I gave you the honor to be the prophet and messenger of the people of Israel, but in resurrection you will be resurrected as a member of the last community. I will give you that honor then.

So, I am talking to you. You are a member of the last community. You are a member. You are a witness to these times, that we call, in traditional teaching, these times are called the end of times.

The end of times, they gave actually a description and elements that you can, you know, we can see them today, and we know they are talking about, about this period. So, you are, you carry this honor. You received this honor. We received this honor. We did not do much for it. But we received it. It is a gift. A given free gift.

So here we are carrying an honor for which major prophets asked, to have it. We have it. A wealth they asked for, we got it. So today in this difficulty which is, it’s a physical difficulty, it’s a difficulty where people have less means through this crisis, they have, there’s so much uncertainty.

But as we said in another talk, you notice that believers in these times are peaceful, are much less anxious than other people. They seem to be more, to show more harmony and less fear of the unknown. Not only that.

Today believers, when we say believers, we’re talking about people of goodness, who are hoping and wishing to do good, and hoping and wishing not to harm anybody, and who believe that there is a Higher Power and they honor that Higher Power. They believe there’s a Higher Power in our lives. Even if we don’t give it a name, that Higher Power, or give it different names, what is important is that the heart knows there is a Higher Power, and we submit to it. So we have to keep that in mind, we have to remember that. We have part of our remembrance today, because

Prophet (s.a.w.) said, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, to meditate one hour is better than the worship of 70 years. He’s talking about this kind of meditation. Meditate on these meanings.

And today, we want to meditate on this honor we carry, this crown we carry in these times of rebirth, and not to forget that spring is a time of hope.

We present the blessing of this meeting to those who taught us, especially our teachers, our parents, all those who have rights upon us, and I’m wishing you all, best spring, best rebirth, best month of April. I’m wishing to all humanity healing and a return to happier times.

Wa min Allah at-tawfiq. Al Fatiha!