Summary:

In this live Friday sermon, Alban Fejza congratulates the community on the tolerance shown while designing a website logo, and discusses the difference between tolerating other opinions and compromising on what is right.

Video Transcript:

Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. during this week we tried to to create a logo in the website and as some of you know the ones who participated in the discussion, it wasn’t easy like to sort of have agreement just for a simple button. which actually is not even important. we could have even removed somewhere else and put it somewhere else. and and I would like to congratulate you guys for the actual tolerance. I think I think all of us showed despite the discussion we showed tolerance about let’s say not insisting on our own um opinion which all of the opinions were kind of good. So I would like to but I would like to congratulate you about the tolerance which you guys showed regarding the just a simple button by not insisting that your opinion be let’s say applied more than than the others u by the way before I go to the tolerance topic of the tolerance let me say that usually I have this discussion because I do actually respect the professions of everyone if you are an engineer I do value what you have to say about engineering so I’m not a person who who becoming who by becoming religious now I totally think that there’s no value in professions there are religious fanatics who who will who will do that who will be like no like you know not we know better I’m I’m going to use some ridiculous situations The Muhammad told us to eat to drink camel urine for your whatever for your illness. The doctor doesn’t know. I think the doctor knows better when it comes to healthcare. however, despite what the doctor might tell you is, you’ll probably still do the contact prayer. I I’m quite sure the doctor will tell you that fasting is not as good. But despite the fact that it’s not the best for health, actually I agree fasting is not the best for health. You know, some people would say fast is going to be bad good for your health. Fasting is not the best for your health, but it’s we do it for God. it’s also partly good for your health. I mean, it’s not as bad as some doctors will tell you. it’s almost equal when it comes to health. It’s probably a little bit bad. It would be if you want to lose weight, it would be better if you eat a little bit more often. That would be better for your health compared to eating a big meal later during the day. But, so I respect the doctor’s opinion in general, but I’m I’m going to have to go a little bit against the doctor once in a while u because I just want to fast. In in the same way, let’s say if I asked an um an engineer an architect, what would be the best let’s say design for a mosque? I’m quite sure he would be build spacious windows. because that’s the general trend and the general recommendation in architecture. You want light and you want space and you want good views. So I’m quite sure that the architect would recommend something with big windows. and I would respect the opinion of the architect in all pretty much all the cases. but probably not for a mosque in the sense that Cabba doesn’t have windows. We don’t need need windows. We don’t need views. We go there to worship God. So yeah, in that part partial case, we can break that rule. I know it’s a good rule for architecture. I still respect it. I I like places with good windows. To me, views are really important. When I go to, let’s say, rent a place, I check the views. I don’t know why. I like a good view, a big window, but not for a mosque. So, yeah. So, what I’m saying is I hope I I didn’t insult anyone’s profession in the process of discussing these things. I do respect your profession. for most things I would listen but there are things where times when like I have to go against it simply because it’s kind of like there’s probably bigger priorities in religion sometimes just like with fasting I would fast regardless if the doctor told me it’s not it’s good or not good for your health unless it’s really terrible for my health then in that case there’s a verse in the Quran it says like you know if if you can fast but with great difficulty then yeah don’t fast so Yeah. now going back to the topic of tolerance. So I I think you guys showed great tolerance because I’m quite sure you had experience and professional background where you could see how your opinion was better. U but yeah, sometimes it’s just hard to reach an agreement about some things depending on what what we’re trying to achieve. And despite that, you guys had tolerance. And now I want to go to and this is really important because I want to go to the to to the Quran and read some verses about tolerance and and compromise because a lot of let’s say people who have not been religious for let’s say most of their life then they become religious they us sometimes are not very tolerant. This is because in the past tolerance was used by the what they thought was tolerance was used by the devil to trick them. So now they finally realize no I’m not going to tolerate being a bad person anymore. I’m not going to be and then they use it they might use it even in in a within a religious community. so they can misapply the devil can trick us to misapply the tolerance or the compromise. so uh before I actually read the verses, let me say that actually the tolerance and compromise according to Rash’s translation, it’s not necessarily that definition like in general, but according to Rash’s translation, compromise is a bad thing. Tolerance is a good thing. So let’s make that distinction. Compromise is a bad thing. Tolerance is a good thing. Then le let’s read the verses and understand how in what context are tolerance and compromise uh mentioned. So I’m going to read the verses about compromise first in surah in surah 60 surah 68 verse starting with verse 8 it says do not obey the rejectors they wish that you compromise so they they too can compromise I think it’s called compromise or compromise I have no idea if I’m pronouncing it right Um so basically it’s mentioned as a bad thing because compromise what does it mean? It means obeying the rejectors going according to the wishes of the rejectors. It says do not obey the rejectors. They wish that you compromise so they they too can compromise. Do not obey every lowly swearer, a slanderer, backbiter, forbid of charity, a transgressor, a sinner, unappreciative and greedy even though he possesses enough money and children. When our revelations are recited to him, he says tales from the past. So here compromise is mentioned as a bad thing. Then in surah 72 starting with verse 14, it says among us are the submitters. The gens say this among us are the submitters and among us are the compro compromisers. So you can see the compromisers are seen as nonsubmitters. As for those who sabeta they are on the right path. As for the compromisers they will be fuel for gehana. So definitely compromisers are seen as bad people as a bad thing. In Russia’s translation we see that the comp compromise compromisers are bad people u or bad creatures. But you know we can misunderstand comp compro compromise for tolerance. So let’s read what the Quran says about tolerance. Then there’s verses which talk about tolerance but in a positive way. In surah 2 verse 61 it says recall that you said oh Moses we can no no longer tolerate one kind of food. So basically the they in this case they should have tolerated that tolerated one kind of food but they didn’t. And then this is in the case when they when God rescued them from the Egyptians. So it says they said to Moses, “Call upon your Lord to produce for us such earthly crops as beans, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions.” He said, “Do you wish to sub substitute that which is imperior for that which is good? Go down to Egypt where you can find what you asked for.” They have incurred condemnation, humiliation, and disgrace, and brought upon themselves wrath from God. This is because they rejected God’s revelations and killed the prophets unjustly. This is because they disobeyed and transgressed. So here we say we see a case where tolerance would have been a good thing. They didn’t tolerate but it would have been a good thing to tolerate. in surah then in surah 6 verse 125 it says whomever god wills to guide he renders his chest wide open to submission and whomever he wills to send astray he renders his chest intolerant and straightened like one who climbs towards the sky. God thus places a curse upon those who refuse to believe. Again here the word tolerance implies a good thing. In surah 7 verse 199 it says you shall resort to pardon advocate tolerance or support tolerance and disregard the ignorant. Then in surah 24:22 it says those among you who are blessed with the resources and wealth shall be charitable towards their relatives the poor and those who have immigrated for the sake of God. They shall treat them with kindness and tolerance. Do you not love to obtain God’s forgiveness? God is forgiver, most merciful. So here we saw verses in the Quran which mention compromisers which are bad people or bad creatures. And then we have in the Quran which mention tolerance as a good thing. Then what’s the difference? What’s the difference between tolerating and making a compromise? before we do that, let’s let’s before we explain that, let’s repent first to let’s repent.

>> >> Praise be to God. There is no other God except God. So what is the difference between tolerance and compromise? the difference is in the in pretty much the motive. If you are putting your desires second because you value the peace and the prosperity of the community of the submitters, then you’re tolerant. But if you put the community and the religion second because you value the s your success in the community or outside of the community, then you are a compromiser. Then you that’s a bad thing. So as you can see depending on the motive it can be tolerance or it can be compromise and one of them is bad one of them is good. So again let me repeat because it’s important. If you put your desires your opinion second meaning that I’m just going to put it in the shelf somewhere. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to have it. You can still have it but put it put it back somewhere. Wait wait wait wait for a better time to see if things will change. Things like that.

If you put it second, I don’t I’m not saying put it last, put it second. At least put it second. If you put your opinion second or your desire second to the to the importance of the of the peace and the prosperity of the community. Basically, if you’re if you put religion first, desire second, then it’s then you have made tolerance for the sake of religion. But if you put your desires or usually it’s not expressed as desires. Let’s say the your intention for success first and religion second then it’s a compromise because now you have to you have to change things in because if the religion is second you have to change things in the religion to fit your your goals of success. But if your desires are second, you have to change things in your desires to fit the the piece of the community. So that that that’s the difference between tolerance and and compromise. And let me give some examples. the a good example of tolerance was the the button the lo the button which we talked about. People tolerate it. Okay, I don’t think we actually came with the best version. People tolerated it. It’s okay. We might change it someday. And let me give you another example of example of tolerance. when when we went to Cabba, when we went to Hajj, someone sent actually us a photo of of of of Hajj. I think sent a photo of Haj Mah that was really a good photo. So when we went to Hajj, my opinion or my desire is is actually that I don’t think Aba should should should covered in a black cloth. I don’t I think it’s it’s it’s not it doesn’t show class like any if you go to the best let’s say palaces on earth you know if you go to the palace of Versailles in France there’s like one of the most beautiful palaces other palaces on earth you will see that the dominant color of the walls is white with golden decorations you know Trump doesn’t have probably Trump might be one of the worst people you know on earth but he does have taste when it comes to to building buildings. And he you can see like even the the ballroom what they call the ball which they stopped I guess which he was trying to build is like just white white walls with golden decorations that that shows glass that that’s my opinion though. I think that’s that’s prettier. but for some reason some guy in the 12th century or whatever not not even during Mohammed’s time some guy in the 12th century decided that a black carpet on top of Cabba would stay nice or whatever. I maybe he wanted didn’t want it to get dirty. I have no idea. So that that was let’s say the the opinion of someone. By the way, if you look at history, you’ll see that actually Muhammad kind of agreed with me more mostly because during Muhammad’s time, I think even the Khalifas, the early Khalifas, they actually covered the Cabba with white carpet with actually not gold. I think gold would be classier, but they covered with with red decorations. So, primarily white with red decorations that was during Muhammad’s time. but because that they were influenced by the let’s say Persian carpets. Persian carpets are mostly white with red decorations. and then later on I think they had the red color, they had the green color before they came to the to the black color. and you can see even like the the photo which Forn sent us, you can see in the background when they wanted to make a really luxurious building, it’s white with gold, white with gold white walls with gold decorations. If you guys can see the photo here the photo which someone which one sent in the chat you can see the let’s say the ceiling there it’s white with gold decoration. So they know what class is. If you ask the Arabs you know what’s what would be a very classy dress they would say white with with gold decorations. That’s that’s how they dress themselves. But when it came to dressing dressing cabba they dressed it black which is what they tell their women to dress basically secondass secondass citizens and so it’s they’re treating kaba as secondass uh what was I going to say by the way when the mi comes the the last messenger god willing mi if you’re listening if you can do it peacefully Not not with war. Not if you can do it peacefully, make it white or or remove it completely. Makea white or remove it completely because actually even without the carpet probably it would be nice because it shows the the value of the ancient times seeing the actual stones from the past. That’s I think that’s that’s also classy. like if you go to let’s say to some temples you can still see the stone the stones anyway. So now despite all of this of the fact that I actually think Kaba should have a white carpet or no carpet at all. I tolerated a black carpet went to Hajj spoke did not speak about it. Did not say anything about it because we share cabba with the Sunnis. We share cabba with the Sunnis and for the sake of peace I thought it was important that I that I go through it and there’s here’s this black carpet on top of a bu the most important building on earth and I just I just went through it because why? Because peace and religion are more important than my personal desire or opinion. I think my personal opinion is better but still I tolerated it. So that’s tolerance. Tolerance is putting peace and religion on first your desires second. So that that’s an example of tolerance.

Now anam so that’s a good example tolerating a black carpet on kaba is fine. It’s okay. It’s just a carpet. It’s it’s not the most important thing on earth. Even though my my opinion is better, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to tolerate it. the it’s fine like I I intend to go to Caba again and again and God willing whenever we go guys go I think we had a great time. God willing we’ll have a great time again. It’s just a carpet like let’s look past it. You know sometimes people don’t dress the best in your wedding. It’s fine you know it’s okay. you tolerate it. Now compromise is different. If some if my manager told me that you know what you you shouldn’t you know you shouldn’t take a break during Fridays because you have to work and then I say you know what actually yes I have to make a compro compromise I have to tolerate I have to make a compromise because my manager is saying you know don’t go during the Friday so maybe he’ll let me for 10 minutes but not 20 minutes can I then please Just do it for 10 minutes. Okay, do it for 10 minutes. See, now I’m compromising because now I’m putting religion second and my desire my desire for success first because I want to succeed in that job. So now but to succeed in that job I that means I have to listen to my manager and to listen to my manager he’s asking me not to do the Friday uh prayer together with other submitters and in that case I would be compromising if I if I listen to him so as you can see there’s a difference it depends on the motive are you putting your opinions second even they might be better opinions they totally might be better opinions are you putting them second though for the sake of peace and are or are you putting the the religion second for the sake of your desires. So it depends on the like depending on what the motive is then you sort of cooperating with others or tolerating or compromising with others uh does does make a difference. So let’s call the the the the bad case compromise, the good case tolerance based on Russian translation. It doesn’t have to be exactly like that always, but let’s go along with this translation. which is part of tolerance. We’re tolerating Ras Rasha’s definition.

yeah, by the way, and this is kind of important to sort of be aware that we have to be tolerant, especially within the within an online community because the devil can trick us and and especially with messages. Sometimes it’s and it’s this is not only among submitters but the rest of the world. The messages, the way we message today, it can be really tricky. It can create animosity. it can create bad feelings because of the way communication is is arranged. uh let me give you an example for example let’s say someone has an opinion you know what I would I think you know the logo should be like this and then the other person who receives the message he’s like oh why is he insisting that does is why would he even send the message does does he think this is very important on one side the person who receives the message thinks that he has re received the other person’s strongest opinions while the person who actually sent the message probably wrote it from the toilet just gave a very likelyhearted opinion. so because the technology has enabled us to communicate in such a way where the sender and the receiver can have despite what they say can have vastly different opinions of the importance of that message. One of them think is okay I’m just going to send a because in the past if you received the letter you would typically receive the letter receive a letter from a king or from some authority otherwise no one would send a letter and when you receive something in writing that seemed very important and to this day we have that idea like oh I received something in writing this this shows that the other person thinks he’s talking about something important but it’s not the case anymore it’s like probably not something not important because the person as I’m saying is he probably wrote it in the toilet or while eating you know having a sandwich and writing a message. Oh, let me just say something. so yeah it’s really important to not let the the communication style these days with messages and to let to let the devil trick us into sort of being intolerant. It’s really more important to be tolerant in a situation where you’re we are communicating with messages and may God bless all of you for actually being tolerant and maybe today we can keep it short because I think people have tolerated me too much. People who go to work with long Friday sermons uh I’ve been holding Friday sermon which which last about an hour. God willing, I’ll try to shorten them eventually in the future within half an hour hopefully, unless it’s something very important, but I’ll I’ll try to keep it within half an hour and maybe we can skip the questions today because honestly I I feel a bit sorry for people who have to work. Let’s give them some priority a little bit. so yeah, that’s it. for those who have to do the contact prayer, do the contact prayer or if you’ve done it, may God accept it. and the rest of you, peace be upon