A PRESENT TO ALEPPO, THE CAPITAL OF THE ISLAMIC CULTURE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONCLUSION OF ITS CELEBRATIONS

On this day, the celebrations of Aleppo, the capital of the Islamic culture, are concluded. With the end of these activities, I asked myself: "What can I say to the citizens of Aleppo from the pulpit of its Great Mosque?"
We have spend a year during which we have reviewed the history of our Islamic culture in this ancient city. We have seen the determination of the trustee of the Ummah, Abu 'Obaida Ibn Al Jarrah when he entered Aleppo from the door of Intakiyya and stood to pray as Imam of the Muslims in the mosque which was known later on as Al Atraas or Al Shu'eibiyyah. His was a determination that derived from that of our master, Muhammad (PBUH), vying with Pleiades and rising above starts.
I went back in memory to the just caliphate, 'Omar Ibn 'Abn Al Azizi, who prayed in this mosque as the Imam of the Muslims. He was an example of asceticism. Life with all its worldly pleasures was in his hand, but it did not control his heart. He stood high above it looking upon its pleasures with contempt making his own children wear old clothes at the Id (feast), while he made the Muslims' children wear new ones.
His eyes were wet as he looked at his son at the Id. His son said to him:
"Oh father, why are you crying?
The just ascetic caliphate answered:
"I'm afraid, my son, that you would be broken-hearted when you see the Muslims' children wearing new clothes while you don't."
But the child who was reared in the house that drank from the fresh pure fountain answered:
"No, father. Only the one who is undutiful to his parents should be broken-hearted."
While reviewing our Islamic culture in Aleppo, we have been acquainted with the zeal of the Sultan Az Zanki; with the resolution of Al Ayyubi; with the narrator of Al Hadith, Al Hafez Al Burhan Ibn Al Ajami , one of whose disciples was Al Asqalani Ibn Hijr who explained Al Bukhari; with the jurisprudence of Ibn Mansur Al Samarqansi and his daughter, Fatima, the head of the jurists, as well as her husband, the jurist, Al Kasani Abi Bakr. We have also been acquaintedand with the Sufism of Al Sahrawardi, the saint; with the historiography of Ar Radi Al Hanbali (or Ibn Al Hanbali); with the professional An Najjar, Qasem, who was the scholar of his time, but, in spite of that, he went on working as a carpenter till he was known as Sheikh An Najjar (the holy man who is a carpenter); as well as with the righteousness of the distinguished erudite scholar, Ahmad Al Termanini, the weeping saint.
On this last day, I asked myself:
"What is the difference between the history of our Islamic culture and our present reality?"
Oh you, citizens of Aleppo, and the beloveds of our master Muhammad (PBUH) in Aleppo, do you not notice that we are a little bit far behind our ancestors?
Why did they attain that status? What was the common point that gathered them?
I found that what gathered them were the following:
1-They had Purity of behavior, chastity of souls, and they preferred their hearts to be attracted to the truths of the invisible rather than to the tangible ones.
While reading our history and comparing it with our present reality, do we not notice that our behavior is far behind them?
This is because we prefer to make our hearts be attracted to the tangible rather than to the invisible.
Purity of behavior and chastity of souls can never be actually achieved, whatever the case may be, unless we nourish it with our preference of the invisible, and the hope of getting what is at God than to the tangible and to what is in this world.
2- They had intellects of great geniuses because they used to scrutinize, verify and make a meticulous study of the knowledge they read. Oh, followers of the beloved Al Mustafa (PBUH), do you not noticed that we do not exert much effort to get knowledge?
Do you not notice that imitation replaces meticulous and scrutinizing reading, and research among us?
3-They had purity of hearts because of their good radiant manners which were based on humbleness and servitude to the Exalted Allah.
Do we not notice that bad manners have spread in our markets, in our houses, in our offices, and among our youth, men and women?
Then where could purity of hearts come from?
4- Love of souls can be nourished by good company. But, sorrowfully, this has retarded among us because either we are satisfied with individualism, or because we nourish the density of our interior with bad company. The seen and heard shows in programs we daily watch on television make things even worse. It is a fact that we can no more resist. Moreover, we cannot find faith supports as equivalent to replace them.
5-High determination intended to be used for the sake of Allah and derived from the biography and lights of our master Muhammad (PBUH) to move in the souls an intention that develops into high zeal.
This has been the summary of their description.
This study reveals a comparison between our history and our present reality. But, oh my kindred, do I mean by it to frustrate you?
Do I mean to say through this speech that we are in a state of disappointment?
No, I do not. Through this pulpit, I want to remind myself and my brethren of the following:
If we really want our present to rise up and be in contact with the history of our Islamic culture, I would like to present the flowing pieces of advice:
1-Organize your time
Be sure to make your day a time for earning lawful provision that the Exalted Allah ordered you to gain. Allot part of your time to be acquainted with knowledge. Do not make the confusing television with its space channels overwhelm you. You had better derive knowledge from its fountains and resources.
Oh youth, oh old people, oh rising generation, do learn what you read, and ask about what you should read so that you get away from blind imitation.
Let part of your time be spent in reading the Holy Qur'an to strengthen your faith feeling. Moreover, remember Allah and have faith in Him, so that your faith state rises high and your attachment to the invisible becomes stronger.
Nowadays, the betting is going on on our Islamic culture and the imported one (i.e., the Americanized and globalized culture that is planned for us). It is a betting on the following point:
What will be the result in case our identity is stable or it becomes converted?
Can materialism change our culture through what is imported daily, or we can support our culture and export it to them anew?
It is really an important question.
2- Environment
We should look for a pure environment of morality, because when man is left to live in individualism, he is left to the devil who would devour him. Usually the wolf eats the lonely sheep. Look for a pure environment in which tempers are influenced by one another. Good manners cannot improve the community or the individual unless there is a good environment as well as good company by which man's temper is influenced so that his manner becomes refined.
3-Children
Your children are your future. If you neglect them, you neglect your future. I will summarize the subject of instructing children in two points:
a- Try to make your child have in mind an ideal example that you remind him of daily. Remind him of our master Muhammad (PBUH), remind him of Abi Bakr, Omar, Othman and Ali. Remind him of Hamzah and Mus'ab. Remind him of Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz and Al Ayyubi, Salah Addin. Remind him of the pious and distinguished scholars. Make him have a tale in his imagination like those constructive tales grandmothers used to relate to their grandchildren.
Should the method of education be cancelled when the grandmother is absent?
Try to establish a good example in the imagination of the child, for his ideal has become Tom and Jerry.
Even if we are incapable of producing developed films depending on methods that would attract children on the level of media at present because of our cultural underdevelopment, we should, at least, exert a human effort through which we can attract children to the better.
b-Support the educational institutions that arise anew in our environment. Some educational institutions have actually begun instructive work on taking care of the child based on moral and cultural developed methods.
I address the wealthy people saying: If you want to produce a successful future you have to support the educational institutions financially, for these institutions look for the talented and take care of them to produce a brilliant intelligent generation that do not have to pay money from their own , but money should be paid to them instead.
Certainly, we can make our future successful. Either we neglect it as we did with our present, or we can build it up so that our Lord may remember us before history does that.
Allāhum…Guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my speech and ask God's forgiveness.