A speech by Ali Hasan on belonging to Islam and the necessity of returning to it.

Ali Hasan: Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, had it not been for the indication my Shaykh (may Allah preserve him) gave me, I would not have spoken before him, nor before my brothers who are greater than me in knowledge, broader than me in status, and more senior than me in rank. But this is part of perfecting my dutifulness to my Shaykh (may Allah the Exalted preserve him). I say: Several words have been turning in my mind that I have been saying since my Shaykh indicated to me with this word. The most eloquent of them was what Allah enabled me to grasp when I heard a brief word from my Shaykh Abu Malik, where he described the Muslims as belonging to Islam. Is belonging to Islam a trivial matter? That we are Muslims belonging to our Islam, not detached from it, and not merely seeking blessing from it? Is this a trivial matter? By Allah, it is easy for whom Allah makes it easy. And regarding this belonging to Islam, I speak of it in two points. The first is the gap that has arisen between us, in our capacity as Muslims, and the knowledge that is presented to us, which we hear and read, and which is repeated to our ears. Until when will this gap, this interval, and this separation remain, while we say, "We are Muslims"? Islam means submission to the command of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) wants us to be truly Muslim in our belonging to Islam, in truth, action, and deed. How many of us hear the prohibition from Allah and then carry it out and apply it? And how many hear the command from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and then contradict it and distance themselves from it? Belonging to Islam obligates us to be people of a truly Islamic personality, tied to the Book of our Lord and connected to the Sunnah of our Prophet (may Allah the Exalted exalt him and grant him peace), not by the understandings of the rationalists among the contemporaries, nor by the understandings of those "renewers" who are actually destroyers of this religion, but by the understanding of the righteous Salaf of the Ummah. A return to that purified understanding on the tongue of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), for there is no success, no rectification, and no salvation for the Ummah except by it and upon it. And the second point, O brothers in Allah, is a matter that may visit some souls and tease some thoughts and minds, and it is that someone might say: Look at this gathering that has assembled two hundred men and young men, if not more, and the speech in it has been lost regarding holding fast to Islam, or regarding plural marriage, or regarding marriage, while the people of disbelief are preparing to strike the Muslims and to destroy the awliya (close friends of Allah) who are the pious, and they plot against the righteous servants of Allah. I say: This is a whisper that must be repelled in the face of every Muslim who is monotheistic toward Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), because such words are the bricks upon which that personality truly belonging to Islam is built, so that it may be of that Ummah about which He (Blessed and Exalted is He) said: It is not possible for this Ummah, as individuals and groups, to be witnesses over all nations in this world, let alone on the Day of Resurrection, except by adhering to the commands of Allah (Mighty and Exalted), to the rulings of their religion, and to the Sunnah of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), without distinguishing between the great and the small, the noble and the base, the trivial and the major. For greatness and triviality are determined by whether this matter is connected to the religion of Allah and emanates from the religion of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). As for my mind and your mind, O servant of Allah, it is to determine that this is trivial and that is great. This has no place in the world of people today, nor in the religion of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Then, to complete this point, I say that adherence to the religion is the only weapon remaining for us, Muslims. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is a matter we neglect because we have fallen into materialism, because we have drowned in this world, because our minds and hearts have been programmed by the conditions of the age and its innovations. So we measure the progress of the Ummah of Islam by the progress of the nations of disbelief. We measure the backwardness of our Ummah by the progress of those nations. We say, "Look at America and its missiles, equipment, and satellites, and the like." We say, "Look at the fragmentation of the Ummah and its distance from material things." And in contrast, that new world order that dominates the world. We must know that our adherence to the command of Allah is the only thing capable of destroying everything that is advanced from the lands of disbelief and from the people of disbelief. And Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) says: And this will not be the case unless we are truly belonging to our Islam, taking our religion as a methodology based on receiving for implementation, not receiving for culture, not receiving for mere blessing, not receiving to waste time. And Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) wants this from us so that we may be servants of Allah, devoted to Him. I ask Allah for success, correctness, guidance, and right direction for me and for you. And I ask Allah to bless the marriage of our brother Asim and to make it the seed of a family that applies the command of Allah and adheres to the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). And I congratulate him with the congratulation of the Prophet (may Allah the Exalted exalt him and grant him peace), not with the congratulation of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. So I say: May Allah bless you both, and bring you together in goodness. And may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet, and upon his family and all his Companions.
The students: May Allah reward you.