Radical Middle Way Transcripts

Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa on:

‘Futūwwa’
[Opening du’ā]

Al-salām ‘alaykum wa rahmat Allah wa barakātuhu

One of the war cries of Seyyidnā Khālid ibn Walīd – and I think it’s a war cry that
resonates in our time and until the Day of Judgement – is ‘wa Muhammada wa
Muhammada’ calling out for the intercession and interference of the Messenger of
Allah (saw).

I think we’re dealing with a grand topic, which is the topic of futūwwa which is a
term difficult to translate but it’s been translated as chivalry and we’ll take that as a
term to use. It’s a grand topic and it’s important to anchor our discourses in
practicality, in deeds. A lot of times these gatherings serve to be gatherings of, and
please excuse the phrase in front of Habib Ali’s presence, of ‘folly and entertainment’
where knowledge is dispersed not for the purpose of practice and something that is
not going to be anchored in practice. I think the term futūwwa is something that
cries out for practice. And it requires from every single one of us some type of
departure when we look at the beautiful language the Muslims have been given, the
eternal language of the people of paradise, the Arabic language which will help us to
understand concepts. The word futūwwa and you look at the trilateral root of it, the
‘f’’ and the‘t’ and the ‘w’ we see that the ‘f’ and the‘t’ indicate in this language a duality
and some kind of departure. If we look at the word ‘f‘-t-k’ or ‘f-t-h’ these words
indicate some type of departure from something, leaving something behind. Allah
(swt) says ‘The Heavens and the Earth were clustered together and we rendered it
asunder.’

Like a fat-ha, an opening, leaving it behind vanquished. Likewise futūwwa, youthful

chivalry, is leaving something behind, leaving adolescence behind, leaving play and
folly behind; things that we need to understand so that we can anchor our religion in
our time, this is not the time for la’eb – the pleasure of this world and nature of this
world is merely entertainment and sport. One of the unfortunate things about us
Muslims is that we fell into the ways of those who preceded us. Likewise we’ve
become a people of entertainment and sport. And again, the rajūla speaking about
this issue of manhood – and my dear brother Yahya whose father is from Liverpool
so we have an affinity – is that the issue of rajula is also a khitāb for women, it’s an
address for women also, to our dear sisters. And I think that our sister is the
beautiful poem that one of the people here made mention and I think we should
listen to the poetry and asrar in poetry – secrets in poetry, especially the poetry of
the Arabs. There was a poem written by a lady that has always resonated with me
since I read it; it resonated in my heart like that quote from Khalid ‘wa muhammada’
she said ‘ mā Al-Jamāli māshuha wa‘īda agendalan yahmilhah am hadīda am
sarafāhā barida shadīda am Al-Rijāl jutha min qurūda’
It’s a powerful message, a poem from a woman who was imprisoned and as Wi’ad
‘Uthmān mentioned today, many of our women are imprisoned. And they speak
sometimes not with their tongue – the lisān – the physical tongue, but what the
‘Ulama’ call the lisān Al-Hāl – the tongue of their states. It’s silent but people of
hearts can hear the tongue of states.

She says ‘mā Al-Jamāli mashuha wa ‘īda’ – What is wrong with the camels? She’s
seeking that valley at night to come and rescue her from her oppressed state that she
has been deposited in. What is wrong with the camels, dragging their feet?
agendalan yahmilhah am hadīda – Are they carrying heavy objects that make their
feet sink into the sand? am sarafāhā barida shadīda – or maybe it’s the cold
weather, the elements that has turned her away from the place she was meant to be
– which is with me to rescue me from the state I am in. That’s husna Al-Dthun.
She’s having a good opinion of the camels but unfortunately, she doesn’t have a good
opinion of men am Al-Rijāl jutha min qurūda’ – Or are men statues doing nothing
in the hour of need? And that’s something that’s something to every single one of us
as men.

It has been said ‘kanat Ā’isha rajulan’ Ā’isha was a rajul- a man. That is how Ā’isha
was described, so it’s not biological. Here we’re talking about maqāmat – stations.
Stations are lofty things, they’re not fleeting; they’re not like ahwāl- states that are
fleeting and can leave the individual but it’s when a human being becomes anchored
in a reality, anchored in reality. What’s our reality? Oh chivalrous ones....

That’s what the age needs. We have an individual and that’s why we call out ‘wa
Muhammada’. The discourse of futūwwa is ultimately a discourse on qualities and
attributes, those that Allah (swt) put of his pre-eternal, post-eternal attributes in a
being; a creative being, a lofty being. And his name is Muhammad (saw). If we want
to understand qualities we have to look at the possessor of these qualities (saw).
Some people speak about qualities, having female qualities or having male qualities
and the qualities that Allah (swt) imprints in creation. The ‘ulamā,’ we use the words
jamāliyah and jalāliyah – majestic or beautiful qualities or attributes. And majesty
is something that is ordinarily the masculine side of the world of duality and jamāl or
beauty is something that is related to the feminine side of things. But the beautiful
thing about futūwwa is that it is the coming together of these opposites to produce a
different type of attribute, that the ‘ulamā’ call kamālīyah – attributes of perfection.
It needs the women as well as it needs the men.

There’s a beautiful poem about akhlāq; the jahalī Arabs, the people who didn’t have
Islām thought they had quality and that’s one of the reasons revelations were sent
amongst those people – the jahalī Arabs. People of ignorance, wanton individuals,
human beings. But they wrote, and one of things they would write about was the
great qualities that they possess and would lose their life over. There’s a beautiful
poem called lāmiyat Al-‘Arab. It’s the lāmiyah of the Arabs themselves. It’s like the
chronicles of the Arabs, and why is it important to us? Because we have a great
chivalrous one called Seyyidna ‘Omar ibn Al-Khattāb, and he says ‘ālimūhu
awlādikum’ - teach this poem to your children. Why? Fīhi akhlāq – in this reside
lofty attributes – attributes that we recognise as attributes of the Lordly one (saw).
And the beautiful thing about it you can see during the interplay at the beginning of
his poem in the matl’a, you see the interplay of the role of the feminine and the role
of the masculine, because both are neither in this process and especially in the early
years. When we talk about akhlāq it’s the Prophet that Allah (saw) said ‘wa innaka
alā khuluqin ‘adthīm’ - you are beyond – not you have or possess – you are beyond
tremendous character, (saw), in sūrat Al-Nūr. Allah (swt) says this about the
Messenger of Allah (saw). They asked him where this comes from, as in the attributes
that he had, what was the secret behind it. What did he say in all of humility? And
humility is one of the chivalrous qualities. He said ‘I was raised in the desert of the
tribe of Sa’ad, amongst the people of Sa’ad,’ and during the first six years, the early
years of the Prophet (saw) it’s rare to hear them mentioning the male individual, in
the raising of that blessed Prophet (saw). It’s as if all those lofty attributes were
instilled within him by Allah before, through feminine intermediaries: Halima
Sa’adīyah, Barakah, Umm Ayman, his own mother Amina – women in his life that
raised that individual (saw).

Then we see an interesting thing develop after six years that you really hear a woman
mentioned. It’s men – it’s men that take on the mantel. And that’s part of what our
discourse is – it’s about raising men – rijāl – that’s what it’s about. And that’s what
we’ve lost, it’s virtually been lost in transmission. How do we create men?

This is a community effort between women and likewise between men. And that’s
why it was said in the beginning ‘aqimu banu ummi – arise and move oh tribe of my
mother’ the women –‘f’innī lā qawmin siwā’kum la’amyalu – because now I’m
about to move to a qawm’ and the qawm in the Arabic language is Al-rijāl dun Al-
Nisā’ – men without women. That’s qawm; people in the Arabic Language. And now
you’re saying that women have played their role but now it’s time for men – to raise
men. And that’s what we’ve got to ask. You see the process is not when we get to the
teenage years – that’s the mushkila. A lot of us think that it’s the teenage years or the
years post adolescence. No, it starts way before that, way before that.

This in shā’ Allah is a tamhīd; it’s difficult to speak in front of Habib Ali, but it’s
something for us to think about. These are all attributes we all need as men. If you
just ponder and read the life of the Prophet (saw) everything you need is there. That’s
what my teacher told me. There’s not a single thing that you need except that what is
in the life of the Prophet (saw). ‘Uthman can speak about wrestling and we come
from a city that’s proud of its fighters; Liverpool is a fighting city. We’re all raised
upon multiple martial arts and you see, if you’re not a black belt then you aint
anybody in our community [Audience laugh]. But there’s something other than that
and when I look at the life of the Prophet, the chronicles, that’s what inspires.

Things like the Prophet (saw), in order to make rabat – we see the fatā – the young
beings in sūrat Al-Kahaf – those young individuals who left behind something, they
left it behind. And they went to a cave with tawhīd - rubbuni Al-Samawāt wa Al-Ard
– our Lord is the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. That’s where futuwwa begins.
You see in the recognition of the Lordship, of the Grandure of Allah (swt) and we see
the Prophet, in order to affirm this in the young ones that he will go to the likes of
Rukana, the great Arabian wrestler, undefeated. And to affirm faith in his heart he
bust up Rukana – he loses his record, one down [Audience laugh]. And as if the man
has no shame, Rukana, you see that he wants to go a second time and the Prophet is
all ‘marhaba, ahlen wa sahlen’ and it’s the same result – thrown again. And it
continues like the Gracies – the Gracies are a family of wrestlers – they have a sanad,
a train of transmission – even they have a chain this famous Brazilian family called
the Gracies. So the father was beaten and the son comes likewise undefeated, and
likewise he is what? Slammed! By the Messenger of Allah (saw). And they come one
by one, Abu Al-Asad Al-Jubahi – he could stand on a cow’s skin and if 10 people
come and try to take that cow’s skin from underneath him, it just shreds; they can’t
move him – he’s firm footed. Until he stands in front of the Messenger of Allah. And
we could go on.

But I think it’s erroneous for us to begin to think that this is just a physical reality,
although physical discipline does exist – the Sahāba were physical people. One thing
we forget is that the Sahāba slept with their swords – wife on one side and sword on
the other [Audience laugh and applaud]. That’s the Sahāba; we forget that as men.

In shā’ Allah, Habib Ali is going to do justice to this topic.

[Closing du’a]
About Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa

Shaykh Ibrahim was born and raised in Liverpool, England. He was blessed with the
opportunity to study several classical disciplines at the hands of some of the holders
of the tradition such as Murabit al-Haj, al-Habib Umar b. Hafiz and Shaikh Hassan
al-Hindi. Initially studying for three years in Syria and Mauritania, Ustaz Ibrahim
was then blessed with the opportunity to spend over six years in the illuminated city
of Tarim, Hadramaut where he studied under the qualified hands of teachers such as
al-Habib Kazim al-Saqqaf, al-Habib Ali al-Jifri and al-Shaikh Umar Husain al-
Khatib.

Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa was one of the founders of several Islamic initiatives
including the Ibn Abbas Institute, Starlatch Press, Badr Language Institute and the
Greensville Trust. Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa currently resides in Liverpool, England
with his wife and two children.

For more information about this speaker or to view the video, please visit
www.radicalmiddleway.co.uk