I first want to tell you a little story before I come to what I want to speak to you about. About two years ago, somewhere around there, there was a big meeting in the Railway Institute in Salt River. It was an anti-drug meeting. One of the drug-lords from Salt River was there. And at the end of the meeting he went onto the stage and he told the people that he sells drugs but he doesn't tell people to come and buy them from him. He insisted that the people could not blame him for the fact that there is a drug problem in the Salt River. This story is very important for our understanding of what I'm going to speak about.
Let me first of all take you back, right back to the time when Allah created the cosmos, the whole universe. He created the cosmos with the word Kun (Be!), fayaqun" (and it came into existence). In another verse Allah says: Innama amruhu idha arada shayan ay yaqulu lahu kun fayaqun (Verily when He intends a thing, His Command is, Be! And it is!). This verse is interpreted as meaning that Allah Almighty brought everything into existence just through His desire. Some scholars say that the cosmos came into existence between the kaf and the nun of Kun . But no matter what the explanations are, the fact of the matter remains that Allah Almighty brought the universe into existence, or all the universes, whatever the case might be. Then Allah Almighty "decided" that He was going to create a very special creature. Man! He was so special the he was not going to be created through Kun only. He was firstly going to be fashioned from clay. Allah says: Khalaqahu min turabin thumma qala lahu kun fayaqun (He created him from clay, then He said, 'Be! And he was.') The rest of the cosmos, everything was created through Kun only but not man. Allah Almighty sent an angel down to the earth to fetch some clay and this clay was brought into the Divine Presence. Allah Almighty says in the Qur'an: Thumma sawwahu wa nafakha fihi min ruhihi (Then He fashioned him and blew in him of His Spirit). Allah Almighty fashioned the first man. He was not created the way the rest of the cosmos was created. He was special by Allah Almighty and because he was so special, Allah Almighty created him in this particular way.
Because the destination of the first man was going to be this world, the clay was taken from this world and not any of the other worlds. Allah Almighty then fashioned him and blew into him of His Spirit. Listen to this, Allah says in the Qur'an: "I blew into Adam of My Spirit." Allah had placed in Nabi Adam (a.s.) a Divine spark, a part of His Spirit. So honored this new creation was. Then Allah Almighty created for Nabi Adam (a.s.) a mate, Sayyiduna Hawa. She was created very differently from her future husband or from her husband, very differently. Allah Almighty gave her a rahim, a womb. This word rahim, if you look at it very closely, and you also look at the words rahman and rahim, you will see that all have the same origin. The words rahman and rahim have to do with Mercy. The Names Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim, the Most Merciful, the Most-Goodness or the Most Beneficient are of Allah's Names. And so the rahim of Sayyiduna Hawa was named after two Names of Allah Almighty. In other words, this rahim was to be an important sacred place of mercy. In this sacred place Allah Almighty was going to continue the process of the creation of all future human beings. We must understand that.
When Nabi Adam (a.s.) and his wife transgressed in the Hereafter, Allah Almighty sent them to this world. The first two human beings to come into this world, came like that. They were the beginning of the migration from the heavens to this world. They were the first people to come. From that time onwards, Allah Almighty did not send human beings in that way to the earth again. Not like that! He sent them in a different way. Allah Almighty had created in the heavens the souls of all future generations. In fact, He had spoken to them. He had spoken to those souls. He took all the descendants of Nabi Adam (a.s.) from out of his loins, and addressed them: "Alastu birabbikum" (Am I not your Lord?) We replied: "Bala shahiedna" (Yes truly, and we bear witness to that). We all bore witness in this very first gathering to the fact that Allah Almighty is Lord and we are the creation. Now that is what I want to talk to you about.
In any case, Nabi Adam (a.s.) and Sayyidatuna Hawa came to this world. All future human beings from that time onwards would come to this world through the wombs of mothers. This is why the rahim is so important because inside the rahims Allah Almighty continues the process of creation of human beings. When a man wants to plant his seed into that womb, he must first declare Kabiltu nikakhaha linafsi bidhalik. He must first say: "I have accepted being married to her for the dowry as indicated." He must say that. Although he says it to the Imam, he makes that declaration to Allah Almighty: "I declare, O my Lord that I have taken, I have accepted this lady in marriage."
Before he can enter the womb, he says Bismillah (In the Name of Allah). It is recommended that he says this. And so before he enters he must call the Name of Allah. He must say: "In the Name of Allah, I enter you," and then he plants his seed inside the womb. His seed and the egg of his wife melt together and it starts multiplying and growing. And Allah Almighty sends Angels to look after that process. At 120 days Allah Almighty informs an Angel to take the soul of that new human being and plant it in the womb of the mother of that new human being. The Angel brings the soul and plants it into the womb. At the same time, the Angel records in the womb a number of important things. It records the time of birth, the time of death, the sustenance and the way of life; all are recorded there. The Divine Rule, and I'm going to say this slowly to you, the Divine Rule with regards to what was happening in that womb is: Do not interfere. The Divine Rule is that. The Divine Rule is: "I am busy with an important process of creation, do not interfere". That is what Allah Almighty says. This is what Islam says. Do not interfere, unless it is religiously-sanctioned, with the processes that are busy in the womb because those processes have an important link with Allah Almighty. At that time the mother has an important link with the Divine. Allah is busy in her womb. She also has an angelic link. The Angels are there.
We can now understand why Allah Almighty named the womb the rahim. This is because His two important names Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim are operating. In addition His Name of Al-Khaliq (The Creator) is operating. And so He says, through His heavenly rules: "Do not interfere with My process of creation. Do not interfere with My application of My Names of Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim. It's not your business. Do not interfere". But of course we are human beings, you see. We have very satanic things going on in our minds all the time. And so we say: "NO! How dare You say we must not interfere. We will just interfere. We interfere by means of indiscriminate abortions. We abort as we wish. We abort!"
In this country there is an Abortions Act (The Termination of Pregnancy Act). At the time when the Bill was under discussion in parliament not a single Muslim member of the ANC objected to the Bill on religious grounds. Not a single one said: "No!" Not a single one. I want to repeat that to you because this is important for us to know. Not a single one had the religious backbone to say that as a Muslim he objects to indiscriminate abortions as proposed in the Bill. And when the Bill was voted on a prominent Imam (a member of both the ANC and the MJC) stayed away from parliament on that day. When this Act was applied in the Western Cape here, the Minister of Health was a Muslim. Today he is the premier of the Western Cape. So the person that implemented that law, the Abortion Act, in the Western Cape is a Muslim. My word!
It is estimated that more that 40 million abortions are done worldwide ever year. In the United States of America there are approximately 1.3 million abortions every year. Now multiply that by ten, it will tell you how many abortions had taken place in the last ten years in the USA. In this country, the last time I looked at the figure which was around three or four years ago, it was 350 000. It might be half a million already. So half a million small human beings have been killed off in the wombs by law in this country. And every fetus that is aborted has the stamp: Approved by the government of this country. Don't say it's not so. It is so. It doesn't matter how you argue, the fact of the matter is that it is so. It is approved by them. Not a single Muslim member of parliament of the provincial government has ever stood up and said: "I don't agree with this. This is against my religion. This is against God. This is against Islam. This is against Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)." Not a single one had said that indiscriminate abortions are a major crime against God. It's a major crime.
Allah Almighty says don't interfere and the politicians say: "How dare you say we must not interfere. We will just interfere." Man! Man! Man is an arrogant creature. He will do what he thinks, not what God says. Man is a great arrogant creature. There is a film at Islamic library that you must see. It is called The Silent Cry. It shows how abortions take place, I'm going to tell you a little bit about that now. One way they abort is to put an instrument into the womb and cut up the fetus, and they bring out the pieces. When they put the instrument in, the little human being cringes trying to get away from the instrument. There is evidence today that at this early stage the little being already feels pain. One can see the mouth of the little being opening, crying in fear. It is called the silent cry. Nobody hears the cry. No sound comes, just fear, just fear when the instrument comes in. Another way the abortion is done is to poison the fetus, and then bring it out. There is also a third way. When the fetus is a little big, it is brought down the vaginal passage until it is about to come out. Then it is turned around, pushed back and allowed to drown in the fluid. And what happens to the dead fetuses or pieces of them? They are burnt up. Politicians at work!
You ask any doctor or any nurse who works in a clinic or hospital where these abortions take place about who comes for abortions. Sorry about what I am going to tell you. They have mentioned to me about the large number of Muslim girls who queue up at these clinics every single week for abortions. One of the nurses who works at a clinic has refused to have anything to do with abortions. Large numbers of doctors and nurses say they want to have nothing to do with it. They rather put their jobs on the line but they will not do actions against God. This is not the case with the politicians, of course. They also have choices like the doctors have choices, like the nurses have choices. The nurses and the doctors say we don't want to have anything to do with this. And the Muslim politicians? They are following the ANC line rather than the Shari'ah (Divine Law) line. Because of the pressure from the medical personnel throughout the country, the government has allowed them to refrain from doing abortions if they have serious objections to it.
Now let me come back to the other parts that I was speaking to you about. A nurse told me about the young Muslim girls coming for abortions. Sometimes they are accompanied by their mothers, and these mothers are in full Islamic dress. They bring their daughters for abortions. Of course, a girl can get an abortion without her parents knowing. One doctor told the mother: "Do you know that this is haram (a punishable sin)?" Well, the mother told the doctor "his fortune!"
What is going on in our community? Does it mean that fornication is so rife that abortion has become so rife. So they fornicate, already one major crime, and then they go for an abortion, another major sin! Later many of these girls experience what is called "anniversary blues", according to a nurse I had spoken to. Every year on that day when the abortion took place, the young lady remembers. She remembers what she had done a year before that, or two years before or three years, and then she goes into major depression. So many of them come back after they done this act with major depressions because of the crime they had committed. They had killed! They had killed!
Indiscriminate abortions that are taking place throughout the world are a silent form of extermination. There is no other way to describe it. This nurse told me that some of the girls come for second abortions. The ages of these girls are anything from 12, 13 up. I want to know, what is she going to tell her future husband one day when the husband discovers, sorry I'm going to say this to you but we speaking as adults, that she is not a virgin. Is she going to tell some lie? Is she going to start with her marriage with a lie? How is that young lady going to face matters as she grows older, and she becomes more conscious of her religion, and she now wants to love Islam, and serve Allah Almighty better. How is she going to face the fact that a few years before that she had allowed her baby to be murdered in her body. How is she going to face that. She will not be able to face it. Why am I telling you this?
We live in what I call desperate times in this country because of the amount of corruption. You know about it. I needn't explain this to you. Every time you open the newspapers, you get a new form of corruption operating in this country. South Africa is not unique. It is just one bad example. So many times, when we look at these forms of corruption you see a Muslim name associated with it. Most of the time! We form a small portion, I think 10%, if I've got my figures right, of the population in the Western Cape. Why is it that more than 10% of young ladies going for abortions are from the Muslim community. Surely on an average, there should be about one out of every 10 ladies that go for abortions. Why are the figures so high for Muslims? Why is this so, why? What is going on? Why so many Muslim girls? There should be none. What is going on in our community?
I want to speak to the fathers because I'm a grandfather and a father. Look after your children. Don't allow them to go all over the place and you not there. If they want to go anywhere, you take them, you stay with them you bring them home. Don't be irresponsible about this. You would not even know that your daughter has had an abortion because it's not legally necessary for you as the father to know. The girl that is pregnant, she gives permission. We as fathers would not even know, we would not even know because there is no law that says that we must know. The girl can go to the clinic, have an abortion and that's the end of it. I'm appealing to you. Many of you sitting here must be fathers of daughters. Look after them. Allah Almighty has given these children to us as a special responsibility. Don't allow the corruption to affect your children. Take them to school in the morning and go fetch them in the afternoons. Don't allow them to go to school two hours before the time and go fetch them three or four hours after school. Take them and go fetch them. They get up to all kinds of things in the afternoons. And don't say my daughter won't do it. All those fathers whose daughters have gone for abortions also thought: "Our daughters won't do it". And the young men who are here, please you are young. If you feel that there is a need, tell your parents that you want to get married. Rather get married young than enter into corruption. In the United States of America, Muslim parents allow their 18 or 19 year old children to get married to keep them out of corruption. I was in Cyprus lately. There was a young man. He was going to get married. He is about 18.
We've the idea that our children must work so many years, or the children must be so old if they want to get married, rather than let them get married young to stop the corruption. When I was much younger, there was a tradition in the Muslim community in terms of which people would get married and they would "go home" much later. That has been dropped. We must bring it back into our community. Let them get married, and they can set up house later so that the corruption ceases. Today we have fancy ideas which we have picked up from other communities. Islam says we must protect our children. Please you are fathers, take special precautions especially when it comes to your daughters. Look after them. Don't allow them out of your sight. Just recently we have had another case of a child being killed. We read about these things all the time. We are the parents. We must not allow the children to go play freely on fields and on playgrounds. We must not allow this. Let them play in the yard. We living in times that are absolutely dangerous for our children and some of us don't care. Let me end off now with you. At the beginning I told you a story. I want to repeat that story for those who had come late.
About two or three years ago in Salt River there was a big meeting, an anti-drug meeting in the Railway Institute in Salt River. At the meeting was a drug lord. He went on to the stage and said that he is a drug lord and he was not ashamed of it. He insisted that he doesn't tell the young people in Salt River to come and buy drugs from him. They have a choice. Recently one of the local politicians was allowed to speak at one of the local mosques. I do not know why they ask politicians in our mosques. I do not suppose that that they will ask us to go to parliament and address the politicians there. We allow politicians who approve of abortion to preach religion to us. One of them said that they do not tell young girls to come for abortions. People have a choice. These are the same words that the drug lord used.
Our first loyalty is to Allah Almighty. We must be for Him. If we are for Him, our hearts will be right. If we are not for Him, we will talk this kind of rubbish. Always be for Allah, for His religion, and for His Messenger. Place Allah and His Messenger first in your lives, then all the other things. Don't place all the other things first, and then Allah at the back of the queue. Be careful of this. On the Day of Reckoning we want Allah Almighty to be there for us. What are we going say to him about our activities. The Muslims of the Cape and those all over the world must start making decisions about their relationships with Allah. That is Islam. We must always so: "O my Lord! I am for you first! And Thou art for me first. First Thou, then everything else." There must be a passion in our hearts for our Lord. We must say: "O My Lord, I'm passionate about my love for Thee. I'm passionate about my obedience to Thee. I'm passionate about obeying what Thou sayest we must do. I'm passionate about Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)." The passion must vibrate in our hearts. Our hearts must be for Allah, uncompromisingly. And when we are for Him, He is for us. Remember this, if we are for Allah Almighty, He is for us. The reason why the Muslims are getting up to the things they are getting up to is because we have forgotten to be for Allah. My appeal to you is this, please, you are my brothers in Islam. If we walk this road, we must say: "O my Lord, I am always for Thee. My life and my death are for Thee". We ask for all of these with the blessings of Suratul Fatihah …
And Allah knows best, and I ask forgiveness for any mistakes or distortions in what I have said, Amin.
Yusuf da Costa