Khutbahs
185 / 217
"Don't Move!" - Gaza Encampment at Northwestern University | Khutbah
Join Dr Omar Suleiman live from the Gaza encampment at Northwestern University as he delivers a khutbah to the brave students standing up against the genocide.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, my message to you from the very beginning is don't move. Don't move. And when I say don't move, there's a very specific implication of don't move. Don't move from the side of truth. Don't move from the side of justice. Don't move from the side of your Lord. Plant your feet firm and ask him to pour into your heart what is necessary to achieve the internal condition so that you can have the faith and the resilience that is necessary to stay the full course. I want you to appreciate in this encampment that we are in right now and in this place where so many of you have courageously come and many are taking to the lawns across the country and hopefully soon across the world of university campuses that what makes this so significant is not just the cause but also the fact that we are not memorializing something of the past. We're not talking about something that happened 10-20 years ago. We're not talking about a catastrophe that we only read about in our books. We're not talking about people that have long gone before us. We're not even talking about two weeks ago. In the very moment that you are camped out on this lawn, there are camps throughout Gaza, specifically Rafah right now, where millions of people facing the worst forms of brutality that we have ever seen play out on our screens are planting their feet firm in the ground despite all of the psychological
and physical and mental torture and saying we will not move. And it bewilders the enemy. Why are these people so stubborn? Why won't they just cross over? Why not just make space for them and send them elsewhere? And we have made their lives a living hell in Gaza so they should all want to leave. It's all counterintuitive. And while the bombs are still falling and there isn't a moment where the drones are not heard in Gaza and there isn't a new piece of news that someone else that is beloved to you has died and people with their missing limbs and fresh blood and empty stomachs still say, we will stay. We will rebuild. Try talking to people in Gaza and telling them that while the infrastructure is destroyed, the entirety of Gaza is gone. This genocide is complete. The water is gone. The food is gone. What was left of your homes is gone. Your family is gone. Tens of thousands of people literally missing limbs, children who have no one but their Lord and the people around them. And they still say, we will stay here. We will not move. We will stay here until the pain goes away. We will live here. Things will change. The song will change. The mood will change. Whether it takes 10 years or 20 years
or 30 years, we have a responsibility. We will not move. One of the doctors that went to Gaza came back with this. And it's dated, a piece of Gaza. And it reads, with love despite the pain. With love despite the pain, here we will stay. And while the world marvels at these people, while also finding complete disgust at the treatment of these people and the lack of global accountability from the powers that be, they wonder where that power comes from. Where is that faith from? And in the Quran, we have this constant notion of feet that are planted firm. We ask our Lord constantly to make our hearts firm and to make our feet firm, to allow us to achieve the internal condition that is necessary to give us the fortitude to face any obstacle ahead of us and to not cower in front of any tyrant, the way that we see best manifested right now in our brothers and sisters in Gaza. And in every single portion of the Quran in which this idea of feet planted firm, you have a mention of the internal condition that was achieved first. Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu in tansuru allaha yansurukum wa yuthabbit aqdamakum. O you who believe, if you stand up for your Lord, He will give you victory and He will make your feet firm. If you're standing up for Him, He will descend into your hearts what is necessary to make
your feet firm. When Allah speaks to us about a story that is known to so many of us, Muslims and people of other faiths, some of you whom are here, the story of David and Goliath, and before anybody else tries to fill your head or your heart with any baseless propaganda and tries to convince you that somehow the 40,000 massacred people under the most sophisticated bombing and weaponry that we know in our modern day with all the structures of power and oppression against them, that somehow those people are Goliath against David, then come back to your common sense. We too have David and Goliath and it's best manifested in the boy that stands in front of the tank with his stone, absolutely unafraid and unintimidated. And we have the story of David and Goliath in the Quran. And when those righteous people stand up against Goliath and they make the following supplication, before they ask for their feet to be planted firm, they say, pour upon us patience. So once again, something that precedes the feet being planted firm, pour upon us patience. But here's the thing, it's one thing to plant your feet firm. It's another thing to know why you're planting your feet firm and to know that you're planting your feet firm on the right side of history. There was no doubt in the hearts and minds of those that were standing on that side, that they were on the right side of history. And that too distinguishes us today, that we know we're on the right side of history and no propaganda is going to rupture that fitra,
that natural recognition of oppression. No one can color a genocide and make it acceptable to a sound heart. And so before you plant your feet firm, you need to make sure that you're planting your feet on the right side. And today we're on the right side. And we ask our Lord to pour upon us patience as well. And when he tells us about the story of Badr, when our prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was facing a mighty army of oppressors. And Allah mentions, that he would fortify your hearts and plant your feet firm. There's something that precedes that feet or that set of feet being planted firm. It's the moral clarity. It is the spiritual fortitude. It is knowing that you are upon the truth that allows you to know today and beyond that you should not move because of an obstacle ahead of you. And the greater that obstacle ahead of you, the more that you remember that there is a Lord that is greater than that obstacle, that there is a cause that is greater than that obstacle that will keep you firm. And even when the blood is fresh, you chant out the way that Omar bin Khattab did on the day of Uhud, when the blood was flowing and when the losses were abundant, God has caused to remain that which causes you disgrace. And to the oppressors today, we say that what has caused you disgrace still remains and it is not going away. The wonder of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause and specifically the people of Gaza is that they
just won't go away. And that frightens the structures of power there. And it frightens the structures of power here that despite all of the money that goes into the weaponry, despite all of the money that goes into the propaganda, despite all of the structures of power, it only continues to reveal their hypocrisy and your courage and your refusal to back down. And it's being seen across the country today and across the world that no suppression will do away with a people that act on the basis of conviction, that no structure of power can take away from spiritual clarity. And what they fear most is how little you fear them. And what intimidates them most is how unintimidated you are. And what will break them is how unbreakable you have been. And this is the way it will remain. Because so long as the people of Gaza plant their feet firm, we have an example of a people that can plant their feet firm. Don't move. Don't move. That's my lesson. That's all I want you to remember. No matter how intimidating it gets, no matter what they put in front of you, no matter what they threaten us with, we will not endure what the people of Gaza have endured for their livelihood, and they deserve to live as much as we deserve to live. Don't move. Stay the course. You know who sustains you. You know who gives you victory. You know who gives you courage. You know who gives you meaning. You know why you're here. Don't move. Plant your feet firm. And we ask Allah to plant our feet firm and to put in our hearts what is necessary to be fortified so that we are never intimidated, never scared,
never broken, never in a state of despair, even when we feel pain. That our pain and our joy are always in righteousness, and that what we plant our feet in is always the truth. And we ask him to protect us from falsehood and the structures of falsehood, and we ask him to grant us what is necessary to be on the side of our brothers and sisters in Palestine. And beyond. Allahumma ansur ikhwana almustada'afena fi mashariki al-ardi wa magharibiha. Rabbana la tu'akhidhna in nasina aw akhta'na, Rabbana wa la tahmil alayna isran kama hamaltahu ala allatheena min qablina, Rabbana wa la tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bih, wa'afu a'na wa khfir lana warhamna, Anta mawlana fan surna ala alqawmi alkaafireen, wa aqeem alsalah.
Allahumma ansur ikhwana almustada'afena fi mashariki alardi wa magharibihi.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
