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What if Oppression is Our Destiny? | Khutbah
Amid the challenges Muslims face today, Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on whether this suffering is a test for the ummah or something deeper. Are we destined for resilience and justice, or are we trapped in a cycle of betrayal and oppression?
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah SWT and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final Messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings
upon him, the Prophets and Messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma Ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters, of the du'as of the Prophet (ﷺ), or at least a part of the du'a is, وَلَا تُسَلِّطْ عَلَيْنَا مَنْ لَا يَرْحَمُنَا
O Allah, do not place upon us those that will have no mercy upon us. And of course as is commonly recited in the du'as, even if in the hadith is, مَنْ لَا يَرْحَمُنَا مَنْ لَا يَخَافُكَ فِينَا وَلَا يَرْحَمُنَا
Those who have no fear of you, nor will they have any mercy upon us. It's a common sentiment that no one wants to be placed under the crushing fist of oppression, not in their personal
lives or in their political existence. No one wants to feel the strength of another man above them that controls their movements, that controls their money, that controls seemingly
their dignity, their very existence in every way. No one wants to feel like they are at the mercy of another human being, especially not a cruel human being. It's been the theme
of trying to remove oppression for the last year. And as it seems to get more bleak, then the frustration and the despair and the anger grows and that sentiment of مَتَى نَصْرُ
الله When is the help of Allah coming, which we spoke about in the very beginning of the genocide. It hits a bit different now because some people are saying truly مَتَى نَصْرُ الله I'm looking around, okay, this isn't going this way, this isn't going that way.
And سبحان الله what I want us to actually focus on for the rest of this khutbah is what if Allah declared for you oppression? What if Allah decreed oppression upon you for the
rest of your existence, at a personal level and at a political level? What if we don't see the light at the end of the day? What if we don't see victory in our lifetimes?
And سبحان الله in that same vein of that hadith, وَلَا تُسَلِّطْ عَلَيْنَا مَنْ لَا يَرْحَمُنَا I was reading al-Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, رحمه الله, in his مدارج السالكين and he says, قَالَ أَحَدُ الْعَارِفِينَ
that there was a righteous man who said لِرَجُلٍ تَعَدَّى عَلَيْهِ وَظَلَمَهُ who said to a man who oppressed him and who wronged him. And I want you to memorize these
words. قَالَ إِنْ كُنْتَ ظَالِمًا فَالَّذِي سَلَّطَكَ عَلَيَّ لَيْسَ بِظَالِمٍ إِنْ كُنْتَ ظَالِمًا فَالَّذِي سَلَّطَكَ عَلَيَّ لَيْسَ بِظَالِمٍ
If you are an oppressor, then the one who put you above me is not an oppressor. سبحان الله, think about the power of those words. If you are indeed an oppressor,
then the one who has allowed you for some wisdom that is beyond me to be above me in
the material sense is not an oppressor. Allah is not an oppressor. Allah is not an oppressor. Even if the oppressors seem to reign free at times, Allah سبحانه وتعالى is
not an oppressor. And you think to yourself, well how do I internalize that? How do I equally have the same energy and power to both fight oppression and to be pleased if Allah سبحانه وتعالى
has decreed oppression for me? And you take it back to the very beginning of mankind. The story of mankind, سبحان الله, starts off with all of the diseases that are present
in mankind today. It's a story of pride, it's a story of envy, it's a story of murder. It's everything that the angels said, أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ It didn't take long for human beings to spill blood. It happened with the very first
generation that murder happened. And who did it happen between? Brothers. Think about that. Brothers. Not people that are cousins, not people that are uncles and aunts, not friends.
Brothers. And it's قَابِيل هَابِيل, Cain and Abel. And we could talk about that all day long because it occupies a significant portion of the Quran for a reason. To say
this is how mankind starts off. But I want you to see the final moments through the lens
of the wronged brother as هَابِيل is looking back at قَابِيل. This is when murder is imminent. This is the moment before his blood is going to be spilled. And we don't even know what
that looks like yet, as far as humanity is concerned. But this is the final moment when he looks to his brother who has that murderous rage in his eyes, who is holding
his weapon towards him, outstretched. And he says to him, after telling him that I will not do what you do, he says to him,
إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَن تَبُوءَ بِإِثْمِي وَإِثْمِكَ فَتَكُونَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ النَّارِ وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الظَّالِمِينَ
I want to let you bear the full sin of me and the full sin against me and your own sins.
I want you to bear the full sin of this act, so that you can be from the people of the hellfire. وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الظَّالِمِينَ
And that is the payment for the oppressors. SubhanAllah, think about that. You know, we never really think about what he must have been feeling in those moments, when his brother outstretched his hand to kill him, and he submitted himself to that moment. He submitted
himself to that decree for himself. He's a human being. He's not feeling sympathy for his brother in those moments. And this is also very important, because we are not angels.
That doesn't mean we have the right to act like devils, but it does mean that we have the right to feel human. He said, I want you to be punished. I expect my Jannah, I expect
my paradise, I have full trust in Allah to grant me what he has guaranteed me, should this act of oppression meet its final end. But I fully want you to go to hell. Think
about every image of the oppressor standing seemingly triumphant over the oppressed. And the body language, and the confidence, and the belief in what comes next.
إني أريد أن تبوء بإثمي وإثمك فتكون من أصحاب النار I want you to bear the full sin of this act. I want nothing to do with this. And subhanAllah
Imam al-Qurtubi, rahimahullah, lists so many deep reasons as to why he said إثمي وإثمك, my sin and your sin. He said one interpretation of that is, I want you to bear the full sin
of killing me, and me not having to have anything that would negate that sin of you killing me. And I want you to bear the punishment of all your other sins too. I want you to
face Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the punishment of killing me and the punishment of all of your sins. And you will be from the people of hellfire. He also says that what it means
is, I want you to extend your oppression as long as you want. Because the extension of your oppression means the extension of my good and the extension of your bad. The extension
of your oppression, take all the time that you need. Go ahead and oppress in every way that you want. Take it all because in reality, you're only giving me my Jannah and earning
yourself your hell. What a mindset. When someone can fight his oppressor with the full anger
and energy that is needed to fight an oppressor, but at the same time to say, I'm not afraid of you. Go ahead. Do what you're going to do. Do what you want. You're not actually
hurting me. And I hope you hurt yourself in hell. I hope you experience hellfire to the extreme. And I know that if I'm patient, I will experience paradise to its full promise.
He also says, and he comments with a hadith of Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه), and this is such a powerful one, in Al-Bukhari, where the Prophet (ﷺ)
said, man kanat lahu mazlamatun li ahadin min irdihi aw shay'. Whoever has committed an act of oppression against his brother in regards to his honor or something else. Qala
salallahu alayhi wa sallam, fal yatahallal minhu alyawm. He said, let him beg for forgiveness now. Qabla an la yakuna dinarun wa la dirhamun. In kana lahu amalun salihun, ukhidha minhu
biqadri mazlamatihi. He said (ﷺ), let him beg for forgiveness now before he shows up on a day when his money will not benefit him in any way. And if he
has any good deeds, then those good deeds will be taken away from him in accordance with his evil. Wa in lam takun lahu hasanatun ukhidha min sayyiati sahibihi fa humila alayhi.
And if he has no good deeds left to give, and this is the person that the Prophet (ﷺ) said is al-muflis, a bankrupt human being, an oppressor who shows up, his good deeds are taken, then the sins of the one that he wronged will be put on his back.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us. Allahumma ameen. And so inni ureedu an tabu'a bi-ithmi wa-ithmik. Go ahead and extend your oppression. Go ahead and extend your evil.
You are not actually harming me. And this is the mindset that keeps a people going. This is the difference between a shaheed and someone who the Prophet (ﷺ)
said every single time someone commits an act of murder. How many years has it been since qabeel and habeel, since this immortalized conversation? We don't know. But let's just
say it's been at least several thousand years. Every murder that you see in Gaza, guess who's getting a share of the punishment in the grave? He is. Because the Prophet (ﷺ)
said every time someone spills blood, a part of that goes to the brother who spilled blood. Li-annahu awwalu man sanal qatl. Because he's the first one to start that trend, to
normalize that evil. Can you imagine? All the casualties of Gaza, he still gets a share of that punishment. All of the tyranny on earth, fir'aun gets a punishment because they're imitating fir'aun and their oppression and their tyranny. What does this mean for us?
There's a question that often gets asked, and I'm not going to address this question fully, which is do we deserve this? Do we deserve oppression for ourselves as a community?
And the answer for now is not always. But if it's been decreed for us, we make the most of it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised victory. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
not promised that each and every single one of us will live to see that victory on earth, and we have to be okay with that. We have to be able to come to terms with that fully.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised eventual victory in the full physical material sense of the word. But if we don't live to see it, alhamdulillah, we know it's still happening.
Allah azawajal never says, wa'adallahu ladheena aamanu alhazeema. Allah azawajal never says he promised the believers that they're going to be humiliated or that they're going to
be defeated. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that he has promised the believers that he will settle them on this earth, that he will give them victory. wal aqibatu lilmuttaqeen
Victory is for the believers in this life and the next. We already know whether it's in three years or it's in 30 years or it's in 100 years. We already know that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has promised victory. But the question that I want us to really reason with and reckon with for the purpose of this khutbah in concert with everything that we've been talking about,
what if we don't live to see that victory? What if it's never freed in our lifetime? What if we're still fighting the same battles 30, 40, 50 years from now?
Will that make you question Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now? Will that make you have doubts in your deen? Will that push you to a brink of faithlessness? Will that make you think,
okay, maybe they have a point? What if it doesn't happen in our lifetimes? What if we are martyred in the process or even spared in the process, but we don't live to see it?
What does it do to your faith? What does it do to your identity? What does it do to your existence? The answer should be nothing but good.
Because the affair of the believer is always khair, is always good. Nothing but good. Inna qatli shahada, they kill me, it's martyrdom. Alhamdulillah.
They deport me. It's a chance to contemplate Allah azawajal's existence out of these lands. Alhamdulillah. They imprison me. It's a chance of khalwa, to be secluded with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Alhamdulillah. Meaning, if victory in the material sense does not come in your lifetime, you're okay with that. You are fully at peace with that reality.
I didn't sign up for this because I want to be holding a banner in this life of victory. I signed up for this for the banner of the hereafter. I signed up for this to be in a certain category in the akhira.
That's the mindset we have to have. I didn't sign up for it. To sing and to dance and to feel the jubilation of joy in the physical sense.
If it was for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then you will incur it in its full experience for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, with a smile on your face. Alhamdulillah.
It doesn't take from my confidence in Allah's plan in any way. If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has decreed a personal path for me that is different. And what I want to come to dear brothers and sisters in that sense.
All of us want oppression removed. And that in and of itself is a noble goal. Oppression is so ugly in its bare manifest sense,
that to remove oppression is in and of itself a noble enough reason to push us. But why do you really want oppression removed? Why do you want to see Palestine free?
Why do you want to see Palestine win? Why do you want to see it? What do you want to see as a result of it? The American Muslim community, let's speak to our own little cut out here.
We want to see success for the American Muslim community. What does that mean to you? What does that even look like to you? What does victory look like to us?
There are very different perceptions of what victory actually means, of what success actually means. So you want oppression removed. Why?
Our Prophet (ﷺ) always taught us to attach a noble goal to a dua. And so when the Prophet (ﷺ) said on the night of Badr, اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ تُهْلِكْ هَذِهِ الْعِصَابَةَ فَلَنْ تُعْبَدَ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَبَدًا
Oh Allah, if you let this group of people be wiped out, then I'm afraid you won't be worshipped on earth. He didn't say, Oh Allah, I want revenge because you saw what they did to Khadija (رضي الله عنها).
You saw what they did to Sumayya (رضي الله عنها). And I want that same feeling of, no, none of that. Oh Allah, if this group of people is destroyed, I'm afraid you won't be worshipped on earth.
There is a noble goal that was attached to it. We see it in the duas of Ibrahim (عليه السلام). Every one of his duas. Ibrahim never makes a dua without attaching a reason to that dua. رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْنَا فِتْنَةً لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا
Oh Allah, don't make us a fitna for those who disbelieve. To where they think that their victory translates into truth being on their side. And not realizing that they are steeped in falsehood. We have a reason for our duas.
So when I ask you, why do you want your oppression removed? Why do we want oppression removed from this ummah? You need to gain some clarity there. On an individual level, why do I want it removed?
You need to gain some clarity in that regard. I want to say one more thing insha'Allah ta'ala in regards to specifically once again American Muslims. I get it, elections are around the corner. Once again, there is a lot of uncertainty. Once again, there is a lot of fear.
What could happen to American Muslims here? What could happen to American Muslims there? I'm not saying that none of that is valid. I'm actually not. You're a Muslim. I'm going to treat you that way. I'm going to talk to you that way.
I'm not saying that your concerns about what's going to happen next are invalid. It's okay to have a fear of the unknown, a fear of the uncertainty, and what comes next.
But what I want you to already put in your heart and your mind is that even if it's the worst case scenario for us as Muslims, Alhamdulillah, Allah will be offering us an opportunity to build character.
It's not always about winning at a poll booth or winning by raising your banner. Sometimes it's about winning through building clarity and building character under difficult circumstances.
Sometimes that's how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala generates the best version of ourselves here and the best reward for us there. Alhamdulillah. Let that part go. We need to strategize.
We need to keep fighting. We need to keep organizing. We need to keep doing this and keep doing that. Don't temper your efforts, but do temper your expectations. Alhamdulillah. I'm at ease.
I'm at peace. Because the shaytan that laughs in our faces today, we're going to have a whole eternity, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, looking at those people burn in the hellfire and laughing at them.
فَالْيَوْمَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ يَضْحَكُونَ عَلَى الْأَرَائِكِ يَنظُرُونَ You have a whole eternity to look at those tyrants, pay for what they have done.
But have you earned what you hope from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala remove from us oppression. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us victory. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be a part of that victory.
And should we not be a part of that victory in this life, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not deprive us of the full reward in the next life. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instill in us steadfastness and trust. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala plant our hearts and our feet firm with faith.
اللهم أمين أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله لي ولكم رسالة المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه الغفور الرحيم
الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن والاه اللهم اغفر للمؤمنين والمؤمنات والمسلمين والمسلمات الأحياء منهم والأموات إنك سميع قريب مجيب الدعوات اللهم اغفر لنا وارحمنا واعف عنا ولا تعذبنا
ربنا ظلمنا أنفسنا وإن لم تغفر لنا وترحمنا لنكونن من الخاسرين اللهم إنك عفو كريم تحب العفو فاعف عنا اللهم اغفر لوالدينا رب ارحمهما كما ربونا صغارا
ربنا هب لنا من أزواجنا وذرياتنا قرة أعين واجعلنا للمتقين إماما اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين في كل مكان اللهم انصر إخواننا المستضعفين والمجاهدين في مشارق الأرض ومغاربها
اللهم أعز الإسلام والمسلمين وأذل الشرك والمشركين ودمر أعداء الدين اللهم أهلك الظالمين بالظالمين وأخرجنا وإخواننا من بينهم سالمين عباد الله إن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي
يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على نعمائه يزدكم ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وأقم الصلاة
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