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How To Become An Indomitable Ummah
Dehumanization. Brutalization. Victim-blaming. From the IOF to police brutality, our oppression is undoubtedly connected and undoubtedly devastating.
But the outpouring of protests around the world uplift us like nothing else can. In the hundreds of thousands, in cities across the globe, people have been calling on the world to recognize and rectify the tragedy unfolding in Gaza and Palestine.
This collective courage moves mountains. Now is the moment to fulfill our duty as Muslims and stand for justice. Be bold and beneficial, helpful and thoughtful.
Because our ummah, united, will never be defeated.
For more ways on how you can help Palestine, read our blog How can I help Palestine?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us 1400 years ago that the ummah is like one body. That when one part of the body complains that the entire body reacts with sleeplessness and fever. And we're feeling that now more than ever before. But one of the good points is that that pain that we feel is a sign of our iman. It's a sign of our faith and it's a sign of our unity. And it's also a call to step up and act. Join us every night this week at 9.30 p.m. Where inshallah, that's eastern time, 8.30 central time. We'll do two things. We're going to collectively find solace in Allah ﷻ and His plan. And we're going to learn how to actively contribute to the betterment of our world. Join us. Ask your questions. Explore how our faith is the light in the darkness. That gives us the strength and the courage to face any situation. And today's conversation, I'm delighted to have two wonderful and esteemed guests with me. Sami Hamdi and Mikael Smith who need no introduction. Welcome to the program. So how we're going to do this tonight, we're going to break it up into kind of two sections. Where we're going to talk to each one of you individually for maybe 15 minutes. I've got some questions that I've prepared. But it's mostly going to be you taking the floor. Anybody who has questions, please leave them in the comments. We're going to be selecting questions. We'll have a brief Q&A, a break for a brief Q&A after each speaker is done. Then we'll come back all together and we'll do a larger Q&A after I add some commentary of my own. First, we'd like to direct – and the theme for tonight is towards an unbeatable ummah, right? Or an ummah that is indomitable or undefeated. Turning to Sheikh Mikael Smith, one of the things that I wanted you to maybe give some voice to was
what is a Muslim's duty to contribute to society? A lot of times we see these things and we have a very consumerist attitude towards them. The way that the media is structured, it's part of – we call it a live feed. It just is something that we consume like we're feeding off of it. Really, our dean asked us to do more. Could you speak perhaps to what is a Muslim's duty to contribute to the society around them? Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Alhamdulillah, it's an honor to be here and to be able to contribute some way to the struggles of our people. The prophet taught us to hate the evil, strive against it in whatever capacity we can. We are all trying our best to stop the evil that is around us in whatever way we can. So your question is a very interesting one. The question is what is the duty of the Muslim? What do we owe to society? What do we have to give back? And there's one prophetic narration that really speaks to me right now which is – it's a long narration but I'll just paraphrase it for the sake of time, which is the prophet ﷺ, he taught us that all of us are like this – all of humanity is like this group that's on this safina, this ship, and we're all on this journey together. We're all going to a destination together. And then the prophet ﷺ said just by the drawing of lots, some people are on a higher deck and some people are on a lower deck. Just by the lots that they drew, that's where they end up being. And so the people on the lower deck, every time they want to get water, they have to go through the upper deck to get water. And they have to inconvenience the people on the upper deck. And the prophet ﷺ said that at one point they kind of get worried that we keep inconveniencing these people. Why don't we just make a hole in the bottom of the ship? And this is where the metaphor gets extremely powerful
because it truly speaks about the responsibility we have in this moment all the time, but especially in this moment that we're in right now. The prophet ﷺ said that this group in the lower part of the deck, under the deck, they say, you know, why don't we just make a hole in the bottom of the ship so that we could just take water from the bottom? And it's a horrible idea, obviously. And they think it's a great idea, but they don't understand how detrimental this is to the entire society. They only see the benefit that it brings them, right? They only see what it brings them, not the entirety of our society. And I think this metaphor is so powerful. I think this metaphor is so powerful because the prophet said, if the people on the upper deck just leave the people on the lower deck to make this hole, if they allow them to cause corruption, to spread evil and do what's wrong, he says everyone's done in that case. And so Imam Tom, this hadith to me really speaks about our responsibility to society right now. We have to be those voices of truth speaking up and grabbing the hand. There's one more hadith that really comes to mind about our responsibility. And it's, The Rasul ﷺ, he said, help your brother, be he an oppressor or oppressed. And in that moment, the Sahaba, they were kind of like thrown off. And they said, Ya Rasulullah, we understand how to help an oppressed person, but how do we help? Notice the word help. And this is the key. How do we help the oppressor? And this goes to show the mentality that we have. The mentality is like we're removing something that's detrimental in our society. So the prophet ﷺ, he said, grab the hand of your brother.
This is how you help the oppressor by stopping them. And so right now as we lift our hands and we lift our voices and we speak, we are bringing khair to society. We are bringing good by trying our best to remove the evil that's going on. MashaAllah. Now that's extremely profound. And I think especially with the hadith of the boat, the Safina, it's countering the perception that Muslims are a fifth column or a threat to society. In fact, and we also ourselves, I think, have to be sensitive. We have to be sensitive to being sort of colonized by this mentality that we are trying to redeem and save it. Now it might not be on the terms that broader society imagined that they would be saved upon. But your default position of wanting good and having goodwill towards the people around you, what better thing could you give them than truth? And to show them the error of their ways and to take them out of the position of wronging themselves. How many times in the Quran does Allah describe the oppressors as people who wrong themselves? So I think that's immensely profound. Now when it comes to contributing, okay, there are certain obstacles. Actually, there are several obstacles, and those obstacles come from a multitude of directions. One of the obstacles that I hear on the ground is that some people, they have sort of a balkanized attitude towards the things that other people are suffering. So whenever a group of Muslims takes their turn, right, the sort of question that is asked is, well, why should I care about their issue when they didn't care about mine? So how do we respond to this type of attitude? I mean, subhanAllah, just the mentioning of it, it enrages you. It makes you so upset because at a time like now when the wahdaniyah of the ummah is needed more than ever, the unity, all voices focused on one thing,
this is not the time at all to focus on, well, my issue didn't get the – lives are at stake here. This isn't just talk. We don't have the privilege of debating what's the most important issue right now. That's not what's happening. At this point, the only focus is – and here's another thing. There's another thing, subhanAllah. وَلَا يَجْلِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَعَانُ قَوْمًا عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا Like never ever allow your emotion to take you from focusing on the haqq of a moment, of the justice of a moment. So there could be these different segments of our community that truly – and I feel the pain when their issue came up, maybe it didn't get the global response that this issue is getting. And I understand that, right? But don't let that take you away from the thing that God wants from you right now and what Allah ﷻ wants from us right now undoubtedly. There is not a Muslim on this planet, there isn't an imam, there isn't a sheikh, there isn't an activist, there isn't an analyst, there is no Muslim on this planet that doesn't agree for the most part that now is the time for us to all be together and now is the time for us to focus our voices on one issue right now and it is the massacre and the attempt of genocide of our Palestinian brothers and sisters. If not for that, for your love of Quds, for your love of the Rasul, of the Qur'an, and all of these things. So I understand imam, like definitely, subhanAllah, it is definitely, definitely, there are these moments where people say, okay, well my issue didn't get this focus. But for now, I ask the brothers and sisters, man, put that to the side. Put that to the side. Now is not the time for those things. We don't have the privilege of having these theoretical, what about isms, what about this, what about that. We don't have that privilege right now. Right now is raise your voice as loud as you can and let every person that you know, be they Muslim or not Muslim,
know that what is happening to our brothers in Palestine is wrong, is genocide, and we will not act like we did after September 11th and just be quiet. No, this is incorrect, and we have to speak up. And so I appreciate the question, and it's important that we get ahead of these conversations before they start to materialize. Yeah, definitely, and I appreciate your strong stance on that. And it also occurs to me that we have to break the cycle, right? Because if that's going to be everyone's mentality, right? It's kind of like a Kantian ethics thing, right? It's like if everybody were to have that attitude, then we'd be trapped in this sort of attitude forever, and we've got to break the cycle. Yes, we need to show up for all of our brothers and all of the sisters and all the situations that we face. And this is an opportunity to actually break out of that cycle and start thinking ummatically, start thinking as an ummah, thinking collectively and acting collectively. Yeah, go for it. The next issue and the next group takes their turn, then we're ready because we've already been thinking so collectively. Sorry, I had to cut you off. I love that. I love that. What you said, thinking ummatically, right? And breaking the cycle. There's a clear hadith where the Prophet was speaking about the wasil and the qatih. The wasil is the one that's joining the relationships, and the qatih is the one that's breaking it. And he teaches a very important rule, which is it's not enough to only be fighting for people's causes, helping people, reaching out to people when they're reaching out to you. No, the true Muslim, because we're doing it for the sake of Allah, the true Muslim, even if you didn't show up to my cause, I'm showing up to your cause because it's not about you. It's about what I'm doing for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? And that's where we got to dig deep right now and realize that there's one focus right now, man, one focus, one focus. Yeah, and that takes a tremendous amount of spiritual maturity and sincerity.
SubhanAllah may Allah grant us that. Switching gears a little bit, many people have likened this scenario that's unfolding in Philistine to a David and Goliath situation or to a Musa-Firaon situation. I know many people have talked about how many lessons there are from the story of Musa alayhi salam and the showdown he had with Firaon. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that or reflections that you could benefit us with. Yeah, bismillah walhamdulillah. I mean, listen, brothers and sisters, you know, I was at a rally yesterday. Sheikh Umar al-Sulaiman was there. The whole Dallas came out. Around the world, people are coming out. We are not just talking. We aren't only making dua, right? We are also lifting our voices as we lift our hands is the slogan I'm using for it. We lift our voices and we lift our hands. And with that said, I think what we all need to realize though, every Muslim listening to me right now needs to realize something really deep in your heart. We always have to turn back to the Quran and the sunnah to give us our guidance in these moments. We have to, we have to, we have to. We cannot – this is the time when we need that the most, right? This is the time when we should be most connected to the kitab of Allah and the sunnah of our Habib. And so, you know, Imam Tom, there was one, there's one moment in the story of Moses. I think the entire story speaks so much about what we're watching right now. And so if I could just share one thing, and the reason I'm sharing this, I want you to understand. When the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam was making hijrah, I'm going to go into this narration, but hear me out. When the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was making hijrah, Suraqah was chasing the Prophet. He wasn't Muslim at the time. He was chasing, he was chasing the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam.
And he says that, I was behind him, and I was many, many, many yards behind him. And I saw two people, and I saw this one person who kept looking back at me, right? And then another person who was just walking straight. And then he says, as he got closer, he says, the person looking back, he kept looking, checking to see how close I am. And the other person just kept, but he says, as I got closer, I could hear the person in the front walking straight was just reciting Quran. And he tells us later that it was the Rasul salallahu alayhi wasalam that was just walking, reciting. And the one looking back was Abu Bakr. This is profound. It is so powerful because there's a bounty after his head. There's a, there's a killer after him. But that Quran, Allahumma ja'al Quran rabee'a quloobina like, make it the thing that guides us, Ya Rabb. So with that said, let's look at one moment from the Moses Pharaoh story that I think we can gain insight from. And here's one more thing, Imam Tom, forgive me for my digressions. Oh no, we're enjoying it, yeah. Here's another thing. The beautiful thing is that when you read about it and realize this isn't the first time it's happening, you're like, man, this ain't my first rodeo. I'm from Texas. You know, this ain't my first rodeo. So when we read about it in the Quran and you're like, SubhanAllah. Allah already told us this. He's already showed us this. And so let's get into this, SubhanAllah. Wa qaalil mal'u min qawmi fir'awn atathiru moosa wa qawmahu liyufsidu fil'ad wayadharaka wa alihatak Crazy verse, Surah A'raf, verse number 127. The councilmen of Pharaoh, they say to Pharaoh, atathiru moosa. Moses is trying to leave with his people. He's trying to liberate his people.
He's trying to liberate his people, SubhanAllah. And what does the councilmen say? They say, are you gonna leave Moses and his people to sow corruption in the land? First point we gotta understand is what they called corruption, we called liberation. Yeah. Moses was sent only to liberate Bani Israel, only to bring them out of that oppression. But from the vantage point of Malak, yufsid fil'ad. Man, if your fasaad fil'ardi is my liberation, I'm causing corruption all day. That's right, yeah. If your fasaad is my liberation, then I guess we got issues. liyufsid fil'ad So first thing, that spinning of it, making it seem to be fasaad, making it, spinning it to be other than liberation, that alone right there, it's not the first time. And to me, when I read those verses, you know, my heart smiled. Ya Rabb, alhamdulillah. And then the verses go forward. qalasan nuqattilu abana'ahum wa nastahyi nisa'ahum I mean, he was better than what people are doing now, naudhu billah. He said, I'll keep their sons alive, and I'll slaughter their sons, and I'll keep their daughters alive. And now here's the key. wa inna fawqahum qahirun Look what Pharaoh said. Indeed, we have power over them. Here's the problem. The Muslim is amazing. ajiban li amril mu'min You know why the Muslim is amazing? When the Muslim is the subject of oppression, he realizes that the one above him doesn't have true power because there's one above him. And when the believer is the one in power, we never oppress. Why? Because we remember the one above us that has power. So no matter where we are,
qahar is qahar. And in this moment right now, and it's hard to talk about, but right now, there are brothers and sisters of ours looking up, but we don't realize they're looking above the planes to Allah. They're looking above the planes. The planes above? They're looking above. Right? SubhanAllah. qala moosa li qawmi Moses is speaking to me and you through the Prophet ﷺ through decades of, centuries of revelation. He's speaking to you. He says, ya qawmi, istaeenu billahi wasbiru Seek help from God, guys. And I'm saying this after all of us, guys. All of us have been at rallies. We've been posting. We've been sharing. We've been sending money. We've been doing what we can. But on top of that, if you lose your spiritual connection, you've unplugged everything from the source of all guidance. He says, istaeenu billahi wasbiru Look at the next words. innal adhalillah yurithuha mayyashaa min ibadi wal aqeeba Look, the earth belongs to God. He'll give it to who He pleases. Like all of this, subhanAllah, the verses speak so powerful. So, you know, I just thought these verses right here, Surah A'raf, I want our audience to remember we are being active. We are doing what we can. We are getting the most accurate and detailed analysis from our ustaz here and other experts. We have political activists who are leading us, but our spiritual connection, when they describe sahaba, fursanan bin nahar But at night time, the ruhani connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So, I just want us to get connection by understanding Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has already told us about this and we must stay connected to the kitab of Allah while we stay active
trying to bring change in the world. Allah Akbar. MashaAllah. I mean, those are very profound reflections. Thank you so much for offering them up and sharing them with us. Really, you couldn't ask for a better segue to our segment with Sami. Yes, please. Because I think we are going to take a few questions first just to give some air to the program. But, you know, so many things to touch on and Sami can keep them in mind as we go forward. The first is language games. If you are in the battle of discourse, it is all about language games. What you call a thing, it might win or lose the battle. So, we are talking about is it, you know, what is occupying, what is terrorism, what is this, what is that, right? Everything that we call something and obviously we know that the opposition is extremely crafty in how they wield the language to set them up to win the debate. And I was on a local radio talk show this morning and that is the first battle that you have to win. You have to win the language battle. So, making sure that we understand what that language battle is. And then having all of our activism and all of our actions tie back to our sincerity and our devotion and our worship. That is the key. And there is no success without the success of Allah ﷻ. That is also another thing that I had already written out to get into with Sami. But let's take just a quick break for some questions before we get into that. Iman A. asks, What do we do in the West? Are we betraying our brothers and sisters? I'm guessing that the implication is here that because due to virtue of the fact that we're in the West, I'm sharing content and making du'a as much as I can. Is this enough? And that's for either of you. If either of you would like to field that. Yeah, the Prophet ﷺ in many narrations, he would try, he would give his best effort and he would say, Ya Allah, this is my juhud. This is my juhud. This is my juhud. Do everything you can. Do everything you can.
I'd love to hear from Ustaz Sami here. Inshallah, he could share some light on some practical tips. I think some of our activists have been organizing the rallies. I think the rallies, Wallahu alam, I was speaking to some of the people. We see some change coming and I was listening to Sami. He'll enlighten us, inshallah. But please, please follow. BarakAllahu feekum. I think, first of all, thank you for having me and thank you. And it's great to see friendly faces, inshallah, and faces that I watch on YouTube during Ramadan, inshallah. I think one of the things that, to answer the question directly, I think it's better to have the Israeli defense minister, the former Israeli defense minister answer this question. In 2021, when the Israelis were bombarding Gaza, when they went in, when they were saying that this was a terrorist threat, when they were mobilizing their million-dollar PR industry to try to really paint the Palestinians as animals and to assert that their bombing of Gaza, their destruction, the slaughter and the like was justified, Benny Gantz hit a problem. And what he did was he summoned the directors of Facebook, TikTok and Instagram to an emergency meeting. The meeting was held very quickly, within 24 hours, and he ordered or he commanded or he asked them and he pleaded with them to take down hashtag Palestine, to take down Palestinian content. The Israeli defense minister, who oversees all of the mobilization, who has the PR under his command, was asking the social media platforms in which ordinary people, ordinary Muslims were posting, he was telling them, guys, as part of this effort, it is breaking our control of the narrative, breaking our control of the monopoly. We are telling you to take this content down. And this is why when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ says, say convey something from me, even if it's just an ayah, because he knew the value of what conveying even an ayah can make. When the Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ says, he who sees something that is wrong, let him change it with his hand. And if he cannot with his hand, let him change it with his tongue. And if he cannot with his tongue, let him condemn it in his heart. And that's the weakest of faith. Already, sister Iman, you're in the second category. You're not in the lowest. You're already in that second category. You're already in an elevated status when you are sharing that content and pushing and the like. And you pushing it, not somebody who's got thousands of followers. You as the individual, you with your Twitter account or x account, you with your Facebook or Instagram or the like, you're the reason Benny Gantz summons TikTok, Facebook and Instagram to tell them to take down content. And you're the reason that the European Union, some of the officials who are sympathetic to Israel are trying to push a motion to reimpose restrictions that some of the social media have lifted because they believe that they are losing the narrative war. And one of the reasons, and I'll make a very bold claim because based on my analysis in terms of the politics, the reason there hasn't been a ground invasion yet is because the Israelis are concerned that the narrative is not yet in their favor, that everybody in the world has seen the destruction, the damar that they've done. And that because of protest in London, in Chicago, in Canada, in Bangladesh, in Pakistan, in Rome, in Berlin, in Paris, in all of these capitals where protests were not supposed to take place, there's a deep concern that the public opinion is overwhelmingly against Israel. And that's why they're very worried that if they go in with a ground invasion as it stands, if they go in with a ground invasion and you sister Iman and everybody here at Yaqeen Institute and everybody else making the efforts, if they go in with a ground invasion and these people and yourself are showing the
world that Palestinians are human, not the animals that Israel has been insisting for so many decades with this monopoly of the narrative, then they will permanently lose global opinion. And that's why the US Secretary of State Blinken, when he went to Tel Aviv to show support, his intention was to go to Tel Aviv and come straight back to Washington. But in Tel Aviv, he announced he would launch a regional tour. And if you open Washington Post, today's article, I don't have a time difference, so I'm not sure what's today and tomorrow. But if you open the Washington Post article, you'll see Blinken pleads with US allies in the Gulf to rein in the public backlash, to rein in the public opinion. He asked the regimes to help him to get you, sister Iman, to stop publishing the content, to stop talking about the Palestinians, to stop raising awareness, to stop doing what for the first time since 1948, convince the neutral, convince the one who was on the fence that this Palestinian is human and that he has legitimate cause. And that's why I think sometimes Muslims undermine their agency, they undermine the power that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given them. Allah, even amongst the prophets, that we elevated them in terms of status, some prophets convinced their populations and Allah gave them success, such as the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Some of them were promised success but never saw it, such as Ibrahim ﷺ, when he was told your progeny would be like the stars. Some prophets, they saw their people destroyed, Saleh ﷺ, Hud and these others, Shuaib and the like. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala delivers success as he wishes, when he wishes, in his own span, whatever he wants, Allah does. But the striving is odd. One thing that I always strike, and I know I've gone on in terms of the answer to the question, but I really want to emphasize this point. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an, when I was younger, this ayah used
to always strike me, it used to hurt my head a bit. وَمَنْ أَرَادَ الْجَنَّةَ وَسَعَلَهَا سَعْيَهَا وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَكَانَ سَعْيُهُ مَشْكُورًا Allah didn't say, وَكَانَتِ النَّتِيجَ مَشْكُورًا وَكَانَتِ التَّحْقِيقَ مَشْكُورًا Allah says, وَكَانَ سَعْيُهُ مَشْكُورًا Allah doesn't say that the result is rewarded. He says the striving is rewarded. He who strives for Jannah and is a mu'min, Allah says the striving is thanked. Because Allah is saying, it's not you to decide whether you succeed or not. It's not you to decide what the outcome should be. It's not you to decide what course should be taken. Your decision is whether you want to strive for it. Your decision is if you want to take the steps within the powers that are available to you in order to achieve what you believe to be just and right. And you hope that Allah will guide you on that path where if you're veering, He guides you back to the path. And that's why to answer the question bluntly, and I'll wrap it up with this. You're asking yourself, what can we do? I feel like I'm betraying or the like. But, وَاللَّهِ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّهُ Blinken and Netanyahu sit together in a war room trying to find a strategy to get you, sister Iman, to be quiet. They are trying to find a strategy to make sure that not Samuel Hamdi or Imam Tom Fatin or Mikhail or Smith or these others to get them to be quiet. It's not about the big accounts. It's about the small ones like you. Because the more you retweet and share, the more the algorithm favors your post. When the algorithm favors your post, it goes higher on the homepage. When it goes higher on the homepage, more and more people see it. And one of the things that I found quite fascinating, there is a very prominent analyst that he's often believed to be the father of the political risk industry that I work in. A guy called Ian Bremmer, prominent political analyst in the U.S. Ian Bremmer posted on Twitter and he said,
I've never seen the levels of disinformation in my life regarding this conflict. What he means is I've never seen so much pro-Palestinian content get onto my feed from the algorithm. I'm used to the sanitized version. I'm used to the pro-Israeli narrative. And I am stunned and shocked that the Palestinian voice has broken through. And wallahi allathee, la ilaha illa hu. It has broken through because of people like you, sister Iman, because of the ordinary Muslim who sits on his phone and says, ya Allah, I want to use the powers that you gave me to make a difference. I fear that I am weak, but I am striving. I am striving within what I have. And Allah is rewarding that striving. And he is thanking that striving. And everybody can see that the occupier and colonizer is losing the war on narratives. That's why they had to spread fake news about atrocities that were committed despite never giving proof. Consider this. We are being told by the Israelis what is happening, but being shown by the Palestinians what is happening. The reason being is the Israelis have nothing to show about what is happening that will prove their accusations. But the Palestinians have all the evidence in order to show and proliferate on social media. And that's why I think that the reality is that when I'm looking at things unfolding, I'll be honest with you. I'm speaking from London. I know you guys are in the US. But it's unprecedented the loudness with which the ummah is roaring. It's unprecedented to see so many thousands of people across the world take to the streets and have everybody see that they are taking to the streets as well. It's unprecedented so much so. And that's why when you look at mainstream media itself, they're using the word unprecedented. But the reason they're using the word unprecedented
is because they've never seen a phenomenon of the ummah moving as one body. It was supposed to be divided. It was supposed to be weak. And now it's like a roaring, irresistible wave. So much so that CNN has had to apologize for its coverage. BBC has had to apologize for its coverage. Journalists peddling fake news have had to come out and try to rescue their integrity by admitting that they fell far short of journalistic standards. And the reason they did that is not because they were scared of the Israelis. Israelis contradicted them. They weren't scared of the Americans. Biden is openly supporting the Israelis. They weren't scared of the Europeans. It's you. It's the pressure you put. It's the loudness that you roared with. It's you who kept going on their back, demanding the proof, demanding the evidence, undermining the reputation, really going through and analyzing, investigating, using social media in an unprecedented way that they're using the word sorry. It's not even an ambiguous apology. They're saying we apologize and we're sorry and we should have done well. And that's because of you who were told that you had no power, you who were told that you were insignificant. That's why and I go back to the first point, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he does not speak from emptiness to the light. He is somebody who Allah has revealed to. So when he says, he's saying that even the most basic individual, if you have no power, convey even an ayah from you for it will make a difference. And that's why I think to answer your question directly, sister Iman, and also to address some of the points that I had hoped to address in what Imam Tom was going to ask, it's this point. The unique thing about everything that's unfolding before us is the fact that the overwhelming force and battle is not being fought by the politicians, it's by us. When Saudi Arabia, which has been removing the word colonizer
from its official statements because it's been pursuing normalization of ties with Israel, when it goes back to calling Israel a colonizer, when the Saudi Crown Prince lifts the restrictions in the Haram with regards to Palestine, you will have noticed some Imams have been taken off their minbar and the like for criticism of these policies. When he lifts that, it's not because he's changed his mind over normalization, it's because the overwhelming public opinion is making him hesitate and making him believe I don't want to be caught on the wrong side of this public opinion. When the UAE comes out with a statement blaming the Palestinians after Blinken, Secretary of State, has called them and said to them, please give me a positive statement. When the UAE then announces aid to Palestine afterwards, after the backlash, that's because of public opinion. You are making a difference, Sister Iman. Everyone listening to this stream is making a difference, everyone sharing it, retweeting it, everyone sharing content, retweeting content, everyone amplifying the voices of Palestinians, amplifying the voices of the activists, amplifying the voices. All of this is making a huge difference and that's why I think in terms of tangible, some people might say, okay, fine, it's higher on the algorithm. I truly believe the ground offensive hasn't happened because the narrative is not yet in favour of the Israelis because they lost their grip in it. I believe that Blinken travelled all those hours from Washington to Tel Aviv and the regional powers because the public opinion is not ripe and he's desperate for it to be changed. When Sisi met with Blinken, whatever your opinions about him, Sisi put the cameras on and lambasted Blinken with a lecture, telling him you came here and you said you're a Jew. We've never oppressed the Jews in this region, rebuking him in public. It may well have been a political stunt but it shows you that public opinion is in such a level
that the leaders of the region do not want to be seen to be against the Palestinians. They don't want to be seen to be aiding the oppressor. They don't believe that there is any political expediency in setting aside the public opinion as they're used to doing in favour of the occupier and that's because we are conveying because we are retweeting, because we are sharing, because we are shouting, because we are being loud, because we are mobilising, because they are seeing that when you guys did the stream with Owaimir Anjum and Omar Suleiman, may Allah reward them both, within one day it got to 230k, 240k. They're seeing these numbers and I know because I was hoping and thinking Muslim podcasts would reach the same levels inshallah. But the point here being is they're seeing those numbers and they are saying you know what, something here bad is happening. In London, only 10,000 were supposed to take to the streets. The police were ready for 10,000. More than 50,000 marched through the streets of London, causing a panic that even the politicians had to respond to. When you look around the world that despite France trying to ban pro-Palestinian protests, their protests still took place. When you look at Rome, they deployed the police to push the protesters back. More protesters came out because there's an irresistible wave and that's why the EU itself, Spain has come out and said with the EU, Von der Leyen does not represent our position. We don't support Israel unconditionally. Von der Leyen put the Israeli flag on the European Parliament, the head of the European Commission. The European foreign minister, Joseph Borrell, told the press conference she has no right to do that. She has no right to speak on behalf of the EU. We decide foreign policy, not her. When there's a spillover of differences, that means that the divisions internally are so great and so fierce that they spilled over into the public. In other words, even the EU itself, as a result of the
public opinion, as a result of what we're doing, they are tripping over themselves and contradicting one another with regards to the stances that they are taking. So the question here is this, Iman, your sister, Iman's question implies that I feel a set of weakness, but the Israelis are feeling your overwhelming power. The EU is feeling your overwhelming power. Blinken is feeling your overwhelming power. Bin Salman is feeling your overwhelming power. Bin Zayed is feeling your overwhelming power. Erdogan is feeling your overwhelming power. All of these governments are feeling the overwhelming power of the public opinion and that's why, and I'll finish on this point, the greatest tragedy of this Ummah is not that it's weak, but that it believes it's weak when everybody else believes it's strong. The greatest tragedy of this Ummah is that it believes it doesn't have strength when the world still sees that it has strength and that strength needs to be contained. I think it all boils down to this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will decide the outcome as he always has, in his own way, when he wants, in his own terms. The question that we ask ourselves and that sister Iman is asking, a very poignant question and one that all of us are trying to fulfill here is, given that we have the choice in striving, how are we choosing to strive? And because this Ummah chose to strive over this past week, because it chose to strive to break Israel's monopoly on the narrative, to break the occupier's monopoly on the narrative, we are seeing a resounding success in it and I promise you, no matter what the outcome of what happens, even though it's heartbreaking what's watching unfold in Gaza, Bloomberg's front page two days ago was the fallacy that Israel can normalize with the Arabs without talking to the Palestinians has been blown apart. The Palestinians can no longer be ignored, the cause is no longer dead, the Palestinians are no longer a dying breed,
instead the cause is roaring. Last week we were looking at Netanyahu raising a map at the UN in which he erased Palestine completely and then telling the people that normalization with Saudi would be the greatest deal since the end of the Cold War. Today if I ask you, last week you felt despair about the cause, today everybody around the world, every policymaker in Europe, they're sitting with each other and saying we told you so. There are officials turning around and saying we follow the Americans but here look the Palestinians are here. The Spanish minister has come out and said Netanyahu should be brought between an international criminal court and we ask EU partners. You can see that it's not just the Muslims denouncing it, it's non-Muslims who have been affected by your push in this war of narratives and we are winning it and that will have sweeping ramifications for how any peace deal or de-escalation comes about. The reality is this, and I promise to finish on this point, the reality is this, the reason Netanyahu is bombarding Gaza is not about bombarding Gaza itself, it's not because he wants to bombard Gaza itself, but because he's in a hysterical panic that last week he was telling the world the Palestinian cause is dead and now the world is saying that it's alive. He's trying to pound the spirit and eliminate this roaring spirit that people are saying the Palestinians are alive and that's why the Gazans are saying we're not leaving because they recognize that they scored a body blow on Netanyahu. They know Netanyahu is lashing out and that no matter how much he lashes out, he can't wipe away the humiliation, he can't wipe away the damage that the Palestinians have done, the moral damage that they've done. The idea being that these Palestinians who were supposed to be weak, who were supposed to have been abandoned, who were supposed to no longer have agency, have delivered the greatest body blow to Israel's image since 1948. When Netanyahu is attacking Gaza, our hearts are breaking at the death toll and the way the buildings are being
damaged, but I promise you Netanyahu is not doing it from a position of strength. He's doing it because this Ummah has done something that has the potential now to change the entire course of what's taking place and I'll finish on this example. In 1945, the French were celebrating their liberation from Germany after World War II and they were writing a charter, every man is born free and the like in the UN charter and the like and then the Algerians took to the streets believing mashallah these guys are writing a lovely charter, every man is free, we want independence as well. According to the French declassified documents, they said that the number of Algerians coming out, it will threaten us, we're already struggling in Indochina so we need to batter these Muslims, we need to batter these Algerians, we need to massacre them, we need to deliver on their molasses so that they will never take to the streets again and they will never challenge us. In one week they killed over 30,000, the French said they killed 12,000, the Algerians say they killed 50,000, I've gone for the middle number, 30,000, let's try to avoid the exaggerations. And they were convinced that after they massacred them, in the same way they talk about Palestine, that the cause is dead, they will never take to the streets again, they will never come out again, their dreams for liberation are finished. Brothers and sisters, 17 years later, 17 years later, 132 years of French occupation colonization was finished, and the Algerians took to the streets and they said, Ya Muhammad mabrook alayik, Ya Muhammad, Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, mabrook alayik, al jazair rajhat lik, Algeria has been returned to you, innama al usri yusra, after hardship comes ease, Allah is the one who knows, I have faith, my relationship with Allah is a positive one, Allah knows what he's doing, Allah is all aware, for those who are sad about the deaths as well, remember there was
a lovely picture I saw on Facebook, of they show the ghost of a baby girl, put her hand around her father who's alive, and she says, Ya Abi la tahzan, I'm happy where I am, I'm happy where I am, I'm happy with what Allah has given me, I'm happy, la tahzan, wa la tahzaban ladheena qutiloo fee sabeelillahi amwatah, bal ahyaa'un inda rabbihim yurzaqun, fariheen, they are happy, fariheen bima aataahum wallahu min fadlih, wa yastabshiroon ladheena lam yalhagoobihim, they are telling people like us, who haven't met them yet, they're telling people like us, alla khawfun alayhim wallahum yahzanoon, they are not feeling any fear or sadness, yastabshiroon binimatim minallahi wa fadlih lam yamsashum suhooh, they are saying that the nimah and barakah Allah has given us, is such that do not be sad for us, we think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has abandoned the ummah, he's rewarded the shuhada, he's rewarded them immediately, there's no limbo, he's rewarded them, the question is for us, I know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows what he's doing in his hikmah and his wisdom, the question yes is the iman and everybody here is, what do we do within the powers Allah has given us and I swear to you, la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah, I swear by Allah that Israel is pleading with social media to take your post down, that the Israeli allies and European Union are pleading to have your post down and if it didn't have power, they would never take their time to do that, if it didn't have power, they wouldn't dedicate so much to it and I think that it's because of people like you sister Iman, final sentence, that the Israeli ground invasion has not happened yet because they're concerned that the narrative is not in their favour, ya ibadallah, balighu an sayyidina muhammad
walaw ayah, say something about the Prophet ﷺ, even if it's just an ayah because we are changing the global opinion and I'm telling you from what I've seen in my lifetime and even what the elders are telling us, this is unprecedented, the shift is unprecedented, human rights watch is now calling the Israeli regime an apartheid regime, it never used to, amnesty is calling Israel an apartheid regime, it never used to, apartheid is being used on the congress floor, it never was used on the congress floor before, these are victories that we should appreciate, these are victories that we should celebrate because they're not victories that have come from top down, they're victories that have come from the ummah mobilising and the ummah saying we will never die, that we are ready to mobilise for the sake of the ummah and I will finish and I promise this is the final sentence, what I love more than anything else is what this cause has shown is, the ummah from Malaysia, Australia, all the way to the US because I'm going to say that we in London are in the middle, not you Americans, we're not going to go east, we'll go west, we'll come via London inshaAllah and I hope to host all of you in London inshaAllah, but the point is from Australia all the way to the Americas, I remember I had a comment in the Thinking Muslim podcast and somebody said we are upset that you didn't mention Colombia, Colombia is standing with the Palestinians, they've kicked out the Israeli ambassador, they were telling me Sammy don't forget there are people in Colombia standing with the Palestinians as well, Peter, Latin America is standing as well, Allah is changing the hearts and they are terrified that the hearts are changing and the reason they are changing is because of our efforts, may Allah reward us for our efforts and may He give us the tabbaat, may He give us that heart, that steadfastness, not only to continue doing it but also to appreciate the power Allah has given us, however small you might think it is, it is great, I'll leave it there and barakAllah for you.
I know I speak for everybody when I thank the questioner for enabling us to hear the response inshaAllah, and I know we have some footage actually from some of this turnout, this unprecedented wave of ummatic solidarity and feeling and thinking and action, if we could go to that and play that. This is unprecedented, this is unprecedented, only 10,000 were supposed to turn up, the numbers suggest more than 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 turned up, on LBC which has been very pro-Israel in its narrative, the reporter said there's at least more than 30,000 here, this is an ummah whose hearts are alive, so when people say that it looks bleak or the ummah is weak, this is an ummah that believes it's strong, look at the hearts, this is my home here mashaAllah, the energy was amazing, everyone's focus on one thing, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, so Sami, we've got to keep you talking, because we benefit so much, I want to have everybody feel the inspiration of the moment, and start to think ahead, because we know that the opposition is strong and cunning, so there's two things that I want to touch on, one of them is, okay, what should we be doing to further build our capacity,
what should we be doing to further organise and amplify this moment, so that we don't lose an opportunity, and then after that we'll get to obstacles and barriers and things like that that we need to look out for, but is there something where we can be amplifying these things that we're already doing or building capacity even further? The first thing that's worth noting is don't underrate any particular avenue, if it is pressure on your elected representatives, here in the UK for example, a lot of the MPs are under heavy pressure, we're seeing resignations from some of the established parties because they're terrified they might lose their seats in the next elections, letting your representatives know that this is a serious issue. The second thing is, and one thing that I admire about this ummah on social media is how it reacts very quickly, they are shutting down hashtags, new hashtags are emerging, they are shutting down keywords and now they are changing the way the keywords are happening. Being able, being up to date in terms of what's happening, because it sounds simple but it breaks the lock that they're trying to impose in terms of how they're spreading the message. The third is to keep yourself aware, to study the history and be aware in terms of how to communicate that. One of the things that's worth noting, there is a tendency sometimes for Muslims to believe that this is a civilisational struggle, the idea of Islam versus the rest, but it's also worth noting that this is justice versus oppression and I think that element, that framework produces very different consequences when it's presented. When you argue that it's justice versus oppression, you win over allies, you win over the neutrals, you win over those who sympathise, you tell them that Islam is synonymous with justice, that Islam is synonymous with everything that is against oppression and injustice and that allows them to buy into the vision and help to amplify what we're trying to do in terms of to try to promote the correct narrative, the correct history of what's taking place in Palestine. Some people will say, what are you talking about, what does that mean? What I mean is, is that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ قَوْلًا مِّمَّا دَعَى إِلَى اللَّهِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا وَقَالَ إِنَّنِي مِّنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ that the best call is the one who calls to Allah, he calls to Allah by the justice. In other words, this isn't a war on Muslims as Lindsey Graham is trying to assert, this is a war on justice. This is about, there was a really interesting tweet that people will like by somebody called Muhammad Zia Hammam, he's a Tunisian analyst. He said, when you look at the statement by US, UK, Italy, Germany, and France, and they're standing by Israel firmly, he said, these are three of the most brutal colonial empires of the past hundred years. And two countries with the greatest history of fascism, the idea being knowing your history so you can debunk in that you're aware when you're responding to people, you're saying these are not the ones who identify the criteria of what's right or wrong. We also have a legitimate state to it. In practical terms, what that means is this, you've seen the pictures of the protests, the pictures of the rallies on the streets, you've seen how it moves the hearts, you've seen the Malaysians jumping up and down. Don't underestimate your presence at these gatherings. Don't underestimate your presence at these protests. It may well be that your government doesn't react. It may well be that your local constituency or county doesn't react. But everybody else around the world, like Samil Hamdi, they see it. They get inspired by it. It makes them get out of bed and say, you know what, things are bleak. If Imam Tom and Imam Mikhail are doing it on the other side of the world, I'm going to get up off my bed at 3am in the morning. I'm going to join them on a stream because I want to do my part as well. When the Malaysians see it, they say, subhanAllah, all the way in America, born and raised, and they're raising a flag for Palestine. I'm going to do it as well. Do not underestimate the power of encouraging one another with deeds, the power of encouraging one another. And also don't underestimate who is seeing your action. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sees it and he has the ability to amplify it. Think about it this way. Allah in the Qur'an says,
وَمِنَ الَّيْلِ فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ نَافِلَةً لَكَ عَسَاءَ يَبْعَثَكَ رَبُّكَ مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا In the nighttime, do the tahajjud, for Allah may elevate you in status. The implication here is elevate you in status in this world. So a private act elevates you in public, a personal act between you and Allah elevates you in the eyes of the people, which shows that Allah is capable of elevating a simple act that you believe to be simple. You may think that going around and talking to people and telling them about Palestine is a simple act, but in Allah, it's great because you've seen the videos go viral. All it takes is for one video. Many of you will have seen that DeSantis, I think his name is the rival for Trump, the Republican candidate. He was in a superstore and there is an American citizen, yeah, brothers and sisters, non-Muslim citizen in the supermarket saying to him that in my life, I've always supported Israel, but I've been following Al-Jazeera, I can't do the accent or the like, and I've seen that I've seen what they're actually doing and I can no longer support this. We're breaking the fourth wall. We're breaking that barrier. And that video alone, that viral video, there were probably only 20 people present in that supermarket. More than 1 billion people around the world saw it. And when I saw it, to give you the impact of it, when I saw 20 people in a supermarket talking like that, that makes, that reinforces the idea that they're losing their grip on the narrative. And that gives that rooh back, you know, it gives that morale back into the body. When you started Imam Tom and you started with the lovely saying that the ummah is one body, the reason why it's one body is because if I'm cold on the left hand and my right hand is warm, I feel that warmth and it starts coursing through my body. And the warmth of that hand can come from anywhere. It can come from Dallas, Texas, it can come from London, it can come from Paris, it can come from Berlin. And also, there was a video of a Gazan journalist, Maha Hosseini, I think her name is, and her
phone battery is about to die because the Israelis have cut the electricity hoping that nobody will be able to see the potential ethnic cleansing. And she says, this is my last message, don't stop shouting, don't stop talking about Palestine. Shout on our behalf, talk on our behalf, raise our voice. Because they, when they see our voices being raised, they take hope and encouragement. They say the ummah is mobilizing on our behalf. And this ummah mobilizing has tempered the worst of what we've seen. I know that sounds extraordinary given what's happened in Gaza, but we have tempered the worst of what could happen. There are other things they could be doing, but we're keeping the schools alive first, the Palestinians are, and then us in terms of what we're doing. Don't underestimate that. Pressure your congressmen and women, pressure your local representatives, bombard them with letters, bombard them with emails, pressure your imams, let them use their khutbah for taw'iyah, to raise awareness in terms of what's happening. When there are opportunities to take to the streets peacefully, because we don't need violence to spread our message. Take to the streets in numbers so that I in London can see it here, and we Muslims here say no, we won't let the Americans outdo us, we will hold our own protest here. And then the French reply and say, we will defy Macron's ban, we'll take to the streets as well. Until the European Union as a result, they have a meeting and they say guys, we are importing the conflict to our countries, we don't want to import this conflict, Israel, Netanyahu, that's enough, that's enough. The price that we're going to pay is too much. Stop your ground offensive, de-escalate, exchange the hostages and get the Palestinians out of this mess that they've done. It all links, it's like a snowball, and that's why I think that a lot of the issue, and you hit the nail on the head, in terms of what we're doing, the reason why it differs for everybody is that Allah has given everybody a special set of skills, and I'm not quoting the Taken movie, I'm saying it generally, Allah has given everybody a certain set of skills. There are people like you Imam Tom and Imam Mika'il who have a minbar to talk to the people.
There are people who all they can do is retweet and share, that's significant. There are people who have the ear of the policy makers, there are people who have the ear of the commercial companies, there are people who have the ear of armies. Everybody has a certain set of powers, and the question is not what can we do collectively, because collectively raising awareness, it's what you can do within the powers Allah has given you in the Muslim ecosystem. Sister Iman is pushing the post in the algorithm by liking and retweeting, you're raising awareness on Yaqeen Institute. I'm trying to tell political clients that it's untenable to continue as they are, and that they have to acknowledge that the Israelis are on the verge of causing the biggest calamity to their cause since 1948. Everybody is doing what they can, and collectively Allah is bringing our efforts together. Imam Tom, if you told me yesterday that I would be sitting here with you on a panel discussing this issue, I wouldn't have thought about it. I thought, well maybe next day if I go to the US, I'll go and see him. Allah has brought our efforts which were in parallel, and we found our paths crossing on this particular aim. Neither of us planned it, but Allah is the one who is piecing it all together. You don't need to know how you're going to piece it together, Allah will do that. What you need to do is strive with what you can do. Everybody has an email, everybody can send a message, everybody can go to a protest, everybody can raise awareness, you can do all of that. What's preventing you from doing it, not you specifically brothers who are with me, but the ones who are listening, what's preventing you from doing it is your faith in your ability to bring change. The reason I brought the ayah about tahajjud, how when you do a private act, Allah elevates you publicly. If that's a private act, imagine what Allah does with a public act. It's Allah who can elevate, and we're in the age of social media, anything can go viral, including the video of the Israeli woman for channel 12, when she says that when they entered my home, they didn't harm me, they calmed me down, and they said to me, we don't hurt you because we're Muslim. Now can I have a banana, please, as well, and she said, of course you can have a banana. That video went viral, and that's why the Israelis got upset, because the fact it went
viral in a room of just six, seven people, that incident went viral, and because it went viral, that's why the Israelis started peddling fake news, because what they were terrified more than anything else is not that we're going to take up arms or do anything, no, they're not worried about that. They're worried that the world is going to see the Palestinians in a way that is very dangerous for the Israelis, and that is that they will see the Palestinians as human, as magnanimous, they will see Muslims as people who are humans of qiyam, of akhlaq, that's what they're terrified of, that's what we're breaking, and I think that to answer the question directly, do what you can, and I'll quote Martin Luther King to show how justice can transcend, how justice is synonymous with Islam. Ibn Khaldun said, Justice is the essence of dominion, and Ibn Taymiyyah said that Allah does not allow Islam to exist within justice, Allah will allow a just state to exist without Islam, but will not allow Islam to exist within justice, because Allah doesn't tolerate Islam with oppression, Allah believes Islam is synonymous with justice, but in this context, I want to quote Martin Luther King for non-Muslims who are listening to this, because I've come to realize that a lot of non-Muslims are listening to these streams, Martin Luther King said that if you can run, run, if you can't run, walk, if you can't walk, crawl, but by God, keep moving, do whatever you can, don't stop in place, move, and it's because we're moving that these changes are taking place, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala deliver a victory for the Palestinians, may He reward our striving, but more important than that, may He instill in every one of us an appreciation of the powers that He's given us to be able to bring about these change, for wallahi Muslims, and I warn you from here on this pulpit, Allah said in Surah Al-Imran, Rabbana la tuziq qulubana ba'da idh hadaytana wahab lana min ladunka rahma innaka anta al-wahab,
Allah do not take our hearts away from this deen after you have guided us, don't take your iman for granted, don't take your guidance for granted, for wallahi Allah gave it to you as a privilege, not a right, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam warned us that a man may be on his deathbed and Allah will take him out of this deen before he reaches him and then he's condemned to the hellfire, to show appreciation for this iman, to show appreciation for this guidance, we have to show appreciation for the powers Allah has given us, and when Allah says in the Qur'an, wa in ta'uddu ni'mata Allahi la tuhsuha, if you were to count the blessings of Allah, you would never finish counting them, He didn't say, oh you who are the elites, wa in ta'uddu ni'mata Allahi la tuhsuha, oh you with media platforms, wa in ta'uddu ni'mata Allahi la tuhsuha, oh you with power, wa in ta'uddu ni'mata Allahi la tuhsuha, no, He made it general which is directed to every single person, because everyone has the power to do so, and I'll finish on this sentence, when the Prophet, when Abu Sufyan stood in front of Heraclius, and Heraclius said who are those who follow the Prophet, who are those who are elevating Him, who are those who are conveying His message, who are those who are causing this wave that has made Quraysh go into a hysteria to repress the Muslims, he said it's the lowest of the society, it's Bilal ibn Rabah, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, mubashshir bil jannah, who was a slave, it is Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, one of the people of jannah, who was a shepherd, don't underestimate your ability to make the change, for wallahi Allah in the Qur'an and His examples, when you open the Qur'an, you find that it is people similar to those who we tend to look at, not we, but who people tend to look on as lower in society, it's them who delivered the greatest revolutionary changes in the Qur'an and in history, and it's them who Allah celebrates in the Qur'an, when they say ma yadba'uka illa aradhiluna, the weakest of society follow these prophets, Allah is saying those are the people who made
those waves and the like, don't underestimate your ability, alhamdulillah we're making the change, let's keep going. MashaAllah, we have a question here that came through and I'll pose it to both of you, maybe Shaykh Mika'a you can take a crack at it first, it comes from Sonnas Dos, bienvenido, what tips do you have for the youth of today? What advice do you have for talking about the gods of genocide with those around us, especially in a school setting? Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wa salatu wa salam ala rasulillah, especially in a school setting, I think exactly what Ustaz Sami said, subhanAllah, realizing the power of your voice, our schools are supposed to be these bastions of open speech and safe spaces, they've been used by other groups all the time to be places and platforms to get their voice out, to let their agendas be heard, now more than ever is where we use that stage, use that platform to get our voice out as well. These places have always championed that we are the places of free speech, we are the places where you can say whatever you want, you can have whatever opinion, now is not the time for us to cower, to sigh back and to be shy, now is the time to raise your voice louder than ever and the encouragement that you're going to have to draw from, the power and the source that you're going to get encouragement from is seeing that the rest of this world, everyone, everyone is putting up what they have, whatever they have. As Sami was speaking, subhanAllah, I was reflecting and I thought about that moment where Tabuk happens and the battle of Tabuk was just this crazy battle where the Prophet needed every resource possible, much like the moment we're in now where every voice was needed, everything was needed. And one of the things, this is the moment where Umar ibn Khattab radiAllahu anhu, he had always been trying to be a little better in righteousness than Abu Bakr as we know, and he said today I'm going to beat him, today is going to be that day.
And what's amazing, what's amazing is when he arrives, the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam, he asked him a question and I know many of you have heard this narration but I want you to look at it differently. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam, he said, Ya Umar, what did you leave behind? He didn't ask him what you brought because everyone has a different capacity of what we can bring but what we can all race for each other is how much we left behind. And so leave no stone unturned is what I'm trying to say. It's amazing that the Prophet never even asked how much did you bring because that's not where the sacrifice is. The sacrifice and the struggle and the thing that we prove our sincerity to God with is what we left behind. And so what does he say? He says, I left half of everything behind. And then when Abu Bakr arrives, he says, how much did you leave behind? Till today, we actually don't even know who brought more. We don't know whose post went more viral. We don't know whose voice reached more people. We don't know which meme that was put together and crafted by a graphic designer got more traction. But what we do know from that moment is who sacrificed the most, who brought left the least behind. And so my advice here is schools have always championed. We are the bastion and the places of free speech. You can say whatever you want here. It's time that we use that for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and justice and adal. Feel empowered knowing that what you're saying is for the sake of adal, is for goodness and for justice. And that alone, inshallah, should give us the strength to use the schools in that platform. And another thing I'm saying about the schools is we have to understand the impressionability of the people that are our colleagues in school. These are people that we can we can speak some common sense into. Right. The younger generation were the people that follow the prophets of Allah.
And the younger generation was always a generation that were able to have that cognitive flexibility to accept that truth when it came. So now's the time. Now's the time more than ever to to speak to this younger generation about justice. Call this out what it is. And and I shared something the other day, which is, you know, I used to study American history and look back at what happened to the Native Americans and the trail of tears. And I used to think to myself that, you know, that maybe the people didn't know. Maybe they didn't know. And now I realize that we have to speak up more than ever, because the same way that people were going to passively allow genocide to happen. And now because we're raising our voices, they're having to pull back. We have a we have a job to do. We have a job to do. And so the hadith that I began with today earlier was, The Prophet ﷺ, he said in this profound hadith, he said, help your brother. Help your brother. Help your brother. Be he oppressor or be he oppressed. Take that message to the people. Take that message that that that we are helping humanity by showing everyone. We do not want to repeat history where where a genocide of people happen. That won't happen while we're here. Well, on our watch, that won't happen. And so I just want to echo everything that Ustad was saying. And there's one more thing. It seems that Sister Iman, her question, Alhamdulillah, it seems that Sister Iman, It seems that Sister Iman's question is an important one, which is, it doesn't seem like I'm doing enough. And I think her question is, min janabillah, that her question came early, because I know every single one of us feels, I want to do more. I want to do more.
And this is what I'm going to say. Same battle, battle of Tabuk. The Prophet ﷺ, the Quran tells us that there are some people who are coming with a mud, a mud of wheat. It just means a handful of wheat. And when they would come with a handful of wheat, the munafiqeen, the hypocrites of Medina, they would look and say, what will Allah do with this? What will Allah do with this? We got to go fight the Romans. And what are you bringing? You're bringing a tweet and you don't even have followers. You're bringing it, you're bringing a post and you don't even have anyone following you liking it. Right. And then when wealthy people came and brought everything, they would go, oh, look at this show off. He doesn't have a sincerity. The point I'm trying to make here is that the Sahaba, they did not let that noise stop them from bringing whatever they could to be a part of the change. And so to answer that question straight on, the schools are going to be where we win popular opinion. This is the place that that popular opinion is won. And so we have to keep putting pressure on our universities, these places that are supposed to be the place to call them out for their hypocrisy. How long are we going to not call these institutions out for the hypocrisy that we're seeing? So call them out for the hypocrisy, show the double standards. And and that's how we use our influence in our colleges and our universities, inshallah. Excellent. We have another question. I think I think to that as well. Yes. I just I think as well. Arm yourself with knowledge. Arm yourself with those human rights watch reports. Arm yourself with those Amnesty International reports. Arm yourselves with the facts that led them to call the Israeli regime an apartheid regime. Arm yourself with those statements of the Israeli social affairs minister, which she gives her reasons why Netanyahu should come to the International Criminal Court. She's not Palestinian. She's European. Human Rights Watch is not a pro-Palestinian organization. It's a human rights organization. Arm yourself with this knowledge.
Arm yourself with your ability that when someone accuses you of supporting things that might get you in trouble, say, no, here's the Human Rights Watch report. Here are the checkpoints that they impose. Here's why Human Rights Watch calls Israel an apartheid regime. Here's why Amnesty does. Arm yourself with knowledge. We are a people of knowledge, a people of ilm. Some people always say that ilm is only within the Islamic framework, but people misunderstand what Islamic framework means. Islamic framework means the dunya and akhira. It means we're aware of what's happening around us. Imams should be aware of what's happening around us. So they're able to convey the deen in a way that the ordinary people can understand. The point being is that for all the colleges of the like, and I know they're doing it, but sometimes the reason arguments get out of hand is because sometimes we lack the hujjah, because we don't understand the hujjah or we lack it. Build your argument. When Mus'ab ibn Umair radiallahu ta'ala went to Medina, he went armed with the knowledge. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ chose him over the other sahaba to go to Medina, he didn't choose his name out of a hat. He chose him because he believed that Mus'ab ibn Umair was eloquent. He knew the people. He knew how to convey the message or the like. We Muslims as well should arm ourselves with that knowledge. We don't need to be cornered about issues with regards to violence or the like. That's not the point here. The point is Human Rights Watch condemns the killing of children, condemns the killing of the elderly, condemns the blockade, condemns the open-air prison, condemns the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians, condemns the demolition of home of Palestine. They tell you where's the proof. Say, bring the proof from them. The point that I find, and I don't know, maybe it might not apply to America, but it applies in Europe, is we need to understand the hujjah that is available to us. We know our cause is just, but we need the hujjah to defend it. When Umar ibn Abdulaziz was a khalifa, one of his governors sent to him and said to him, There are unruly people over here. Send me more forces to keep them in check. He responded and he said,
Fortify it with justice. You don't need my forces. We don't need arms to fight this battle. What we need is justice and hujjah to back up that justice. So I would encourage everybody on this sentence to answer the question directly. What can we do in the schools? Arm yourselves with the knowledge. Go and get those reports. Read them. Part of my job is to learn these reports. Part of my job is to memorize the events. Part of my job is to read the statements, to read blinking statements, to read and the like, and to see where the gaps are, where the holes are. If the Europeans are now in open difference or open conflict between themselves over their stance over Israel, that's because that there is a difference of opinion over there. Let's push that difference of opinion because it's legitimate. By using the facts that are available and the reports that are available to us, let's get that knowledge. We are not an ummah of jahad. We're an ummah of ilm. And let's use that ilm to really propagate the message. So get those reports, get that information, arm yourself with it. And then I'll be honest with you, in a practical way, practice in the mirror the arguments. Sit in the mirror and get through it. Get that script in your head ready. Understand and preempt those arguments. Because often what you find in the debates, they want to corner you into something where they want to show you to be some sort of lunatic or American. But we don't need to be cornered with it. We can force the debate on our terms. We can force the debate to be about the civilian death toll, about the kids who are killed, about that no law on earth justifies. We can talk about the international law. It doesn't matter if the international law is implemented or not. That's not the point here. The point is international law still matters enough because everyone's trying to present themselves as being within international law. Tell the world they're not within international law. Mobilize the courts. The former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is on Twitter or on X publicly saying that there is enough evidence to prosecute Israel for war crimes. He's not a Muslim. He's not an Arab. He's not even European.
He's on Twitter saying that based on factual analysis, there's enough to bring Niter into war crimes. Go to the tweets. Go and memorize his arguments, and go and deploy them in the college campus, and you'll find that they are far more ignorant than us, and you will be the one cornering them instead of them cornering us. Allahu Akbar. I'm going through the question. I think a lot of them are similar, and there are a lot of them that we already covered. So we have from Alia Noor, what have you found are the most impactful points to transform the view of a non-Muslim who they've been fed lies for decades when you only have a short time to speak for them? Maybe we can take this as a final question. If there's any sort of final reflections. I know it's very similar to the previous questions. I had a bunch of questions, but I know some of us have to wrap up. Maybe we can use this opportunity to offer our final thoughts. Yeah. Bismillah walhamdulillah. Just final thoughts. Alhamdulillah, we all benefited from each other's company. It was an amazing gathering and encouragement for us and a moment of hope, truly, the help of God is close, and His encouragement for us to all move forward. My last parting advice to myself and to everyone is a narration that's mentioned that The Rasul, peace be upon him, was narrated to report it to have said that worship in the time of trial and difficulty is like a migration, is like hijrah to me. And the reason I say that is our power, the battery that pushes us forward, the battery that pushed the Sahaba forward to be fighting in the cause of God and struggling and striving in the fight of God was that spiritual connection. And so when they describe and they depict what the Sahaba looked like, they said that they were If you watch them at night, they look like monks. The way they worship, the way they pray, right?
They were connected to Allah. But in the daytime, how did that darkness of night time closest with God, how did that reflect? They became beacons of light in the daytime. They became beacons of light that could not be silenced in the path of God. And so we cannot be one-sided. And the reason I say that, the reason I say that, If in your days of being the oppressed, you do not focus on God, when you are given power, you may become the oppressor. So stay focused on Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in these moments. Use yourself, use your voice, become a light, a light to the people that guides them, but keep that connection in our evenings, in our night time. The last verse, I'll quote, وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَا تَسْمَعُوا لِهَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ وَالْغَوْفِهِ Why? لَعَلَّكُمْ تَغْلِبُونَ They understood that if these Muslims stay connected to this book of Allah and they read it with insight and apply it, they'll have victory. The Qur'an is teaching us, stay connected to the book of Allah in these moments of difficulty, use your voice, become the light, InshaAllah. JazakAllah Khair. Sami, final thoughts? I think the most impactful point from my analysis of everything taking place has been social media. I think that they brought about the unprecedented changes or the like. On terms of the final thoughts, the reason why I focus so much on perspective is I believe that if we alter the perspective, we will see so many more opportunities in order to really advance the cause. One thing I will say to those who are listening, remember, the world is moving towards a different trajectory. Eighty years ago, the region was under official colonization. The French were in Algeria, the British were in Egypt, the Italians were in Libya. When World War II finished and the Allies were celebrating freedom and victory, they went back to suppress their colonies and to brutalize the people in the colonies because they were arguing that freedom belongs to them and not to us.
And then in 1962, 1950s, there were independence movements that made official colonization impossible. Freedom was not given. It was taken. So the point being is that the global order changed. There could no longer be official colonization and we entered a period of semi-colonization where politically we were independent somewhat, but our economies were still dependent. 2010, you have the Arab Spring. Social media revolution. Bouazizi, I'm originally from Tunisia. I'm from Sidi Bouzid where Arab Spring began. Bouazizi is from the village next door. If you had told me that the Bouazizi family would spark the Arab Spring, no disrespect, everybody would have laughed. Allah brought the changes from where حيث لا تحتسب You never knew where it was coming. And authoritarian regimes fell and the like. The point is, is that we entered another period. If you look at the trajectory over the past 80, 90 years, I promise you, Ya Ummah, it's not one of doom and gloom. The chains are weakening on this Ummah. We're progressing, we're moving forward. It may not be the way that you wanted us to move forward. It may not be the way that you wished we would move forward. But Wallahi, we are moving forward. The reason they're calling this situation unprecedented is because they've never seen anything like it since 1948. They've never seen the global opinion turn in this way so suddenly against the occupier and in favor of the occupier and in favor of the oppressed. They've never seen this before. It's unprecedented because of social media. And that's why I think that in the wonderful tapestry of history which is dictated by the wisdom of Allah, the trajectory is not one of a downward spiral. It's one of moving upwards. And it is the greatest honor as a Muslim, and I speak for myself first, the greatest honor of a Muslim to be a vehicle, however small capacity it might be, to push this and break those chains on the monopoly and break those chains on our perspective with regards to freedom of the life. Sometimes we need to disown the defeatist trauma in the subconscious of our mind and recognize what is before us. We are mobilizing an irresistible wave
that has the colonizers and the occupiers sitting in their war rooms deeply concerned about their control of the narrative. We are making an impact. Let no one tell you otherwise. We are making the impact. And if you look over 80, 90 years, and I was honored to sit with people who lived under colonization and who saw independence as well, they will tell you it was a huge shift. It may not be perfect, but it was a huge shift. Don't underestimate those. See yourselves within this wave of history in which this is our time, our generation, to try to set or do the layup in a basketball, I don't know what you call it, for the next generation to come up and slam dunk. We are part of this struggle. We are one ummah, but not an ummah in this generation, ummah of the past generations as well. So I will finish on the issue of the perspective. Let's alter the perspective. Those who believe we are weak believe we are strong, and those, sorry, those who believe we are weak don't appreciate that the other side sees us as strong, that the other side is now deploying their million dollar PR industry because we who thought we were weak are forcing a change that they're deeply uncomfortable with. Let's keep going with that change, and more importantly, let's appreciate that we have the ability to make that change, and I promise you, if we've made ten times a change, tomorrow we'll make a hundred times, and the day after, a thousand times, inshaAllah, bi-ibnillah. May Allah reward our efforts, and may Allah put in everybody's hearts the thabit. We're doing it, guys. It may be harsh and brutal, and there may be a tragedy unfolding before us, but I promise you we can make the impact, and history shows this may well turn out to be the turning point in the course for liberation, inshaAllah. InshaAllah ta'ala. I want to cheat, because I had questions. One final question, and I'm like Hudaifah. I have to ask about the bad stuff. Is there anything we have to look out for? Are there any traps that we need to avoid? There are two things that I think that people should be aware of.
The first thing is that there are ways, there are narratives that people are trying to trap Muslims in, which is issues to do with Iranian support for Palestine, and two with issues related to stance on Hamas. The first thing about the Iranian issue is that it's important to note that the Iranians have denied involvement. The Israelis have denied that the Iranians are involved, and the Americans have said we've seen no proof of Iranian involvement. Don't get dragged into this issue of a regional conflict or Iran being the villain, and therefore the Palestinians must be the villains. All of the main actors are trying to say Iran is not involved, not necessarily because they believe Iran is not involved, but because they're worried about expansion of a regional conflict. Don't get dragged on a pointless issue. The second thing is when it comes to the issue of Hamas, this issue existed even before Hamas was made, even before Hamas was formed, even before it came about. Know this. Don't get dragged into this that this conflict began last Saturday. It didn't. It started since 1948. Expand the goalposts. They're trying to narrow it. Expand it. Don't get caught into a mudslinging mud bath. You don't need to get involved in it. Focus on the issue at hand, which is occupation, apartheid, which is the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, which is the death of the civilians, the death of the children, the fact that it's disproportionate by all forms of international law, the fact that it's not just Islam that condemns it. Their own laws condemn it. Focus on these things and focus on the allies as well in using that as a hojo to push back. Don't get caught on these points that the Republicans are trying to push the idea of terrorism and the like. Don't get caught in it. It's not something you need to fight. It's not a battle you need to fight. Move the goalposts, go to a different arena, go to the arena of apartheid, go to the arena of occupation, go to the arena of the civilian deaths, and you will win every single time because the reality is this. Our support is not for individuals. Our support is for the cause. The reality is this. When they tell you Hamas and Hamas, Hossam Zumlot, the Palestinian ambassador, whose
videos have gone viral, is not Hamas. He's Palestinian Authority. Mustafa Barghouti, who was on the Fareed Zakaria interview, where he gave that exceptional performance in addressing the issues of anti-Semitism or the like, and I urge everybody to watch it. Mustafa Barghouti is not Hamas. He's on the other side with the West Bank. Mohammed Al-Qurd, the activist, he's not Hamas. He's in Jerusalem. He's the one documenting the demolition of homes or the like. All the evidence suggests this is not about Hamas, but they will drag you into this issue of Hamas in order to tie you up and handcuff you. Don't get caught in it. That's why we need to empower ourselves with the ilm. The issue is much bigger than that, and if we can push the arena or the stadium or the like to incorporate the apartheid and the occupation, we will win every time. What we need to watch out for is the way they're trying to alter the narrative. Now I'm seeing that a lot of Palestinians are having their invitations revoked to some of the mainstream media, because the media is concerned that the Palestinians have been so effective and that their videos have gone so viral, they're not sure what to do with the changing public opinion that is going in favor of the Palestinians. But the way that we counteract that is amplifying their voices on social media. Twitter and X haven't imposed the restrictions. When the EU said they want to impose restrictions, Elon Musk, whatever misgivings we might have, responded with a Jon Stewart sketch where he mentions Israel and people jump around and anti-Semite and whatever, and they try to shut him down, essentially saying, I'm not going to impose those restrictions. We still have spaces where we can talk and the like. But the point that I'm saying is I'm focused on the war of narratives because I know that's where it's really hurting the Israelis. Don't get dragged on points that, one, you're not qualified to address, two, that don't favor you, and three, that are irrelevant. Hamas and Iran are irrelevant in the grand scheme of what's unfolding. This is a liberation war and an apartheid, and the victims of apartheid in South Africa
recognize apartheid, which is why they stand with the Palestinians, which is why they stand against Israel. Focus on the human rights reports that it's an open-air prison. Use that to your advantage, and you will find that the reaction you get is that it's not the Muslim who goes red and starts shouting. It's the other side, the ones helping the oppressors, because they realize they have no Hujjah, but more terrifyingly, they realize that those neutrals watching you are saying, you know what? Wallahi, that guy has a point, you know, regardless of what I think about Hamas and Iran. Wallahi, he has a point. Occupation, and I've seen this happen before. Don't get dragged in those mud baths. We have the proof without having to get dragged into it, alhamdulillah. Allah has aziz the qadhi al-adlah. He's reinforced this just cause. Let's focus on that, inshallah. Allah Akbar. Thank you so much for everything. I wish I could keep you talking all through Fajr and through after that, but we will let you go, inshallah. And a reminder to everyone watching, we're doing this every night, at least for a week, okay? 9.30pm New York time, 8.30pm Dallas time. Not sure what time did it start for you, Sami? 3am? 2.30am? Yeah, about 2.30am. 2.30am. But alhamdulillah. After tahajjud, after you make tahajjud in London, you know, we're going to be having discussions all week because this is really, as you said, unprecedented. You know, we are charged with the responsibility of being alive at this time, and we think about what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala want from us? So, we thank you so much for having us kick off the conversation, may Allah accept from you and from us. Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Huwa Muhammadika Sharafan La Ilaha Illa Anta Astaghfiru Qawatul Bil-Alaik. And to all of our viewers, salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah.
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