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Learning Courage from Palestine & Our Predecessors | Khutbah
What can we take of inspiration from our brothers and sisters in Palestine that is connected to the virtues of patience and courage we seek to embody in our own lives?
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, we begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasalam 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. I know that in the end of Ramadan, going into now a week later, there was this overwhelming sense of grief and anxiety about what's been happening with our brothers and sisters in Palestine, particularly surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. And I want us to actually now think about where we are a week later, bi'ithnillah, but to connect it to something else and to go back to what we were spiritually trying to generate in ourselves in Ramadan. The exercise of Ramadan is as-sabr. In fact, when Allah says, waista'eenu bi's-sabri wa's-salam, that exert yourself, seek the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through patience and prayer. Many of the ulama actually say that the word as-sabr here, which technically means patience, is actually referring to fasting, that you seek closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through fasting and through prayer. But Allah called this noble act of ours patience, sabr. And I want us to connect what we see of what we were trying to generate, of patience in Ramadan in a very specific sense, to the patience that we see from our brothers and sisters in Palestine in particular, and how we generate that from them and from our brothers and sisters all over the world that so bravely and courageously stand in front of their oppressors and do not relent,
but maintain a posture in front of their oppressors that we can't help but admire and we think to ourselves, subhanAllah, where did they get that from? Now obviously, it's one thing to be patient with food and drink. It's another thing, of course, to be patient with bombs over your head. It's one thing to be patient with someone that's being annoying, someone that's a little insulting, a little bit rude. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam said, say, inni sa'im, I am fasting and I hope inshaAllah ta'ala that what was inni sa'im in Ramadan, that I am fasting in Ramadan, when you see something that warrants that, has turned into inni muslim, I'm just a Muslim and I don't do those things inside or outside of Ramadan, I'm going to hold myself back. But it's another thing when you have occupying forces in front of you, troops in front of you, settlers walking into your house and throwing you out, people that show you absolutely nothing of any redeeming human quality, and you have to be patient in the face of that. But they are connected to each other. And the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught us, when it comes to patience in particular, that sometimes seeing someone else or knowing of someone else that is going through something harder than you or has been through a difficulty harder than you, allows you to be able to overcome the trials and the difficulties in your own life. Because you're able to draw inspiration from them and ultimately try to connect yourself to the same source that they are drawing from. And that's why we have the famous hadith of the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam, Rahim Allah, Akhi Musa. May Allah have mercy on my brother Musa alayhi salam. Laqad oodhi bi akthara min hadha. He was struck with worse than this. He was annoyed by his people more than I am being annoyed in this situation.
He faced a greater difficulty and he was patient. Fasadar. I too should be patient when I look back on my brother Musa alayhi salam and draw from that inspiration. And there's something very important here. Our notion of patience in Islam is not passive. Sabr is not just holding yourself back. It is actively thinking about what is more worth the situation, what is more worth it for you to engage in than what is immediately in front of you. And that's why when you hear wasbiru wasabiru, wasabaru, right? Like these are very active terms that we find in the Quran. To be patient and to make other people patient. People that were patient in the face of their oppressors. People that were patient in battle. Some of these things don't translate well when you're just thinking about the word patience, but they do translate well when you think about the concept of sabr. Watawasu bilhaqqi, watawasu bilsabr. They actively enjoin one another with truth and they actively enjoin one another with patience. Because patience is not just holding yourself back. It's not just passiveness. It's filling yourself with something greater. It's not just not responding to the person in front of you. It's being engaged with the one that is above you, so that there's perspective with the person that's in front of you. It's not just not being afraid of the oppressor in front of you who is actually a coward. It is understanding that this person who finds strength, derives strength from their weapons, and from their so-called access to power, and whatever it is that they have, is actually drawing strength from something that is in reality vulnerable to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and can immediately be taken from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Whereas you draw strength directly from the source, you draw strength from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, without weapons, without the same access to material power as they have. Sabr is investing in something. Sabr is feeling connected to something. Sabr is active worship of the heart that leads to certain qualities and certain characteristics. And subhanAllah we find multiple notions of this in the Quran. But let's just say really quickly about our brothers and sisters in Palestine and what's happening over there, that what those people have been subjected to for now over 70 years, they should have buckled a long time ago. They should have crumbled a long time ago. How do you deal with that much pressure? How do you deal with occupation? How do you deal with a regime that is meant to break your spirit, and all of the powers conspiring against you? How do you still generate the strength? You saw the images from Al-Aqsa today. SubhanAllah. It's like Eid was today. Where do you find that? What is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala filling their hearts with for them to be able to go out there, and again as we said, not move. Not move. When you're watching them on the 27th night, it's as if they didn't even hear the bombs. They were just thinking about what the Imam was reciting. They were focused. Their hearts were established so, their feet were firm as well. And this is what I want us to connect ourselves to, bidn Allah ta'ala. A leadership role requires patience. A very particular type of patience. In fact, Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhuma, he said, that the two qualities that are necessary for leadership are certainty in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and patience. Those are the two qualities that are necessary for a leader.
Now I want us to not just imagine this one day situation where we're in this horrible environment. Where we have to generate some sort of majestic type of patience to overcome a monstrous situation. Because that would disconnect the brothers and sisters in Palestine from us, and turn them into some sort of mythology that we look to and we just say, mashallah. In our own lives, we're not connecting the dots about what we should be generating in our own selves. And that's why the ulama say that sabr, patience, is connected to all of the other good qualities that we find in the Quran and sunnah. And that's why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, there is no blessing, aw sa'u min al-sabr, that is more expansive than patience. It brings out so much good inside of a person. And they say it brings out generosity. How does it bring out generosity? How does it bring out courage? How does it generate a person being very calculated in how they approach situations in their lives? Because when a person has patience, they have perspective all the time. And when they have perspective, they are focused on the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and not the claims to greatness in this life, nor the smallness of their own means. They're constantly focused on the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Imam al-Dhahabi rahimahullah ta'ala, he comments on the hadith where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, wa a'udhu bika min al-jubni wal-bukhlu, that I seek refuge in you, O Allah, from being a coward or from being a stingy person. And he comments, al-Dhahabi rahimahullah ta'ala, he comments, he says, ash-shaja'a wa-s-sakha'a ahawan, fa man lam yajud bi-malihi, fa lan yajud bi-nafsihi. The opposite of that is that courage and generosity are brothers.
If a person does not find expense, if a person is not able to give of their wealth freely, because they believe in something greater than the fear of poverty, or from the material pleasure of this life, if they're not able to do that, then they can't do that with their own selves. And courage requires you to not fear anything that comes your way in this life. In the same way that generosity, true generosity, and that's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam said, it might be that a person gives one dirham, and they are superior in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than someone who gives a hundred thousand times that. Why? Because they're actually putting themselves at risk when they do so. They're giving, and they're actually putting themselves in a situation where they're having to trust Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And there's a tawakkul in their sadaqa, that's embedded in their sadaqa, a trust in God that is embedded in their charity. It's not just that they're crunching numbers and saying, this is how much I can give. It is a trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that leads them to not have such a fear of poverty that paralyzes them. And it is a longing for what Allah has that allows them to readily and happily overlook the temporary pleasures of this life. I'm not deceived by the pleasure of this life, nor am I deceived by the fear of poverty. And what Imam al-Zahmi rahim Allah is saying is that courage is the same thing. I am not deceived by the fear of what you seem to possess that's greater than me. I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of you because I'm really afraid of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm really not afraid of the means that you possess because they don't scare me. They're just means at the end of the day. Nor do I long for the position that you have because I long for what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised me instead. If a person has power in this life, power ends with death.
But if a person has the reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the next life, that's everlasting. And so courage and generosity are generated from what? From the exact same thing. And Imam al-Qayyim rahim Allah ta'ala he comments on this as well. This is very profound and I know that as we were going through the last 10 nights of Ramadan, Ibn al-Qayyim rahim Allah was a genius. And when he would talk about these things, sometimes he would decipher it and you can miss it in a book when you just read through the sentence. But he said, notice the hadith where the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, ليس الشديد بالسرعة إنما الشديد الذي يملك نفسه عند الغضب. That the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, a strong person is not the person that overcomes their enemy. Right? It's not a person that's very strong that was able to overcome their enemy. But it's a person that was able to control themselves when they got angry. He said, notice here that sometimes when a person gets into an argument, what are the considerations that you make? At some point, there's a point in the fight, if you're just thinking in terms of material things, where you know what, I'm bigger than this guy. I can take him. If we're going to fight, I'm going to be able to overcome him anyway. Or, you know what, I don't really have to worry about the, there are no consequences in this world to this argument that we're having. Because most fights are not by fists anymore. Right? I don't really have to worry about it. I have more power. I don't, who cares? My job's not at risk. My career's not at risk. So they start to make all of these worldly calculations. That's one way. So he says, some people, they focus on the worldly calculations of the arguments. Right? And the fight. Like they start to make the calculations in their mind. I'm pretty sure I could take them this way or take them that way. Or, I have more means, more power. The consequences of this fight are heavier on that person than me. He said, the other part of that which is cowardice. Cowardice is when a person backs down in an argument or backs down in a fight. Not because, not because they see a greater reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
or because they're deriving some sort of dignity in the moment, but because they're afraid. Right? So, wait a minute, I'm just really afraid of this person. Let me keep my mouth shut. But SubhanAllah Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah said, notice that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, الذي يملك نفسه عند الغضب He overcame his enemy by overcoming himself. No, I'm in control of the situation because I'm connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why did he overcome himself in that anger? Why did he overcome himself in that situation? Because he was able to maintain perspective and his perspective was Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he had dignity, he had honor, even in the midst of an argument. Everybody else around might see that, oh he lost the argument, he lost the fight. In his mind he didn't lose the fight because he overcame himself. And by overcoming himself he overcame his enemy. And he was focused on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prepared for him in the hereafter. And this is what I want to conclude with inshaAllah ta'ala. A few ways to think about now how we read some of these ayat and ahadith about courage. And how they're connected to patience and longing for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he mentioned that as an ummah, you become like foam. The nations of the world gather around and they feast on you. You are the meal on the table and these enemies and these oppressors start to come and they start to feast on you. One by one they start to eat away at you. And they're asking the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam because they were thinking maybe it's in terms of worldly means. Is it because we're a small number? Ya Rasulullah, is it because there's so many enemies and we're so little? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said it's not that. It's that you have in your heart something called al-wahan. You're paralyzed. And they said why are we paralyzed Ya Rasulullah? What is al-wahan? He said, hubd dunya wa karahiyatul mawt. You love the world too much and you hate death too much.
Now I need to contextualize this because you know what? The stereotype of the Palestinians, the angry savages of the Arabs, the barbarians that the French had to colonize, the Muslims, these people are animals. They love death. They don't care about life. And so the implication of that is that they're saying we're destructive. We'll destroy them and destroy ourselves and we have no regard for human dignity and human life. That's not what the hadith is talking about. You know what else is very interesting about the hadith? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, hubd dunya wa karahiyatul mawt. You hate death. And so when she spoke to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, she said Ya Rasulullah, laisa minna ahadun illa wahuwa yakrahu al-mawt. In another hadith, Ya Rasulullah, there is not a single person amongst us except that they hate death. Is it hate death in the sense that you hate what awaits you in the hereafter? Are we supposed to long for death? Are we supposed to love death? And that's not what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying because seemingly there is a contradiction here. And that's what Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha is saying to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he said, whoever loves to meet Allah, or whoever loves to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not fear it. And whoever hates to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hates to meet them. And Aisha radiallahu anha said, Ya Rasulullah, we all hate death. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that's not the point. But it's what? It's when the believer is given the bushra, the glad tidings of what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has. The glad tidings of his pleasure, the glad tidings of his reward, the glad tidings of his forgiveness. That at that point, they're invested, they don't care at that point. There's ease of the transition. So what is the hadith saying and how did the ulama reconcile between the two? They're saying that the believer does not love death.
The believer does not actually love death. But the believer does not fear it in a way that paralyzes them from pursuing what comes after it. That's the difference. No one loves death. No one likes the idea of being separated from their families. No one likes the idea, I mean when you hear these widows in Gaza talking about their husbands who have left them, and talking about them as shuhada and saying that he preceded me to al-jannah. It's not that they don't wish that their husbands were not still with them to be with their children. It's that there's perspective. You know what? I'm happy for him. Not that I'm happy I lost him. I'm happy for him and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised him a wonderful reward in paradise. I'm going to miss him. I'm going to long for him. But I have that perspective. And so the ulama say we can transfer that to everything. Hubb al-dunya wa karahiyat al-fakr. You love the world too much and you fear poverty too much so you withhold from your wealth when you're called to give charity. Hubb al-dunya wa karahiyat al-dhul. You love the world too much and you fear humiliation so much that you instead try to impose yourself in arrogance. And you become foul. And you lose your principles in the process. It's not about that. But what it truly is, is what? wal-ladheena aamanu ashaddu hubban lillah. Those who believe love Allah more. They love Allah more than they hate death. They love Allah more than they love anything of this world. They fear Allah more than they fear their oppressors. They're connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala more than people are connected to the things of this world. And so that gives them a sense of courage. That gives them a sense of generosity. That gives them a sense of firmness because they always maintain perspective. They keep it all in front of them. wal-ladheena aamanu ashaddu hubban lillah.
SubhanAllah I was looking at that woman whose house was destroyed. And she's looking in front of the camera. You know it's one thing to be able to say alhamdulillah Allah will give me something more. But when I saw this woman I said subhanAllah I've never seen anything like that in my life. What was she saying? She said this house, houses are destroyed, they come back, we rebuild them. But al-aqsa, the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the people need to stay connected to that. Giving a message to the world, forget about my house. Airstrikes will destroy everything. They'll destroy their houses. But that's the first qibla of the Muslims. What about al-aqsa? What about al-aqsa? How do we then shut that phone off or that computer off and then just go back and sleep comfortably in our own beds and think well alhamdulillah no bombs are falling on my house right now. I don't have to worry about the things she has to worry about. No. That woman has something here that's greater than anything that can be out here. You can't kill a person like that. You can't break a person like that. That's able to maintain that perspective and say I don't care about my house, I care about al-aqsa. You think she likes being homeless? You think the nights since that video went viral of her saying you know my house, my house doesn't matter, al-aqsa matters more. You think that those nights have not been difficult for her? You think that there aren't moments of sadness where she remembers the memories in that house? Where she remembers the people in that house that have been taken away from her? It's not the point. Allah did not make us people of no emotion. Allah did not make us people with no heart. But Allah gave us something to give us greater perspective. Greatest perspective. And that's where we find steadfastness from. I end with Imam Ahmed rahimahullah. Imam Ahmed rahimahullah ta'ala was being tortured for his principles and found that his best friends had turned their backs on him. He didn't find the solidarity from his scholarly class that others found. One oppressor drags him, the next one drags him, this oppressor dies, another
oppressor is born, they whip him in public, they humiliate him. Imam Ahmed rahimahullah said something very powerful. He said you know I never used to fear, I didn't used to fear death. And at the same time you know it's not about the imprisonment or death but I feared the whip. He's being very vulnerable. So I didn't want to live a life of imprisonment and humiliation. Like the idea of death, I could come to terms with that, that I might die. But I don't want to live my life under a whip. And he said I drew perspective from the most interesting of people. One person was a thief or he was he was a criminal and he said to me that look after the first few lashes you go numb, you'll be okay. SubhanAllah. He's telling him at some point the whip stops hurting, your body will go numb. And Imam Ahmed rahimahullah said I drew inspiration from that man. And he said as everyone was talking at me and shouting at me, there was another man that shouted out to me and said ya Imam, look you're on the truth. And he said to him, if you're not killed, tell him what, he'll die anyway. If you're not killed in this noble way, you'll die anyway. You might as well die for something more meaningful. You might as well hold firm to your principles. Dear brothers and sisters, we have to take inspiration from our predecessors, we have to take inspiration from our brothers and sisters in Palestine. How easy do we relinquish our deen, our principles, when we feel like our dunya is being threatened, when we feel like our world is being threatened. How easy do we threaten our deen and let our deen go. Draw inspiration from our predecessors and draw inspiration from our present brothers and sisters in Palestine and elsewhere that constantly show us that if you're connected to something greater, everything else, everything else becomes minuscule. As you think about that greatness of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our connection to that to grant us firmness and patience and sincerity always. Allahumma khfir liwalidina, Rabb irhamhumaa kamarabuna sighara. Rabbana hablana min azwajina wadhuriyatina qurra ta'ayin, wa ja'alna lilmuttaqina imama. Allahumma unsir ikhwanina almustadha'afina feem mashariki al-ardi wa gharibiha. Allahumma ahlik al-dhalimina bil-dhalimin wa akhrijna wa ikhwanina min baynihim salimin. Ibadullah anna Allah ya'mur bil-adli wal-ihsan wa ita'idil-qurba wa inha'an al-fahsha'i wa al-munkari wa al-baghi. Ya'idukum la'alakum min tathakkarun. FathkuruAllahi yathkurukum wa shukroohu AAala ni'ma'i yazid lakum.
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