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Resistance in Exile: from Hijra to Nakba | Khutbah
How do we stay connected to holy lands in exile? What are some of the profound similarities between the ongoing Nakba and the Hijra? Dr. Omar covers how and why it's relevant to every single Muslim in the world today.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We begin by praising Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam 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. Allahuma Ameen. Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to imagine with me the scene of Hudaybiyyah. If you were to pop into the scene, and you were to see the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam coming out and speaking to a group of about 1,400 of his companions. And these were people that would put their lives on the line for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. These were the people who mastered and manifested, Sami'na Wa Ata'na, we hear and we obey. These were the people who love the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam more than they love their own selves. And in that moment, where they are all in their ihram and ready to enter into Mecca, because it seems like the time is right, what more validation do you need? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had a dream. It's coming. We're on our way to Mecca. Surely we will enter it. Hudaybiyyah is a stone's throw away. We're almost there. We're so much closer to Mecca than we are Medina. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam comes out and says that we've made a truce and that we're going to come back next year. We're going to turn back to Medina and come back next year. So go ahead and exit out of your ihram and nobody moves. Think about it. 1,400 people, loving companions of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and they don't move. And they are so hurt that they will not be able to return to Mecca.
But here's the point that I actually want to seize for a moment. We are entering into now 76 years of what is called the Nakba, 76 years from the day that the illegal state of Israel was established on occupied Palestinian land, that 750,000 people were driven out and the consumption of territory has never stopped nor the theft of Palestinian lives. And I want you to think about these people now who have been out for almost a decade. But here's what makes this so interesting. You would think that all 1,400 of them were Mecci or Meccawi. You would think that they were from Mecca. The reality is that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he made the hijrah only made the hijrah with about a hundred or so people. These were not Meccans that wanted to enter into Mecca so badly and that loved it and desired it so much. But you would think they were. Because the love that they had for Mecca even though they were almost all Ansar, I mean over 90% of them just by simple math were over or were amongst the Ansar, were amongst the people of Medina, by looking at them you would think Mecca was their homeland. But the love of a holy land is different than the love of a homeland. The love of a holy land is different than the love of a homeland. Why did they have that desire? Two reasons. One, because of all that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had taught them about the virtues of Mecca. We received your refugees, we received the Muhajirin, we received your migrants, we were all together and we have heard the virtues of Mecca come down in the Quran.
It is our Qibla, we face it when we pray, we know the stories of Mecca from those who came from Mecca. Mecca has been embedded in us at this point. Even though we're not Mecci in our nature. And the reaction of the Madanis and the Meccis was not different on that day. Mecca has been embedded in us because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us so much about Mecca. We faced it in prayer and we know its great virtues. Number two, because no one of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. And these Ansar that took in these Muhajirin and the greatest Muhajir, the greatest migrant being the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself, they loved for their brother what they loved for themselves. In fact, they even love for their brother more than what they love for themselves. And so I know how bad my Mecci brother, my Mecci sister wants to go home. I know that the memories and the trauma and what they have been put through when they were driven out in that hijrah has left a bitter taste in their mouths and has left a longing in their hearts and I love it for them as if I loved it for myself. There's also an element of that. When you look at the similarities between the hijrah and the Nakba, the similarities are uncanny. You can find them from the very start of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his companions being driven out of their homeland. How do you preserve a love for a place and a people that have been exiled and then how do you teach a people that are not even from that place to make that place the home of their hearts? How do you do that? How do you cultivate that sense of a connection? How do you cultivate that resilience? How do you cultivate that resistance? And what's the end game here? What comes as a result of that? There is a cultural element and there is an element of hubb al-watn, of loving your place, loving your homeland.
We know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he left Mecca, he loved Mecca. He spoke to Mecca. He wanted to go back to Mecca. He said that you are the most beloved of land to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and the most beloved of land to me. We know that when Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was expelled and who is Bilal to love Mecca with all the trauma that was inflicted on him by Mecca? And Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala Anha mentions Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and he is laying down sick, homesick from Mecca and he says, أَلَا لَيْتَ شِعْرِي هَلْ أَبِيْتَنَّ لَيْلَةً بِوَادٍ وَحَوْلِي إِذْخُرٌ وَجَلِيلُ وَهَلْ أَرِيدَنَّ يَوْمًا مِيَاءَ مَجِنَّةٍ وَهَلْ تَبْدُونَ لِي شَامَةٌ وَطَفِيلُ These words would mean nothing to someone in Medina, absolutely nothing to someone in Medina. Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu said, Oh how I long for the day that I could one day spend the night once again in the valley and be surrounded by the إذخر and the جليل which are the two types of grass that occasionally come out in the mountains of Mecca. And if you see in Mecca, it's not that pretty in terms of its mountains and in terms of its nature, but he's remembering the very specific forms of growth and he's having memories of his homeland because even though he was a slave there, he still loved it. He still had a connection to that place and he starts to say and I wish that I could one day drink the water once again of مجنة, of the spring of مجنة. And if only I could see شامة وطفيلة once again, the mountains of Mecca once again. He's remembering the specifics and that's part of preservation by the way. That's part of preservation. How beautiful that most Muslim kids in the world could draw Palestine on the map as it should be.
And that we don't say Tel Aviv and Hebron. We say Yaffa and Acre and we mentioned all of the names, Khalil and we go through the names of the cities. The culture has not only been preserved of Palestine, but there is a love that people have for its culture that have never even been there and that know certain elements of its dress. You go to the graduations around and you see people wearing the embroidery of Palestine. Why is that? You see the kafiyas, you see it all preserved because it's more than just the Bilal that was expelled now. It's transferred in that regard, but a Muslim's love for a holy land is not like a person's love for their homeland alone. There's an element of that that's being preserved here, a human element. Yes, the one who lived there and was expelled is naturally going to have a greater love. But how did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and how did the Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam cultivate a different love? What unites Mecca and Jerusalem in this regard is that they are both holy lands. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned, laa tashuddurrihal, that journeys, pilgrimages should not be undertaken except to three masjids, Mecca and Medina and al-Aqsa. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam put inside of you, u'tuhu fasallu bihi, go to it and pray in it if you can. You know what that means? That means it's an act of worship for you to formulate the intention to say that I will pray in Masjid al-Aqsa inshaAllah. That's a niya, that's an intention, that's an act of worship that you formulate that I will pray there and if I can't pray there then I will put oil in its lamps. I will connect myself to it. But there is holy land, not just a homeland. There's something different to it that connects you to it. And so you formulate that intention. One of the beauties and the wisdom of how Allah brought then the holy land of Mecca,
al-Masjid al-Haram, to the people of Medina is that as you long for its reward and even though you can no longer go to Masjid al-Haram and pray in Mecca, you go to Masjid al-Quba and you pray two rak'ahs and Allah will write down for you the reward as if you went and you did Umrah. Bringing Mecca to the Ansar and the Muhajireen. Of course this is only one of the benefits of that. But the point is, is that by the end of the Prophet's ﷺ decade in Mecca, the Ansar were more Meccan than Quraysh in Mecca. They had a greater attachment to that place than Quraysh in Mecca did. And this is how Allah ﷻ turns around the days. I asked you to step into Hudaybiyyah for a moment and to look at 1400 people, at least a thousand of them are not even Meccan, are from the people of Medina, are Ansar. And their disappointment in that day, because they wanted to go in there in Mecca, fast forward to the eventual Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ, Hajjat al-Wada' and Hajj is right around the corner and you should connect these scenes to the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. I want you to see it from the perspective of someone who drove the Messenger ﷺ and his people out of Mecca. We thought we drove out a hundred or so of you. Why in the world are there 120,000 of you that are now at our doors? Where did that come from? We drove out a few of you, you are our children, you are our families. We drove out the weakest of you, the Bilaz and the Ibn Mas'ud, not weak in terms of strength in the sight of Allah ﷻ, weak in their weak lens. We drove out the Masakeen, the poor people. We thought this was a family affair and we were just kicking out a handful of you.
How are there 120,000 people now saying, لَبَيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَيْكَ trying to enter into Mecca? Where did all these Meccans come from? They weren't Meccans, they were Muslims. And Allah ﷻ put something in their hearts. Not only could the enemies not see it, but those who were being driven out in the Hijrah, maybe they couldn't perceive it. And here's what I want to put in your heart and your mind about of the wisdoms and the benefits of what is going to come out of all of this insha'Allah after this Nakba, after the expulsion continues, after the consumption of land continues, that when Allah ﷻ frees Palestine and when Masjid al-Aqsa is liberated and when the people return to their rightful homes and when it is being rebuilt, more people in the world will have an attachment to that land than would have been the case had these 70 plus years of catastrophe not been there. You're going to have people, some of you even in this congregation, who converted to Islam through becoming exposed to Palestine, going to Masjid al-Aqsa on the first flight, saying Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, praying in that place. You're going to have Muslims from around the world who otherwise would not have maybe appreciated the significance of Masjid al-Aqsa and the significance of that land, but it was impressed upon them for the last few decades, to when that time comes, it's going to capture a greater sentiment. And so when the scholars say that of the greatest wisdoms and beauties to the Prophet ﷺ of his hijrah, is that he left with a handful of people from Mecca. Allah gave him a city in Medina and a whole bunch of other people to go back with him to Mecca, along with character, along with sincerity, along with steadfastness, along with a renewed commitment that just doesn't come in times of peace. It comes through turmoil.
Those fitan, those tests and tribulations grind out the greatest gems of people, and that's why the greatest gems are showing themselves to be in Gaza, because they're being grinded out of this, and they will lead the way back, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, for the people back to their homeland, and a bunch of other people that will now claim it as their homeland. Because this is the affair. And the last message that I need to, insha'Allah ta'ala, impart, and I can't say this enough, if at this point still we're still treating Palestine like just another nationalist cause, whether it's Palestinians treating it like a nationalist cause, or non-Palestinians dismissing it as a nationalist cause, we're failing to understand this connection. Yes, there's a connection to a place, yes, there's a connection to a masjid, yes, there's a connection to seeking the end of oppression, yes, all of that is supposed to be in your heart, and it's supposed to be passed on to our children. And so when you hear Nakba, don't think about another group of people that were driven out of their homes, think like the Ansar when they saw the Muhajireen, you drove us out of our homes. You drove us out of our homes. Take it personally, you drove us out of our homes, even if I never lived a day in Palestine, you drove us all out of our homes. And so we seek that return fully with the rightful occupants first and foremost being those who were driven out. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala place in our hearts that honour, may Allah place in our hearts that love, may Allah place in our hearts that certainty, may Allah place in our hearts that courage, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to see it materialise in our lifetimes, and if not in our lifetimes, for us to receive the good news of its liberation while we are dwelling in his paradise.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant our brothers and sisters and all of us shahadah, may he allow us to have the reward of shahadah, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us what cools our eyes in this life and in the next, Allahumma ameen. Alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah, Allahumma alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah, Allahumma alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah, Allahumma alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah, Allahumma
alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah, Allahumma
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