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Staying Resilient While the World Lets Palestine Bleed | Webinar
Palestine is being pulverized while the world watches. Images of our brothers and sisters, most of them children, are flooding our circles, and though we’re sharing them incessantly amidst censorship, pushback, and lies, it feels like shouting into a void. There is collective pain in our global ummah on many levels.
How do we deal with the trauma we are witnessing through our screens? How do we cope with feelings of powerlessness, despair, and anguish? How do we cope with the loss of loved ones due to genocide? How can we be courageous and continue to support and lend voice to the oppressed even when the whole world is against us? How can we speak truth to power within our means, especially in the face of threats to our livelihood?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Jazakumullahu khair for joining us today on our program, Staying Resilient While the World Lets Palestine Bleed. This past week has been an emotional roller coaster for so many of us all around the world. There are moments that we felt so proud of our brothers and sisters for resisting occupation to feeling sadness and grief upon seeing the loss of life and destruction in the land of Gaza. Some of us may be feeling a sense of hopelessness and despair as we are so far away and unable to directly support our brothers and sisters in their times of need. Today we hope to have a conversation filled with prophetic wisdom and best practices to give us the necessary attitudes and practices and coping mechanisms so that we can best focus our efforts on staying resilient and helping our brothers and sisters and staying strong for the people of Palestine. My name is Othman Omurji and I'll be moderating today's discussion with my beloved colleagues Sheikh Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sister Najwa who is very well known at Yaqeen as one of the most prolific writers who has written a lot about trauma and resiliency. So I just want to jump into the conversation today. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Waalaikumussalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. So just to start off with, I just want to acknowledge the plethora of emotions that everyone is probably feeling. Again, those moments of optimism, moments of sadness and tears, moments of deep anger and frustration, and then of course just feeling confused because we have no idea what's going to happen, not tomorrow, but literally in this very moment as we're on the verge of so many potentially scary things. And as believers, I just want to remind us all that we always begin to frame our mindsets and our attitudes from the Quran and the Sunnah. And both of those beautiful sources are filled with so much inspiration. They're filled with so many lessons for us on how to train our minds to think about calamity and catastrophes and disasters. So I just want to start this conversation off by asking you, Sheikh Omar, when you read the Quran or you read the Seerah, are there any particular stories that pop out to you, any incidents from the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him,
where you can really draw inspiration to kind of spiritually ground us when it comes to how we react to the situation in Gaza? BarakAllahu feekum. Alhamdulillah wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So yesterday I was speaking about this in the khutbah, sort of the way that the Quran gives us the story of the attitude after Badr. Iftastagheethuna rabbakum fastajabalakum where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions that you made du'a and He answered you and He gave you the angels and you saw the angels as support. And then Uhud where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions wa la tahinoo wa la tahzanoo wa antumul a'launa in kuntum mu'min you're still the exalted ones so long as you're believers. And then finally Khandaq where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says alladheena qala lahum an-naas inna an-naasa qad jama'u lakum fakhshaw hum fazadahum imanan wa qalu hasbuna Allah wa ni'man wakeel those people who when they were, you know, SubhanAllah if there's anything that resembles right now what the people of Gaza are in, it's probably Khandaq, right? People behind the trench, everything cut off from them, even the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is starving, no communication with the outside world, you can't flinch, don't make a mistake, they're trying to attack you from every direction, the largest army that the Arabs have ever known. And I think that's the one that really strikes me personally, but to be honest, all of the seerah, all of the seerah is relevant in some way right now, at a personal level, at a community level. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was able to still build his community, which is just a proof honestly of his prophethood, one of the proofs of his prophethood, he was still able to build this incredible community of Medina without really ever getting a break from the hostility of the outskirts of Medina, that never stopped, and even from the inside of Medina, the hostility, the aggression, the enmity, that never stopped, but look what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was able to build, so even the happy stories that we read,
even the stories of resilience, the stories of their joy, the jokes of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, like when is he racing Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala anha, he's racing Aisha radiAllahu anha on the way to and from battles, when are some of these jokes happening, jokes not that are disconnected from reality, but sometimes to comfort and to quell the anxiety of people, when are some of those light-hearted conversations happening, some of them are happening in the midst of some of the most devastating moments, but what is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la giving, and this is something that I wanted to kind of get to in the khutbah, when is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la giving the believers the greatest optimism? It's when the obstacles are the greatest ahead of them, and so that famous story where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam strikes the stone in the building of the ditch, this is the very first moments of the construction of the ditch, like khandaq is going to get much tougher towards the last week, as is naturally understood, that the anxiety, the starvation, the fears, all of that, things starting to show a little bit of a fault here or there, all of that's going to happen as time goes on in the khandaq, but what did Allah show the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the companions in the very beginning? Some of the scholars say that it was the first day, some say it was the second day, when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam struck the stone, and Salman Al-Farisi R.A. mentioned that a light came out of that stone, and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, وَتَمَّتْ كَرِمَةُ رَبِّكَ and the ayah, and he said, اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ that the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth, لا تَبْدِيلَ لِكَرِمَاتِ اللَّهِ there is no change, there is no changing the decree of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ Allah is greater, and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioning the keys of Rome, the keys of Yemen, that the light is shining from that ditch to the world around,
like think about Allah Azawajal instilling in the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and in the companions this level of optimism in the beginning, and I think that that's really important right now, because I was listening to Benjamin Netanyahu, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la destroy him and humiliate him, and you can make du'a against tyrants and aggressors, and I think that that's an assumption that unfortunately a lot of Muslims don't understand, that you can and should make du'a against oppressors, just as you make du'a for the oppressed, when he said with full arrogance, this is only the beginning, this is only the beginning, so the world is watching children being pulled out of the rubble, children decapitated, indeed children decapitated, not the hoax that was circulated against the Palestinians, children decapitated, and just desperation, people starved off, and you see the arrogance, that this is just the beginning, and I thought to myself Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, as I was preparing for the khutbah and reflecting on khandaq, like what was the beginning of khandaq, there's going to be light that comes after this, it basically is innama al-usri yusra, with every hardship comes ease, some of the ilmah mention that of the beauties of that ayah, and I know that Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sister Najwa and sister Sara co-authored the trauma book at Yaqeen, which by the way is an incredible resource, please go read that book, it is so good, I personally benefited from it, I personally read it word for word and benefited from it, innama al-usri yusra, surah al-duha, with hardship comes ease, some of the scholars say that the beauty of that, is that just at the same time, it's not after the hardship comes ease, Allah legislated the ease along with the hardship, the ease has already been decreed, the ease has already been decreed, with the hardship, when Allah knows best, but it has already been decreed, the victory has already been decreed, the end of this has already been decreed,
we know, wal-aqibatu lil-muttaqeen, we know that victory is for the believers, we know that even if they die, thalikal fawzul kabeer, as Allah azawajal mentions about ashab al-ukhdoot, the people of the transcendence, surah al-burooj, that they have succeeded, and that was something that the enemies could never understand, not back then and not now, fustu Allah, fustu Rabb al-ka'ba, that we are successful so long as we remain believers, so Allah shows us the light from the very beginning, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that, ash-shaheed, ash-shaheed, seize their place in Jannah with the first strike, just like our mother Asiya, alayhi salam, wa radiallahu ta'ala anha, the wife of the Pharaoh, when the Pharaoh of that time, as we have Pharaohs today, when the Pharaoh of that time tried to humiliate her, and excruciate her, his own wife, dhahikat, before the stone hit her, Allah azawajal already took the soul out, so a lot of what we are seeing of tragedy, let's also not lose our tawakkul, let's not lose our trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, at the very beginning of the strike, see that idea, and again, na'niyahu, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala destroy him, yesterday was saying, this is only the beginning, and I kept on thinking, this is only the beginning, the beginning of the trench, was light, before it got really really really dark, for the month after, and the beginning of a person's being hurt, and even if they lose their life, is that they already see their eternal place in paradise, we need, this is a time for us to renew our faith, like I understand subhanAllah that, and sister Najwa is here to write anything that I say wrong here, honestly, especially in the capacity of like mental health, and how we're supposed to keep ourselves, and I don't say that by the way out of false humility, I'm not an expert on mental health, I don't get this stuff,
but I will say that we can say with certainty, this is also a time to renew our iman, it's not just a time to get our mental health right, it's not just a time to, and those two things go hand in hand, right, but it's a time to renew our iman, Allah azawajal said, that when the believers were in the trench, zadahum imana, that when the people, the naysayers said, the odds are stacked against you, it increased them in faith, not that they maintain their iman, it increased them in faith, what I'd like to actually, you know, put forth to our, to everyone that's here, let's be increased in our iman, let's be increased in our iman, when we see our brothers and sisters, still, you know, retaining their faith, as the bombs are falling on them, if they can retain their faith, when the bombs are falling on them, how can we not retain our faith, when we're watching the bombs fall on them, let's increase in our iman, and iman increases, bil amal, right, al amal bil iman, this is a part of the creed of our deen too, that when you act, when you pray, when you exert yourself in prayer, when you exert yourself in good, when you exert yourself in charity, acts of charity, everything that you're doing, renew your intention for the sake of Allah, this will increase your iman, this will increase your faith, so let it increase your faith, let this be a means, if you haven't been praying on time, your five prayers, start now, if you've been slacking in your du'a, let this be the catalyst of your du'a, increase in your faith, and know that, that, look, la tahsan innallaha ma'ana, la tahsan innallaha ma'ahum, don't be afraid, they should say as they're in the trench, Allah is with us, and we should say Allah is with them, and we wanna be with who Allah is with, now make du'a for them, it is tragic, it is hard, you know, look, and I'm gonna end with this inshallah, cause I don't, this is a very long answer to the question, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had a bigger heart than all of us,
azeezun alayhi ma'anittum, hareesun alaykum bil mu'mineen wa ra'ufun wa raheem, what do you think it was like for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to see innocent people killed, what do you think it was like for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to pick up, the mutilated bodies of people after ruhud, like what do you think that was like for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, how does a man with that big of a heart bear that, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam hurt for people, he really, really hurt for people, when he says that the ummah is like one body, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam you better believe, was worried about every fingernail of that body, and it hurt him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when people were hurt, it hurt him, the proof of that, we talk about trying to psychologically break him and mentally break him, is that Abu Jahl, the Firaun of his time, knew that in the boycott, when they boycotted the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Banu Hashim, that if we let the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam hear the cries of the children, it would torture him more, people, the children had no milk, they had no water, and so, imagine the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in his home, and everyone is being tortured, and he can hear the children crying, and Abu Jahl, and the likes of Abu Jahl, Sayyidina Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this is because of you, this is all happening because of you, how does the heart of the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam bear all that, but you know what, we got to have big hearts for our people, we've got to have big hearts for our people, I know this is a webinar, you know someone, I've been getting so many texts, and may Allah reward you all, those of you that have reached out, and people send a text and say, are you okay, and I'm like, am I supposed to be okay, I'm not supposed to be okay right now, we're not supposed to be okay, of course I'm not okay, if I was okay, that would be a problem in my faith, I would think that that's a naqs in my iman, the body has a fever right now, we have a fever right now, we're sleepless and we have fevers, we should, if I'm okay, something is wrong, I don't want to be okay,
but I do want to be productive, I don't want to be okay, I want to be productive, I want to be able to take this pain, that I'm feeling, and not let it paralyze me, but let it be the catalyst for my prayer, I know I've been slacking in my dua, let this be the means, if I can't cry for myself and my own, then let me cry for them, and in dua, al-inkisar bayna yadayillah, I want to take that to Allah, I want to let my not being okay, be the means, or be the reason, for which I do other forms of khair, for those people, so we're not supposed to be okay right now, but we do need to take that not being okay, and turn it into that, which is pleasing to Allah, actually can help our brothers and sisters right now, in Gaza, so may Allah help us to help them, may Allah not allow us, to seek comfort in this all for ourselves, but to seek victory for our brothers and sisters in the process, someone walks up to me and says, how do we deal with all the images, I say listen, it's harder to be those images, than to see those images, it's harder to be those images, than to see those images, so any coping strategy that we have on a personal level, to deal with what we're seeing, should be for the sake of being better for them, and of course you got to put your oxygen mask on, you got to take care of yourself, so that you can take care of them, that's why subhanAllah, we spiritually sustain ourselves with salah, we spiritually sustain ourselves with dua, we remind ourselves, and we hope to increase our imam, in all of this inshallah, wallahu ta'ala. Honestly you touched on so many things, I just want to pick on one thing, which is we're not supposed to be okay, and that means that, when you say that, I think what you're trying to say is that, we're going to feel all these crazy emotions at the same time, and we don't need to suppress those, and be upset at ourselves for feeling those things, one of the emotions that I find,
at least myself having very very often, is anger in this situation, and so I want to talk a little bit about that, because sometimes people talk that, the statement that, well don't be angry, don't be angry, and the way I see it is that, look how can you not be angry, when you see the videos, and the images, and the statements from these arrogant tyrants, may Allah destroy them, and then even those videos, like I watched that video, that settler drinking the water, and mocking the Palestinians, who have no water, and my blood was boiling, and I started thinking about the verse, when Allah says that, the people of hellfire will call up, the people of Jannah saying, pour some water down to us, and Allah is going to say, that that is forbidden to you today, honestly thinking about that verse, like it made me feel good a little bit, so I want to come back a little bit, to this idea of, so anger itself is emotion, that of course, if it's not channeled properly, it can lead to really wrong behaviors, but if it's channeled properly, it can be something, which Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la rewards, so how do we channel, that anger in a way, productive and beneficial, like you've spoken about, maybe Najwa I'll start with you, and then Sheikh Omar you can jump in, So anger actually is, a secondary emotion, there's always, most of the time, there is a primary emotion, behind it, meaning that, because it's so uncomfortable, to deal with that primary emotion, the anger comes up, so oftentimes, it's a sense of hopelessness, it's vulnerability, it's sadness, and it's easier to feel that anger, than to deal with the vulnerability, that a person is experiencing, and so when we tap, into that primary emotion, and we sit with it, and we honor it, then we are able to process through it, so with the situation, with the Zionist, who was proud of, him having water, and the Palestinians not having water, what is that primary emotion? It is a feeling of helplessness,
it's that vulnerability, so working with that, and sitting through that, and then, like you said, anger can be very destructive, it gives us the sense of haste, and in that haste, we can make really rash decisions, so what we want to do is, how can I turn this, this hopelessness, how can I turn this anger, into something, that Allah will be pleased with, and something that can be productive, so I'm going to make sure, inshallah, that I'm going to donate, so that, when things open up, there's going to be water for them, I'm going to make, I'm going to turn this helplessness, instead of letting it, letting it demobilize me, I'm going to use it for good, I'm going to be inspired, I'm going to take that, that negative emotion, and then do well with it, and you know, when we're talking about trauma, you know, the fight or flight response, is normal, but the dangerous, the dangerous response, is when we freeze, so when we are fight, you know, when we're, when we have that, that anger with us, that means that, you know, that is good, that our body, is getting the cue, that we need to take action, that there's something, that we need to do, it's when we sit back, and we get hopeless, you know, helpless, and fall into despair, that we become stuck, and then the, the anger festers, and it becomes even worse, and not just for your mental health, but for your, your spiritual health, SubhanAllah, I would add to that, you know, the description of our Messenger, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, is, the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, never was vengeful for himself, it was never about him, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam, it was about the limits of Allah, being crossed, and the most sacred limit of Allah, SubhanAllah Ta'ala, the Irdh, the dignity, of your brothers and sisters, and so one thing about the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam,
is that, man, people did all sorts of things to him, all sorts of things to him, I mean, you read, like it's, it's very interesting, because you read some of these stories, and you get mad for him, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam, like the types of things that people did to him, and how he responded, and you know, you kind of can take that, and you can, you can say like, like wow, you know, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, what a beautiful man he was, and indeed, what the most beautiful of all, right? But then there is also like, man, if I was there, like Anas Ibn Malik, RadhiAllahu Anhu, when he describes, just you know, the man who, who, you know, lunges at the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and starts grabbing his garment, like suffocating him, and saying, a'tani mimma a'taaka Allah, give me what, give me from what Allah gave me, gave you, give me from what Allah gave you, and Anas, RadhiAllahu Anhu, was like upset for the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, and he said, and he smiled at him, took off the, the garment, you know, and it left marks on his neck, and he gave it to him, and he said, Anas, go take him to Baitul Ma'idah, and give him some charity as well. Anas is like, I'm upset, right? I'm upset for the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. So the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, himself, faced all sorts of disrespect, all sorts of, of harm, and the greatest sign of that, was in Uhud, when they were knocking out, his teeth, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, he was saying, Allahumma khfirli qawmi fa innahum la ya'lamoon. Oh Allah, forgive my people, they don't know any better. But that's for him, that's for him. But when you transgressed his companions, when you transgressed other people, then there was an anger that the Prophet, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, had that was significant. You could see it in him, SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam. And it's not that he was less merciful, it's that he was merciful for them. Why are you angry at the guy who's mocking the people that don't have any water? You have water, we have water, right? We have water with us. Why were you angry for them?
So it's out of your rahma, your mercy for them, that you are so angry, that your anger has to be from a righteous place, and then it has to have a righteous manifestation to it. And so, the ulama even mention in the Quran, wal qa'limina alghayf. Those who swallow their anger, not wal faqilina alghayf, those who don't have anger, right? And we misinterpret that verse sometimes, because like we're never supposed to be mad. No, you're supposed to be mad sometimes, you're supposed to get angry sometimes. And especially, you know, when this is happening, so not for your nafs. Like, look, I can take it for me, but get away from that child in Gaza. Get away from that woman in Gaza, right? I can, and of course, la dharara wala dhirar, not accept oppression for myself, but I'm saying like, you can tolerate some of the infractions, and have hilm, and have forbearance, and that is indeed sunnah, to be able to take certain things, and to bear the ignorance of people. alladhi yukhalitu nas wa yasbidu ala adhaahum wa laAAafina AAan alnaas There's so many different ayat and verses to that, but no, like right now, when you're seeing what's happening to your brothers, and sisters, and innocent people, you better be angry. If you're not angry, again, that's an iman problem. You need to have anger. You should be upset, but where's your anger coming from, and how are you gonna manifest that anger now? So let your anger come from a place of righteousness, and then let it be acted upon in a righteous way, as well, bi-idhninnahi taAAala. And that's where, I'll also say one last thing here, which is, look, how do you know when it's for your nafs, and not for someone else as well? You know, a lot of times, you see people go out to these protests, and I know there are a lot of protests this weekend, right? And I encourage protesting as one means for Palestine right now. I mean, you saw the numbers in London right now.
You saw, like, this is important for us to use what we have, anything at our disposal, right? And you get someone out there sometimes that's acting a fool, right? That's not being helpful at all. That's disrespecting the organizers. That's just confronting random people on the street, all the while, while having their camera on, right? Like, you know, I'm this, this right now. Like, who's that for? Who are you doing this for? Like, and I'm not saying that I can question everyone's intentions, but it does particularly upset me. When I, like, you got someone with their camera on, and that's the era of social media, right? Like, just go out there and act foolish, right? You're not helping anybody. You're not helping the cause at all. So your anger should be from a righteous place, and it should manifest in a righteous way. From a righteous place is like the heart of the messenger, alayhi salatu wasalam, in a righteous way is in accordance with the boundaries and the sunnah and the guidance of the prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam. So obviously not all protests are alike. You know, some of them indeed have elements that are not permissible and things of that sort, but right now, use every platform that you have, inshallah ta'ala. We should use our collective and individual voices to try to raise the plight of the Palestinians who cannot raise their own plight, especially as the internet has gone out and the power has gone out in the West. So that can look good. I wanna pick up on this point about one of the things that adds to this feeling of anger is a language that we see being used in the media constantly to describe the situation. So it's not, this is outside of the images and the videos, but when you hear things, statements put out, X number of Israelis were killed, and then, you know, a large number of Palestinians died, right, as if somehow they just died by themselves, right, and there was no one behind it. And that's also part of what boils your anger. I think a lot about how the, even from like a religious perspective, as much as we're against that, like that wrong use of language in the media, the Qur'an actually, and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la actually attempt to reshape our language as well to bring us hope and optimism.
So I think about the word death, and like, even when it comes to saying they died, that's actually not a Qur'anic approach to it. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, wa la taqoolu lima yiqutalu fee sabeelahi amwat bal-ahyaa Right, like this idea that even we shouldn't allow ourselves to get stuck into the secular framing of saying these things like, oh, they passed away. It's very passive. Like they are living, they're alive. So I just wanted to ask both of you to chime in on how we can possibly reframe things, leveraging like Qur'anic language and prophetic reframing in a way that kind of, again, gives us strength to move forward with this. Sister Najwa, why don't you start inshAllah? I'll let you take the lead. JazakumAllah khair. I think, look, it's really interesting because the Qur'an, like you said, wa la tahsabanna allatheena qutiloo fee sabeelilahi amwata is one, like don't think they're dead. Don't think of them as dead. So that's kind of like more to like your psychology, your framing. And Allah Azawajal also says, wa la tahsabanna allatheena qutiloo fee sabeelilahi amwata Don't say of those who have been killed in the way of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la that they're dead, right? But rather they're alive. But at the same time, innaka mayyitoon wa innahum mayyitoon You will die, salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, and they too will die. So there's obviously the, you know, the sort of physical dimension of this. And then there are the connotations. And Allah Azawajal is indeed telling us to think about how we think about these things, right? The framing and what we're saying and think about the deeper meaning of their words. And so, you know, when they want to use killed and dead and dehumanize. Yeah, I mean, we have to be very careful to first and foremost, not ingest that type of language and framing in ourselves. And what I think of, you know, I think of these people entering into the realm of al-barzakh and being greeted by the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam
and being greeted by the believing souls. You know, by the way, something about Gaza. Gaza was already 60% refugee. There are people that have been moved to Gaza already through other forms of expulsion in different parts of Palestine. And Gaza has lived through a lot of wars already, a lot of bombardments already, a lot of crisis already. So you know what? There isn't a single person that was murdered in Gaza in this last cycle that doesn't have someone that was murdered in one of the previous cycles. That has not sent ahead of them shuhada. You think about the psychology there, right? Every single person who was murdered in this cycle knows someone and is close to someone who has been murdered, you know, two years ago or four years ago or six years ago, right? And so when they're going on to that next life, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, they're seeing the relatives that they once pulled out of the rubble as well. And for these children, these children, you know, I was looking at this kid, I think, and yeah, these images are really hard. The seven-year-old, not seven-year-old, the seven-day-old baby even saw a man whose wife was killed in one of the airstrikes holding the fetus, you know, the miscarried fetus as a result of the airstrikes. SubhanAllah, you know, some of these people came into this dunya for three, four, five days and bi-idhnillahi ta'ala have jannah forever. Jannah forever, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. And so look, we have to comfort ourselves. But not just comfort ourselves with like this, you know, maybe abstract reality. No, no, like our dead are in jannah, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. Amwatuna fil jannah, right? Our dead are in jannah, inshaAllah ta'ala. Qaslaana bi-idhnillahi qablahum fil nar. Exactly, exactly.
And subhanAllah, that's like, it's really interesting that like Allah Azzawajal speaks to the oppressor and the oppressed in the same ayah. Wama kaana rabbuka nasiya Your Lord does not forget is what gives the greatest comfort. Wama kaana rabbuka nasiya Your Lord does not forget is what gives the greatest comfort to the oppressed and the greatest fear to the oppressor. Don't think your Lord has forgotten what you have committed of oppression. And don't think, oh oppressed one, that your Lord has forgotten the oppression that was committed against you. Allah Azzawajal does not forget. And so, yeah, we have to do this in a way that doesn't make us less outraged about the murder, less outraged, like this is the balancing act here. I have no doubt that every single person that has been killed, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, will have the promise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala realized. But I am still just as outraged at the killing taking place itself because that is fasaad fil ardh, that is corruption on the face of this earth. What Allah does with those who are subjected to the corruption of this earth, that's His domain subhanahu wa ta'ala, that's entirely His domain. But what Allah Azzawajal has given me and you and every single person on here, the ability to do to stop that corruption on earth, knowing that it's all ultimately in His hands, that's what I need to worry about as well. So I'm not going to be paralyzed over the domain of the divine that I can't control at all. And I will work within the domain of the divine that He has given me the ability to work within. That makes sense. That's beautiful. I mean, honestly, that statement I want to come back to, to come full circle. Like, I feel like you're saying you feel the pain in your heart and that's not going to disappear
and the anger about the injustice. But up here, you have to reframe it and say, look, like Omar bin Khattab said, like they lost Uhud and, you know, they're sitting there, the kuffar are celebrating saying, look, you know, a day for a day. And it's like, no, no, no, no. At the end of the day, all of our dead, they go to paradise, right? All of your dead, right? They go somewhere far worse, right? They go somewhere terrible, right? And I think that does bring some level of comfort to us. So I want to take that idea and say, okay, like, and I'll pose this to you, Najwa, like, that's a tough thing to do for many people and that's a secondary step. I think what many people, especially for those of us who are really empaths and feel kind of the pain of others, when you watch these videos and you see these images, like you're just feeling their pain and overcome with the sadness and grief. So at that moment, right, before you can get to be able to calmly, you know, rationalize this, do you have any steps that we can use to kind of help us best cope with this and get ourselves into a better frame of mind? Yeah. And it's probably, you know, I love how Shefamar talked about the whole, it's a very big concept in psychology, especially when you're dealing with difficult feelings, oscillating between the difficult feelings and what you have to do, oscillating, going, meaning like if you were to take the metaphor of a fan, you know, everybody has like a fan that kind of goes back and forth in the room, that you, we need to take these feelings and we need to, we need to feel them, right? Because when we suppress them, when we don't acknowledge them, we don't give them their rights, then there is injustice to ourselves, but also the people who are suffering. And so there is good in us feeling our feelings, especially empaths, like this is how we connect with each other. And, you know, there is this aspect of psychology called parts work, where we acknowledge all parts and we thank them for what they, what they're trying to provide us so we can work through them.
So when we are seeing sadness, our goal is not to get rid of the sadness. Like we said earlier, the sadness is justified. Of course, we're going to feel sad. There's going to be, there's something wrong with us if we don't feel sad. So we acknowledge that part and say, thank you, sadness. Thank you, sadness. Because I know I'm connected with my brothers and my sisters. We say, you know, thank you, fear. Because it means that there is urgency in the situation and I need to take action. So we acknowledge those feelings. The difficulty comes in when we get stuck, when the fan gets stuck and it's not able to go. And so what we want to do is we want to feel those feelings and then we need to take care of ourselves so we can take care of other people and be strong for the other people who need it. Right? They don't want us to feel bad with them. They want us to join them in acknowledging the injustice. They want us to feel bad for what's going on. But for us to sit and wallow in despair and immobilize ourselves, I mean, you know, take away our ability to do anything, then we are not doing us a service and we're not helping them either. Right? It shouldn't be done for ourselves. It's done for the sake of Allah. It's done for them. So we want to get into this habit of I am feeling sad, but then I have to go do the dishes. I'm feeling sad and I'm feeling scared, but I have to go take care of my children. Right? Going back and forth. Because routine during this time, I'm sure both of your routines are completely out of whack, right? But as human beings, we need a certain level of routine in order to avoid burnout and in order to keep going. So I feel very upset, but I have to go what I need to do. And I come back. I come back and forth. I'm upset, but I'm going to go for a run because it's going to sustain me. And there's a concept in psychology. It's called containment.
And they found this in trauma work, you know, decades ago, where people would talk about really, really horrific things in therapy, in trauma therapy. And then it's like, okay, time's up. And they go back to the real world. And the therapist found them completely dysregulated. Like, how do you deal with such horrific things? Okay, I'm going to go back to work now. I'm going to go with my family. So there is this technique of containment. And for people who are kind of foreign to therapy, it's going to sound really weird, but it works. It's evidence-based and it works. And so what you do is, you know, you feel your feelings in our day that we're going to have to put them to the side so we can do what we need to do. So I can do this video stream. So I can go and sit with my kids and give them the attention that they need. So what you do is you visualize those feelings as though it's an object in front of you. So my grief is a black cloud and it smells smoky and it's big and I can't see through it. And so you sit there and you put your feelings into that object. And then what you want to do is you want to contain it. You want to compartmentalize it. So I'm going to take this grief and I'm going to put it in a box. It can be any kind of box, a treasure chest, a Tupperware, whatever. You hear all kinds of things. You want to put it in there and you want to use all of your senses. You know, my treasure chest is black and it has gold metal on it. It opens from the top and it's velvet on the inside. You want to use all of those senses. And then you put it in that container. And then you put that container away. I want to put it in my garage. I want to put it under a bunch of blankets. And so the idea is we're not suppressing our emotions. We're practicing putting it away and then bringing it back out when we need to. So right now I'm putting it away for this. And then later when I need to access it, when I need to go to an event or whatever, I'm going to pull it back out and use it. And it's kind of like when you talk about the process and I'm, you know, joking and doing some of these things, you know,
during some of the most difficult times, that's exactly what it reminded me of. So you're able to go back and forth. And that's how we will continue to go. Because even after this passes, there's going to be so much work to do. So we can't burn out now. We have to keep going. We have to stay strong. That was so beautiful. I'll be honest. I have to take hour-long walks pretty much every morning just to decompress and start my day because I just felt overwhelmed. I was like, if I just get on my computer and start working and get those images and get the news, it's too much. I want to quickly just take a moment to let the audience know that we recognize that there are probably many questions on your own minds. We want to give you a chance. So please ask your questions in the chat. And, inshallah, Dr. Omar and Sister Najwa will take those questions live. So please just get those questions going. Maybe one last question as those questions start to come in is that, you know, SubhanAllah, Sheikh Omar, you started with this in the beginning. I want to kind of come back to this towards the end, which is that all these terrible things that are being said, right, cause sadness, they cause grief, they cause anger, they cause all these things. And this is nothing new, right? The Prophet, peace be upon him, and the companions were ridiculed, mocked, all kinds of things. And Allah, SubhanAllah, acknowledged the pain that it caused the Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, right? He said, وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُوا أَنَّكَ يَطِيقُوا سَدْرُكَ بِمَا يَقُولُونَ So, like, Allah is saying to the Prophet, peace be upon him, that we know, like, we know how much pain the words that are out there are causing him. So whether that be the things like today, like, you know, we see like our, who we thought were friends, you know, saying horrible things about the Palestinians, right, people who we look up to, right, in social media saying horrific things, like all those things hurt. And then, of course, even straight to our face sometimes, maybe it's our co-workers or our classmates. Now, what I always think about is that the Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the most beloved of the creation. And Allah, SubhanAllah, could have just wiped those people off the face of the earth if they caused them an iota of pain. But he actually allowed them to do that with his hikmah,
and then he told the Prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon him, what to do. And he told him, وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَكُمْ مِنَ السَّاجِدِينَ that, you know, praise Allah, SubhanAllah, and be amongst those who prostrate and put your head on the ground. I know people often speak about prayer as a coping tool, and I think that's something that's important and we can speak about. But for you specifically, Shaykh Omar, can you please speak about the power of prayer and du'a and dhikr as not simply a coping tool, but actually as part of resistance, actually as part of nasr, and how that fits into this big picture? JazakAllah khair. That's what I want to speak to, but obviously we do want to take our questions from the audience too in that regard. Look, the Prophet, peace be upon him, was able to distinguish between someone who was genuinely ignorant and someone who was intentionally malicious. That's one. And I know that that's really hard because you really don't feel like explaining things to people right now. We only have so much capacity right now, and we're hurt, we're angry. You know, you see someone write something and you're just like, what? Like, come on. So you have to have the hidden, that's part of the forbearance, that some people really just don't know any better. And so someone who's being intentionally malicious versus someone who's just woefully ignorant. And there's a propaganda war, and the reason why there's a propaganda war is because propaganda exploits people's ignorance. So we have to do a better job, by the way, on that note of talking about Palestine outside of when Gaza is being bombed. All right. That's one of the core problems here is that we kind of let it out of sight when there's settler violence, when there is all sorts of incursions and aggressions against Mazal al-Aqsa, all things that are illegal under international law, by the way. And we don't put that forward.
We kind of let it out of sight. And we let the news cycle dictate our emotions. So you have to have a little bit of forbearance and tolerance for the person that's just really ignorant, that just doesn't understand better, and speak to them. That's different between someone like many of the Zionist trolls that are in our chat right now, and those that are on social media, and those that attack maliciously, you know, celebrate the death of Gazan children, and then somehow, you know, come... come at us and say that we're bloodthirsty savages, like, all right, you know. So that's different from someone, your friend at school or at work, who just doesn't know any better, right? And I say, give that person a chance and maybe talk to them. I've had a couple of those conversations, you know, over the last few days. And I had to sort of suppress my emotion and some of the ignorance that was being said. But sometimes it's worth that call. Sometimes it's worth that conversation. Actually, someone who was a professional athlete who reached out and was like, man, I don't know what's going on. You know, the NFL is forcing everyone to do this thing tomorrow. He's not Muslim. And subhanAllah, the guy is, first time speaking to him, he's like, you know, I see what you're posting. I see what's going on. I'm confused because we're getting fed talking points. We're supposed to do all this stuff. Help me understand this. You know, are you OK with 40 babies being killed? I'm like, no, of course not. You know, we put our lives on the line for non-Muslim civilians, by the way, right? Jewish, Christian and otherwise, when they're attacked because we're against that aggression. And by the way, that's fake news. And by the way, you've been duped. Like, oh, really? Like, if I just read his first message and didn't go forward, I would have been like, man,
forget this guy. He's got no hope. And now he is he's trying to put like some charity, like Islamic charities on his cleats for tomorrow, right? Like for Palestine. He's not even Muslim. And I hope he succeeds in that, inshallah to Allah. But like, that's the thing. You've got to have like some hidden for people, some forbearance for the person who really does not know any better because they've been man, they've been fed a lot of garbage, a lot of garbage. Like you turn on CNN for a few minutes and you're just like, what in the world? Like this is CNN. You know, like you're supposed to be mainstream media and you're just sitting there repeating debunked lies over and over again. But I guess if the president can do it, so can you. Right. So you got to understand the woefully ignorant versus the malicious, the intentionally malicious, the intentionally malicious deserve no sympathy from us whatsoever. And, you know, I pray that they that they they face the consequences from from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for their intentional malice and for the the woefully ignorant. May Allah forgive them and guide them and help them see the truth of this and many other things in that process. And we've got to have a bigger heart for them. But with that being said, when you get the power structures and all that, that is a sort of parroting, parroting this dehumanizing rhetoric. No challenge that we have to challenge that. And I know that there is a concept of like, you know, we can't be we can't be too loud right now. What what if this happens? What if that happens? Look, we've got this is a very, very different time. This is a turning point. Um, we can't wait anymore. Be smart. Be but be courageous. We can't wait any longer. We have to raise our voices. Whoever has a voice, raise it in any way that you can,
inshallah ta'ala. And when it comes to prayer and dua, look, if I got 30 million retweets or whatever it is, whatever you call that platform now, telling Jordan Peterson to go to hell, I put more value in a single dua between me and Allah subhana wa ta'ala, one private dua to Allah subhana wa ta'ala and find that to be far more effective because there's nothing more effective than your dua. There's nothing more effective than your supplication. So supplicate to Allah subhana wa ta'ala and realize that there is no such thing as a pointless dua. No such thing as a pointless dua. Not one sincere dua will ever be in vain. Leave it to Allah subhana wa ta'ala at that point. You're not just coping. You are actually contributing with your dua inshallah ta'ala. Last thing I'll say inshallah really quickly. Um, you know, the Muslim ummah is like a body. So just like we feel the pain of other parts of the body, we don't cause pain to other parts of the body too. So you got to strengthen your part of the body, uh, hold up your end of the bargain. That means that your general righteousness or your general wickedness affects the entire body too outside of Palestine, right? So make sure that you're a stronger part of the body, not a weaker part of the body and not self-inflicting harm in other ways, uh, as you're trying to help your brothers and sisters in Palestine. Salaam alaikum. Elijah, you want anything? We can jump to the questions or else. Um, well, you know, when you talk about doing our, our part, you know, it's a kind of like, I think there is some sense of like survivor's guilt, right? Maybe not in a traditional sense, like you are in a car accident and you make it and the other person doesn't, but it's like we are on the outside and we're not able to see and we're not able to, we feel like we're not
able to help those on the, on the inside. And I think that's what, you know, contributes to people feeling, um, to people feeling stuck. Allah has given all of us different abilities, you know, and we have to use our God given talents in order to, to, to help in any way that we can. So some people might be good at, you know, uh, getting people together, organizing events, go organize events. And some people are like, maybe they're good at art, go make posters, go make community artwork. Uh, some people might say, well, I'm not good at anything. I'm not good at, I, all I can do is make food and tea. Then go take it to the protesters. We all have to do our part because we have to take back the narrative. There's a very dominant narrative, like you said, with CNN and all these people, and that's their goal, right? It's not just to, um, you know, take away that power from the Palestinians, but it's also to make us feel weak. And so it is our responsibility to take that narrative and to reframe it and empower ourselves inshallah. Actually, the question that's coming in is exactly related to this. So I think we can build on it. Um, a question from Nahid Rahman said, would you please remind us, remind us of some hadith or Quranic ayat that will give us hope there's something to look forward to regarding Palestine. So maybe a couple of du'as or, um, ayat that you both find inspirational. Um, as you're thinking, the obvious thing comes to my mind is, you know, I know for me specifically, I was just going to say, you know, um, there is a hadith about like, you know, the ummah is like, um, it's one, um, it's like one body, you know, when you have the one part, the whole part is affected. But now there's another hadith that the ummah is also like, um, a believer to another believer is like a building whose
different parts enforce each other. And so, you know, we, we feel pain from each other, but we also can help support each other. And so by us showing up and doing our part and being strong for them and helping them as much as we can, inshallah, I pray that we can, you know, help up with them. Wonderful. From one of the first verses that was revealed to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in Medina was Surah As-Saff. And what you like even beyond Jannah, what you like, because Allah Azawajal already mentioned paradise and, and the promises there, but, um, you know, Allah Azawajal then said, uh, his aid and his victory. It's close. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la revealed at the end, right? It came now. So it's close. And then it came, uh, our entire deen is it's close and it's coming, uh, and then it's close. And then it came. Uh, so it's going to, um, inshallah, ta'ala change. And, you know, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam talked about Palestine. He talked about Masjid Al-Aqsa. He talked about the end, but the end of this ummah is khair, the end of this ummah as a whole is goodness. And, um, you know, I was reflecting even again, like, like you read about South Africa and anti-apartheid activism in South Africa, like, you know, majority of them were not believers. There were many Muslims involved in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Uh, but if they could, if they could persevere and see the light at the end of the tunnel facing apartheid, the mammoth of apartheid, what about a people of iman, people of faith? And so, like, I think that we have something
far greater. And by the way, I see that there are a lot of, uh, not just non-Muslim, uh, uh, non-Muslims in the chat, but there are some people that are not Muslim, but they want to stand with Palestine. Um, you know, we appreciate you and, and we thank you for that. And that's a part of a natural, you know, the fitra is, is belief in God. It's also, you know, towards those things that Allah, that God has put inside of us. And so, um, we appreciate that, um, that solidarity, um, you know, from you as well. I'll just add a couple of things that, um, I, gives me a lot of solaces, uh, repeating la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah, to kind of build off what you said, Sheikh Omar, like this constant reminder that nothing, no, there's no power out there. There's no might, there's no ability for anything to happen, except if Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la wills it and He allows it. And everything that He wills happens with His wisdom. And then hasbunAllah wa ni'mal wakil, you mentioned that entire issue of the khandaq and, and that this is the, when there, when there's a moment of fear, right, that increases us in faith, the response is, why, why is it, why should there be an increase in faith, right? It's because Allah is enough for us, right? It's, it's, we don't expect, right, the world, um, to join, especially, you know, the Western powers, uh, to, to support the plight of the Palestinians. But if we have Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, then that is sufficient for us. So I'll go to the next question, which is from Aisha Muhammad. And her question is, how do we navigate the workplace, uh, environment and, and kind of the interviews that we get asked to do as Muslims? There are some of the US-based companies who are now profiling Muslims, uh, and firing them on the basis of supporting Palestine. So I would say, um, you know, just an experience this morning, by the way, um, I'm very hesitant, obviously, with, with the media right now, with the mainstream media and the way that they're splicing interviews. Like I got, I got a text, uh, yesterday
morning, uh, from a mainstream interviewer. And I'm not like, I wish I was making this up. I couldn't believe what I was reading, but, uh, how are Muslims playing to respond to the global day of jihad called by Hamas on Friday? Uh, by the way, it's Saturday. Uh, I hope, uh, you all saw what happened, uh, yesterday around the country, because clearly our masjids, we were just burning flags and shouting and, and doing all sorts of horrible things. I mean, it was a mainstream. I was like, are you serious? Are you serious right now? Right. So it's like, this is, this is the level of, of, of craziness that we're dealing with. Um, when it comes to the media narrative and how this is being spun, um, and, and how Muslims it's kind of like nine 11, all over again, right? Like right after nine 11, do you condemn, what are you going to do about this? And how are you, uh, you know, uh, how are you going to stop extremism in your community? It's like, how are you going to stop the bombing of people to pieces in one of the worst war crimes that we've seen in recent years? Uh, so it's, it's tiring. It's exhausting. I'll say this. Um, this is very, I think from a strategic perspective, when I say that, um, uh, it's important to not put everyone in the same, the same, uh, box here. I just came from the Indian American Muslim, uh, councils, convention, and may Allah be with our brothers and sisters in India, 200 million Muslims, 10% of the body. And they're facing the tactics, uh, of the Modi regime, which is very similar to the Netanyahu regime, fascism in India and fascism in Israel are twins, uh, that you got the citizenship act in India. You have the Jewish nation state law in, in, in Israel, you know, uh, attacking the Palestinians and literally robbing them of any, any type of human dignity. It's being done to Indian Muslims. You got lynchings and bulldozings of homes, um, all sorts of things, right? Very similar. A lot of the tech wars, uh, the bots, many of whom are in this chat right now,
I'm sure are based out of India. Uh, so Israeli and India, Indian propaganda, uh, work hand in hand. And there was a reporter there who had, um, you know, uh, reached out for an interview to me. And I turned down the interview, not understanding, um, you know, or not, not, not anticipating that it was going to be, um, you know, done in a fair way. Uh, but, but it was done in writing. And when I met the actual reporter, I was actually really, really pleasantly surprised that they were there this morning at the IAMC convention covering, um, you know, what sort of the, the, the relationship between the plight of Indian Muslims and the plight of, of, of the Palestinians, um, against fascism. Uh, all this to say, um, when you have the access in your company or, or you have the access, um, in, in, in any type of place where you can actually request a private sit down, do so. Uh, so some people need to be shamed in public. Some people need to be approached in private. And sometimes those conversations behind the scenes can actually reshape a lot of what ends up coming out in the public. I know that a lot of these conversations have been happening in certain newsrooms. I see, I can't speak of them, um, publicly, but I'm, I'm, I'm privately, uh, privy to a lot of them. And I see the, I see the shift, um, in some of these places, some of these corporations, um, most of them just, just say, uh, you know, uh, uh, I don't, I don't know of a nice way to say basically get lost, uh, when they're approached, um, these powerful billionaires and, and, you know, and, and, uh, people that, that are in very influential places that really don't care to hear even, uh, their, you know, some of their own partners, uh, within corporations and firms. But there have been some that have surprisingly responded to like a private email and said, all right, I'm, I'm open to a conversation, help me understand this. And then you can see the shift done in what comes out of that, uh, that place. And so I think if
you're in a place where you can send that email from a place of concern, um, it's gotta be a dual prong strategy. You gotta have the sort of the justice oriented, uh, side of this. And then you gotta have the person that says, I'm concerned about this and let's have a conversation about it because I want you to hear what you're not, what you're clearly not hearing. Um, and that could shift things in the public as well. I'll give an example of that just to chime in a group of brothers in the community who I, you know, very dear to me. And, uh, they said that they sent a letter that they got 55 people in their, in their tech company to sign that, you know, they felt that the message was, was imbalanced and, and, you know, that was coming out because people had no shame in, in saying things that were pro-Israeli and the company took that. And actually they put out a statement that, um, look, it's at the end of the day, it's PC, right? It's not pro-Palestinian, but it was saying, look, we just, we acknowledge that there's loss of life. We mourn loss of life, right? Like, I think that is a victory, right? And then it being purely, purely one-sided. So, you know, just cause you can't achieve it all doesn't mean you should abandon it all. Um, I want you to actually, I actually hear this out, like just to see what this is about. In the NFL right now, where they're doing these moments of silence, the NFL refused to even mention Palestinian lives after the Israel attack. Right. When they said like the attack on Israeli civilians, they refused, like, like they're not even willing to all lives matter it. Uh, some companies will kind of budge and like, okay, like civilian life is a tragedy. We pray for civilian loss, uh, in Israel and Gaza. Like some companies are at least willing to kind of at least all lives matter this thing. And you know, some of these corporations won't even all lives matter, which just shows you how, how hateful and spiteful and malicious they actually are and how dominated, um, they are by this despicable dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Uh, it, it really is sick. Uh, so, but, but, but do, do what you can,
if you can, you can at least get people to acknowledge Palestinian humanity and not, uh, not go after, uh, you know, folks for just voicing their conscience and speaking up for justice and then definitely do so. So sometimes those letters look, there's, there's a, a GM of an NBA team who responded to a private email from just a random community member. And it's led to an engagement that we're trying to have right now about their statement. I mean, it was, it was actually fascinating, right? Just someone wrote an email, just a normal community member to the, to the GM of an NBA team. And the guy actually responded and said, I'm willing to talk about the statement and see what we can do. And we're organizing a conversation for this afternoon. So you never know. That's incredible. MashaAllah. Right. So that's part of the optimism, right? You never know that little bit, the little deed, right? If you're sincere, how far it can go. Okay. One more question coming up from, uh, our sister Olivia Harris, she's asking that, are these events a sign of the day of judgment? Absolutely. Um, look, there, there are many signs of the day of judgment that have happened. Um, but one of them, uh, even if you just, if you just take away the sanctity of Al-Aqsa itself, the sanctity of Jerusalem itself, one of them is Al-Harj, just senseless killing. Look, there was a, you know, there was an idea, you know, at some point that, you know, one of the reasons why some of the catastrophes that happened in the 20th century, you know, um, from, from the Holocaust to then going into Bosnia and so many other things is that there wasn't coverage that it happened in the dark. Right. And that if people saw it, they wouldn't let it happen. I think that there has been plenty of evidence now that people can be brutalized on the screens of, of, of, of, of, you know, people around the world and the world will, will not do anything about it. That in and of itself, it's not just the corruption, it's the desensitization towards that corruption. It's when people become okay with this stuff, uh, to see the murder, uh, of,
of, of so many people, people starve to death, uh, bombing of hospitals. I mean, name a war crime and Gaza is facing it right now. Right. Name a war crime. Gaza is facing it. Right. And people, Gaza is facing it. Right. And people don't care. A lot of people don't care. You care. Those of you that are on this webinar, may Allah bless you. A lot of you care. And I assume all of you care and want to do something about it. But the prophets, like some talks about the desensitization of this all towards us all. But I will say this, cause we do need to end on a, on, on, on, on a hopeful note, inshallah. Uh, cause it's important. Look, if you lived during the Crusades where the Crusaders, um, uh, massacred, um, Muslims, in fact, uh, Jews, in fact, uh, other Christians and, uh, rode through Jerusalem with the blood to their horse's knees and, and, and eight people, uh, and, and desecrated everything that was sacred. And there was no Adhan in Al-Aqsa for almost an entire century. And while that's happening, you know, there's havoc being wreaked on every single part, you know, of the Ummah. Like you would have probably thought the day of judgments tomorrow, like there is no way we're reaching the year 1300. Right? You would have thought there's no way we're reaching the year 1300. Here we are, it's 2023. So the point is, is that when we see these signs of the day of judgment, they don't need to be signs of the day of judgment to be evil. And what Allah Azawajal has tasked you with is when you see evil, change it with your hand. If you can't change it with your hand, change it with your tongue. If you can't speak about it with your tongue, at least hate it in your heart. And that is the weakest of iman. So you have a responsibility to when you see munkar to do something about the munkar, whether the evil, munkar being evil, whether it's a sign of the day of judgment or not.
All right. Another question coming from Nuri Ali. Is there a specific surah that we should recite for the cause of Palestinian freedom? Not a specific surah. But a dua, and the best dua, you know, we have, we've actually posted at Yaqeen's website duas for people that are oppressed, and you can find them like the fortress of the muslim, hassan al muslim, which is a great compilation of duas, duas for the oppressed. But the best dua, the best supplication is your personal supplication at the end of the day. Make dua in your own language. Just give it a few minutes every single night and just make dua in your own language for the people. Let it be sincere from your heart. I'll add to that just one of the surahs that I find to be just very helpful in processing a lot of this. And because it shows us that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, like, even though, even at the time of the prophet peace be upon him, like the muslims, you know, and even, you know, the tribe of bin al-udir, they did not think that, like, that enemy could be overcome. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with his power can overcome any force that's out there. And then also what I found beautiful about that surah was that, like, we have this notion sometimes that, like, you know, the oppressors are united. And if you look right now at Netanyahu and the people within, you know, Israel are incredibly divided, right? I mean, because they recognize what an absolute failure he is. But when you read these ayat where it says, like, you know, you think that their hearts are united, right, but they're actually divided. I think it gives us a lot of solace for today as well. So I think there's surahs that have tafsir. I think, like you mentioned, surah al-Ahzab, going back and reading the ayat about the khandaq and how seeing people attack muslims can actually be a way to increase our faith. So those are some surahs that I think might be helpful for us. All right, so we got another question coming up, and we're almost done here. Coming from BioQuantized. What actions can we do to help those in Palestine? So any specific actions we can do?
Yeah, look, raise awareness, donate, you know, where you see organizations of legitimacy, inshallah ta'ala, that will have access. And continue to be engaged with the cause from a strategic perspective. You can volunteer where you're at. You know, I think Sister Najwa mentioned this. Look, you can find a role, but find out who's organizing where you are, inshallah ta'ala, and join them in their efforts, inshallah ta'ala. You can find a role in any way. I'd also, you know, shout out to AMP, American Muslims for Palestine. Put out, like, some great toolkits, inshallah ta'ala. So look up the AMP website, American Muslims for Palestine, some of the toolkits that they put out on how to get involved. Wonderful. Yeah, and just about donation, there should be, in the chat, people can find a link to donate. So that's an organization, the UNRWA. So with that, inshallah, I think we're actually... Let's put out, like, Betulmal. Like, there are some organizations that are there. You know, I know Pious Projects out of Chicago. So just right now, you got to understand that there are organizations... Right now, no one's getting through. Unfortunately, right now, no one is getting through. But organizations that had the infrastructure that were already present around the area, we don't want them to be depleted once they're able to get through. We want them to have the full threat, inshallah, to be able to go forth with their supplies. So I feel very hesitant, like, sometimes recommending specific organizations. But I would say, you know, those who are there, inshallah ta'ala, already make sure that we were able to get there, inshallah. So we are about at our time. So inshallah, we'll wrap it up. I hope you've all found this beneficial as a source of giving us tools for resiliency, coping, and ways to strengthen ourselves for our brothers and sisters who are in Palestine.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give them victory, to give them steadfastness, to remove the oppressors. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be in their aid and to give us all victory ultimately in al-akhirah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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