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Putting Justice Into Practice: on the George Floyd Murder and Police Brutality

June 6, 2020Dr. Tahir Wyatt

In this historic khutbah delivered at Philadelphia City Hall amidst protests over police violence and racial inequality, Dr. Tahir Wyatt talks about the Quranic injunction of standing for justice and the prophetic teachings of human equality.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest. As'hadu an la ilaha illallah. As'hadu an la ilaha illallah. As'hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah. As'hadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah. Hayal al salah. Hayal al salah. Hayal al falah. Hayal al falah. Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah.
There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. There is no god but Allah. They see a ghalib, somebody oppressing others amongst them, somebody who is a proponent of injustice amongst them and they don't take him by the hand. In other words, they don't stop this wrongdoing.
Except that Allah will encompass them all with punishment. We can't be complicit. We can't be... when we are complicit with injustice, that we are subjecting ourselves into a talent, not just the one who is going wrong, but we subject ourselves as a whole to divine retribution. And that's scary. And we should be afraid. And this is why our Prophet ﷺ said, amongst his companions, wa'itzu al-adhaa al-adhaa ila al-maghluma, help your brother, whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed. They said, O Messenger of Allah, we know how to help the one who is oppressed. How do we help the oppressor? What does that mean? And the Prophet ﷺ said, stop him from his oppression. Stop him from his oppression. Now, that stopping is governed by the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, which said to us, wa ra'a amulkum min faraq, qal yawahirhu biya'idhu, whoever from amongst you sees evil, you let him change it with his hand. wa ghanna mislazir, rabi'i saniyya. But if you can't change it with his hand, it's not in your authority to do so with your hand. Changing it with your hand is going to lead to a larger evil. wa ghanna mislazir, rabi'i saniyya. Now let him change it with his tongue. And most of us have the ability to do that. The only thing that stops us many times from changing something with our tongue is that we're cowards. Is that we're scared to say something. You're around somebody who's saying something that is racist, and you're silent. No, you can say something, and you have to say something.
Today, from today on, you can't allow that to happen in your presence. You have to take a vow to yourself that you're going to be an agent of change. wa ghanna mislazir, rabi'i saniyya. Whoever can't do it with his tongue, qal yawahirhu biya'idhu, that is the ab'a'amulkum min, then let him change it with his heart, and that is the weakest of faith. In other words, you can't be indifferent. Even if you feel like at that moment, you can't say something. You cannot feel something about that. You can't become desensitized to the racism that is systemic, that has become a part of the fabric of so many institutions. We can't just be silent. It's not okay. And for those of you who are privileged, don't feel bad because of your privilege. Don't feel bad. Don't feel guilty. It's not your fault, and there's nothing wrong with being privileged. If a love creates you white, you're not guilty for that. If a love made you parents that had the ability to send you to the best schools, you don't need to feel guilty for that. There are a lot of people who suffer from guilt. But here's the deal. It's not enough to say, I identify with the victim. We feel bad about what happened to the victim. That's not enough anymore. You who have been given that privilege, you have to be the first people to address the victimizers, because they're like you. You have to be the first to confront the aggressors,
because they're like you. They're not like you in the sense that they hold your beliefs honestly, but they're like you in that they share a certain privilege that many other people in this society have been denied. And so when we talk about what are we going to do, this problem is a centuries-old problem that didn't happen overnight, and we're not going to just automatically change systems overnight. But we can start with ourselves. And for those of you who have political influence, you know elected officials, you know CEOs of large companies, you know people of influence, athletes, other people, you have to allow your voice to be heard. You have to take that struggle to those people who otherwise will not listen. Let your voices be heard. And let this be the wake-up call that many of us needed to affect positive change and not to allow things to just go back to the status quo. Brothers and sisters in Islam, to conclude, we must recognize that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made us the caretakers of this country. He has made us the khulafat. It may not be the reality in some places that we are in those positions to be the caretakers, but nonetheless, this is our kumra. We are caretakers. Wherever we are, wherever we are, we should affect positive change. We cannot be bystanders. We cannot turn a blind eye to corruption and oppression. We are the caretakers of this country.
There are over 250,000 of us in this city alone. And if we were more organized, if we came together to strategize, then we definitely could affect change. But that's for the leaders to do. That's for the leaders to figure out. And we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guides them and us to figure that out. At the same time, we can all play a role. We have to now incorporate the teachings of Islam in our social lives. The teachings of Islam are not restricted to personal worship. It's not restricted to zakat or fasting for the month of Ramadan or praying or making hajj. Islam is not restricted to that. It has to penetrate every aspect of our lives. One of our teachings is that whoever believes in Allah, the last day that I'm honored, is neighbor. We all have neighbors. Do our neighbors know us for our kindness, for speaking to them, for being people who contribute positively to the neighborhood, for being honest businessmen and businesswomen? Do our neighbors know us for that power? How do they know us? How do they not know us at all? You know, we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to take these teachings to the people and not let them stop at us. In fact, brothers and sisters in Islam, as we talk about this fight for justice, we talk about upholding the rights that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to people and claiming those rights. Let us not forget. Let us not forget the rights that the Creator has over us. Oftentimes, oftentimes, we get caught up in one struggle and we forget a larger struggle.
The Creator has rights over us. The greatest of those rights is that we worship Him alone and that we don't involve ourselves in any form of idolatry. That we worship the Creator alone, that we become true slaves of Allah. And when we become slaves of Allah, we are free from bondage to His creation and to created systems. And our hope and our fear and our reliance and our trust is upon Allah alone. And it's not upon any system to give us those rights because those rights are God-given. And when we get to that point, that is real. That is real power. And that is the highest form of nobility, that we are slaves to Allah and slaves to nothing else. And we bow down as we are going to do in a minute, inshallah, that we prostrate only to God. That we don't bow to any system. And that we don't prostrate to any system. But that we stand up for justice. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to bring healing to this nation and to make this a safe and secure nation. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to bring justice to those who have been oppressed. وَمَنْ عَقِلَنَا وَلِيَخَائِلُ الَّذِينَ سَبُوكُنَ بِالإِمَانِ وَلَا سَجَعَلْ فِي الْقُطُوبِنَا وَفِي الَّذِينَ آمُونُ رَبَّنَا إِذَا فَرَقُنْ فُرَحِمْ رَبِّنَا الصَّالِحَةِ
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