# The Most Amazing Wedding I’ve Ever Been To | Dr. Omar Suleiman's South Africa Tour 2025

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Lecture
**Published:** 2025-05-14
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/FOvncX_e2cQ
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/khutbah/the-most-amazing-wedding-ive-ever-been-to-south-africa-tour-2025
**Topics:** Family & Community, Identity, Politics & Practical Theology

## Description
At a wedding in a Syrian refugee example, Dr. Omar Suleiman experienced a powerful example of what it means to be an ummah. Allah says about the Muslims, “You are the best ummah (community) ever raised for humanity” (Qur’an, 3:110). What does it mean to truly be an ummah? How are we bound together...

## Transcript
**[0:00]** As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, dear brothers and sisters. So I remember a few years ago, I was visiting the Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, and subhanAllah,

**[0:15]** I'd been to Zaatari and Mafraq and these different places multiple times, and every time you would go, you would see the growing number of refugees, you'd feel a greater sense of despair, and you helped out a few, but you neglected a lot, and you're wondering,

**[0:31]** you know, is this really making a difference in people's lives? And I remember in one of those journeys, coming across this seeming walimah that was taking place in the refugee camp, meaning instead of people passing out boxes of food, they

**[0:47]** were passing out plates of rice and lamb, right, and I'm like, who in the world is passing out ruz and kharoof, right, like lamb and rice, in the middle of these refugee camps, and mashAllah, they had reached multiple people, and I asked one of the volunteers, what's

**[1:03]** happening here? And he said, this is a wedding. I thought that maybe this was a Syrian wedding, you know, it could have either been that there were some people within the camps that were getting married, and they had maybe an employer outside of the camps that was, you know, sponsoring the food or whatever it may be,

**[1:22]** or it was a Syrian that cared for, you know, their own people in that sense, and was sponsoring the food or having a wedding there, but subhanAllah, to my surprise, it was a couple from South Africa that decided to do their wedding in a Syrian refugee camp, instead of doing their

**[1:39]** walimah back home, where the people who already eat, eat more, where those who are privileged to be able to party, party more, where we come together, and we do what we always do. Not that there's anything wrong with weddings, if they're done halal, of course, and without

**[1:55]** extravagance, but they said, you know what, let's do this walimah with people who don't get to eat, with people who don't get to find joy, with people who don't get to celebrate. SubhanAllah, I never stopped thinking about that, and if that couple is watching, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you all, and allow you to be an example for others.

**[2:13]** And I thought to myself, if only more Muslims did this, and more importantly, if only more Muslims felt like this, like this is the meaning of ummah, what brings a couple from South Africa to the border of Syria, to do their walimah there, except for what the Prophet

**[2:28]** sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us about ummah. Alhamdulillah, I mean, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa, and to deliver three lectures in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban, on the topic of a determined ummah. And I wanted to dig deep into some of these concepts that I've been thinking about, especially

**[2:46]** in light of Gaza, and everything that's happening in Yemen, in Syria, in Kashmir, and beyond. And I wanted to dig into the concepts that come from the Qur'an, about what it means to be an ummah that continues to move forward.

**[3:01]** Starting with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the imam of this ummah, and the concept of ulu al-'azm min ar-rusul, those who possess great determination from the messengers of Allah. Going into the concept of tamkin, like when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala settles a people

**[3:17]** in righteousness, to the concept of imamah, who are the imams of this ummah. And it came through various reflections, I was sitting with Shaykh Ali Hammuda, and Shaykh Ali Hammuda was recalling something about 'Utbah bin Ghazwan radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and this

**[3:33]** was a narration I taught in the Firsts, right? But it feels different after Gaza. And I'm just walking out of teaching on the Firsts once again, and everything feels different after Gaza. Well, it's giving us a new layer to reflect on, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala.

**[3:48]** So inshallah ta'ala, over the next few weeks, you're going to be seeing these lectures released, A Determined Ummah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala take us from strength to strength. This was the du'a that I learned in South Africa, they would say, may Allah take you from strength to strength. May Allah take us from strength to strength, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us

**[4:06]** to overcome our weaknesses, at the individual level and at the collective level. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring this ummah to greatness, as we have a great prophet, a great leader, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who gave us an example of what greatness looks like in the most comprehensive sense of the word.

**[4:23]** May Allah truly make us great, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward our brothers and sisters that are struggling and striving on our behalf, and may Allah 'azza wa jall place us in solidarity with them, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give victory to this ummah. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran, wa as-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

## Other Episodes in "Lecture"
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- [The People of Gaza Are Undisplaceable | Dr. Omar Suleiman](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/lecture/the-people-of-gaza-are-undisplaceable-dr-omar-suleiman.md)
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