The Ummah will be revived as foretold by the Messenger of Allah. But what is the Muslim woman’s role in its revival? Why do the enemies of Islam in the establishment target and vilify the practices of Muslim women in particular? Do they realize our power more than even we do?
All of these questions and more, answered in this compelling speech delivered by Fatima Barkatulla in May 2015, in British Columbia, Canada.
Have you been loving him in a shape or a gene Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
in Al Hamdulillah Nakamoto who want to stay in a war or in a stock photo when I ought to be letting him in surely unforeseen out I mean, say Dr. Medina, manga de la sala de la la la woman, Lil fella ha de la
Chateau a la ilaha illallah wa de vous la sharika shadow anna Muhammadan Abu rasuluh.
Indeed, who praises you to Allah, we praise Him, we seek His guidance, we seek His forgiveness, we seek his help. Whomsoever Allah guides, men can misguide. And whomsoever Allah leaves astray, lancom guide, I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah alone without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is His Servant and Messenger.
dear sisters, Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Sisters, when you listen to the news,
and you hear about our brothers and sisters, in far off lands, whether you hear about, you know, Muslims who are starving on boats trying to desperately migrate from one place to another, or being gassed by tyrannical regimes, or sentenced to death, as we heard today.
In Egypt, for being believers who dared to win an election,
you'd be forgiven to, you'd be forgiven for believing that we are in a uniquely low position in the history of Islam.
When you read about the prison, that is Gaza, and how our brothers and sisters are systematically persecuted there, or the RO Ro hinga, Muslims, who are being ethnically cleansed from Burma from Myanma
you may feel sure that the suffering of Muslims has never been worse.
And when you see the hatred, we'll hear about the misinformation and the demonization of Muslims on television,
you may feel that Muslims have never been weaker, and never been more despised than they are in our times.
However, I want you to just think back. Well, I just want you to imagine
that you were alive in 1258 1258. At the time when the Mongols
pillaged Baghdad, and Baghdad was the capital of the, you know, the Islamic caliphate at the time. And the Mongols. They were a force that
was so savage and so fierce. Everybody feared them. They didn't differentiate between Mad Men, women, children, civilians, you know, combatants, non combatants. They just destroyed everything in their wake.
And they did the center, but that they took the books from the libraries, hundreds and hundreds of books and threw them into the river. They killed men, women and children, hundreds and 1000s in one day.
And they killed the halifa who was the leader of the Muslims at the time.
And so the Muslim Omar for two years actually had no leader.
Imagine living at that time.
I'm sure a Muslim at that time might have felt that Subhanallah the Muslim one was never seen a worse time than this.
Or imagine.
If you were in Spain, in 1492 when Ferdinand and Isabella King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
captured Grenada, which was a Muslim city at the time, and forced the Muslims who were left there to either convert to Christianity or die. They had no other option.
And so hundreds and 1000s of Muslims who were living in Spain at the time and who had not known a home had not known a homeland except Spain. You know, they've been there for centuries they had the great great grandparents have been born in Spain is as far as they were concerned. This one
their country,
hundreds of 1000s of them, converted or pretended to convert to Christianity, and continue to secretly practice Islam in the homes. And these people will call the moriscos.
for 100 years, they preserve their Islam secretly, in their homes. They continue to teach Islam they continue to pray. But when they went out into the public space, they would go to church, they would publicly display themselves as Christians. They have to leave their houses open and accessible to the police, the Spanish police so that at any time the police could walk in and check and make sure that they will not secretly Muslim.
Can you imagine living under a police state such as that. And if there was any doubt about a particular person or family, but they were actually Muslim, or they were practicing Islam, then the government would execute those people. So So Pamela 400 years, those Muslims, they kept holding on to the Islam secretly.
And then in
1609, King Philip of Spain, decided that actually, the moriscos were probably not really Christians. And because he suspected them so much, he actually expelled them from Spain completely. So by 1614, Spain was ethnically cleansed of the Muslims. And when the Muslims heard that they were going to be thrown out anyway, the moriscos.
For the first time, in 100 years, the mosque started to
sound with the sound of loud me in the streets. And people just came out and said, we're just going to publicly be Muslims, because they knew that they were being thrown out anyway. And they didn't care anymore.
So imagine living at that time under that kind of pressure and oppression.
And imagine something a lot more recent. In 1917.
You weren't you wake up in the morning, you put your radio on.
And you hear that general Edmund Allenby has marched into Jerusalem,
and must be the oxer has been taken over.
Imagine how you'd feel as a Muslim? You know, this is a real low point, you'd think.
So what I'm getting at sisters is that every single generation, every single people, every single
ethnicity of Muslims have their unique challenges. They have the unique tests, and the unique opportunities.
And all of us as Muslims, we are in a relay race, in a relay race where it's like, a few races and you run and then you get to the finish line. But before you get to the finish line, well, as you get to the finish line, you must pass the baton on to the next person. And then your race is over. And the next person has to start their race. We are also in a relay race. Time is ticking away. And we have to finish our race. But before we finish our race, so as we finish our race, we have to
have spent that race pleasing Allah pleasing our Creator
and passing on
the message to the next generation to the next person who will take that baton and continue the race.
As women,
we may ask, What can I do?
What can I really do to make a difference to the situation of Muslims in the world, and not just the situation of Muslims for the betterment of humanity? Because as Muslims, lots of Hannah diala told us that Quantum hydromet in Australia, the NASS that you are the best nation that has been
extracted for mankind. So we are here and we should be here for the benefit not just of our own family, not just of our own community, but for the whole of Canada for the whole of the world. For anyone who who we can touch
and as Muslim woman we may ask what exactly can we do
but I want us to realize sisters, that
We should never underestimate our influence
those islamophobes and people who have enmity towards Islam, they don't underestimate us as Muslim women. Why is it that the establishment
are so afraid of Muslim women so afraid of the way we dress? Why is it that they try so hard? And I don't really know what it's like here in Canada, but definitely know in Europe,
that the establishment tries so hard to crush the resolve of the Muslim woman.
You know, can you imagine a Muslim woman in France can't go to school
with her job.
So the Muslims had to build their own private schools, or their daughters won't be able to go to school.
Muslim women on the street, who just want to cover their faces, or find on the spot.
This is what's happening in Europe.
And constantly in the news, you know, in Britain as well.
The subject of the veil keeps coming up, you know, the subject of you, the Muslim woman. And so we, as Muslim women have become the quintessential symbol of a strong, proud Islam.
Why is it that they focus so much on the Muslim woman?
It is because sisters, although it's a cliche, it's absolutely true, that we,
women are half of society and we give birth to the other half. We are the makers and breakers of culture.
And the establishment can see in us
the end of a capitalistic, materialistic nihilistic ideology, which they're spreading throughout the world, the * and pillage of the world is taking place under the noses of humanity. And those who would like to continue to exploit the world, exploit the resources of people exploiting nature,
in the way that they're doing, can see in us, believe it or not, the end of their ideology and their ability to do that.
And I'm going to give you two illustrations that show us the transformative power of women and how
those who, you know, have enmity towards Muslims and Islam.
Do not underestimate us, the French philosopher Franz Fanon,
who wrote many books about post colonial studies. He in his book, a dying colonialism said
that the focus of the colonialists on women was
was real. When it came to conquering Algeria.
He said that
they identified that Muslim women constituted the pivot of Algerian society. And a campaign was waged by the French in Algeria, to divorce Muslim women from the veils from the way they dressed, because to them, it symbolized their commitment and their strength as Muslims.
And he, in fact, said that the political doctrine of the French was, if we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, we must first of all, conquer the women.
That's just one example. You know, of a government that systematically focused on Muslim women as a way to weaken and colonize a whole society.
A second example I'll give you sisters is that of the Mongols that we were, we were talking about, you know, the savages those who are well known and are notorious in history for their
savagery and for the pillaging of cities and civilizations.
How is it that within a couple of generations of them conquering Baghdad or destroying but that that those very Mongols actually became Muslims?
You know, my husband is from the chop die clan in India. And the chalk ties are direct descendants of the Mongols of gays Han. Right. And yet there are Muslims now. They're the ones who built the Taj Mahal. How did the savages so called
suddenly become the people
Who would build something as beautiful as the Taj Mahal?
Well,
the conversion my sister's is actually attributed by historians, mainly to the Muslim women,
prisoners whom they took, when they pillaged the Muslim lands. You know, in, in those days when there was a war, and you fought, and you won, you would take the women as slaves, right? And even the children.
And so the Muslim women were taken as slaves. Can you imagine the difficult situation that they were in? And yet, because they were in the households of the Mongol kings, and because they were raising the children, of those leaders, and kings and generals, they raised those children upon Islam.
And so within a generation,
King himself was a Muslim, and the Mongols became a Muslim civilization.
So what can we practically speaking do because Muslim woman
I would like us to focus my sisters on three areas. One
is to take action
in our relationship with our Creator.
The second is to take action,
in our relationship, or in our role within our families. And the third is to take action in our own communities and beyond.
So, let's talk about the first
taking action with regards to your relationship with Allah. What does that mean? It means submitting to your creative completely.
There's no time anymore for sitting on the fence.
Being undecided.
You have to click Submit commit completely my sister's taking an honest look at what your relationship with Allah is like,
what the shortcomings are, what the strengths are, what's stopping you, what's holding you back?
Are you your worst enemy? When it comes to your relationship with Allah.
We need to take an honest look at ourselves, and just make a decision. Because that's all our lives are a series of decisions that we've made.
You can decide how you're going to spend the rest of your life
and the two characteristics that we need in order to have that good relationship with a lover. The two very important characteristics are
taqwa and Saba.
The whole of sort of use of the chapter about the Prophet Yusuf Alayhi, salaam, Joseph
can be summarized or, you know, the essence of the message of that sorter is within the ayah number 19, in which he says, in the home and yet turkey or elsewhere in the law, hello, you do a general medicine in that he who is God conscious
and patiently perseveres, then Allah will never allow the reward of that person of that person, that person who's trying to excel, to be lost.
So those are the two characteristics we need cyber. Cyber is not a passive thing that we sometimes think cyber patients sit down and just know cyber is very active. Cyber means
staying away, and persevering in staying away from the things that God has forbidden.
It means persevering in,
patiently going on and on, obeying the Creator.
And it means
protecting yourself from saying anything that you shouldn't say anything. I'm thankful when Allah tests you with things in your life.
That's something that we have to do every day as a Muslim. And the second characteristic top one, being God conscious, being conscious of Allah, that Allah is with us. Allah is watching us. Allah loves us.
Allah is cheering us on. He wants us to succeed.
And it's up to us to respond.
The second area that I mentioned is taking action with regards to our families.
My sisters, we must build strong Muslim families.
We know Allah Subhana Allah, he has secret soldiers.
I don't mean violent soldiers.
I mean, soldiers who carry out his work,
the wind could be the soldier of Allah, carrying out some commands of his. In the past, we know that the angels have been the soldiers of a lot, helping the believers in battle, even when they were faced with armies that are larger than them. And this is why historically Muslims have never feared,
meeting an army that was bigger than them, because they knew that, you know, there are hidden forces there are there are ways in which Allah can help them. And so they would focus more on their own taqwa. They would say that we don't fear that we are small in number or that we don't have enough, you know, artillery, or we don't have enough weapons, we fear our sins, because our sins are what leads to our downfall. But the resources that we have.
So Allah has secret soldiers, even, you know, lice were once a secret soldier of Allah, Allah sent against Pharaoh and his people as a plague.
I believe that we, as Muslim women are the secret soldiers of Allah, we have the ability to be that. And the reason why I say secret soldiers is that people often don't consider the mother at home, who's raising that child who's raising that family to be significant.
You know, our society devalues motherhood.
And yet, that mother has the ability to raise leaders, she has the ability to change the culture of the whole society. And I see sisters all over the world doing that.
So we are in Sharla secret soldiers of
raising a family is a project.
It needs visionary, conscientious mothers, who realize the value of motherhood.
It needs mothers who have blue and blue wilhemina means having high aspirations for your family.
You know, it's not enough that my child just passes the exams and gets into a job and has children and pass exams to get into a job. You have children, etc, etc. That's not enough. having only one hammer is under the race leaders. I'm going to raise strong people who will change society who be a force of good and a means of goodness for my society, and the world around them.
The mothers in our history who raised believers, they were mothers that
when their children doubted,
they gave them strength and for but when they feared their mothers instilled the bravery in them, when they hesitate it, their mothers embolden them. When they forgot, their mothers reminded them.
When they come to the dunya to this world, they would remind them of the ohana.
We don't want another generation
of shallow Muslims, another generation of youth who are pamphleteers. And so good news, who are easily swayed by by the latest fad.
We want to raise a generation who are knowledgeable a generation who are independent, entrepreneurial, strong have leadership qualities do not have inferiority complexes.
Identity Crisis, they feel confident in who they are.
And we as the Muslim women have the power to change that.
Even if you can't have children.
One of the most powerful things that you can do is invest your time in the child.
If you look at it, Charlotte Villa Anna, she couldn't have children. Well, she didn't have children.
And yet, she looked after and taught many of her nephews and nieces and went on to become great scholars of Islam and passed on
Islamic law to the generations to come. So she even though she was not a mother herself a biological mother. She saw the impact and the power that she had in influencing a child.
And lastly, you and your community.
My sisters, we must be the Muslim here, you know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us that.
But Islam have already been that Islam began as something strange.
And it will return to being something strange. And he said that to
give glad tidings to the strangers.
And then when this hub off, who are the strangers,
I sort of lost the love what he said and said
Lavina, you slow foreigner, in the facade, and
they are those who
do Islam, talk about Islam, who are mostly horn, when people have become corrupt when societies become corrupt, they are the ones who mend society. They're the ones who fix things, they fix themselves, and then they fix society.
So we have to become Muslim.
People who mend relationships, not break them, people who bring people's hearts together, not tear people apart, people who reach out to their neighbors, even though their neighbors may be reacting in a negative way to them.
Each of us has a circle of influence, there are people who you can influence that I can't influence. And each of us has a unique sort of circle of influence.
If we were to focus on that circle of influence, the people who we actually do have influence over, if each of us was to focus on that,
in trying to bring them closer to Allah, trying to bring them closer to goodness, then imagine the change that would spread throughout society.
We have to make it a priority to call the people or at least convey the message to the people of this country, to the people of this land.
convey the message of Islam to them.
Today, I was just walking
downtown, early in the morning, which was a big mistake. Because there were a lot of homeless people a lot of junkies, you know, just walking on the streets. I was looking at them, and I was thinking Subhanallah You know, one day that person
was a baby
in the mother's arms.
I wonder how the mother was with that child.
You know, with that man who's now on the streets, who's a junkie, I'm sure she must have loved him. I'm sure she must have had hopes for him. At one point. I'm sure that person himself
may have gone to school and may have had aspirations once upon a time. But something happened, something happened. And there were all these people now on the streets last
without any purpose.
And then last night, there was this big concert outside our hotel room or our apartment, YouTube concert, right. And you could just feel the stadium shopping like rocking right?
I was thinking so Pamela, what are those people in they're seeking.
They're seeking something. They're seeking some sort of upliftment. They're seeking something that's missing. They want to feel high. Because all of us as human beings are spirits who are yearning for connection with the divine. And when we don't have that connection, we will try to seek it temporarily, in things that we think will give us that high.
And then you come home again, and back to square one.
Is that it? That's what a lot of people say, right? Is this when they reach the pinnacle of what society tells them as success when they become millionaires, or they have the girlfriend or the boyfriend that they've always dreamed of? Or they meet the celebrity or they become a celebrity they've always wanted to be, they ask themselves is this
and we have the message that will heal their hearts, my sisters, so we can't just keep it to ourselves.
And we'll love Your sister is one of the best ways to solve your problems. If you're a person who gets bogged down with your with your own problems with negativity is to find a bigger problem to solve.
Because what happens is we focus so much on ourselves, on the little things in our lives with the comparison
To
take on a bigger problem,
and we'll lay you'll see, you'll forget about your problems, your problems will become
easy to deal with. Because you've got your eyes on this bigger problem that you you want to solve
the problems of society, the problems of the Muslims, spreading Islam and encouraging people to
become obedient to their Creator for their own good.
So, my sister is if we were to focus on these three areas as Muslim women,
I believe it would be the foundation for a revolution in our oma
and within a generation. Within two generations, we will have been the architects of real change in the world, in sha Allah, with that, I will leave you subhanak along that will become bigger. I shadow Allah Illa illa Anta esta Finca like