Sami Hamdi – They DonT Have An Inferiority Complex. You Do
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and importance of Islam, including the upcoming victory of Islam and the lack of modernity in Bosnia. They also touch on the Bosnian Republic, including the implementation of Islam and the persecution of Muslims, and the return of families to the Bosnian Republic. The speakers emphasize the importance of history and the need for people to remember it. They go to Bosnia, Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Banja opinion, and Banja opinion, while also beating the living daylights of the speakers and breaking the breasts and bones.
AI: Summary ©
I disagree that the ummah has been thrown
into complex.
So you know you're not the first to
struggle, you're not the first to go through
this.
Allah is ready to accept that repentance.
So start with the Qur'an, start with
the stories.
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in
his final khutbah, he said to his ummah
that I leave for you two things, Qur
'an and my sunnah.
Whoever follows these two will not be destroyed.
And sometimes when you read it in what
I call the interpretation, you believe that you
read the Qur'an and you adopt the
sunnah in so far as your personal affairs
are concerned.
You follow sunnah of the bid, you follow
sunnah of you know tayammum, sunnah of these
things here and there.
But I don't think that's what the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam meant, or at
least that was half of what he meant.
He meant something much more broader in the
light.
And the reason why I say is he
directly answers the question.
In that often we are told stories but
we don't see them manifest, at least within
our own communities, our own societies.
Allah says in the Qur'an, نَحْنُ نَقُصُوا
عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنًا قَصَصِهِ بِمَا رَوْحَيْنَ إِلَيْكَ هَانُ الْقُرْآنِ
وَإِن كُنْتَ مِن قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِرِينَ Indeed in
this book we're telling the best of stories,
stories that prior to which you were ignorant
of.
The reason Allah tells you these stories, there's
a reason why he's telling you these stories.
It's because as you go through the despair
of Gaza, as you go through the heartbreak
of Gaza, as you go through the struggle
of Gaza, as you go through using what
you perceive to be limited means to do
activism for Gaza, you look at those stories,
you look at Yusuf alayhis salaam thrown in
a well, put into slavery, then thrown into
prison, but he ends up al-Aziz at
the end.
You see for example Noah alayhis salaam, when
Muslims around you say that social media doesn't
make a big difference, we're not going to
liberate the ummah via whatsapp, these are people
who I can forgive them because it sounds
like رَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي لَيْلَ وَنَهَارَ وَلَمْ
يَزِدُمْ دُعَيْئِنَا فِرَهَا Allahumma I've told them my
people day and night and the more I
call them the more they run away from
me.
Noah alayhis salaam said what Yusuf too.
Many Muslims they say when is victory of
Allah coming?
It's genocide over and over, when is the
victory of Allah coming?
They are saying if they will only look
at the Qur'an, exactly what the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said and the
Sahaba when the ayah says مَسَّتْهُ الْبَسَاءُ وَالظَّرَاءُ
وَزُلْزِلُهُ حَتَّى يَقُولَ رَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعُوهُ مَتَى؟
رَسُولُ اللهُ that they were shaken, tested and
they were trialed.
The people of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, they were trialed until the Prophet
and the Sahaba.
They would both say when is the victory
of Allah coming?
These are people who know Allah.
Allah says read this Qur'an, read this
book.
So you know you're not the first to
struggle, you're not the first to go through
this, you're not the first to think you
don't have power, you're not the first to
feel pain, you're not the first to feel
like your hands are handcuffed, you're not the
first to dream of greater power.
Read the Qur'an and see those like
Yusuf alayhi s-salam, like Musa alayhi s
-salam.
Musa alayhi s-salam was asked by Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, was told, not asked.
Musa believed himself to be the wisest.
So Allah told him you're not the wisest
in this dunya, go out and find somebody.
The story of Khidr.
What does Musa say before he finds Khidr?
Before he finds him, Allah has told him
to go.
He says, we've gone, we're tired, we've gone
all this journey, it's been a fruitless journey.
Who told him to go?
Allah.
What did Musa say?
It was a fruitless journey.
Allah says read these stories so you understand
that what you're feeling should not lead you
to give up, for it's in those moments
when you're about to give up that Khidr
appears.
It's in those moments when you're about to
give up.
Like the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
he said when is the victory of Allah
coming?
He wasn't going to give up, but when
he said when is the victory of Allah
coming, the Fath of Mecca came soon afterwards.
And that's why I argue that Surah Al
-Nasr, اِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْ You all
know it, right?
اِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتْ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَكْفُرُونَ
فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجَاً فَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ
You would think in a victory, why is
Allah asking us to make forgiveness?
Why doesn't He tell us to shoot fireworks?
Why doesn't He tell us to dance?
Why doesn't He tell us to jump in
jubilation?
Why is it in the moment of victory
He tells you وَاسْتَغْفِرْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ مُنْتَصِرًۭ No.
إِنَّهُ كَانَ نَصِرًۭ No.
إِنَّهُ كَانَ مُنْتَصِرًۭ No.
إِنَّهُ كَانَ What?
توهَبَ He is the one who accepts repentance.
Why is Allah accepting repentance on the day
that people are entering the deen in waves?
It's because for those of you who doubted
Allah's victory, Allah's victory came.
For those moments when you thought that it's
not coming from anywhere, Allah is ready to
accept that repentance.
So start with the Quran, start with the
stories, entrench these stories and tell everybody.
And I don't like the idea we talk
about generations, kids and old people.
We don't believe in Islam.
That's a Western concept.
The story of عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّى أَنْ جَاءَهُ النَّعْمَ
وَمَا يُدْرِيكَ الْعَانُ يَزَّكَّ It's about an old
blind man who was sitting on the Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ.
He's giving dawah at the time to younger
people and when he عَبَسَ عَبَسَ is not
that he told them go away.
عَبَسَ is he frowned, he showed a sign
of frustration.
Allah said, Ya Muhammad, how do you not
know that that old blind man might not
be more beneficial to you than these younger
people that you are talking to.
This is a good example of the old
* of the inferiority complex.
We don't have young and old.
Does the pen get lifted when you hit
60 years old?
It doesn't.
It doesn't get lifted until your final breath.
Allah keeps writing, the angels keep writing, the
book keeps going because old and young doesn't
apply here.
And every moment you are held to account
for what you do and therefore you should
be pursuing the action.
So start with the Quran and inherit those
stories.
And then, and this is what I think
is lacking, at least for us in the
West, I disagree that the Ummah has an
inferiority complex.
I agree that Western Muslims have an inferiority
complex.
I don't believe Bosnia has an inferiority complex.
I don't believe Turkey has an inferiority complex.
I don't believe the Muslims in Pakistan have
an inferiority complex.
I don't believe in Algeria have an inferiority
complex when these are people who very recently
kicked out colonizers.
These are people who very recently went to
the mountains to kick out the superpowers that
we have an inferiority complex to.
When we talk about stories, and maybe this
is the best we do, and forgive me
for this.
If you've heard this before, touche, I don't
really care.
Remember, for remembrance benefits the soul.
The Quran hasn't been changed for 1400 years.
My story won't change in six months.
When you go to Bosnia, you go there
as a Western Muslim and you look down
on the currency, you look down on the
prices, you look down on some of the
hotels, you look down on some of the
taxi drivers, you look down on the taxi
driver's favorite pizza.
It's not like Frank Lombardi.
You look down on somebody's work.
When you go there, you realize when you're
in Bosnia there, that you're going there and
you almost feel like you're doing charity when
you're going to Bosnia.
Until you start talking to the Bosnians and
you start hearing their stories.
Until you start realizing that Bosnia for 400
years was being persecuted for no other reason
than they believe La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah.
When the Austro-Hungarians came down from Vienna
after defeating the Ottomans, when the Ottomans lost
in Vienna, they got to Bosnia and the
Ottomans said, ah, we don't really want to
fight anymore.
And they signed off the Balkans to the
Austro-Hungarians and the Bosnians said, hey, where
are you going?
When the Austro-Hungarians came in, the Austro
-Hungarians said to the Muslims, we are here
to save you.
So they lined up all the Bosnians in
a row, in a line and they started
baptizing them one by one.
They started early in the morning and then
it got to about mid-afternoon.
And then one of the Bosnians looks at
the Q's famous story.
He looks at that and he goes, guys,
how long is this going to take?
Asr is almost in.
The Austro-Hungarians shut down Masaj when they
realized these people are not giving up their
Islam.
So let's re-educate them.
What did Muslims of Bosnia do?
They said they might have material superiority, but
we'll keep our madrasas.
We'll teach Quran on the ground.
The madrasas, they will keep the Quran alive.
They will teach the kids and the like
and everybody will keep going and move forward.
Then Yugoslavian kingdom came.
When Yugoslavian kingdom came, they said, Austro-Hungarians,
we are not a drug or Austro-Hungarians.
And they failed to remove Islam from their
hearts.
So let us divide Yugoslavian kingdom into nine
provinces and make sure the Muslims are the
minority in each province to make sure they
cannot organize.
Decades later, Yugoslavian kingdom became the communist regime.
Communist regime in 1936, a grand philosopher is
asked that whenever we do the census in
the Balkans, Serbs write Serbs, Croats write Croats,
but Muslims, whether they're Bosnian Serb or Croat,
they write Muslim.
This doesn't work without communism.
How can we address this in terms of
education?
In 1938, the report came out and they
decided to shut down 95% of the
madrasas.
They decided to ban the printing of the
Quran.
They rounded up nearly every student leader.
They executed half and they put the rest
into hard labor.
And Bosnia would continue on this way under
the communist regime.
Did Islam get extinguished?
It didn't.
Story gets better.
In 1989, 1990, Yugoslavian state is starting to
collapse.
Slovenia declares independence.
The Croats declare independence.
They go into a 10-day civil war
and they declare independence.
The Muslims realize it won't be just us
and the Serbs.
We will declare independence too.
Now it's halal for the Christians to declare
independence in Slovenia.
It is halal for the Croats to declare
independence.
It is halal for the Muslims to declare
independence.
Karadzic goes in front of the parliament and
tells him, I swear by the time I'm
done, there will be no Muslim left in
Bosnia.
The UN came in and did an arms
embargo.
The UN prevented any weapon from going into
Bosnia with the exception, they didn't write this
in, but the exception was that the Serbs
had weapons from Russia and the former Yugoslav
army.
Croatia had weapons from Europe and the Americans
and the rest of Europe and the Muslims
had weapons they couldn't come from anywhere because
Muslim states respected the law, the others did
not.
Clinton in 1992 in the Taylor tapes, worth
reading.
If you don't know this story, I'll be
honest with you, this is the answer to
the question, why don't they know the story?
Why don't we tell our kids this story?
Why don't we tell them these memories?
Why do you know more, not you specifically,
why do you know more about World War
II than you know about the Bosnian genocide?
Why do you know more about the suffragettes
here in the UK than you know about
what happened in Bosnia?
It's what stories define your outlook?
What stories define your perspective?
And I want to tell you just this
one story that defines mine because they only
gave me 20 minutes, may Allah forgive me.
In the Taylor tapes, he says that Clinton,
when he became president in 1992, he called
his European counterparts and he said, guys, my
Americans improved a lot over the past year.
He said, guys, this UN arms embargo is
only really affecting the Muslims.
Where did this come in?
It's only affecting the Muslims.
Serbs are getting weapons, Croats are getting weapons,
the Muslims are not getting weapons.
Surely we should adjust the arms embargo.
The European leaders in public, they said, we
don't want a regional conflict, so we want
to control the weapons that are going here.
Blinken's got the, sorry, Blinken, not Blinken, that
Clinton's, the Europeans said, we don't want a
regional conflict, but in private, Biden's private, the
Europeans said that because the Muslims are at
a disadvantage, we want to lock this in,
their words, not mine, we want to lock
in this disadvantage because a Muslim majority state
in the heart of Europe is a quote,
unnatural phenomenon.
If you go to Bosnia, many of you
have been to the tunnel of hope and
you went, no, I'm scared, etc, etc.
But if you actually look in the tunnel
of hope, they show you the uniforms of
the Bosnians at the beginning of the war,
jeans, tracksuits, and a bit of a jacket,
random people.
It's like us suddenly hearing that suddenly Britain
is being bombed and what do we do
now?
Between 92, 93, Mladic, he goes to Igman,
if you guys have been to Sarajevo, behind
the tunnel of hope is a mountain called
Igman.
When Mladic goes to Igman, he gives an
interview on Serbian television, celebrates Serbs were about
to take Allah's road because it was the
only access out of Sarajevo that would prefer
Serbs.
The 7th Muslim Union, they told Mr. Ali
Izzet-Begovic, the president, Mr. Izzet-Begovic, we
just need you to buy time.
Go to Geneva, buy us six months of
negotiations, we will go under the tunnel, we
will drive Mladic off the mountain.
Izzet-Begovic says in his book, inescapable questions,
may Allah grant you guys to read it,
inshallah.
It's a heartbreaking book, but you should read
it.
I think it's compulsory reading for every Muslim,
but that's just me.
It's more compulsory than Charles Dickens and Roldan.
Izzet-Begovic says, I knew that the UK
envoy, he was more interested in a peace
prize than he was in genuine peace.
So I told him, I told him, I'm
ready to make peace if you get Mladic
off the mountain.
The UK envoy goes, oh, oh, oh, oh
my goodness, this is wonderful.
So he goes and he forces Mladic to
hold the advance, not off the mountain, and
he brings Izzet-Begovic to Geneva.
Six months, you watch the videos at the
tunnel of hope, if you go on a
Monday and a Thursday, Imam Harun is there.
Imam Harun was with the unit that marched
under the mountains.
He shows you the videos and they all
tell the president, Takbir, Allahu Akbar, and they
go to the tunnel, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
Six months later, they called Izzet-Begovic, Mr.
President is done.
Mladic has been kicked out of Allah's road.
In 94, Mehmet Adayiç in Travnik, for those
of you who've been to Travnik, you've seen
the colorful mosque.
You'll notice there's a huge mountain range to
the right of the city.
This mountain range goes all the way to
Banja Luka when it's Serbian captives.
Mehmet Adayiç says to Izzet-Begovic, I think
I can take the mountain and that will
give us a direct route to where the
enemy is.
They say, are you mad?
There's no way you can take the mountain.
All the Serbians are there.
It's the communications tower that do.
He said, I think I can take it.
We'll go in winter in December, when the
snow is three meters thick, we will tie
ropes on our stomachs so every soldier knows
where the other soldier is and we will
take that mountain ourselves.
They went up, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
In three weeks, they took the mountain.
Karacis said to the Americans, you guys don't
realize that they've taken this mountain.
If they take it now and they're Muslims
in 94, after they took the mountain, it
was like a blitzkrieg.
They started retaking the ethnic-inclined areas.
Bit by bit by bit, they marched rapidly
until they got to 10 kilometers of Banja
Luka.
And the Americans said, whoa, whoa, whoa.
They weren't supposed to win.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
They're not supposed to have weapons.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are these people doing?
NATO comes in and says, if you march
one more kilometer to Banja Luka, we will
bomb the living daylights out of you.
I said, it's a big, big sign.
It's a big treaty because the Americans say,
we don't want the Serbs to win.
But how will Earth beat the Muslims?
Usually, every two months, I want to give
up politics.
And you know the pressure, the insults.
You know, like the other day, my daughter,
Miskina, she went to school and they said,
yeah, I know your dad.
He's this, this, this, this, this.
My kids are getting more than they need
today.
Some people can't leave family out of it.
So sometimes I think it's not worth the
stress and pressure.
Maybe I should do, you know, I should
do dajjalil da'wah.
So just Quran, hadith, the way that we
should go, but nothing that changes society.
Nothing that causes discomfort.
Only those person, let's be, let's do Catholic
Islamic da'wah, the Vatican.
Let's not worry what happens outside of Mecca
and Medina.
As long as I can do Umrah, who
cares if JLo comes and dances in Riyadh?
It doesn't matter.
Just do this.
Islam is only what makes me feel good.
Even though the seerah, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam struggles from start to finish
with no respite.
Even when he finally takes Mecca, he's back
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We did it again.
Reread the seerah and feel good when the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam never felt good
in that seerah when he's struggling nonstop.
This is what I mean by the one
interpretation.
But I want to finish with these three
stories and I promise this will happen.
So my wife, when she said to me,
Sami, don't quit politics.
I have a better idea.
I can give you something that gives you
like the release.
I said, what?
She said, you keep arguing that we Muslims
in the West, we haven't inherited the memories
of the ummah.
We haven't.
We are disconnected from the ummah.
We're like a limb from the ummah that's
not attached to the body because we know
more about other people's history than we do
our own ummah's history.
Why don't Sami, we create something that actually
connects people with their history and take them
to Bosnia and show them what you saw
and take them where you went and in
Turkey and in Ghana and these other places.
I said, Sami, Allah humiliated the ummah for
a reason.
She said, what do you mean?
I said, the ummah only travels to four
destinations for their holidays.
Turkey, Morocco, Dubai and Malaysia.
Because when the Muslim reads that Sahaba went
out in the world, they say, okay, that's
Sahaba.
But I worked all year for this summer
break so I could go and relax.
Let me do this thing.
I'll do my thing.
I worked all year.
I'm not gambling on the ummah when I
go on holiday.
I'm not gambling on Uzbekistan.
I'm not gambling on Bosnia.
Take me to Croatia because I watched Game
of Thrones.
Take me somewhere like France.
Take me there to Paris, Eurostar.
I ain't gambling on the ummah.
I'm going to a place where I know
I'm going to have a good time.
Exploration was for Sahaba.
Preservation is for me.
There is a really good book.
It's called the Book of Mises by Al
-Jaffa.
It's a famous literary writer in the Abbasid
period, I think.
He writes how scholars would justify what Islam
did not call for using Islamic phrases.
Lovely, funny book.
So we ended up taking people to Bosnia.
Alhamdulillah, it's been going on for ages.
But this year we have two groups from
New York and these are the stories I
want to tell you.
We went to the Srebrenica Memorial where the
genocide took place.
It's a horrific place if you've gone there.
It's even more horrific if you know why
it happened and even more horrific if you
know the 400-year history.
They gathered the 8,000 young boys and
men, the ones who were found.
They told them, give up, la ilaha illallah,
Muhammad Rasulullah.
They refused to do so.
And so like Ashab ul-Uqdood and Ahlul
Bayt al-Waqud, idh hum alayha al-ta
'ud wa hum ala may yafa'ul bil
-mu'minin ash-shuhud.
It's a classic example of Ashab ul-Uqdood.
Many of us, we are willing to sacrifice
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as long
as we are not Ashab ul-Uqdood.
Allah, oh my, that's not me, that's them.
Allah, oh my, give me.
It's like when you're in the scene of
the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
I said that, my father used to say
to me, pick which Sahaba you'd like to
be.
And I found as a 17-year-old,
my whole list was of Sahaba post-conquering
of Mecca, not a single one pre-conquering
of Mecca was on that list.
My dad said, why?
What did you see in post-Mecca that
you don't like, that you like and you
didn't see it in pre-Mecca?
And I realized the more you ask the
question, the more I realized, Allahumma, I don't
really want to sacrifice.
I want to do it in a nice,
controlled, comfortable way and also get the glory
for it.
Ya Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The New Yorkers were with us in the
summer.
And I remember, we went to the Srebrenica
Memorial and it'd been two weeks because I
had the groups back-to-back.
So I had the first group, they went.
And so within five days, I'm in Srebrenica
twice.
I'm standing next to Amir Bayevic who didn't
go to a top university in London, who
doesn't have the wealth that we enjoy here,
who didn't read Karl Marx or, you know,
and these other stuff, you know, that you
thought to sound smart.
Hey, Lord and his armies that I see
on Facebook, they talk about them and debate
them.
He says, I said to Amir, I hate
coming here, man.
He said, what do you mean?
I said, I hate coming here.
I visualize, the videos are breathy.
You can see what they did to the
Bosnians here in Srebrenica.
Amir looks at me and goes, you know,
brother, I used to think like you, but
now when I come here, I feel jealous.
What do you mean you feel jealous?
He said, let me think about it.
All of the people here in these graves
were gathered.
I see you, Sami, in America.
When you tell people to punish Harris, you
paint them lovely political scenarios that they'll be
okay afterwards.
What's the worst Trump is going to do
to you?
I saw you when you talked about Muslim
bowl, punish Labour.
What's the worst that's going to happen to
you?
You'll be fine.
But Sami, these people here, they didn't have
that luxury.
These people were gathered by the Serbs and
the Serbs came around them and said to
them that, give up playing a lot or
I will, and they knew they would be
slaughtered.
They knew they'd be like us.
And brother, they didn't give it up.
And now here in general with Allah, they
have to walk.
Allah gave them, they gave it to Allah,
gave it to them.
They skipped day of judgment and me and
you, Sami, are stuck here trying to figure
out how to avoid hellfire.
Brother, I'm jealous because I don't know if
I would have done what they did.
The second story, they were sitting with Dino,
one of our Muslim guys, very good friend.
They said to Dino, Dino, how do you
reconcile that your neighbors slaughtered your family and
then after the war they just turned up
and they just, just because it wasn't served.
And you live in this sort of semi
-paralyzed state.
Dino looks at him, where's coffee?
We are skipping a beat.
Doesn't look like a magic one day inshallah
when I'm in Jannah.
I'll ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
show me the movie from start to finish.
I didn't think anything of it, said man.
We're walking by and one of the guys
from Yom said, Sami, did you see that?
I said, see what?
Did you see the certainty with which he
spoke of Jannah?
And did you see the certainty with which
he spoke of Allah's justice eventually being delivered?
And did you see the certainty that he
will be satisfied with Allah's justice even if
he's not alive to see it?
Fired, asks Aldin, the Bosnian driver.
Fired from New York, asks Aldin.
We're coming down Mount Prince, beautiful mountain because
with Muslims, you have to tease them.
You can't tell them, come for a history
trip.
You have to tell them, come and do
rafting for you.
We'll do hiking, we'll do archery and then
you have to find clever ways to insert
these stories.
So he says to Aldin, Aldin, can I
ask you a question but don't be offended.
Persecuted 400 years.
Maddaf said, shut down, your leaders executed, Quran
banned, women oppressed and the like.
And then genocide gets done on top, international
community abandons you.
Oh my God, basically what's he doing for
us?
Just making our statements.
I don't mean to be rude Aldin, but
why are you still Muslim?
Aldin looks at him, what is your deadpan
faces?
International community abandoned us?
Yes.
400 years persecuted?
Yes.
Ummah, like Ghazal, just statements?
Yes.
But do you notice my brother, we are
still here and we always won because Allah
never abandoned us so we don't turn our
backs on Allah.
And the final story I will say and
this changed my whole perspective on what jihad
looks like and why I don't believe the
ummah is weak and why I believe the
one who says he's weak, the ummah is
weak, he is weak.
The one who says the ummah is weak,
he is weak.
The one who says the ummah is ruined,
he is ruined.
He's the black sheep, not the rest of
the ummah.
When the Bosnian Ministry of Tourism, they found
out we were doing tours, they invited us.
I promise I'll take just three minutes of
your time because you already did this one,
so I'll take three.
They said, you're already doing four itineraries to
Bosnia but why we only do Sarajevo and
not start traveling?
He said, it's expensive to go and explore
your country.
They said, come we'll do more expensive, we'll
take you to the whole country and you
decide what you want.
So we went for three weeks.
On the list of cities, they had a
city called Banja Luka.
Now Banja Luka for those who know about
Bosnia, Mladic entered Banja Luka in 1993, 18
massacred in Banja Luka, he destroyed all 18,
he turned them into garbage ducts, when the
smell got bad, he turned them into parking
lots and he went on Serbian television and
said, celebrate Serbs, I have made it so
you're always stepping over Islam.
1995, the peace treaty is signed, it stipulates
there should be a right of return for
the Bosnian families that have been ethnically cleansed
from these areas.
By 2001, how many families do you think
had returned to Banja Luka?
Zero.
So I said to Somalia, I ain't going
Banja Luka, no way, she said, send me
those, I'm not going Banja Luka, the guy
went, I said, I'm not going Banja Luka,
I will not disrespect you like that, I'm
not going to Banja Luka, and then I
did what every good husband does, Somalia said,
we'll go, we won't stay the night, I
said, how otherwise, okay, she gave me permission
to be here.
As we're going to Banja Luka, there's a
joke about Bosnia, they say, if Allah ironed
it, it would be the size of the
United States, it's a small hill, it's up,
down, up, down, mountain, up, down, and as
we're going to Banja Luka, Allah said, man,
I'll sit in the car going, I'm telling
people, move, you're moving for money, you have
no shame saving, you have no, you're a
despicable individual, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, we're going around the
mountain, you don't see Banja Luka from far,
until you go around the mountain, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah,
Allahu Akbar, what is this minaret that pops
up in the middle of the city, we
pass by the minaret, we come out, and
then the imam comes, no beard, suit and
tie, he comes out, I tell him, imam,
what are you doing here?
He said, wa alaikumussalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
I said, wa alaikumussalam man, what's this, he
goes, if you shoot, I can tell you
a story, he says in 2001, he was
a top graduate in his school, he couldn't
go and study in America, he said, we
were sitting in an Islamic society, with the
community elders, and we were talking about what
happened during the war, and how they destroyed
the Masajid, and we started weeping, we said,
oh, what a poor state we're in, and
then one of the students stood up and
said, why are we in a poor state,
let's go rebuild it, so what, let's go
and rebuild it, they said, well, you don't
know what they'll do to you, let's at
least try, so three students, they go to
Banyuluka, they apply for permits, that night, servants
come to the hotel, beat the living daylights
out of them, break their ribs and their
bones, and kick them out of Banyuluka, they
go back to Sarajevo, with the two black
eyes, and they go, guys, they wouldn't let
us do it, they cried for a bit,
and then they say, hang on a second,
there's something called UNESCO, why don't we go
to them and ask them, what do we
need to get international backing for it, let's
go to these UNESCO guys and see, they
went to UNESCO office, UNESCO said, you need
68% original materials, and the story goes
that he told them arrogantly, we don't know
where you're going to get the 68%
anyway, they went to their local community, these
are Bosnians, economically impoverished, they went to the
local community, they did some fundraising, they went
to Banyuluka, they bought 18 parking lots, they
dug into those parking lots, they pulled out
the material, they dived in the river, they
pulled the rest of the material, they flew
to Turkey, they got the original maps, they
went to Italy, they found the last surviving
window maker, who makes the windows the same
way that they did before, they started in
2001, in May this year, they finished the
18th masjid, with a madassah, in the first
halal restaurant in Banyuluka, now you're telling me
the ummah is weak, that guy is not
weak, and the funny thing is, there were
two new yorkers, and this is the christianity,
so I finish, I promise, I promise, I
promise you to be semi-concise, two new
yorkers, when they came to Bosnia in the
summer, they said, Sami, you hoodwinked us with
the itinerary, I said, what do you mean,
you didn't include Banyuluka, and we came because
of Banyuluka, I said, because I know you
muslims, you didn't come to Bosnia just for
Bosnia, all of you added Turkey at the
end of it, because you didn't want to
gamble on the ummah, you said, just in
case Bosnia is bad, I can go one
hour to Istanbul, and enjoy what I know,
I said, I know you slime losers, you
only gave me six days, when Bosnia deserves
at least two weeks, they said, touche, but
we still want to see Banyuluka, I said,
guys, it's four hours away from Sarajevo, they
said, we will leave in Thursday, come back
in Isha, I called the imam, I told
him they're coming, the two muslims who went,
one of them dresses ostensibly muslim, he's very
careful about his beard, very careful about the
dress, he's very careful about the topi, he's
very careful that he looks muslim, and the
other is a doctor from Gaza, who when
he came back, would cry morning to evening,
he went in August, he said, Sami, Gaza
is destroyed, nothing standing, he said, Sami, I
was the human shield, the Israelis had our
coordinates, because we were Americans, and so Palestinians
would wake me up in the morning, and
say, Dr. Ahmed, can you take us to
the bakery, because if you come with us,
we know they won't bother us, he said,
Sami, I got on the plane flying back,
and I thought that I was the one,
removing their human shield, they went to Bani
Luka, and they came back, so we asked
the first guy, what was your impression of
Bani Luka, he said, Sami, I'm confused, what
do you mean, in my mind, Mujahideen, they
look a certain way, but this guy doesn't
look like, how I imagine Mujahideen to look
like, this guy has no beard, this guy
is a Sunni, this guy is trying to
get for slogging, but he's the guy who
brought the law of Islam, back to Bani
Luka, rebuild those messengers single-handedly, Sami, I'm
confused, I focus so much on this, I
forgot the substance, I felt artificial, in the
presence of his substance, I met a true
Mujahideen, and the doctor from Gaza, Ahmed, how
do you feel, he's smiling this time, Ahmed,
how do you feel, said Sami, I left
Gaza wondering, how on earth will it ever
be rebuilt, I was like, I have no
idea, this can't be rebuilt, Sami, after leaving
Bani Luka, and meeting the Muslims of Bani
Luka, and meeting that Imam of Bani Luka,
Sami, I have Yaqeen, Gaza will be rebuilt,
and Palestine will be free.
Inherit these stories, inherit them, because they make
you look at the Ummah differently, they make
you look at the Ummah in a completely
different light, you realize Allah never abandoned the
Ummah, the Ummah keeps winning, and the reason
Islamophobia is on the rise, is not because
Islam is weak, it's because no matter how
much they repress it, no matter how much
they hit it, no matter how much they
colonize, no matter how much they oppress, no
matter the bombs, no matter how much they
keep hitting, Islam continues to thrive so much,
that when Algeria got its independence after 132
years, they didn't say, Algeria is free, they
said, Ya Muhammad, O Prophet Muhammad, they said,
O Muhammad, thousands on the street, O Muhammad,
Mabrook, Halil, and Jazair, Rajhat, Lid, O Muhammad,
congratulations, they yelled, O Prophet Muhammad, can you
hear us?
Ya Rasulullah, congratulations, we kicked them out, we
returned Algeria to you, don't you ever say
this Ummah is weak, don't you ever say
this Ummah is downtrodden, for as long as
Allah the Almighty is its Lord, the Ummah
continues to roar, the Ummah continues to change
the world, and Islam remains the fastest growing
religion, because the light of Allah will never
be extinguished, so long as we are here,
the inheritors of the Prophet's legacy.