Adnan Rajeh – Jummah Prayer- Syria – A Personal Reflection
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the political and cultural dynamics of Syria, including the collapse of the Iranian President, the rise of Islamist leaders, and the struggles of people to achieve their goals. They emphasize the importance of learning from experiences and making mistakes, and emphasize the need for peace and being inside. The speaker also describes a culture that lost hope and pride and faced pride and embarrassment from the oppressor.
AI: Summary ©
وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِن شُرُورِ أَنفُسِنَا وَمِن سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا
مَنْ يَهْدِ اللَّهُ فَهُوَ الْمُهْتَدُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَنْ
تَجِدَ لَهُ وَلِيًّا مُرْشِدًا وَاشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ
إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ إِلَهًا وَاحِدًا
أَحَدًا صَمَدًا كُلَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدًا وَاشْهَدُ أَنَّ
نَبِيَّنَا وَعَظِيمَنَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولُهِ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ
خَلْقِهِ وَحَبِيبُهِ اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا
مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ يَقُولُ جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ
فِي مُحْكَمِ التَّنْزِيلِ حَتَّى إِذَا اسْتَيْئَسَ الرُّسُلُ وَظَنُّوا
أَنَّهُمْ قَدْ كُذِبُوا جَاءَهُمْ نَصْرُنَا فَنُجِّيَ مَنْنَ شَاءَ
وَلَا يُرَدُّ مَأْسُنَا عَنِ الْقَوْمِ الْمُجْرِمِينَ Hands down,
this has been the most difficult week of
my entire life.
And this khutbah has been the most difficult
khutbah to prepare for.
I don't usually need a lot of time
to prepare for my content or my topics.
But for the life of me, I've spent
every single night trying to figure out what
would I talk about when I get on
the mimbar.
Because it's obvious what the conversation of the
hour is and what needs to be addressed
for us as an ummah.
But I just couldn't do it.
And had it been any other incident or
event anywhere else, it would have been much
easier for me to populate the points and
share with you the reflections, the observations, and
the lessons learned.
But this just hit way too close to
home for me.
It was way too personal as a topic.
And when you build your life on something,
on a maxim of some sort, on some
idea or some incident that occurred or some
reality, and all of your secondary thoughts or
your decisions were based on this one incident
that was there, this one reality.
When you rip that reality out of someone's
life, it's very confusing.
I've never felt in my life such a
degree of confusion and a degree of loss.
It's like an animal that was stuck in
a cage for 50 years.
Then you open the cage and all it
sees is sky.
It has no idea what to do, have
no idea where to go, what to think,
what the next steps are going to be.
It's a milestone that for some reason, and
that's something that I'm left with to contemplate
myself, but for a reason that I am
ashamed of, I had lost hope of ever
changing.
Something that I had accepted as a reality
to the day I die, that I was
carrying with me this baggage to Yawm al
-Qiyamah where I was going to argue my
case, and now I'm left, I don't know
what to think anymore.
You see, in 1970, the reality of the
Syrian people changed in a way that they
could have never imagined at the time.
A reign of tyranny began starting in 1970.
It's 54 years now where the political scene
in Syria changed significantly, radically.
The country was pulled into the Red Camp.
It turned into a communist country.
The intelligence was chained by the KGB, and
it practiced its authority and its ruthlessness upon
the people of Syria.
I grew up in an age, I returned
to Syria in 1999, and the reality of
the country was so out of this world.
The reality of the country that the people
accepted was so weird to me, so foreign
to me as a kid, that I couldn't
wrap my head around it.
How is it that this is the reality?
You cannot speak of something.
You can't even mention it.
If you do, you run the risk of
disappearing.
This is not ludicrous.
It's not a fairy tale that exists.
This is the reality of a people that
suffered for 54 years, and I'm not going
to bore you with an aspect of the
history of our country, what happened.
You don't deserve to go through all that.
But I do want to offer you a
piece of contemplation at the end of it
that may be of value to you, and
value to me, and to the coming generations.
But it was the reality of the time.
I remember growing up and having opinions on
stuff, and being conditioned by family, by friends,
by the school system, by anyone I ran
into, that you stop talking about these things.
I wasn't welcomed in certain groups.
Certain people were afraid of actually sending their
young ones to learn from me, because they,
for the lack of another description, لسان طويل
is what they used to say.
He had a long tongue.
He speaks, he says too much.
So I was conditioned for years that I
had to stop talking about things.
And then 2010 happened.
And then suddenly the Arabic Spring began, and
Tunisia had a change within it, and then
Libya did, and then Egypt did, and then
Yemen.
And all these countries started to see change,
and the Syrian people had to talk about
it.
They talked about it, and they had never
talked about this before.
These discussions had never occurred.
I started to watch and witness people that
would never dare talk about politics, talk about
politics in front of me.
And I remember the question that I would
pose was, do I have the freedom to
dislike him?
I don't want to protest.
I don't want to remove him.
I just want the right to not like
him.
I just want the right not to like
him.
I don't like him.
He's skinny and tall and he's goofy.
I don't like him.
I just want to not like him.
I don't want him to go anywhere.
Just stay where you are.
I want the right not to like him.
We didn't have the right not to like
something or someone.
That is beyond being deprived of a basic
human right.
That goes down to the detail of being
deprived to think in a certain way.
Don't even think it.
Don't have an emotion.
You have an emotion?
Don't have an emotion.
You're not allowed to have an emotion.
This is the reality that people lived in,
and they were complacent with it and put
a line under that word.
They were complacent with it.
And then 2011, parts of Homs and parts
of Daraa, finally dared to say something.
And the ongoing bath of blood began.
The river of blood began then.
And what we knew was the ruthlessness of
this regime became apparent to the rest of
the world.
Imagine rebels, the first thing that they do
when they enter a country is not to
go to the palaces but to go to
the jails, to open up jails, to set
free the women and the children and the
disabled and the people who have been there
for 40 or 50 years.
Imagine that this movement was just to be
able to open jails because the people who
are in it have been in it for
way too long with no rights, being treated
in ways that you will hear the stories.
And you may hear a story and say,
no, that wouldn't happen.
Yeah.
You're going to hear a story and say,
that's impossible.
That's what you're going to say.
That ruthlessness doesn't exist.
Yeah, it did.
You won't even hear the half of it,
I swear to you.
The detention center that I was held in
when it was opened, a person walked out.
He was there when I was there 11
years ago.
He was in there when I was in
there.
11 years he's been sitting there.
I've been living for 11 years.
He's been sitting there for 11 years, being
treated like, being treated less than an animal
would be because at least an animal is
deserving of some degree of compassion.
But these people are being treated as if
they, as if there is, there are extra
points for treating them inhumanely.
How do you, how do you get over
something like that?
And I came here in 2013, and the
cliche of what being Syrian meant hurt me
because we were either refugees with badly behaved
children or people who made great shawarma.
And my whole culture, the culture of what
it meant to be a Syrian, was just
reduced down to two things.
People didn't mean it, but it happened anyway.
Very offensive, very hard to accept.
It became difficult for me to teach my
children that wouldn't see, in my mind, they
would never see the land of their forefathers.
They would never understand the culture of it.
They wouldn't know the beauty of Damascus and
the place where their grandparents were born.
To explain to them that you're Syrian, it
was hard to say it, so I left
it.
There's nothing wrong with having some degree of
national pride in your mind.
It's when it turns into arrogance and racism
that's a problem.
But it became difficult to talk about it,
even in your own house, because we were
reduced to something that did not represent us
anymore.
And it got forgotten over the years, over
the years being here.
I used to spend time with Muhammad al
-Aziz al-Khair, and we would talk in
Tim Hortons for hours in the first couple
of years, and he would ask me, would
you go back if it went, and I
would tell him, if he goes away, I
won't finish this conversation with you.
If he leaves, I won't even finish the
conversation.
You can talk to someone else.
I'm going to be on the plane.
But then the hope of that completely was
demolished.
Year after year, it got forgotten.
The problem was chronicized.
People started to starve.
We saw a movement, a displacement of 7
million human beings.
Hundreds of thousands of people are drowning in
the sea as they attempt to make it
to the shores of the Mediterranean.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, trying
to find life, my family is scattered over
maybe 15 countries.
The people who are back there can't make
ends meet, no matter what they do.
It became just a sad reality.
And then I think about today, and I
think, how many other sad realities exist in
our Ummah?
What about the people of Kashmir?
What about the people of the Rohanji Muslims?
What about the Uyghur Muslims?
What about the people of Yemen, and Egypt,
and Libya, and Tunisia?
What about the people of Somalia?
What about the Muslims all across the globe
that have been living the same depressing reality?
And no one cares.
And no one cares.
And it's that feeling that when it dawns
on you, it just makes you...
You can't be happy anymore.
My wife asked me after two years of
being here, what happened to you?
You're not the same person I married.
I said, I don't know.
I don't know what happened to me.
I don't know what happened to me.
I don't know what I lost.
But I lost...
A piece of me was lost.
It'll never come back.
Even with him gone, it'll never come back.
Something was taken away.
An aspect of your existence can be stripped
of you when you're deprived of your basic
rights, when you're removed from your country, you're
taken away from your reality, when you're ripped
out of the place that you considered home,
and you're told it's not your home anymore,
and you don't belong there.
It was never your home to begin with,
and you walk this earth feeling like you
don't belong anywhere.
Many people in this room understand me.
Palestinian people understand what I'm saying very well.
They've been struggling with this for years.
But this is the reality that we had
to deal with.
That's the reality of that country.
The reflection points are many.
I think the number one, the one that
you have to think about, and you have
no choice but to reflect upon, is that
you can never be complacent with oppression.
Do what you want in life.
You will make many mistakes, and you will
fail many times as a human being, but
never be complacent with oppression, or with falsehood,
or with batil, ever.
That's what the Prophet Ali, peace be upon
him, taught us.
If you saw a munkar, change it with
your hand.
You can't?
Then speak out against it.
You can't?
Then at least, at least in your heart,
don't be complacent with it.
Don't be okay with it.
Don't normalize it.
Don't normalize it.
Don't make it seem as if it's fine,
it was never a problem to begin with.
No.
That peace has to stay inside.
The moment a munkar, something that is wrong,
something that is evil, something that is false,
the moment it stops being false, it stops
being wrong, then we're lost as a race,
we're lost as a community, we're lost as
an ummah.
Don't be complacent with batil.
Do what you may do, but not that.
Not that.
That was the cardinal mistake of my people.
For 30 years, they became complacent with the
batil that was surrounding them, and they were
okay with it.
And the voice of someone who said, that's
not right, was silenced.
Even by those who lost their lives because
of it, they still, we have a tendency
as human beings to want to be with
the strong, to make the strong seem good,
so you don't have to actually go up
against it because that's too much of a
headache, it's too much of a nightmare to
do.
No.
We must continue as Muslims.
To the day we die, to meet Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, to continue to speak
out against batil, and to refuse it, whatever
it may be.
Munkar has to stay munkar.
And ma'roof has to stay ma'roof.
And we cannot allow it.
Something that is munkar, something that is wrong,
to later on become right in the eyes
of people, in the eyes of our children.
It has to stay wrong.
And we have to do whatever we need
to keep it that way.
Or else the price that will be paid,
look at what my people paid.
I can't say anything, I can't act like
I paid anything for this.
Honestly, I have no, there's not one bone
in me that allows, that allows me to
think for a moment that I paid any
price.
Because no, when you look at the number
of people, when you look at the young
men, the number of them that lost their
lives, the women that were raped, the houses
that were burnt down, the children that were
murdered, the full villages that were basically destroyed,
that were gassed to death.
I had a friend who one day woke
up and no one he knew was alive
anymore.
He was with me in the hospital, he
worked with me as a resident.
He came from the village that was gassed
and he woke up one day and no
one he knew was around.
Everyone, he lost his mind.
He literally lost his mind.
He had to go into a, he had
to go into the hospital, he lost his
mind, he couldn't think anymore.
Everyone he knew, his whole reality was gone.
That's what it is.
There's a young man by the name of
Mazen Hamada.
Look him up today.
Young guy from Deir ez-Zor.
He spoke out in 2011, he was taken
in, he was put in the jail.
And after a couple of years he was
let go and he made his way to
the Netherlands as many Syrians made their way
out to Europe.
And he spoke out against the regime for
a while.
And then the regime reached out to him
and told him that, come back and we
will make you the ambassador of the rights
of refugees and the rights of people in
jail and we're going to change, we want
to change things.
And they negotiated with this poor gentleman for
like six months.
And finally in 2020, he accepted the offer
to come back and be the ambassador.
He enters Syria, they take him to Sijin
Said Naya.
They found him dead on the 8th of
December of 2024.
They found him dead, they found his body
still there.
His body was still there with severe marks
of torture.
This is the price that is paid when
you're complacent with dhulm, when you accept batil,
when you're okay with it.
When you don't even have the ability to
point it out and say that's wrong.
I can't change it, but it's wrong.
I'll never accept it and it will always
be wrong.
Once you lose that, the price that is
paid to right the wrong becomes a little
bit too heavy.
I say this, and I ask Allah to
forgive me and you, so ask Him to
forgive you.
Oh, the victor of those who ask forgiveness,
ask Allah to forgive you.
All praise is due to Allah, and peace
and blessings be upon those who have no
prophet after him, and upon his family and
companions, who followed his path and kept his
covenant.
My brothers and sisters, this oppressor has ceased,
and his tyranny has ceased, and his tyranny
has ceased.
And a time has ended for the Syrians
which they did not dream of ending.
They spent their money, in getting rid of
this expensive and selfish man.
They spent their money, their blood, their children,
and their lives in getting rid of this
expensive And to stop today, after this week
that has passed, since his demise, I contemplate
on the will of Allah, the Almighty, and
his kingdom, and I say, how did this
oppressor cease at this speed?
What word did Allah say to make him
cease?
What word did Allah say to make him
cease in five, in ten days?
What word did Allah say to make him
seize his kingdom in days when we could
not comprehend what had happened?
Until now, I have not comprehended what has
happened.
Until now, I have not comprehended what has
happened in my country.
Until now, Except that Allah, when He wants
something, He has prepared for him His reasons.
He has prepared for him His reasons.
Reasons that you know, and reasons that you
do not know.
And then He said to the oppressor, Indeed,
Allah gives time to the oppressor, and when
he takes it, He does not let it
go.
Allah, the Exalted, He took a mighty, a
mighty, to teach us, the Exalted, the Exalted,
again and again, to teach us, the Exalted,
the Exalted, again and again, that when He
wants something, He says to it, Be, and
it is.
One day from the days of Allah, the
Exalted, the Exalted, because there are those who
have the worst manners with Him.
Because there are some who have the worst
manners with Allah.
So he lost in himself So he lost
hope in himself.
So he lost hope in himself to see
a day in which he would be avenged
by the wrongdoer.
And he prepared the matter for the Day
of Resurrection.
And he prepared for the Day of Resurrection
what the wrongdoer prepares for him.
Then Allah, the Exalted, removed the wrongdoer with
the word, So he stopped the wrongdoer with
him in a state of bewilderment.
In a state of great shame.
In a state of embarrassment from his Lord.
How could he despair of his soul?
How could he despair of his mercy?
If he wanted anything, his command was to
say to him, Be, and it shall be.
So which Muslim after today can despair of
Allah's mercy?
Which Muslim after today can say, By Allah,
this evil system will not be removed.
This entity will not be removed.
Palestine will not be liberated.
The Egyptians will not come out.
The Iraqis will not be liberated.
The people of Pakistan, the people of India,
and the people of China will not be
guided.
How can a Muslim say after today, It
is not possible, and the hope is long,
and it is difficult.
And Allah, the Exalted, showed us a day
from his days.
And we are in our heedlessness.
And we are in our heedlessness.
By Allah, no one noticed.
No one expected this matter.
Except that Allah, the Exalted, willed.
So the injustice was removed.
I wrote words in 2015.
I said about it, then I removed it.
I put it on the blue wall.
Then I removed it out of fear of
my family in the country.
They criticized me.
They said, this will destroy our house.
So I removed it out of fear of
them.
I said, my grief is on the wounded
Levant.
It has no land and people.
It has no water and mountains.
I have nothing left but grief in love.
You ask me to forget her.
There is no beauty in the eyes that
passes through me.
Except that I see in his cheeks her
imagination.
The nations of the country, all of them,
envied her civilization.
And saw what she was like and her
beauty.
I wish my life did not last until
I saw the great body.
Its earthquake shook.
Who would have thought?
Who would have thought that he would hit
her?
This is the one who did not look
like her.
She shed her blood for a tyrant.
He brought corruption, cutting off her ties.
I am sorry for myself, and not for
her fame.
We are the ones who descended, not her
downfall.
A country in the scent of Jasmine, I
left it.
So I smeared Jasmine's veil in me.
Some of the creations live in their country.
And I live in the heart of the
Levant.
Then I added the day.
A day of the days of God in
our Levant.
I hope that was a benefit to you.
And know that God has commanded us a
great thing.
He said, God and his angels pray to
the Prophet.
O you who have believed, pray to him
and submit to him.
O Allah, pray to Muhammad and the family
of Muhammad.
As you prayed to Abraham and the family
of Abraham.
And bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad.
As you blessed Abraham and the family of
Abraham.
In the worlds, you are praiseworthy and glorious.
And God is pleased with the four Caliphs.
Lady of the Caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman,
and Ali.
And God is pleased with his wives, the
mothers of the believers.
And his good, pure families.
And his companions, the right-minded.
And the followers and those who follow them
well until the Day of Judgment.
And we are with them by your mercy,
O most merciful of the merciful.
O Allah, forgive the Muslims and the Muslims.
And the believers and the believers.
The living and the dead.
O Allah, release the drowned.
And breathe the distress of the afflicted.
And lift the grief from the oppressed.
And lift the injustice from the oppressed.
And cleanse our blood and the blood of
the Muslims.
O Allah, cleanse the blood of our brothers
and sisters who are weak in every place.
And cleanse their blood in Palestine, Lebanon, Levant,
Sudan, Pakistan, and other countries of the world.
O Lord of the worlds.
Return the whole nation to you in a
beautiful return.
Make this victory a victory for the Muslims
in every place.
Make its end in Palestine and Al-Aqsa,
O Lord of the worlds.
Return Al-Aqsa Mosque to the mercy of
the Muslims.
And grant us all to pray in it
before we die.
O Allah, bring out the Zionists from it,
humiliated and humiliated.
With your strength, O powerful and strong.
O Allah, change the state of this nation
to the best state.
O Allah, change the state of this nation
to the best state.
With your mercy, O most merciful of the
merciful.
O Allah, forgive us all our sins with
repentance and advice.
Purify us with it, heart, body, and soul.
And that is not difficult for you, O
Allah.
And there is no power or strength except
with Allah, the Exalted, the Great.