Adnan Rajeh – My Maxims #06
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the ongoing bombardment of small pieces of land filled with women and children, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and activating the public opinion to resolve issues and show support to individuals. They stress the need for community involvement, protecting students, finding ways to support individuals, and showing support to others. The speakers emphasize the importance of acknowledging and activating the public opinion to build a community, show support to individuals, and bring Islam back to action. They also emphasize the need for flexibility and a willingness to speak out in the face of social media activism. The movement to unite Muslims across the globe is emphasized as a way to strengthen communities and society.
AI: Summary ©
Before I start talking about the maxims that
I wanna share with you today,
it is worth noting that it's been over
8 months now that we have been witnessing
this ongoing
brutal
bombardment
of a very small piece of land
that is extremely highly populated
and is filled with women and children. And
the death toll now is beyond 30,000 people
with the majority of these individuals who are
who are deceased being women and children.
While the world, Yeah. He discusses back and
forth the legitimate legitimacy
of these actions and they encourage and they
discourage and they use phrases that are frankly
just extremely
shameful and embarrassing.
And every historical
era has a blind spot. If you look
at the history of the world, you'll find
that every every generation had a blind spot,
had something that occurred during their lifetime, and
they just didn't didn't take enough interest in
it, and it caused it caused a lot
of harm and pain. And this has been
the the, the the the the story for
a very long time. And,
this is gonna be this generation's blind spot.
And if you are fortunate enough to be
standing on the correct side of history
and you are siding with with with human
rights and you're siding with the mavlum, with
the oppressed
for the sake of justice and righteousness, then
that that's a very that's something to be
fortunate about. Like, that's something to be grateful
that Allah puts you in a position where
you're able to see things for what they
are. You're actually able to see Haqq for
Haqq and hak for
hak and hak opposing hak because a lot
of people today on this planet, they don't
have that, ability. For whatever reason, they have
they they lack the insight and they lack
the the ability to see I need the
the the reality for what it is.
And now more than ever, we are required
as Muslims and as human beings to voice
our concerns and to raise our voices and
be the and be a voice for those
who don't have a voice in a part
of the world where it's getting worse and
worse. And no resolution is really seen in
the, yeah, in the horizon. Today, the international,
Court of Justice
has has issued
a clear command for a ceasefire to happen
in Rafah immediately.
And
and and and honestly,
we have not seen such a shift in
the popular culture
or the public opinion,
regarding the issue of Palestine as we are
seeing it today.
As through throughout the entirety of my life
at least, I have not seen the public
opinion shift so severely
amongst the younger generation and even some of
the older generation regarding this topic.
And this requires from us not only to
acknowledge and realize that that is the case,
but we must
keep that moving like it is our responsibility
in front of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
keep this momentum moving forward so that the,
pin public opinion not only stays like this,
but it actually continues to shift and continues
to move. And that's how causes throughout history
actually,
are resolved. They they're they're resolved by a
a a change in public opinion. That has
to happen first. That's if you look at
World War 1 and World War 2 and
actually study the history behind it, that is
how things occurred. It took before the wars
actually happened, before there was actual change, before
they actually went after a problem, there had
to be enough awareness amongst people and enough
and enough of a stance against something that
is occurring for it to actually generate a
change within the political arena.
We may be still a a bit far
away from true change occurring politically, at least
in the west that is, and maybe even
in the Middle East quite ought to be
quite frank. But the public opinion is there,
and we are seeing it happening and whenever
it happens on campuses, whenever you see students,
university students actually taking taking
matters into their own hands
and forming these protests and these encampments, then
you know that something is occurring
that because here here's the thing. 10 years
ago or or 15 years
in in the past, if this was if
this were to happen 15 years ago, the
encampment would encampments would not have occurred. You
know why? Because all the parents would have
told their kids, no. No. Don't don't do
that. It's too dangerous. It'll cost you your
your degree. It'll cost you because, the generation
before us, mine and maybe the one before
us, we played it safe. Right? That's why
I was brought up.
That that that's what I was taught. You
walk right beside the wall, and you keep
your head down, and you keep your mouth
shut, and you get yourself a good job,
and you make enough money to care of
yourself.
What what what does politics concern you?
Why does none of nothing can none of
this stuff concerns you. Whatever the politicians are
doing, whatever the leaders are doing, what's happening
in other parts of the world, none of
your business, I was brought up that way.
Myself and my whole generation was brought up
that way. So if this if if what
happened in Gaza now happened 15 years ago
or 20 years ago, I'm telling you, it
would be very different. But now there's a
generation of people who just don't care. Their
parents may be still saying this, but they're
not listening to them anymore. And God bless
them for not listening to them anymore. Your
parents, you have to be very careful in
what you ex what you take and what
you don't. There are certain things that they
say out of fear. And out of fear,
that that should you take that with a
grain of salt. When it's when it's out
of fear, when it's out of a upbringing
where you're not used to actually speaking out
against authority, you're not used to taking a
stance, you're not used to being courageous when
righteousness and justice are on the line, That's
where you want to maybe yeah. And you
say say a kind word to your parents,
and you don't have to know where you're
going to spend the rest of your day,
and you go and do that anyways. Today,
we are required as a community. By the
way, all the encampments that were, successful across
the states and within Canada and in Europe
were successful because the community members behind the
students,
supported them. Because people showed up, and they
aided them. Not only
financially by making sure they had enough food
and enough but they also supported them with
their with their, with their wisdom, with their
physical presence, with their with their moral presence.
That's important. And if we want to, insha'Allah,
achieve something for our for ourselves here, for
the London community, and for the students who
have put their degrees on the line, basically.
Are risking their undergrads and post grads and
risking their jobs in the future and risking
yeah. Not risking. People are taking pictures of
them and they will be identified and they
will be applying at some point and that
will reflect on them. Unfortunately, that's how the
world works today, and they are risking that.
So they we owe it to them. We
owe it to them to show up and
be there. And that's an important part of
this of this whole, you know, I need
the the story. Not only should we show
up, but we should also make sure that,
if you're if you're affiliated with Western and
as a community that we continue to put
pressure on our university. Because as a city,
almost everyone, yeah, I mean, in this room,
one way or another, was affiliated with with
with our with this academic institution. There's always
someone in the household who studied there, either
as a student, as an alumni,
a staff. And these academic institutions, they carry
weight in the world. They carry a lot
of actually, the narratives of the world don't
change from another. They change in academia.
They change when there are PhD, a certations
that are talking about certain topics and they
are and they are being praised and they
are be published and they're being they're being
accepted within the academic world. And this is
just how things work, by the way. So
I can give a million chuppas,
One well written PhD, yeah, any thesis that
makes its way through the through the works
and gets published and gets recognized will have
more effect on how the the politics of
this world function than than a lifetime of
me standing here yelling at you. It won't
it won't make because that's just how the
world works. So we require this type of
of movement. We require our academics and people
who are,
who have wealth and who have status to
push this issue.
Yeah. I need for for any for whatever
gain we can dig we we can we
can help our students get out of this
and to continue to protect our students moving
forward. Alright. The biggest problem for minorities
and the biggest problem for Muslims in general
is that people who want to say something,
who want to are willing to do the
work, who are willing to show up, who
are willing to put their life on on
the line for something, they don't end up
getting supported. So they get burnt really badly,
like burnt to the ground. I mean, they
lose everything, and they have nothing to show
for it at the end, and the whole
community just looks the other way and lets
them burn, and that's the problem. I've seen
it happen many, many times. I've seen it
happen a lot, and it causes a lot
of disgruntlement, and it causes a lot of
resentment amongst Muslims amongst Muslims. And it trickles
out into the Muslim youth, and this becomes
the norm that no. No. Don't don't do
that. Don't don't
put don't don't stretch your neck out because
the moment you do that, your head will
be chopped off and no one no one
will stand by you. No massages. No no
community members. You'll be left. You'll be left.
They'll hang you to dry, and they'll leave
you out there. And that's the problem.
Our our community has to get behind those
who are willing to voice their concerns about
something even if you don't
You don't have to agree with everything someone's
saying to support them. Okay?
Clear? You don't have to. You will never
find that, by the way. It's almost impossible
for you to agree with someone a 100%.
Yeah. Unless they are you, you're not gonna
agree with everything they have to say. Take
a look at the large broad strokes. Zoom
out and see what they stand for. And
if you agree with the basics, you know,
he supports even if there are details that
you don't necessarily like. That's what it means
to be a part of a community. That's
what it means to be part of a
nation. That's what it means to be Muslim,
that we support our Muslim brothers and sisters
even if their behavior is not top notch
all the time, even if the way they're
doing things is not exactly how I would
do it, even if I don't necessarily agree
with how things are happening, I'll still show
up. I'll bring my family. I'll stand there,
and I will show her my support, and
I'll be there physically because I don't have
to agree with everything in order for me
to be a part of my community. This
is so important.
If you end up one of those people
where, well, I requested this change. It didn't
happen, so I'm not showing up. Shame on
you, Wallahi. This is shameful, and it's embarrassing,
and I don't tolerate that type of behavior.
And once I find that about you, I
try to remove you from my vicinity because
I don't need people like that. Because what
that means is I have to continue to
say and act the way you like. I
have to dance for you like a monkey
because the moment that I don't know exactly
what you want, you're out. Tell us out
from now because that's not that's not how
the world works.
It's impossible. No one can always please you
at all times, but you have to look
at the bigger picture. What's the bigger picture?
What are we what are we here about?
What are we about? Do we stand by
righteousness and by justice and by our brothers
and sisters in Palestine and by all those
who are oppressed? We do good. That's enough.
We don't need the details. We'll we'll figure
them out as we go along and we
will make mistakes. We will make big mistakes,
and that's alright because that's a part of
the human process. That's the part that's how
things work. They never when have they ever
not worked like that? Imagine if the Sahaba
were like that with the prophet alayhis salatu
wasalam. He wouldn't get as far as Dar
al Akam. He wouldn't even be able to
leave his home.
Mistakes were made the whole time. It was
a lot of mistakes. He tried a lot
of things, and they failed
many times. They they lost battles, but alayhis
salatu wassalam, he taught them something about that.
Look, as long as we agree on why
we're doing what we're doing, as long as
it's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
satisfaction that we have in front of us
and we are moving towards this because Allah
commanded us to be servants and be stewards
and to stand for Haqq, then we will
continue to figure it out. And we'll stand
by each other even if it doesn't work.
We'll figure it out. We'll go back to
the drawing board and we'll find another way
to do it
or else the Islam would not, have exist.
Islam wouldn't make it this far had this
mentality not been central to how Muslims functioned.
And today, more than ever, we require this.
We require this concept of unity, and Palestine
has united us. I can tell you that
much. It has changed it has changed a
lot of mentalities. I over the last 8
months, just the observation, there has been a
change in in the mindset of of people
where we we recognize a little bit more
now what we what we have in common
versus what we don't have in common. Meaning,
today, the visibility
of our, discrepancies and our disagreements are as
much less than it was 8 months ago.
Yeah. In in September of last year, the
visibility of our disagreements was much more clear.
They it was they were highlighted. They they
they glared. Today, they're not as clear because
we are focused on a bigger picture. We're
all upset that 8 months in, they're still
being killed, that the narrative, the racist
the racist supremist narrative that is coming out
of a country that everyone supports is is
being played down, washed down.
Things that are being said had they been
said by a Muslim human being, they would
have been a prosecutor
all across the globe. Things that if I
were to take quotes and say them here
and say them the same way, just change
the target of the word, I would be
arrested outside of this door. I wouldn't make
it home today, yet it's okay for others
to say them. That's double standard.
That horrific way of of treat treating people
in this world, this this this
can end. It can end and it is
it's it's moving towards that, but it requires
it requires the communities to come together and
for people to unite their voices and to
push and to stand by those who are
actually taking action and showing some courage and
bravery because not everyone's not everyone can march.
Not everyone can march. Some people don't have
time to march. Well, what do you have
time for?
You have to put you stretch your neck
out there like everyone else. Maybe not in
the exact same way, but somehow you have
to. It's not fair for one person to
do it and for you not to do
anything. You have to do something. I can't
go and spend time at the encampment. I
just get there's not enough time in the
day, but I have to show my support
some other way. Same thing goes for you.
I'm not saying everyone has to show up,
but find something find some way to support.
And if you do have time to show
up, then do that.
And this goes this is not just about
the concept of the encampment. No. No. No.
This is about everything.
This is about everything to do with your
with with your din or with your ummah.
Everything. You have to carry your weight.
You have to carry your weight. I spent
the last couple of weeks doing tafsir of
Suratul Munafiqun
after Sunday,
after Maghrib on Sundays.
And what what the Quran actually ends up
explaining Munafiq for you is someone who's he,
there are freeloaders.
That's and Munafiq is a freeloader.
And Munafiq who's in it for the perks
but not in it not the buy in.
They'll take the perks. They'll take all the
benefits of being Muslim, but they're not willing
to do anything. They're not willing to carry
their weight. They're not willing to put it
their wealth. They're not willing to put their
lives. They're not willing to dedicate their time.
They're not willing to help, but but they'll
take the perks.
Wherever advantages exist for being Muslim, they'll take
they'll take all of that. They're they're in
it for the perks, but not for the
actual buy in. The free land, which is
a problem. Imagine the prophet alaihis salazaram having
a census. Like, he knew how many people
he had. He knew that he had 1500
people to bear arms. Yalla, I need to
go. We need to defend Medina. 900 people
show up. Where is the rest? There are
600 people missing. Where are they? That's that's
nifaq.
That's the problem. He can't you can't plan
things out. You You can't plan things out
because you count and then you say, okay.
This is the number of people we have.
This is how much wealth we have. If
you want to start this meshurah, this project,
this is how much we'll get. And then
you call and you get a fraction. Where's
everyone else? Now this is not an accusation
that they're Munafiqin. I have no right to
do that. No one can call anyone else
Munafiq, by the way, period. But this was
his problem, alayhis salatu wasalam. His problem is
that he had he knew the numbers. He
knew how many Shabaab he had. He knew
how many people how many people who could
bear arms. He knew how much wealth there
was. So when he asked, yeah, it didn't
come through.
There's a discrepancy
between the numbers he has and the actual
output, and the discrepancy is, Nifak. The freeloaders,
the ones who aren't willing to do the
work,
The ones who are just willing to to
take what's it for them. Yeah. I need
coming. I need to I want I need
to praise your mind. That's what I'm used
to. So I praise your mind, leave. I'm
not interested. I don't care.
Whatever you say, just quicker, Sheikh. The quicker,
the better. Please wrap it up because I
have things to do. That doesn't work. That
doesn't I'm sorry. It doesn't work for you.
As a Muslim, you don't understand what's waiting.
You understand that you're going to be questioned
in ways that maybe you didn't even know
was what we were going to be questioned
later on on the day of judgment. We're
going to be questioned about our attendance of
Jumuah. But why? Just so they can put
an attendance?
Just so that the someone who's puts, like,
yes, a meme? In in in in when
I was in in in university back in
Syria, Abid al Mim, they called us. We
are the slaves of the letter Mim, Mojud,
that we were there. We just needed the
attendance to get through to get through the
that's not how it works for Jum'ah. You're
you're you're required to attend because the message
you have to hear because the message when
you hear it, you have to actually take
action after it. So you have to be
aware of what's occurring in your community so
that you can figure out what your role
is because our roles are not all going
to be the same. They're going to be
different, and that's okay.
It's okay for us to have different roles
in our community, but we have to be
able to, I recognize
that we do have a role to play.
It doesn't matter whether you're 10 or you're
90. You have a role to play. Identify
it. And if you don't know what it
is, then spend time figuring it out because
this is what you're going to be asked
about your ul Qiyam and this is why
Jum'ah
is obligatory. It's obligatory because I have to
stand here and tell you this. I have
to remind you that you have a weight
to carry.
The ummah cannot should not be carrying in
you. You should be carrying it with us.
You're either on on the wagon or under
it. You're either carrying it with everyone else
or or you're sitting on top and we're
others are carrying your weight.
And that's a scary thing to to to
meet Allah
with you.
You can go back. I didn't talk about
the maxims today at all. I don't plan
to. We're gonna stick with this.
Brothers and sisters, the there are a lot
of there are a lot of, just causes
that Muslims should come around come together around.
Many historically,
there are many countries where where Muslims were
mistreated and many causes that are very clear
who the oppressor was and who the oppressed
was, and we should have come together, but
we didn't. However, we did come around this
one. Meaning, Muslims have found somehow in their
hearts to come around and to unite themselves
around the con the the top the the
the the the issue of Gaza. This is
meaningful. The fact that we are finding ourselves
coming together and uniting around something, this is
very powerful. We haven't done that in a
long time. It's very refreshing, by the way.
It hasn't happened in in decades decades for
Muslims actually all to come together and say
this, I remember because I I happen
Syria was destroyed. 7,000,000 people were displaced. It
didn't unite people. This did.
This is and and the point here is
not to complain about why this and why
no. It doesn't matter. We're united on something.
Alhamdulillah.
That is barakah. That is khaib that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala brought the hearts upon something.
Now it's on us to keep that momentum
going, to actually make sure that this translates
into work, translates into commitment, into a cause,
into people organizing and focusing and advocating
and educating and making sure that our next
generation will will carry that in their minds.
It is so important and valuable.
You have no idea how valuable this is
right now. This is not to feed off
the suffering of our brothers and sisters in
Al Qasr, but this has happened already. I
can't go back in time and change it,
neither can you. I wish we could. Well,
I wish we could go back and and
and and and just take and just stop
all of this prevented so that these so
the children didn't die, so the families were
not destroyed
In your heart, I hope that you feel
that way as well, but we can't. What's
happened is happened. It's done now,
and it's ongoing. But we do have an
opportunity here to unite what ourselves to to
come together on something and to actually use
it as as as fuel to strengthen our
own communities and societies, to bring back Islam
again, to bring it back to the front
in our hearts and in our behaviors and
to behave as Muslims as one even though
we we we are there are differences between
us racially and culturally and and and and
in so many other fields, by the way.
But it brings us together. It's great that
it brings us together. We have to use
that,
and it's just something that I think is
worth yeah, honey, contemplating.
Right now, this is where we
are. We're at a time where we need
to support our students and we start we
have to start talking more
seriously about what the next steps are going
to look like, how we're going to apply
more pressure.
There's a certain
degree of courage today and bravery that people
are trying to feel.
A little bit more flexibility,
a little bit more,
I don't know, willingness to to to speak
out than there was maybe 7 to 8
to 9 months ago,
and that's something That's very rare.
I need to to to recognize this and
watch it. It's just something has changed. Look
at look at social media.
You you cannot it's not comparable. You can't
compare.
A year a year ago to today in
terms of the activism, in terms of what
people are willing to say, things that you
couldn't say before. You would lose your account.
You would lose your account to me, but
they can't they can't cancel everyone. So now
there's been a shift and and and that
has to continue because our our voice has
to has to reach and our narrative has
to be accepted and we have to push
towards that.
And please don't be petty about things that
you don't agree about. Wallahi, I don't agree
with 90% of what happens in our community.
Wallahi, everything is high. Everything is wrong, but
there's no point in sitting here and criticizing
everything and put put being an obstacle in
every harass. Move along with what's happening.
There's Khaydah to keep it moving. Keep it
moving. We'll we'll have time to sit back
and and and criticize and point out what
needs should be different. It's it's just no
time right now. Right now is the time
for us to move and to show our
movement and to strength this strengthen this momentum
and to support those who are moving forward.
We'll have the luxury of pointing out mistakes
later on. We don't have that right now.
Right now, we have to this is a
wave that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala through our
way. So wave is it's a big deal.
Then if we don't utilize it correctly, if
we don't actually understand where we are historically,
this has never happened before. I hope you
understand this has never happened before. Historically, since
the world war, this has not happened in
a long time. The Muslims have been weak
since the Qirafa fell and before that, by
the way. It's been a couple of 100
years now since the since they failed to
to to restore Vienna. We have not we
have nothing to show. We have we have
nothing to show for ourselves for a very
long time now, so 300 years. This is
the first time in a long time that
Muslims across the globe across the globe have
been able to come back come together
in a way where they hear one another.
It happened back in 1948, but there was
no technology back then. So no one knew.
No one knew. They find people in in
India found out
a long time later after after the wars
had already been been done.
Technology was not where it is. But right
now, no. There's there's this unity that's in
the hearts of Muslims all across the world
all across the world. As minority communities in
the west and as majority communities in the
east and this momentum, nothing can really stop
it unless people decide to stop it, unless
people actually give up on it. As long
as we don't give up on it, it
will continue, and that spark will grow, and
it'll turn to something more meaningful. It'll turn
into something meaningful for our nation, for our
for for humanity,
for you because that's what we're here for.
We're here to see if we serve Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala through what he taught, through
that book and what he brought within it
for the human race and that's our obligation
and we're not doing a very good job
with that.
So please realize
the where we are
and what's
required of us before
before we look back at this and wish
we did something different,
before this this all goes away and quiets
down. And I know a lot of us
want it to quiet down, and We go
back to how things were. And and the
and the the piece of you that wants
it to quiet down, is that enough? It
just wants things to be nice and quiet
so you can
you can go more
on your trips and enjoy your time and
sit back not worrying and not feeling maybe
guilty for not
yeah. That's enough. Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore
it and and and bring that the the
Azima of the Ruwa. Bring that bring that
strength that exists within your spirit that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala put inside you and allow
it to raise rise to the occasion appropriately.
And may that rising continue for you till
the day you meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Hope that was a benefit to
you.