Ammar Alshukry – The SIGNIFICANCE of Al Quds
AI: Summary ©
The importance of Al Quds in the Muslim culture is discussed, with Baytul Maqdis being considered the holy city and being blessed with figures like Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The complex church in the region of theational valley is occupied by people who want to pray there. The importance of praying at the same time and remembering the ADAP (the ADAP of Jesus) is emphasized. The church's prophecy is true, but the speaker argues that the Prophet's prophecy is a complete disaster and that people should not try to impose reality on their events. The speaker also discusses the use of "we" in the Prophet's prophecy, stating that "we" means "we" in the church.
AI: Summary ©
So,
the session is gonna be a brief session
on Al Quds.
Some of the virtues of Al Quds.
Obviously it is a city.
It is a masjid
that is holy to us.
And something to pay attention to is that,
you know, there's,
a push
amongst our generation,
meaning the time that we live in,
where these concepts that were really considered to
be. These were things that were considered to
be known of the deen.
They were part and parcel of the religion
have become issues of controversy.
Things that were completely uncontroversial.
Like Al Masid Al Aqsa belongs to the
Muslims. It's part of our theology.
It is the 3rd holiest city in the
Muslim world. You'll find people even amongst the
Muslim world talking heads, speaking on TV, and
things like that saying, oh, the Masjid Al
Aqsa is not in Jerusalem. It's somewhere else.
Or
Al Masjid Al Aqsa is not a major
issue for the Muslim world.
My local masjid
is more important than Al Masjid Al Aqsa.
Things that you wouldn't imagine a believer saying
and yet these
silent thoughts
are being spoken out loud. And so it's
important
that on nights like this that we remind
each other, that we talk about in Masjid
Al Aqsa and that we understand a little
bit better the importance that this place has.
Allah
he says
So right from the beginning in Surat Al
Islam, the first verse Allah
said, Subhan,
exalted as the one who took his slave
on a night's journey from Al Masjid Al
Haram
to Al Masjid Al Aqsa, the one that
we blessed its surroundings.
Allah
selected this masjid, Allah
blessed this masjid, and Allah
says,
Allah says Allah is the one who creates
whatever he wishes and he chooses.
So a verse says, why at Masjid Al
Aqsa?
Why Jerusalem? You say because Allah chose.
Why Ramadan? Because Allah chose. What makes Ramadan
different or more unique than other months? Allah
chooses what he wishes.
Allah selects
which prophet he wishes from amongst the people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala selects times and makes
them special. The 10 days of the Ijha
are special. The month of Ramadan is special.
Laylatul Qadr is special. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is the one who creates, and Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is the one who chooses. Allah
chooses. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose
Mecca, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose Madinah,
and Allah chose Al Masjid Al Aqsa. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala chose Al Quds. Now what
does Quds mean?
Quds has a number of meanings. Number 1,
it means
sanctified.
So it is the sanctified city, and it
is the sanctified Masjid.
The angels in Surat Al Baqarah, when Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
What did the angels say? Finish the verse
for me.
They said, are you gonna create on this
earth those who are going to spill blood
and make mischief while we while we praise
you
and we
they use the same word, we sanctify you.
And so Al Masid Al Aqsa
means
the place or Al Quds is the sanctified
city, it is the sanctifying,
it is the holy city.
So it is sanctified,
it is Baytul Maqaddis and it is Al
Baytul Muqaddas.
Muqaddas
means it is sanctified.
Maqaddas means it is sanctifying.
So it purifies those who go there and
worship there, and it is purified in and
of itself. It is the holy land. Maqfuz
also has another meaning and it's very, very
beautiful and it's very profound, and that is
barakah.
Barakah.
And so Allah
being a Qudus means he is the one
who is the owner of blessings.
Baytul Maqdis
or means not just the holy land, but
it is the blessed land.
How is it blessed?
How is amquds blessed? How is
blessed? Because Allah
says, he doesn't say
he says,
He says the city or the the masjid
that we have blessed its surroundings,
and the surroundings is that entire region. And
you heard the 4 countries
that are now considered to be the Levant
or and that is Jordan and Lebanon and
Syria and Palestine.
That entire region is blessed. It's blessed how?
Tell me some of the ways that it's
blessed.
The prophets came here. Excellent. The amount of
prophets that came there. One prophet after another,
prophet after another. So many of these names
that you heard, they were either from a
sham or they migrated to a sham.
Ibrahim migrates to a sham, Musa migrates to
a sham. You have all of these great
prophets that are from a a sha'am, Dawud,
and Suleyman, and Yusuf and Yaqub and I
mean, so many.
And the ones we don't know are way
more than the ones that we know.
What
else?
Yes? It's
people.
Okay?
What about its people?
Is it just the flex? I'm from Lebanon.
What about its people? What about the people
of Asha?
Okay. What else?
Notable. The notable people? Look at the amount
of scholars that have come out of of
of Isham.
A lot of these names that you've heard
of.
Ibn,
Hajar ala'askalani.
Where's 'askalan?
Gaza.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
kub, the best of your rebat is the
rebat of Asqalat.
That's gazzah.
Although he lived his entire life from from
Egypt in Egypt, he's from Askarran.
Imam An Nawawi is from Ashham. Ibn Taymiyyah
is from Ashar. Imam, Ibn Qaym, of course,
is from Ashham.
Anytime you hear Al Maqdisi, Abdul Ghani al
Maqdisi, Il Maqdisi Al Maqdisi is where?
Jerusalem.
A lot of these heavyweight scholars
that we quote every single day were from
Hashem, the amount of scholars that come from
Hashem.
It's blessed in its fruits.
It's blessed in the amount of revelation that
came down in Asham.
It's blessed in the amount of martyrs
that come out of Asham. The prophet said
it is Ardrubat until the day of judgment.
You know, Ardrubat means that it is constantly
going to be a place of conflict. And
how can it not when 3 of the
world's greatest religions all lay claim for it
until the day of judgment, whether it's the
crusades or whether it's present day or whether
it's the future
at the end,
all of that is taking place in a
shamb. And so the amount of martyrs that
come, are selected, are chosen by Allah
Allah from that region,
I would not be surprised
if a significant portion of on the day
of judgment, the are
all from a sham, like a a healthy
percentage.
Even if it's 5 or 10% or 15%,
it's still a very healthy percentage.
And Allah
knows best, but that's also selection from Allah
And so Allah
says
Now
Baytul Maqdis, as you saw in the map,
by Kabir,
it's different than Al Masjid Al Haram.
Al Masjid Al Haram is the actual masjid.
When you go to the haram, you pray
in the masjid. You go inside the masjid
and you're trying to that's where you pray.
That's where you get rewarded. Masjid and Nabawi,
same thing. You go inside the Masjid. Masjid
and Nabawi, you don't even pray in the
courtyard if you can avoid it unless it's
spilling out. You go into the Masjid to
pray. However, at Masjid Al Aqsa,
it is the entire complex.
It's the entire complex. It's a 144,000,
square meters.
So when you see the complex and you
see these, you know, emails or WhatsApp messages
and things like that, where they point to
the Dome of the Rock and they'd say
this is not in Masjid Al Aqsa, and
and they point to in Masjid Al Qibili
and they say this is in Masjid Al
Aqsa. In reality, the 144,000
square meter complex, the entire place is in
Masjid Al Aqsa.
So when you zoom in on the entire
complex,
I want you to know that everything that
is within that boundary,
all of that is in Masjid Al Aqsa,
and that's very, very important. And this is
not just because of the occupation. This was
always held that all of that is in
Masjid Al Aqsa, but it became even more
important during the occupation.
Why? It's because
they really really really want
any part of the masjid.
And so if the masjid is deemed or
any part of it is deemed, oh, this
is not in Masjid Al Aqsa, they'll say
great. So let's let's have that. You're saying
it's not in Masjid Al Aqsa. Right?
And that's why it's very interesting when you
actually gone there,
I noticed,
and alhamdulillah, we've taken a number of trips
there and we ask Allah that our next
trip be with Palestine free. So
you go there and you learn new fiqh,
the fiqh of occupation because certain things
just didn't make sense, and you learn very
quickly to just kinda humble yourself and just
ask questions, and you'll learn things. Like, for
example, you have in Masjid Al Kibili, which
is this, you know, let's say this is
in Masjid Al Kibili.
The amount of people will be praying in
the rows will be 2 or 3 rows.
1, 2, 3. Now any masjid in the
world you go to, if you don't fill
up this place, you don't go and pray
somewhere else. You fill up this place. This
masjid has 2, 3 rows or 4 rows,
and that's completely different than what you experience
in Mecca and Medina because in Mecca and
Medina, the masjid is packed. Here, you're coming
to a masjid Al Aqsa, and it's empty.
It's very saddening because
most people aren't given permits to be able
to pray there. And so you have some
locals from Al Quds who are allowed to
pray there and even them, many of them
are advanced in age. And then you have
people who are foreigners. They're coming and they're
praying there. Long story short,
Al Masjid,
the Dome of the Rock,
Masjid as Sakhra
is maybe,
I wanna say like a a 2 minute
walk away,
and that has its own jama'ah.
They have their own congregation for Dhuhr and
Asr and Maghrib. And you'd think to yourselves,
why wouldn't you
close that masjid and come move your congregation
to pray here. Right?
Now who's the genius who can figure out
why they do that?
Yes, Malik. To keep the claim. To keep
the claim. 100%.
We need every aspect of this masjid to
be occupied.
The entire complex.
So, no, you can't have this,
we pray here too.
No, you can't have that. No, no, we
need that too. We pray that too. They're
trying to keep it occupied. And so, actually,
when you go to a masjid al Aqsa,
because of that idea of we need the
masjid to be occupied all the time, you
will find people doing things there that you
would never see happening in a masjid al
Haram or masjid al Nabawi.
People are coming and they're having their weddings
in front of the masjid, and they're doing
a photo shoot in front of the Dome
of the Rock. Have you ever seen a
wedding photo shoot in front of the Dome
of the Rock? You might have seen it
on Instagram.
What allows for a bride to come in
her white dress coming and standing in front
of the Dome of the Rock? Could you
imagine a bride in a white dress going
into
and trying to take a photo in front
of? That would never ever happen. A family
coming and having a picnic.
Intramural sports
of local university students coming and racing
on the side of
the,
you know, one of the grassy areas of
Al Masjid Al Aqsa. Why do they allow
for all of this varied activity to happen?
Because they want the masjid to be occupied.
The Mufti of Al Quds, he signed off
on that, he encouraged people, he said, guys
come. If you wanna play a soccer game,
come play it at the Masjid Al Aqsa.
If you wanna have a family picnic, come
have it at Masjid Al Aqsa. You wanna
do sports, come do Whatever you guys wanna
do, come and do it at the Masjid.
Keep the Masjid occupied.
The point here
is that
all of that complex
is considered to be Al Masjid Al Aqsa.
Now
you have
what's called Al Masjid Al Qibili, the Qibla.
It is the structure that is most south
because remember, Jerusalem is north of of Mecca,
and so the kibla is actually south. So
the kibili masjid is the southern,
masjid.
And then behind it is the Dome of
the Rock, and the Dome of the Rock
was built by the Khalifa Abdul Malik ibn
Murwan.
The rock was always there and it's actually
a mountain. And so when you're walking up,
you're the highest point of the structure of
the complex is where the Dome of the
Rock is. Otherwise, you're walking steps up and
you're walking steps down. Is this Am I
You guys able to visualize this? Okay.
So the dome of the rock was built
by the Khalifa Abdul Malik ibn Marwan
and people
mention that the cause of why he did
it are a number of reasons.
If you want to give him a a
more,
you wanna give him basically, like, a a
better excuse
for why he built the dome of the
rock structure,
It is because he looked around and he
saw that
Jerusalem was a city of incredible extravagance.
You heard about how
Abu Ubaid ibn Jalrah commented on the dress
of Umar al Khattab. These were people who
loved finery. They loved extravagance.
And so their churches until today, if you
go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,
you see incredible
gold,
all sorts of of wealth
being being,
being used in the structure of these places.
And so if you have these churches that
are so grandiose
and so much wealth is used to build
them, and then you have a little
was like, no.
I
want the Muslims Masjid
to be as charming,
as beautiful,
as as
as much of a landmark in the city
than any church. And so he built this
beautiful structure, the Dome of the Rock. And
until today,
whether
every anybody, when they think of the image
of Jerusalem,
the trademark image is the Dome of the
Rock. It's not the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher. It's the Dome of the Rock. That
being said, that's one angle.
Another one is
painting Abdul Malik ibn Wadh as more of
like a a shrewd politician.
He had a conflict
and a challenge to the Khalifa
from one of the great companions, Abdullah ibn
Zubair. And Abdullah ibn Zubair stronghold was in
Mecca.
And Abdullah ibn Zubair has a great advantage.
That advantage is is that Mecca is where
everybody's gonna come once a year for Hajj.
And so he would be able to recruit
people
when they come for Umrah and when they
come for Hajj. And Abdul Malik ibn Moran
does not have that power. He doesn't have
anything that will drive people to a sham.
In fact, people from Hashem are going to
Mecca and they're getting recruited by Abdul, by
Abdul Ab Nazeir. That's a political problem. And
so what did he do? He built the
Dome of the Rock so that he
could divert people as well to,
to, Hashem.
So that was his political calculus.
In any case, the Dome of the Rock
is built by Abdul Malik ibn Murwan, and
it's a beautiful structure that stands until today.
Now,
what are some of the virtues of? What
are some of the virtues of?
Number 1, we said that it's blessed. Number
2,
it is a place that has been visited
by the prophets and has been visited by
the companions.
Makes the journey there. Abu Baydin al Jarrah
makes the journey there. Salman al Farisi makes
the journey there. Abu Adar makes the journey
there. Saeed ibn Zaid makes the journey there.
You have Amrib al-'Az makes the journey there.
You have Ubad ibn Masamit and Shaddad ibn
also are actually buried there. And when you
go and you visit the Masjid,
right outside, there's the Rahma,
grave
cemetery, right outside the masjid. And you go
and you visit and you see the two
graves of these two companions,
Shaddad ibn Os and Abubad ibn Osamat.
Now, also, it was the first qiblah of
the Muslims, as you know. What was actually
the qiblah?
When you're in Mecca
I mean, when you're here, you just face
Makkah. But when you're in Makkah, you face
the Kaaba, right? So no matter which side
of the Kaaba you're on, you might be
praying North or South or East or West.
What was actually the qiblah in Jerusalem that
the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam was praying towards
for 13 years, 15 years actually, 13 years
in Mecca, and then another year and a
half in Medina? What was actually the kiblah?
When you're in Jerusalem,
what was actually the kiblah itself? Does anybody
know?
What was the kiblah that Bani Israel prayed
to?
Depending on what side they were on. It's
actually the rock.
So the rock is the top of the
mountain, and it's the highest part. And so
depending on where they were, they would pray
towards the rock. That was their qibla. And
it was said that that rock was because
it's the highest part of the mountain, that
is where
the was of Dawood, and later on that
was where the was of Zakaria alayhis salaam.
So when
comes
to
he finds
that the rock had become turned into a
garbage dump
because the Christians had already expelled the Jews
and they are, you know, to add insult
to injury, this is what your qiblah was
and we've turned it into a we've turned
it into
a a garbage dump. And so Umar commands
for it to be cleans
and then he asks
his companions,
where should we build the Masjid? Where should
we build a Masjid al Qibil?
And so Kaab ibn Nahbar, Kaab al Nahbar
he was, Kaab al Nahbar was a Jewish
rabbi who accepted Islam and he's a Tabir.
Kaab says to Umar he says to him,
Ameerul mumineen
build it behind the rock. Let's build the
Masjid behind the rock, we'll just do it
over there. Now again, this is Masjid Qibili,
the Qibla is that way.
The rock is behind,
it's this way. So Kaab is saying let's
build the Masjid behind the rock.
And what that would mean is that the
Muslims
are praying towards Makkah but the rock is
still in front of them.
And so Umar says,
he says, you still have some Jewishness in
you.
He says to him, You still have some
Jewishness in you. He says, Umar says, No.
We're gonna build it in front of the
rock.
Umar
sees the fiqh of Umar, he's like, no,
no, kabas, it's changed now. That's not our
anymore.
Us praying towards the rock now is like
us, you know, still celebrating Saturday. Allah has
replaced our Saturday with Friday.
It's done.
Old Qibla
I was gonna say,
new deen who this, right? Just completely replacing
the completely replacing the everything changes now.
No attachment
to what Allah
had previously ordained because Allah has replaced us
with something that's better. But, again, the idea
of breaking.
It's Mubarak in the land.
It's the place of the masar of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent
to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to Al Masjid
Asha, it's where the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
led
and then when death was approaching him, he
asked Allah
that he could at least
come as close as a stone's throw away
from Jerusalem
so that he could pass away as close
to Jerusalem as possible.
And that was because, as I know you
mentioned, that Musa alaihi salam asked a lot
to be as close as possible to Jerusalem
because of its virtue and the virtue of
the prophets who are all buried there. And
also it's I mean there's a lot that
could be said, but
the last thing that I'll mention is that
it is one of the 3 messiah that
the prophet
told us that you're allowed to religiously travel
for.
We're not allowed to travel
because of believing in the religious virtue of
praying in any masjid except for 3, and
Masjid Al Haram, and Masjid Al Aqsa, and
the Masjid of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
There's a lot of a hadith that are
weak with regards to the virtue of Al
Masjid Al Afza,
but something that's really interesting is that the
reason why many authors wrote about the virtues
of a sham, like, he
wrote a book called.
Ibn Taymiyyah also wrote a book on the
virtues of a sham, and the reason why
they did that, ibn Taymiyyah says, the reason
why we did it is to encourage the
people of Asham to stand fast with the
invasion of the Mongols.
That when the Mongols came to Asham,
these scholars,
they wrote these books to remind the people
of a sham, this land is blessed, this
land is virtuous, this land is the land
of rebat,
stand fast.
And so it's really important
that even in our times, that we also
remind each other that this land
is blessed. This land is important. This land
is a land of rebat, and it's important
that we don't give it up and that
we encourage those who are there to have
patience with the great reward that Allah
has promised them.
Also, the the I forgot to mention that
the salah is multiplied.
It is multiplied
in Bayt al Maqdis. Famously,
it's
a 100,000. In in
it's a 1,000.
In an masjid al Aqsa, it's 250.
That's the most authentic
narration that it is 250. And the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
He said that it is an excellent musallahu,
because Abu Dharr asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam and he said, We were mentioning at
Masjid Al Aqsa to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, and in fact we were asking him,
which Masjid is Afdal, a Masjid in Nabi
or Masjid Al Aqsa?
The Sahaba are sitting there in Madinah, and
they're debating,
they're reviewing, and they come and they ask
the Prophet which Masjid is better, Al Masjid
Al Nabi or Al Masjid Al Aqsa? You
know what that shows you? That shows you
that al Masjid al Aqsa was already
so big in the eyes of the companions.
It was something that was so significant, they
viewed it and what's really amazing,
at least to me always,
is that with all of these virtues and
all of these and all of these ahadith
that talk about in Masjid Al Aqsa, Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is talking about a place
that the companions
that wasn't even Muslim yet.
It was not even Muslim.
And yet Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is talking
about this place like it is part and
parcel of the Muslim world and that it
is one of
the the central arteries
of the Muslim world until the day of
judgment.
He's talking about a sham like he loves
this place.
That until the day of judgment, he says
that it is it is a bastion for
the believers, and it's not even Muslim at
the time. Right? That's incredible prophecy. And the
Sahaba radiAllahu because of how much they've heard
of Masjid Al Aqsa, they're asking the prophet,
they're like, actually which one is better? Al
Masjid Al Nabawi, the one that you built
with your own hands and that we're all
here at, or is it Al Masjid Al
Aqsa? And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says,
salatunfi
masjidhi afdal min arba salatfi.
Salah in my masjid is better than 4
salahs there, walani amal musallahu
and what an excellent musallahu it is. And
then he says, and there will come a
time, and this is a beautiful hadith. He
says, there will come a time when a
man has what is equal to the rope
that you tied down your horse with.
Just that little surface area, however much of
space that takes, that little rope he says
of land
through which they're able to see Al Masjid
Al Aqsa is better for them than the
world and everything in it.
For a person to have, like, one single
square foot of land in Jerusalem
through which they're able to see Al Masjid
Al Aqsa will be more beloved to them
than the world and everything in it.
And we saw that.
When we went to Al Quds,
every time we went to Al Quds, we
saw this hadith
manifested. Did we not?
We saw people
who are offered 1,000,000 of dollars to sell
their cafes like Abu Khadija.
$30,000,000
he's offered,
and a and a visa to go anywhere.
He's got a little cafe. He doesn't even
he he doesn't even have a permit to
sell lunch, to sell dinner, He sells breakfast
items and that's it. He's not allowed to
sell anything else.
And he's buried in debt, and he's buried
in in taxes, and he's buried in
in
fines
and he's like, no. I'm not selling.
I'm not selling.
He's got a little little
store
but it's more beloved to him than the
world and everything in it. $30,000,000?
No, I'm not interested.
We meet
a gentleman
who
literally has a practice
in the United States that's worth like $30,000,000
or more.
And he was telling us
that he instead moved from the US
and was living in a 1 bedroom apartment
in Jerusalem.
He didn't have a permit to live in
Jerusalem. His wife had a permit to live
in Jerusalem. And so she would bring him
to Al Quds
in the trunk of her car.
This guy would be living in mansions in
the US.
But that one square foot
through which you're able to see Al Masjid
Al Aqsa
is more beloved to them. That one bedroom
apartment
is better than villas in the United States.
I'd rather be
brought
to and fro
in the trunk of my wife's car,
but I get to see Al Masjid Al
Aqsa.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's prophecy is true.
The fadl of salaf in Masjid Al Aqsa,
I guess there's a a beautiful hadith for
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us in the
hadith of Ibn Majah. He says that when
Suleymanu completed building in Masjid Al Aqsa, and
Suleymanu was not the first person to build
in Masjid Al Aqsa, Abu Dharrar al Aqsa
who asked the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam which
Masjid was built first? He said a Masjid
al Haram. He said what Masjid was built
after that? He said, and Masjid al Aqsa.
He said, what's the difference between them? He
said, 40 years.
And so Allah knows best. There's difference of
opinion who was the first builder of a
Masjid Al Haram and who was the first
builder of a Masjid Al Aqsa. Was it
the angels?
And Allah
knows best. It was Adam that Adam built
both of them, and between them was the
period of 40 years. And Ibrahim simply
rebuilt the Kaaba and Suleyman rebuilt Al Masjid
Al Aqsa. But the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
tells us that when Suleyman rebuilt Al Masjid
Al Aqsa,
when he completed,
he asked Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for 3
things.
First thing, he said was,
judgment on earth that was harmonious with Allah's
judgment on in the heavens.
That Suleyman's judgment be razor sharp, that it
be correct, his judgment on earth be
incongruence with Allah's
judgment in the heavens.
Number 2 is
He asked Allah
for a kingdom, the life that which nobody
would ever have after him. And number 3,
he said that
nobody comes
to intending to pray in it except that
they leave with their sins being forgiven.
And then
said, as for the first two, he was
given and I hope that he was given
the third. I hope that he was given
the third.
Now, near the end of times, the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he was asked by Ibn
Hawa'ala.
Said there will come a time when there
will be soldiers
in Iraq,
there will be soldiers in Assham and there
will be soldiers in Yemen.
So ibn Hawala said, You Rasulullah choose for
me, which one should I be a part
of? Should I be a part of the
army in Iraq, the army of Yemen or
the army of
Hashem. And the prophet said
He said go to Hashem because it is
the chosen place from Allah
in which
Allah gathers the chosen one from his servants.
But he says, if you refuse,
then go to your Yemen, go to Yemenikum
and eat from its ponds. Eat from its
not ponds, eat from its pools. Eat from
the pools drink not drink, eat, but drink.
Drink from the pools of Yemen because Allah
has
entrusted to me Hashem and its people. Allah
will take care of Hashem and its people.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is encouraging
people to go to Hashem to be part
of that. That being said, there's an important
concept with regards to
the
the the end of days.
And that is a person does not try
to
impose their reality
on the actual texts.
So I don't look at the map right
now and say, okay, I see that there
are soldiers in Ashraf, and I definitely see
that there are soldiers in Yemen. So this
must be that there are soldiers in Al
Arak right now that we're looking for. You
don't try to create these scenarios.
These are events that are going to happen,
yes, but they're not initiated. And anytime people
try to initiate these types of events, it
ends up having disastrous consequences.
Like, one day, inshallah, we'll ask Sheikh Houri,
the Sheikh Hamad, or any one of them
to tell the story of Juhi Man. This
was a person who tried to claim him
he was the Mahdi, and you can look
up the story on YouTube. In 1979, and
they tried to take over the Kaaba. And
they tried to to they tried to
they tried to create these events. And obviously,
he wasn't the mani and it ended up
being a a complete massacre and disaster.
So,
the last thing that, I'll I'll mention is
the famous hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Well, two things. Number 1, Rasulullah
says
He said if the people of Hashem become
corrupt, then there is no goodness in you.
So the people of are actually a metric
for the righteousness of the ummah. Now does
that mean that in every time and place
that the people of are going to be
perfect and the most righteous and all that
type of stuff? No. That's not what it
means.
But it does mean that over the period
of the ummah, 1400 years,
that the people of are always going to
be
like, over the entire duration, they're always going
to be of the best of this ummah.
And if you look at the events of
this ummah, whether we're talking about the amount
of scholars that came after Hashem or whether
you look at the
disasters that were stopped in Hashem.
The Crusaders were stopped in Hashem. The Mongols
were stopped in Hashem. Sayf Adir Qutus in
the battle of Anjalut. That was in Palestine.
That is where
the
the the ravaging of the mongols of the
entire Ummah, it came to stop at Anjadut
in Palestine.
Right? So that's where
you have these moments.
But also,
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, that there will
never stop
being
a group from my ummah.
They will be apparent upon the truth.
They will not be harmed by those who
forsake them,
nor those who betray them,
or those who go against them.
They will be apparent upon the truth.
And they said, they are in, and he
said, they are in Beitul Maqdis, wa'atknath Beitul
Maqdis. They are in Jerusalem
and in the surrounding areas of Jerusalem. So
there will always be a community from the
believers
in that region that are apparent upon the
truth. If the whole world forsakes them, that
won't change them.
If the whole world goes against them, that
won't change them. They'll be apparent upon that
truth. And so it's really important for the
ummah
that we look and we see who are
these people,
what is their
belief like,
what is their worship like,
What is their,
I have a beautiful friend of mine
who recently went on a medical trip to
Gaza.
And when he came back,
he said,
you know,
he said the people in Gaza were telling
him, he said, because he went to Medina
right after, and he went to Mecca to
do umrah.
And they told him, they said, Oh, you're
going to Mecca? They said to him, they
said, You know, Mecca is the land of
Ibadah,
and they said,
and Uzza is the land of Shahadah.
So he said, you know,
Mecca is the place of worship and
Asham or Palestine is the place of shahada.
But he said to us, he said, you
know, even though there's a lot of shahada
there, he said there's a lot of Ibadah
there too. And he started describing to us
the Ibadah of the people that he that
he saw. A man whose legs are amputated,
being brought into the, you know, and he's
praying.
You know, his tongue is is continues to
be moist with the dikr of baba.
People are waking up in the freezing cold.
And I remember going to Palestine a couple
of years ago in March, and what I
remember
is how
cold it was. I could not purchase enough
layers of clothes
for the cold.
And even the cold has barakah there. It
was incredible.
And yet you're seeing now we're in March
or in April now. I mean, they just
went through those incredible,
you know, temperatures there.
And he's telling us, like, this man wakes
up every morning,
and
they're trying to find water. They're making wudu
with whatever water is available. And every morning
nonstop, he's waking up the youth in these
camps.
Nonstop.
Right?
So in any case, the prophet what is
their like? You learn. What is their like?
What is their attachment to the dunya like?
What is their belief in Allah look like?
Their tawakkul in Allah
look like?
You learn from that.
What is their
their,
forgiveness of the ummah like? You know, I
heard this from
Gaza a couple of days ago.
It was a heartbreaking, you know, the dua
that they're making in.
And one of them and I'll end with
this, but what the one of the things
that the guy was saying, he was saying,
You know that verse from Surat,
What Surat is that?
Al Hashar. Okay. Yeah. It's in Surah Al
Hashar.
So he's saying, oh Allah, do not make
in our hearts animosity, hatred towards the believers.
And generally, this is being said about, you
know, the people of the past
but I can't imagine
or I can imagine very easily how disappointed
the people of Huazza are in the entire
Muslim world.
Right? And I could imagine
that disappointment turning into hatred.
Like,
look at look at 1,600,000,000
people, and they can't stop us from being
slaughtered like cattle.
Do not make us have any rancor in
our hearts for those who have believed.
Right? So what is their forgiveness look like?
What is their imam look like? All of
that something to be studied. May Allah allow
us to see Baytul Maqdis free and unoccupied
and all of
May
Allah unite our hearts and unite our words
and and make us of those who support,
bringing relief to our brothers and sisters and
not make us of those who forsake them.