Farhan Abdul Azeez – Regrets and Point of No Return

			Oh, oh work
		

			Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam Guada, a shepherd Minister
Nene, have you been Mohammed? While only he was like a big name cinema Ecomax Allahu barakato.
		

			We live in the information age where we're constantly being bombarded with
		

			news information, and it becomes overwhelming at times, keeping track of everything.
		

			And given the situation that we find ourselves in as an ummah globally,
		

			it can be depressing at times, can be very difficult to deal with. And the reality is that
oftentimes, more often than not, the Muslims are portrayed in a negative light, whether it be in
news media, whether it be in Hollywood,
		

			whether it be in discussions, at academic institutions, and, you know, Malcolm X, he had something
to say very powerful in the spot on to the truth about him, Allah to Allah when he said that the
media is the most powerful entity on Earth, because they have the power to make the innocent, guilty
and make the guilty innocence. And that's power because they control the minds of the masses. Right?
He said that, you know, if you're not careful, you may be sympathizing or defending the oppressor
rather than the oppressed. And we find that to be true. We find that to be true in the coverage of
Palestine and Israel.
		

			In the coverage of what's happening right now in Baghdad, the sham in Syria, right, we're now the
focus is on ISIS, and what they're doing. But
		

			all along when Bashar has been using chemical weapons and soldering his own people, the world is
silence, right when it fits the narrative of this boogeyman, this bad guy that's out there, and we
need to continue funding the war machine. It's a nice, it's a nice cop out. And so we see the
coverage of even things locally, right here at home in America right here in Baltimore. And the
protests in the Black Lives Matter when
		

			when we see the lives of African American individuals being being taken without any do justice, when
a 12 year old child can be shot and killed in a playground and in Ohio. And the family is sent the
bill for the ambulance ride to the airport.
		

			And the police officer is gets off scot free. We find the coverage and the protests themselves we
see riots with when it's not a primarily an African American community covered in a very different
lights than when it's people of color.
		

			And we find it of course with Muslims, and how we're portrayed negatively as well. But what's
unfortunate is this and when we have to be aware of and be careful is that brothers and sisters, you
know if
		

			in this portrayal of negativity
		

			towards Muslims, we find that in our subconscious, we ourselves view ourselves in a negative light.
Perhaps you've sat in discussions or gatherings where you find people when you see a brother with a
big beard mocking the beard, saying he's too fundamental. You have the Messenger of Allah says
Saddam had a large beard, or you see a sister with a niqab or a hijab jilbab a new marker or
ridicule her for being backward for dressing. And the old times when the wives are the Messenger of
Allah, our mother's on my hats and what we need, will dress covering their faces. Right Subhanallah
one of the sisters who used to live in in Michigan, she would babysit
		

			a Christian child and a Jewish child. And she went with the children to the Christian child's she
was involved in a play at the church. She was involved in a play at the church. And the play had to
do with you know, Jesus and and Mary peace be upon them and the like. And so her the Jewish child
that she was babysitting was sitting in her lap, watching the play as a Christian child is involved
in the play. And so when Joseph and Mary came out, you know, the angels that were acting as angels
were humming. The church was Pin drop silence.
		

			And Joseph and Mary come out. And when Mary the person who's acting as Mary comes out, how does she
look when you see the Christmas decorations in front of your neighbor's home? How was Mary dressed?
She's wearing a hijab and she's wearing a JimBob. And so when Mary comes out, the young Jewish child
and a pin drop silent church audience yells out, cries out, everybody hears oh my god, marries a
Muslim
		

			And everybody who looks towards them, and sees the hijab, the sister holding the child as they're
watching the play.
		

			Right, but we now we've all of a sudden associated hijab with negativity. And it comes to a point
where it becomes scary that we actually mock or ridicule some of the signs of Allah subhanaw taala,
the city of Allah subhanaw taala. Right. And the first step to destruction of a nation brothers and
sisters know is to hate one's own self, to be separated from one's own identity, you know, to
destroy a tree, you cut it from its roots. And to do that what happens is just like Malcolm X
described decades ago, that the African American community has been made to hate themselves to hate
their hair, they hate their color of their skin, to hate their nose into like he he talked about all
		

			of that, right. And so we have to develop a strategy to understand things and how we interpret this
information. And this, this brothers and sisters is not new, we have to understand that this is not
new phenomena the time of their own. To justify the oppression of the people. He needed a boogey
man, he needed to villainize someone. So what is the last panel, it's, I'd say it's sort of a
golfer, he says,
		

			work on Effetre own without Guney oppotunity Musa leader or a BA in ni a half or AU, but Dena Dena
come out a
		

			little facade. He says, Frauen says, let me alone, that I may kill Musa and let him call upon his
Lord. He says, and this is his justification. I fear that he will change your religion, and he will
spend spread mischief in the land. He's the one who's murdering babies and he's saying I fear he
will spread mischief in the land. You see how they try to make the they need the boogey man, they
need a bad guy. And so Musa was made this way. And this is not new. From the time of it out at the
time when the messenger of Allah Azza wa salam, the same thing happened. And that's the crux and the
focus of my talk today is to share with you an incident from students of the Bacara, which Allah
		

			revealed surah number two verse 217, different than what's in your program. By the way, we change
the topic a little bit. And I want to share with you and shout out in the few minutes that I have
this incident that occurred now in the Messenger of Allah sunnah I send them between the Battle of
better in the Battle of
		

			the second and third year after Hijra. There were small skirmishes that occurred between the Muslims
and the non Muslims. Now in one of such skirmishes, the Messenger of Allah sent Abdullah Ave Josh,
at the head of eight men, and he gave him a letter that was sealed. And he said, Do not open it
until you travel for two days, he told them which way to travel. So do not open this message until
after two days of travel. And then when you read it, do what's instructed. So Abdullah just sets out
with eight other men. And after two days, he opens a letter and what does he find instruction, the
instruction seems to go to an area called nulla. And he says it's between Mecca and five. And he The
		

			President told them watch the movements of the caravans of boorish and collect news about us from
them.
		

			And he told them as the messenger of Allah told them in instruction, once you open the letter,
whoever does not wish to go forward with you anymore, does not have to go forward and they can come
back. All eight men went forward with Abdullah who knew Josh and they want to knock them out and
they set camp there. Now, they came across a caravan that was manned by four people. There were four
bodyguards or four escorts of this caravan.
		

			And they had food in the light that they're taking back to Mecca. Now, what happened was
		

			it was the last day of Rajab, right we're now in the month of Shaban Raja was a month preceding the
month of Shaban. Now Raja was one of the four sacred months, right, other than hedger, Mahara,
manraja, three in a row 1112 and one, and then Roger, the seventh month in the summer calendar are
the sacred months now from the rules of of the culture at the time was that no one is to shed blood
or attack or wage war in the sacred months. This is an accepted policy by both Muslims and non
Muslims dating pre Islam. Now, Abdullah, who just sees his caravan and he discusses with his
companions, what should we do? Should we attack them? To take the food to bring back to Medina? Or
		

			should we wait for Rajab to end now that the predicament that they were in was this? Rajab is a
sacred month in which they're not supposed to fight? The problem was if they waited one day, they
would the caravan would reach Mecca and would be and would enter into the harem, the area of the hut
on the sanctuary, which is also forbidden to fight. And so they had a dilemma should we do or just
let it go? And they decided they made their Jihad they decided let's go ahead and attack and so they
attacked and one of the body
		

			guards of the caravan, I'm gonna help it. I mean, he was killed to we're taking prisoners of war and
one fled the caravan. Now when this happened, this was breaking news in the Middle East. Right? This
was on the front page of Fox News, the front page of CNN, the front page of even likes of MSNBC,
every single organization was broadcasting this as much as possible. The Muslims are terrorists. The
Muslims have shed blood in a sacred month. And they have to he reports that the message there was
sad that that is the headline Mohammed was horrible who shouted Harami was set for goofy hidden
wackadoo V. Hill and one was was was a roofie region. He says that the people were saying that
		

			Mohammed Salim has made lawful and his companions have made lawful in the month of the sacred month
to shed the blood and take the wealth and take prisoners of war. And this is big, this is big time
news, right? Every spread all across Arabia, the Muslims, they're valid, violate this, this this
code, the code of conduct that's been present in the Arabian Peninsula, right. Now when they got
back to Medina, the Messenger of Allah told them my amount of fish and how long I didn't tell you to
kill anyone in the sacred months. He rebuked me criticize them. Why did you do that? And that nine
men, two of them actually after going forward, one of them lost their they lost their camels. So
		

			they went back to look for seven were there. The seven became very worried about themselves. They
made a mistake, they realized they made a mistake, and they were very concerned. Now, this is one
the verse that we will discuss today is was revealed the verse number 217 And the Bacara were Allah
subhanaw taala he says,
		

			you Yes, an owner garnish real Harami pizza on him fee when you pizza. Fee cabbie was not doing
Sabine in LA he woke up from Obi Wan Masjidul haram, Raju Ali, he mean who about the long one
Pfitzner to Akbar Domina
		

			What
		

			are you gonna do you know what I can
		

			do Command Dini come in Easter borrow? What many? Teddy diming command Dini family to a worker feed
for owner.
		

			You can have your thoughts
		

			feed dunya
		

			what
		

			else have on the home fee how * doon. Allah says, they ask you about fighting in the sacred
months. Allah says, say
		

			he can be fighting in the sacred months is a great sin. It was a mistake what they did, but then
Allah subhanho wa Taala says, will subdue an answer being Allah will come from B he will Masjid Al
haram, Raju and He, Allah, he says but rather
		

			he sees but a greater transgression with Allah is the fact that you prevent mankind from following
the way of Allah preventing people from following Islam. And he says and preventing access to the
Masjid Al haram. And he says in to drive out the inhabitants of Mecca when Quran drove out the
Muslims and made them go to Medina and forced them to leave Mecca. He says all of these are greater
transgressions than what the Muslims did. Then he says well fitna to shut down welfare
		

			and and fitna is a greater trial, or a greater problem than then killing. Then he says, and they
will continue to fight you. The people of Mecca will continue to fight you all Muslims, until you
turn your back on your religion, until you really leave the religion until you do that they will
continue to fight. He says and whoever turns back on his religion, and dies is a disbeliever. For
those their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the
Companions of the Fire, they will abide there eternally. Now, why am I sharing this with you with
you because we've seen a very important concept that we will have to learn from the Quran and the
		

			sin of the Messenger of Allah, which I'll share with you in the few minutes that I have left. How do
we deal with news and information that we're being bombarded with right? We learn some principles
from the Quran and from history. Number one, understand that the media will blow the mistakes
committed by Muslims out of proportion will twist the truth. Now this is not all media outlets. This
is not to paint them with a blanket brush of negativity. There are many amongst the journalist
journalists and outlets who are which are fair, but there are also some many perhaps it's even fair
to say most which portray the Muslims in a negative light and blow things out of context. And so you
		

			have to keep things and and proper perspective. Right as Allah did. They made a mistake. Yes, but
don't forget what you've done. Right when you've you've driven
		

			and out to people from their homes and driven people away from Allah and you've you've killed and
tortured in the lake. Don't forget that as well. Number two, what's the basic, the basis for the
Muslims when we receive news about other Muslims? What is our understanding? Allah subhanho wa
taala. He says the SUTA to notice that number 24 Verse 12,
		

			Lola in the semi or to move on meno and Mina to be forcing him Honiara. Well, Paul, if gum will be
about a slander of hatred, Alana, our mother, ALLAH SubhanA, WA Tada revealed reversing, why did the
believers knots both the men and the woman when they heard the news of the slander, think good of
their own people, and said, This is a great slander? Right? So the understanding the basis is, we
initially think good of our of our brothers and sisters, unless there's proof to establish they made
a mistake, then kudu Colombina will cause the shahada will come, and if we find there to be truth,
and evidence that there was transgression performed or transgression that was done, then we will
		

			stand for justice, even if it's against our own selves, let alone let alone our families or friends
when we are the first to do that. Number three, it is imperative brothers and sisters that we do not
believe everything that we hear Allah subhana wa Tada. He says the Sunnah number 49 Verse six, yeah,
you
		

			know,
		

			simple
		

			converse, you're gonna be number in fact, Albanian to sleep who can be Jehovah Allah, for those who
		

			don't know the mean? Allah says, Oh, you who believe if an evil or wicked person comes to you with
news, then confirm that news. Because if you don't, he says you may cause harm to someone. If you
act based on the information you receive without confirming it from a source that is not
trustworthy, you may harm someone, and you will then become regretful over what you did. So we have
to confirm what we hear. And that's very important. Number four, we have to diversify our media
intake, and I got 55 seconds left. All right, we have to diversify our media intake. I remember
reading a news broadcast that, you know, a drone strike in Pakistan killed six terrorists. But then
		

			you start looking into eastern media and find out what happened and you find out was actually a
girls school that was bombed, and six children who were in school, female children, one school were
killed, right? So that's important. Diversify your media intake, don't just take from Fox News or
CNN or BBC, spread your wealth around and try and gather information. Number five, critically think
it's important that we critically think, right when we're fed something, don't just take it at face
value, read what's in between the lines, we have to become a nation that critically thinks and
doesn't just take things at face value. Number six, and this is very important.
		

			The setup they used to make this dua Allahumma Kochalka, was looking at the bar what I didn't know
about it about it, I was looking at it now but oh Allah show us truth as truth. And oh, Allah show
us falsehood as falsehood. Right? And help us stay away, follow the truth and stay away from
falsehood. So why is that important? Because we live in times of confusion. So we ask Allah for
clarity in the times that we live in. And the last point that I mentioned as we close is that if
you're going to speak the truth, you speak the whole truth. Right? Like I said, If Muslims do
something wrong, we absolutely will condemn it. If if they do something wrong, we will be the first
		

			to condemn, but at the same time, we can forget the circumstances that caused the situation to begin
with. When we talk about what's happening in Palestine in Israel, we can forget that since 2007,
there's been a blockade on the people of Gaza. When we talk about Syria, we can forget that Bashar
has been been slaughtering his people left and right. And so naturally, there'll be some people who
will react out of emotion or after losing their family. But if somebody does something wrong, we
will be the first to say yes, they did something wrong, don't misconstrue what I'm saying and see we
defend the likes of ISIS or the like, no, absolutely not. If anybody kills an innocent civilian, we
		

			absolutely stand against that. And Islam is unequivocal and that no civilians are to be harmed.
That's unequivocal truth. But at the same time, if we're going to speak then let us speak the whole
truth as Allah subhanaw taala did they made a mistake, but the other mistakes are also there. We are
brothers and sisters. We have to develop a maturity and understanding of the information that we
receive. Does that come along? Played on was said Imani, come on up to La he to Allah Bobo katsu.