Farhan Abdul Azeez – The SaI Of Hajj, Gaza, And The Ummah
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AI: Transcript ©
In a few days,
not just from our community but from around
the world,
we'll be setting off on a once
in a lifetime journey.
And
And subhanallah, in the journey of Hajj, there
are many lessons to take not just from
the journey itself, from the the specific journey
of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, some
of the historic historical aspects of Hajj,
some of the wisdoms behind what we say
and what we do. Hajj, which is
also
a part of
which many of you have experienced, and we
ask a lot to allow us to experience
many times over.
And that is the.
Going between the mountains of Safa and Marwa.
And it's saying in the Arabic language, it
has a few different meanings,
but the two primary meanings that it holds
is one of of movements
Movement with the connotation of effort. It requires
effort as you're struggling or doing something,
and it also carries the meaning of action.
It carries the meaning
of action.
And his actions, what he's done will soon
be seen.
Allah refers to both in the Quran.
But when we look at the itself,
we know the history behind it. Ibrahim alayhi
salam left his wife Hajar
and his son Ismael as a young infant.
In the middle in the middle of a
desert, It
has no vegetation.
And he leaves them with just a few
provisions.
And as he turns and walks away, once
he reaches the place near what will be
the bait of Allah,
and he begins walking away, Hajar begins following
him and questioning him.
Where are you going? Where are you leaving
us in this valley that has neither people
nor anything?
There is literally nothing there.
Until
it dawns upon her that perhaps he is
following a command of Allah.
And so she says,
is Allah the one who commanded you to
leave us here?
And then Ibrahim stops in his footsteps,
and he says, yes.
And then you see the faith of our
mother Hajar,
where she says,
If that's the case,
if it's a command from Allah, if it's
the will of Allah,
then I know I have full faith that
Allah will not abandon us. And so the
moments go by, the hours go by, the
days go by until everything that she has
in terms of provision and whatnot is run
out.
No more food, no more water, no milk
for the baby. And the narration says that,
Isma'il alayhi salaam, he was he was laying
there.
He was literally, his body was curling
in hunger.
Now imagine the heart of a mother watching
her son
starving to death in front of her. And
we don't have to imagine because we've now
seen these images from Gaza.
Children, infants that are skin and bones.
A 7 year old child that I met
in in in Northern Gaza where
she she literally you lift up her shirt
and all you see is her ribs and
her spine.
She's become so weak she cannot even walk
anymore.
A 3 month old child whose face is
sunken in, it looks like although the the
3 month old is still alive, it looks
like the skeletons that are being found now
in the Jabaliya camp as after the army
withdrew, and you see skeletons of people remaining
behind.
A 3 month old child who until until
that moment when I saw him was still
alive.
So you can you we've seen a taste
of that, a mother who's seeing her son
starve in front of her.
And so the narration says, if it Ibn
Abbas He records a narration and he says
that, Subhan Allah,
She said he says that she left
looking for for food, looking for help. But
the reason he mentions
the Zarian Bukhari, the Prophet salamu alayhi, the
prophet's hadith, the Rebbe's records it that Why?
Because she she couldn't stand looking at her
son anymore.
She couldn't stand looking at her son anymore.
And so she goes to Safa and Marwa.
Those of you who've been to Safa and
Marwa before, been to Sahib, been to Hajj,
been to Amra before, how long does it
take to go between Safa and Marwa?
5 minutes, 7 minutes,
less than 10.
So once she gets to Safa, the nearest
mountain, and she looks and she sees, is
there anybody is there anybody there to help
her? And no one's there. So she comes
down. She runs her part of the way,
and she gets to Marwa. And she ascends
Marwa, and she looks out on Marwa.
What does she do next?
She goes back to Safa which she was
just there
10 minutes ago,
15, 5 minutes ago. It wasn't that long
ago but why would she go back and
forth out of
when she was just there. Nothing's going to
change.
We already know it's a empty desert with
no vegetation, no water, no wells, no people.
Nobody's gonna be passing by. Nobody lives there.
And you know, I didn't understand it until
I read the story of a woman in
Somalia
during the famine a few years ago,
when she was walking for miles to get
to one of the humanitarian stations.
And she's carrying her child with her and
she's holding another child by her arm.
Until it got to the point
from the severity of their condition that the
young the child she was that was able
to walk
passed out unconscious.
And so she left him under a tree
in the desert,
And she had a decision to make.
Do I continue on
and carry my one child I have left
with the hopes that me and my child,
my infant child survive
sacrificing my other child? Or do I wait
in the hopes that this child will wake
up and we can all be saved at
the risk of all of us dying?
And so she said that she
she left her child.
And as she would walk 5, 10, 15
steps, she would turn back around to go
and check, is the child waking up trying
to revive the child and then leave again?
And then her heart wouldn't let her leave,
so she would turn back and go back
to the child, and she did this multiple
times until she told the aid workers that
she when she reached their safety with her
infant, that she left her child there.
I mean, imagine
that level going back and forth. There's hope.
Hajar is going within
10 minutes 15 minutes of one another, looking
for help, knowing there's nothing there.
Until finally she gets to
and she hears a sound. So she says,
telling herself, keep quiet. Let me let me
hear.
I've heard you if you have any help.
She cries out in the middle of an
empty desert, and she turns around and she
sees Ismail laying on the floor. And there,
next to him is an angel, and the
water is coming forth either from its heel
or its wing, and Zamzam comes.
But the point is what?
We are learning some things from this from
this. Just already, we're learning from the story.
Number 1, her initial response.
When she knows that Allah is the one
who commanded this, it's the mashiya of Allah,
say I rada of Allah, that she will
be in this condition. She has full faith
and conviction. Allah is not gonna abandon her.
And despite the lived experience of seeing her
son starving in front of her,
her faith didn't shake. And that's why when
the angel, subhanAllah,
the angel tells her,
Don't fear being left alone or abandoned for
here in this place will be the house
of Allah.
This child of yours and his father will
be the one to build the Kaaba.
And Allah indeed will not abandon his people.
The iman.
And she's being told,
don't be afraid of abandonment. But yet, what
is her condition?
What is her actual condition? She is in
Voya.
She has been abandoned. She's alone with no
even with the water there. Even with the
water, where is the shelter from the from
the from the elements? Where is the protection
from the lions and the snakes? Where is
the protection from a tribe passing by that
will take her as a slave?
She's even with water, even in that condition,
but she knows.
Allah will not abandon his people. So we
see the faith,
and we also see the struggle.
The the the seeing her her
her son starving in front of her.
And subhanAllah,
we also see
that she was pushed to movement.
Her her pain
was not a pain of paralysis but rather
a pain of action.
She couldn't stand bearing what she's seeing just
like we can't stand bearing what we see.
But
what drove her was that pain to do
something about it. And so she went to
Safa and Marwa. She looked for help.
And so subhanAllah, you see the people of
Ghazan, they have this.
Their spirit is unremarkable,
unbreakable.
If there's one word that can describe them,
it would be unbreakable.
I walked on Shefa's destroyed grounds. Shefa hospital.
I walked through the the the ER and
the surgical center and the dial and the
and the and the and the medical office
building completely destroyed,
burned.
We want We could still, 2 days later,
still see the embers from the smoke rising
from the buildings.
And we left there thinking there is no
way. You have to break the whole thing
down and rebuild if there's a chance for
that.
Yeah. Not even 6 weeks later,
the people of Gaza.
The people of Gaza.
They not only rehabilitated a part of the
hospital, but they were able to open reopen
the dialysis center and now serving 5 patients
to get dialysis at a time.
It's remarkable. I don't know how I can
explain to you the from what you can
see. Literally the night that with army withdrew
from Shefa Hospital,
people were going there.
When we went 2 days later, they were
already taking equipment out. They made a human
chain up to the 3rd floor, and they're
taking surgical equipment out that had not yet
been destroyed or deserialized,
and they were removing it from the hospital
to use at other hospitals. They have a
spirit that will not be broken no matter
what you do to us. We will continue
our
what we have to do.
They felt more pain than you and I
perhaps can ever imagine.
But it hasn't paralyzed them. It didn't paralyze
Hajjal alaihi salaam, and it did not paralyze
them.
And then when we go to Safa and
Marwa, why do we go? What's the what's
the purpose of the Hijaj
until the end of time, the until the
end of time to perform?
Yes. We learned the lessons from Hajar alaihis
salaam, but that's not the that's not the
exact reason. That's part of the benefit. The
story of Ibrahim. Throughout Hajj, the story of
Ibrahim is present.
But why
specifically?
The prophet said in a hadith
that
The whole purpose of throwing the stones
at the Jamarats
and going between Safa and Marwa is to
establish
the dhikr of Allah.
Now when you think about that.
And again,
juxtapose that upon what we see from the
people of Palestine.
While there have broken bones and amputated limbs,
what's coming out of their mouth?
You don't even see them? I didn't see
this. Them cursing Israel.
It's strange because you would think that if
you're murdered you're the murderer of your baby,
you would want revenge. But they're saying, Subhan
Allah. They're saying, they're saying,
with
the name of the Beit of Hamd.
The house of praise.
They live this hadith.
But what's strange is
the dhikr of Allah that's always on their
tongue. And Allah says the prophet says that
that
a sign, its purpose is of Allah. So
the hijab between you make of Allah. You
can make dua, Quran,
whatever you like. But there's a
specific
that when the Prophet
ascended Safa and he ascended Marwa, every single
time until the last, he would stand there
and he would say this 3 separate times.
Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar. Allah is
greater. Allah is greater.
I testify there is no one worthy worship
but Allah. To him belongs the kingdom, and
to him belongs all praise, and he has
and
he has power over all things. Now, what
would he do? He would be standing on
and he is facing the
Now with the walls, you can't see the
but he's facing
the his hands are raised, and he makes
this
and he and then he makes dua, but
he the isn't finished. He says,
There's no God but Allah, he is 1.
And he fulfilled his promise.
And he gave victory to his slave.
And he defeated the the Confederates all alone.
And he's looking at the Kaaba as he's
saying this, and then he makes dua. Then
he says
it
again.
There is no God but Allah. He is
1. He fulfilled his promise, and he gave
victory to his slave, and he alone defeated
all the Confederates.
Imagine just just imagine what's going through his
mind as he's saying this du'a. Just
just 15 years prior.
8 years prior, he was 9 years, 10
years prior, he's he's driven out of Mecca.
Go 15 20 years ago the same place
the Kaaba he's looking at ibn Mas'ud was
the first companion to recite Quran publicly
He begins with saying Surah Al Rahman. And
the Quraysh grabbed him and beat him so
severely that he fell unconscious, and you couldn't
tell his his eyes from his nose, from
his ears. His face was that badly damaged.
Imagine the scenes going through the Messenger of
Allah's mind as he's saying,
But Allah fulfilled his promise. Abu Bakr Al
Anhu was the first khadib in Islam. 38
Muslims only. And he says, yeah, oh oh
Messenger of Allah, let me stand and give
the message. The wasn't allowed yet. But Abu
Bakr says, let me do it. We have
38 people. So he stands in front of
the Kaaba,
and he gives the first public address in
Islam.
And he's beaten so severely that they thought
he would die. They had to carry him
out on on on cloths.
Prophet
is perhaps recollecting these these scenes that he
witnessed,
that he knows happened to his beloved.
But then what's going through his mouth is
20 years later.
And Jazawada. Allah fulfilled his promise. 1 Nasarahab
then he gives victory to his slave, Wazam
al Azzab, and
he destroyed the Confederates alone. So subhanAllah, one
of the lessons we learned is not just
but Allah wants from us to remember these
things. Why do we say these same things
in 2024
when Islam is now established in the Jazira?
Why do we still say this? Allah says,
And remember a time,
oh companions, oh messenger of Allah, oh believers,
remember a time when you were small in
number and and oppressed in the land. You
feared that people would abduct you.
But Allah helped you, and He gave you
His victory, and He provided from you provisions.
So that you may be grateful to Allah.
There are many,
many, many lessons
we can take from the story of Hajj
alaihis salaam.
And the story of Hajj, the journey of
Hajj, the story of the prophet's journey himself.
But some of the things we learn
is that iman
must be rooted deep in the heart even
in the most difficult of circumstances.
Even if the parent in front of you
is
there is no way logically I can explain
that I'm going to survive.
We know that if Allah promises,
Allah's promise is true. And all we have
to do is fast forward Nasir of the
prophet to see that as he makes this
sticker standing on the same place Hajj have
stood looking for help, alone,
as a mother, with an infant child.
So we aren't deceived by the parents.
Allah commands us in the Quran, don't be
deceived by those
who move about in the land.
These are just days,
but their time will come.
Most definitely their time. There is no doubt
their time will come.
And we learned that we have to establish
the dhikr of Allah in our lives, which
is the purpose
of jama'at, the purpose of sayy.
You will not make more dhikr in your
life perhaps in those than those 5 days
in Hajj. So we come back from Hajj
with that lesson,
and we feel the pain
of these hungry children.
We feel the pain of children being bombed,
and families being bombed, and fathers being separated
and imprisoned, and the like. We feel it.
But it should not be a pain of
paralysis, but rather a pain of action. Just
like she was driven to action, we too
should be driven to action. Allah says,
And whoever desires the hereafter,
and
he same word as
Whoever puts forth that effort,
and
he's a believer, then indeed his effort, his
will be appreciated by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We make we ask Allah to make this
amongst them.