Johari Abdul-Malik – In God We Trust United We Stand
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Jumah praising Allah,
someone's cell phone is ringing.
And seeking Allah's guidance and Allah's mercy and
forgiveness.
Acknowledging that
whom ever Allah has guided is guided aright.
That Allah has never failed to send
prophets, guides, and messengers
to humanity with without any
doubt throughout the millennia.
Culminating with
the last of Allah's
prophets,
Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
And Allah
has sent us
this guidance
in a way
that we can be assured
that the Quran says to us.
This is the book and it is guidance.
There's no doubt in it.
For the people who have a connection
with Allah, we call it Taqwa.
And that this word
from Allah
is unchanging.
That Allah's guidance
never change.
And so for us,
we should, as believers,
in the first instance, say that whatever is
happening in the world,
know that the
word of God will never be lost from
us.
And in it,
there are injunctions and guidance. There is law
and order, justice
contained
within
this book.
And no matter what happens,
it
will never change.
This divine guidance, this divine
guidance,
we call it Arabic Sharia,
the way to the water,
the way to the sustenance, the way to
purity.
And
well, alhamdulillah,
if we were to look
through the last 14 centuries
of Islam,
under the guidance of the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, you will discover.
That
what Allah has ordered
for us,
no matter
who is
the the governor,
no matter who is the rais, no matter
who is the king or the monarch,
that the obligations of a Muslim
remain the same.
They asked the prophet
give us some background. What is Islam?
He said,
It's based on 5 things.
We believe in Allah and we believe in
his messenger, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
We establish
prayer wherever we are.
Is the same.
Now many of you
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, so
my my reality, my background is different.
But I know there was I know there's
some people here, They grew up in countries
where they had dictators.
If there's any hope for you,
people have remained Muslim under dictators.
People living under oppression
pray 5 times a day. We had a
woman here the other week.
She said, imam, I grew up in Albania
where they outlawed
practicing
Islam. There was no freedom of religion under
the communist.
We used to go in our houses
and hide
so
we could pray. Even with that,
Islam
has survived.
And so for any of us who feel
any anxiety about
the current political crisis
and the the the speech you might hear
in the public discourse,
I am completely
confident.
Not only will Islam survive,
but it will thrive.
If
we were to look
and to see one of the fundamental elements
that
have maintained this,
it is at the
heart of the
dean of Islam,
justice, law,
equality.
This
This is why in some places in the
world,
the only people who will stand up against
the dictator
are the religious people.
It was true
even in America.
I
remind you all sometime because I think you
forget.
I'm a descendant
of
enslaved Africans in this country.
My
grandparents
can talk about
when their parents were enslaved.
And they used to pick cotton and all
that all that stuff you hear about.
That's not something I I saw in a
movie.
But I can tell you in this country,
what has led as the vanguard
against
slavery and oppression
was calling people to the fundamental
elements of morality and justice.
As an American,
I can tell you something.
There is a concept
we take, I think, as Muslims for granted
to live in a country where they say
that
our nation is 1 nation
Now the reality is that in America,
that hasn't always been
how America
functioned,
but it has always been
creed of America.
Now some people might ask, well, where did
where would they get such a creed from?
I want to remind you
all that Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison
were the 2 main
authors
of the constitution of the United States.
And I know that they were influenced
by Islam.
By Islam?
How do I know?
Because
Keith Ellison,
the congressman from the 5th
congressional district in Minnesota,
took his oath of office
on the Quran of Thomas Jefferson.
And they would put into the document of
the constitution
something that no other document at that time
had.
The Magna Carta didn't have it.
If they would have looked back into the
records of the Greeks and the Romans, they
wouldn't find it.
They found something in the Quran,
in the Arabic language, Allah says,
let there be no
compulsion
in religion.
The
framers of the constitution
in America put in the law
something that you only found then in the
Quran.
That this would be a nation where people
are free to choose their religion
as the Quran described.
And by the way, if you don't believe
me, there is,
Doctor. Aziza Al Hibri.
You can find her article
in the law journal
of the University of Pennsylvania.
Because I know when you go to when
you go tell your neighbor that, they're gonna
say, what proof do you have about the
the Quran
and Islam influence on the constitution?
So you you have to send them to
the library. And
if they wanna see the Quran of Thomas
Jefferson, they can go to the Library of
Congress.
Because
even though we were here before
Columbus as Muslims,
our influence on the nature of the society
is well documented.
And I don't want it to be a
secret from you.
You should know.
Well hamdulillah,
the impact that Islam Islam and Muslims have
had on this country.
Well, I say that
you and I know right now that America
is not perfect.
It'll never be perfect.
This kind of society is a work in
progress.
The birthday of Martin Luther King.
Doctor. King
said that
America has to be held accountable
to
her creed.
That we as a people who live here,
according to the constitution,
if the government does not
provide
for us as citizens what we should receive,
then we should challenge the government
peacefully.
I forgot that's in the constitution.
Peacefully.
And that the moral
arc of the universe is long.
Maybe we'll go through something right now,
some discrimination,
but it bends toward justice.
Right here in Virginia,
it's parallel.
Right here in Virginia
in the 19 seventies, I came here to
go to college
in Virginia
that has segregated schools.
You try to you try to think about
I mean, at my age, I'm thinking the
19 seventies, I was like, you know, everything
was cool.
People
fought. And in their fighting,
marching and demonstrating,
registering people to vote,
holding their elected officials accountable,
they made America better.
Doctor King reminds us that
justice is not going to roll in on
the wings of inevitability.
People will get as much justice as they're
willing to fight for.
And
this, must should be in the forefront.
You know, I was in a in a
organizing meeting one night. I think I might
have
And
accountable. The Washington Post and others, they covered
it.
And from the pressure that came from the
community,
well, alhamdulillah,
they said, okay,
we were wrong. We backed down. We're gonna
pay 1,000,000 of dollars to help poor people
get back in their homes.
There's no change that's going to happen unless
there's some pressure.
Verily,
with difficulty
comes ease.
And so, Alhamdulillah,
for us,
I'm challenging
each and every one of us
to be part of the change.
I know
I heard a lot of crazy stuff in
the news,
but in the last few months, we've had
many of our friends.
We had the attorney general here,
highest ranking law official in Virginia, come to
affirm that Muslims have the right
to practice their religion and the government has
an obligation to protect them.
That attorney general today, he's down at the
Adam Center,
Not only saying it, but we'll hold him
accountable.
And so I'm going to invite you, subhanAllah,
to hold fast to the rope of Allah
altogether
and be not divided.
That, alhamdulillah,
if we are steadfast
in this deen,
Allah will make us successful
in this life
and in the hereafter.
You know,
I
I've been thinking lately about
how crazy
the politics in America
is.
And
as an American,
I'm not used to it. And I'm not
used to it. And I'm not used to
it. But then I talked to some
it, but then I talked to some of
my friends who are from other countries.
They said, brother, we're used to. We're used
to it.
You name the country.
We're used to it.
Right. You could pick your own country
where Muslims are the majority.
You look back 10, 20, 30, 40 years.
You say, wow.
All the kind of
strange leaders,
corrupt,
dictators,
tyrants,
people still practice in Islam.
Amazing.
Even people who lived under
communism.
So I have no doubt that
as Muslims we'll be fine.
Nothing more powerful than Allah.
And if I am on Allah's side,
I don't have anything to worry about.
You know, while we're having a little history
lesson,
when Abraham Lincoln was at Gettysburg,
they were fighting the civil war that would
ultimately end slavery in America.
Some were saying, we pray
that God is on our side.
Mhmm.
Abraham Lincoln said, we pray that we're on
God's side.
That we're on
on a lost side, we're all right.
Right now, brothers and sisters,
there's a spike in
Islam ophobia,
anti Muslim bigotry.
Colin Christopher, we've been organizing
in schools, talking to parents and children about
what our children are So
we
got
to
fix
the
public
school.
In
the
public
school,
So we gotta fix the public school. In
the public school,
children are learning from their parents and from
whatever to say something Islamophobic,
to pull the little girl's hijab at school,
to call her ISIS.
But guess
what?
My friend and rabbi Bruce Lustick in in
Washington, he said,
Imam,
I'm not gonna say the word because that's
the only thing they'll show on TV if
if I say the word. But there's a
bad word they call Jewish people.
He said Jewish children are now
being called that in the public school, like
it's
okay. Black lives matters is talking about how
the life of of African American youth, not
as valuable as the lives of others. There
seems to be a trend
where people can take
the law into their own hands.
But I'm confident, well, hamdulillah.
Many of you may not know this.
Many years ago, Doctor King
was marching
in Selma, Alabama.
And I have some of my friends from
law enforcement here. The local police department
there,
most notably a man called Bull Connor,
was abusing
black people who were demonstrating.
And
Doctor. King
put pressure on
Lyndon Johnson who was president then,
and Robert F Kennedy, the brother of John
F Kennedy,
to send federal troops
to protect
the civil rights and civil liberties
of those marchers.
And,
it
was the federal government that came in
defended the rights
of people to protest
against racism and bigotry.
In Virginia,
the Ku Klux
Klan was dismantled
by the FBI.
So now you have one group, you have
Bull Connor on one hand and the FBI
on the other.
But
the arc of justice is long, but it
been towards what's right. I
am
thoroughly
convinced
that if you and I will, hamdulillah,
do what Allah wants us to do. We're
not in America by accident.
Some of you grew up in other countries.
And I know you had friends and relatives
who wanted to come to America.
Some of them will lie. Maybe you
they they weren't they weren't they weren't smarter,
but Allah chose you
that you're here for a reason.
It's not a vacation.
And you're here and you're practicing
Islam in America,
which for some people is unthinkable.
You would come to America, they have alcohol
everywhere. They got gambling everywhere. They got,
everything is free.
You wanna do it,
but because of your commitment to the Sharia
of Allah,
you say I'm gonna follow the laws of
Allah
because I'm free to do so in America,
to pray and to fast and to to
to give my Zakat.
And I'm gonna do it.
The 32nd ayah.
They will unsuccessfully
try to extinguish the
how much they dislike it.
For you and I now,
when I see that, I know it's happening.
Tim Munoz, Allah is gonna increase his light.
It's happening. I
ask Allah to help you, alhamdulillah,
to be part of the change.
We have, meetings. I'm closing now, but
Colin Christopher is begging everybody, help us with
Virginia's Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement.
Because people are coming to us,
asking us
to help them lead the fight in America
to make it better.
We had a meeting. Fazio organized a meeting
last weekend.
Neighbors
come in different faiths. One of them now
is teaching ESL to men
how to speak English.
He came because he heard about the the,
negative
speech
about Muslims.
It's not what you think.
You you think that is when you hear
this is bad, but you know Allah's gonna
increase his light.
No carry on caffeine on.
So we ask Allah to make us among
the Sabikun.
Oh, Allah, guide us among those whom you
have guided. You Allah, protect us among those
whom you have protected.
Oh, Allah, take us as a friend as
you took Ibrahim alayhis salaam as a friend.
You Allah, we ask to
increase our iman, you Allah. Oh Allah, increase
our connection with you, subhanAllah.
Oh Allah, remove the fear from our hearts
of anything except you, you Allah. Oh Allah,
strengthen our children, you Allah. Ola, that they
would know
that they have the right to practice their
faith. We
ask you Allah, you grant us
You Allah. Some people be laid off from
their job you Allah. We ask that you
give them a righteous sustenance you Allah. Ola,
we ask
that you might strengthen our community, you Allah.
Allah, help and strengthen our relationship with our
neighbors, you Allah. Allah, help us that we
might be among those who would establish
justice, you Allah. Allah, we ask for your
forgiveness.
Allah, your mercy on those who are suffering
with difficulties.
You Allah, we have a sister, we're asking
you Allah, she's asked for a dua,
a prayer for her healing, you Allah. Allah,
we ask that you grant her your shifa.
All we ask, well, that you forgive us
of our sins.
All we ask, well, you have mercy on
those who are suffering around the corner and
around the world, you Allah.
All
Oh, lord. We know you are peace and
the source of peace. We ask for your
peace and your mercy, you Allah, on the
prophet,
and on his family and on his companions.
And all of the MBI Guides, prophets and
messengers, you Allah, and those who follow the
way of your until the day of judgment.