Lauren Booth – GAZA AND AL AQSA I FAITH FLOOD FUTURE
AI: Summary ©
The holy land is the place where people are allowed to live and have faith in their spiritual and physical forms. It is the place where people can live in and not give up their lives. The importance of faith and resilience is emphasized, as well as the need for people to avoid violence and not give up their lives. The holy land is also the place where people can live and have faith in their spiritual and physical forms. It is the place where people can live and have faith in their spiritual and physical forms. Visitors can visit the website for a course on the importance of the holy land and its meaning.
AI: Summary ©
There is something we can do.
Allah says, Allah brought down tranquility into their
hearts and supported them with unseen armies and
you see this in Gaza today.
Al-Aqsa is ill.
Al-Aqsa needs the Ummah.
Actually, Al-Aqsa does not need the Ummah.
The Ummah needs Al-Aqsa to get up.
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Welcome to my channel.
It's our aim to give you good information
from a faith perspective.
So if you're not Muslim, welcome.
Come and listen to a new perspective.
And of course, if you're my brother and
sister in Islam, As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi
wa-barakātuh.
Peace be upon you in this time, especially
of great test for our brothers and sisters
in Palestine.
And that is why tonight I am honoured
to welcome my teacher, Dr Khalid Al-Uweisi.
He has a special course that is available
in Ankara University and I'll let him tell
you all about that.
And our focus this evening is to do
with Al-Aqsa.
Why is the resistance called Al-Aqsa flood
at this time?
What is it about this special space that
is so important to the Palestinians that they
will not budge in order for it to
be protected?
I'll let you introduce what you do there,
Shaykh.
As-salāmu ʿalaykum.
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
It's an honour to be with you and
an honour to be talking about Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa.
I teach here at the Social Sciences University
of Ankara in Islamic History and we have
a master's programme on Beit al-Maqdis studies
specifically on Al-Aqsa from historical and various
other dimensions as well as international politics and
geopolitics, history and various other fields.
Am I right in thinking that this is
still, weirdly I think, quite rare to have
an encapsulated module and whole course on Al
-Aqsa from an Islamic viewpoint?
Yes, this is actually one of the reasons
why this was set up is because of
what we call the intellectual Nakba, an intellectual
crisis that the Ummah has gone through over
the last 100 years or more since the
occupation in 1917 by the British.
And what has happened is the issue of
Beit al-Maqdis, the issue of Al-Aqsa
and the issue of Palestine in general has
been narrowed down from being an Islamic issue
to an issue of the Arabs, narrowed down
even further to an issue of the Palestinians
and now we see it even narrowed down
further to those who are living around it.
And trying to keep the rest of the
world away from it.
And this is why this programme was set
up and thankfully in Turkey and also in
Malaysia and currently also being set up in
Indonesia.
Mashallah, I want to give a taster of
what's coming up in our discussion today.
We're going to be looking at the connection
between the Palestinian people and the first Qibla
of Islam.
And we want to find out when Al
-Aqsa became a political pawn and what you
and I, that's me and you, Dr Khaled
knows what he's doing, what we can do
right now to support the people of Palestine
in this hour of their great test.
So I want to begin, I think, Dr,
with a background of what's going on right
now in the West Bank and in occupied
East Jerusalem.
So I've got some figures here and then
I want your comments, please.
So on Monday, Sheikh Hatem al-Bakri, who's
the Palestinian minister of Al-Khaf, stated that
Israeli occupation forces and extremist settlers invaded Al
-Aqsa mosque 22 times and prevented the call
to prayer in Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil
47 times during the past months.
The IOF is tightening the blockade and restricting
Palestinian access to Al-Aqsa.
And I want to know how this looks
because the Palestinians are all around the area.
Why can't they just go in?
What does a tightening actually mean?
Yes, this is part of the Zionist policy
that has been gradually developing to restrict access
to people to Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
Since 1967, when the Zionist forces took over
the area, they managed to exclude the Muslims
from visiting this site.
And it was just the Palestinians visiting one
of Islam's holiest sites.
And then this was narrowed down after the
first Intifada with restrictions on who can access
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa from the West Bank
and the Gaza.
And you see, actually, most of the people
today living in Gaza have never seen Al
-Masjid al-Aqsa in their life.
And they only live just over an hour
away from Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
This was narrowed down even further to the
level that people who can actually see Al
-Aqsa with their own eyes, just a few
kilometers away with the separation apartheid wall that
was built, they can see Al-Aqsa, but
they cannot visit it.
And they put restrictions on the ages of
people who can visit my own city, Al
-Khalil.
Today, most of young people have never seen
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa also in their life,
and they only live less than 30 kilometers
away from Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
And this restriction is, we saw this when
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa was closed for two
weeks.
About five or six years ago.
And no one, even those who are living
literally next to it, had access to Al
-Masjid al-Aqsa.
And the people of Bayt al-Maqdis, the
holy city, and the surrounding area who managed
to get there, managed to gather in their
thousands and managed to defeat the Zionists in
what they were putting at the gates of
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa from cameras and metal
detectors.
And they managed to force them to take
a step back.
But restrictions during the month of Ramadan over
the last few years, the whole ummah, the
whole world, has seen attacks on worshippers in
the month of Ramadan inside Al-Masjid al
-Aqsa.
The 28th of Ramadan, three years ago, was
one of the worst attacks on Al-Masjid
al-Aqsa.
In the 1990s, there was a massacre inside
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
When we talk about the aggressions and the
intrusions over Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, as you
have mentioned in the numbers, settlers are allowed
to enter.
Zionist settlers, Zionist Jewish settlers are allowed to
enter.
And tourists are allowed to enter Al-Masjid
al-Aqsa.
Freely from the early hours of the morning
until the time of Dhuhr prayer.
And then after, in the afternoon, they're allowed
up till Asr.
When did this happen?
This has been developed particularly after the second
intifada in the year 2000.
Al-Aqsa was closed to the people, non
-Muslims, for a couple of years, two years,
three years.
And then, and it used to be before
that, under the control of the Jordanians who
enters the Awqaf, who enters and who is
allowed the times that the tourists are allowed
inside Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
But in 2003, the Zionists took control over
this.
They allowed the settlers and the tourists to
enter whenever they wish to do so.
But this has seen a particular shift in
the last decade when settlers started demanding praying
inside Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
And initially, this was unacceptable.
But since the deal of the century, that
of Trump, Zionists, and you see this now
on a daily basis inside Al-Masjid al
-Aqsa, Zionist extremists are roaming inside Al-Masjid
al-Aqsa, dancing, doing their prayers, and even
cursing the Prophet Muhammad.
We have video evidence of this.
And you have someone, a minister like Ben
Gavir, who enters the area of Al-Masjid
al-Aqsa.
And when Ariel Sharon entered in the year
2000, it created a big spark around the
world.
When now Ben Gavir enters and he challenges
not just the Muslims, the whole world, he
enters and he roams freely.
And he, as a minister, is now pushing
the limits.
And even another, the head of the opposition
just yesterday, was warning of what is to
come in Al-Masjid al-Aqsa this coming
Ramadan.
So just in over a month.
And he is warning the Israeli government.
He's saying this will create a lot of
conflict, a lot of loss of life if
the Israeli government does not put an end
to the provocation of Ben Gavir and the
temple groups inside Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
And it is expected that this will again,
unfortunately, turn into a war zone.
Al-Masjid al-Aqsa, as you have mentioned,
the numbers of settlers that are entering exactly
what you mentioned about the Ibrahimi mosque in
Al-Khalil, the Zionists would like, and this
was discussed in the Israeli Knesset in their
parliament, to try to turn Al-Masjid al
-Aqsa into what Al-Masjid al-Ibrahimi in
Hebron, in Al-Khalil has been turned into
a place where Jewish prayer is complete.
And this is in line with the deal
of the century.
Al-Aqsa, the site of Al-Masjid al
-Aqsa should be open for all faiths to
pray.
This is a mosque.
No one would accept this for a church
to be turned into a place of...
A multi-faith prayer space.
Yes, and this is no one from neither
the Palestinians nor the Muslims accept this.
But this was put down on paper as
part of the deal of the century.
And what is meant?
The Christians don't have any interest in praying
in Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
What this actually means is just allowing Jewish
prayer.
And it goes even further to say that
they should be allowed to pray and conduct
their rituals without any disturbance.
And this is what they have been trying
to do over the last couple of years
to push this agenda.
That Al-Masjid al-Aqsa will only be
open to Jews during Jewish prayer exactly as
Al-Masjid al-Ibrahimi in Al-Khalil is
the case.
Adhan is not allowed, closed for all prayers,
for Muslim prayers.
And Zionist and Jewish settlers, including the president
of this state, coming and you see them
playing music very loudly and dancing inside Al
-Masjid al-Ibrahimi.
This is exactly what they would like to
do in Al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
If this Ummah keeps silent, this is what
is expected the coming Ramadan and soon after.
Hearing this, I just feel, as a Muslim,
I feel physically ill by this.
But there is a whole other level of
love for this special place amongst the Palestinians.
It's as if they have been handpicked by
Allah Ta'ala for their love of this
land.
Talk to us a little bit about that.
Yes, actually, let me, as we start to
talk about this, Rasulullah ﷺ in a hadith
1400 years ago, actually described this and the
love of these people to this holy land
that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
has made holy and Rasulullah ﷺ says, There
is a group of my Ummah always on
the right path.
They will always overcome their enemies.
And when you hear this, even if you
let them down, they will not be harmed
until the decree of Allah comes and they
are still steadfast.
We ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, where
are they?
He says they are in Baytul Maqdis and
around Baytul Maqdis.
And this description of the Prophet ﷺ to
these people who are steadfast on the right
path, and you see the resilience of the
people around the Masjid al-Aqsa, and just
looking at the people in Gaza and their
resilience, looking at the people around the Masjid
al-Aqsa and never giving up, seeing a
little girl, 12 years old, coming from underneath
the rubble saying that, I have not become
a martyr, it would have been worth it
for the Masjid al-Aqsa.
So this is something that I've witnessed firsthand
from the people.
And there was a blind school in the
West Bank that I visited some years ago,
and blind children who would both literally and
physically never see it, singing about the blue
tiles and asking me, and I wasn't Muslim
at the time, is it beautiful?
And then going to Gaza, and as you
say, these children as young as four saying,
Wallahi, you will not take our al-Aqsa.
How is that?
Is that metaphysical?
Is there something more going on here?
Because parents can tell stories to children, true
stories of our Prophet ﷺ, but it doesn't
have this impact.
What is the chemistry here?
Actually, being in this land and growing up
in this land that Allah ﷻ says, it
is a land of blessing.
It is a holy land.
And living through this and seeing the injustice
firsthand makes people even more connected to it.
As you mentioned, around the world, as Allama
Muhammad Iqbal has mentioned, decades ago, he says,
after you teach your children la ilaha illallah,
you have to teach them the love of
al-Masjid al-Aqsa, their first Qibla.
And this goes back to the connection, not
only of Muhammad ﷺ with this land, but
with all the Prophets.
This is the land of the Prophets.
This is the land where Jesus ﷺ and
his mother Maryam ﷺ were born.
This is the land of Zakaria and Yahya.
This is the land of Sulayman and Dawud.
This is the land of Ibrahim and Ishaq
and Ismail.
And this is the second mosque on earth
from the time of the first human on
this earth, Adam ﷺ.
So this connection and living in this land
and feeling, the scholars talk about two forms
of barakah, a blessing that you feel in
this land, in their description of the verses
that talk about barakah.
There are two forms of barakah.
One is spiritual and one is physical.
And the physical one, as Allah describes in
Surat al-Anbiya, verse 71, he says when
he saves Ibrahim and Lut from the persecution
of his people in southern Iraq, he saves
him to the land which Allah has bestowed
barakah for the world.
So whoever walks on this land will feel
the barakah, you will taste the barakah.
This is, this land is a very tiny
spot of land when you compare it to
other countries, from north to south or east
to west, it's a very small piece of
land, but it's condensed with barakah that you
feel it by extending your hand, you get
the barakah of the physical barakah of the
land.
And by opening your heart, you will get
that spiritual barakah.
You'll be able to feel the monotheism that
was preached by Isa alayhi salam al-Zakariya
and Yahya and Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
gathering with all the prophets, peace be upon
them.
Only this summit, only happened in Bayt al
-Maqdis, inside al-Masjid al-Aqsa, on this
night, on the night of the 27th of
Rajab, on the night of the night journey
and ascension.
And wherever, as Abdullah ibn Abbas mentions, the
Sahabi, wherever you make sajdah in al-Masjid
al-Aqsa, a prophet has made sajdah there
before you, an angel has stood in that
spot.
So this, both physical and spiritual, it is
something and the connection of the Muslims around
the world with this, the more that you
are connected, the more you will feel that
barakah.
But the people in this land have that
barakah at a further level.
Growing up there and living in the late
80s and the early 90s, going with my
father while he was teaching in al-Masjid
al-Aqsa, you feel this every time you
go.
Just the moment you enter al-Masjid al
-Aqsa, I'm sure you have felt it when
you visited al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
SubhanAllah.
You know, it's a shame if we, in
a way, denigrate it by using this media
language of the third holiest place in Islam.
I have an opinion about that as a
journalist, that this seems to be clever framing.
It's the most holy place to Jews, but
only the third to Islam.
So you guys have two other places, don't
worry about this.
Yes, yes.
On this, I completely agree with you, not
just from a media perspective, but also this
propaganda of trying to push this as the
third holiest place does not fit within the
Islamic narrative.
The Islamic narrative says exactly the opposite.
The Qur'an mentions this place as the
first Qiblah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in
Surah al-Baqarah.
It was the first Qiblah of the Prophet
ﷺ before the Ka'bah was his Qiblah.
Not only this, there is a twinning relationship
between the Ka'bah and al-Masjid al
-Aqsa.
The Ka'bah is, sorry, al-Masjid al
-Aqsa is the first Qiblah, the Ka'bah
is the second Qiblah.
And if you go further, there is no
place within the Islamic narrative that it's mentioned
as the third holiest place.
The Prophet ﷺ, which many people use, the
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in Bukhari,
where he says you should set out to
visit three mosques.
The Prophet does not put them in a
particular order.
The Prophet ﷺ, as narrated in Bukhari by
Abu Sa'id al-Qudari, he says al
-Masjid al-Haram, the Haram mosque, the Ka
'bah, the second is al-Aqsa, and the
third is the mosque in Madinah.
But if I tell you, you should, before
you die, visit three capitals in the world,
I'm not putting them in any order.
And the Prophet ﷺ, even those who argue
this in terms of the reward of prayer
in al-Masjid al-Aqsa is less than
that of Mecca and Madinah.
If you actually look at the hadith of
the Prophet ﷺ, he mentions that there will
come a time where looking towards al-Masjid
al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Maqdis will supersede
everything.
It will be better than the world and
everything within it.
And this is a hadith of the Prophet
ﷺ when he comes out of his house
and the Sahaba are sitting in his mosque
and they are discussing which is better, a
prayer in al-Aqsa or a prayer in
his mosque.
And he responds, a prayer in my mosque
now is better than four prayers in al
-Masjid al-Aqsa, but there will come a
time where a spot from where you can
see al-Masjid al-Aqsa will supersede that
of Madinah.
And even there is another hadith mentioned and
it is an authentic narration.
Rasulullah ﷺ says, whoever sets out with the
sole purpose of praying in al-Masjid al
-Aqsa, all his sins are forgiven.
And this is only equal to the Kaaba,
not even the Kaaba, to hajj if your
hajj is accepted.
So it is one day of the year
for Mecca, but for al-Masjid al-Aqsa,
if your intention, and it is a dua
of two prayers, Muhammad ﷺ and the same
dua was made before him by Prophet Sulaiman
ﷺ when he completed the rebuilding of al
-Masjid al-Aqsa, he made this dua, whoever
sets out with the sole intention of praying
in al-Masjid al-Aqsa, all his sins
are forgiven.
So it is not about the competition between
these places, the Prophet ﷺ and Islam has
made this place one of three, not the
third, one of three places that Muslims have
to care for.
And this, putting this within this particular framework,
makes you see that actually, yes, al-Masjid
al-Aqsa, in certain things, Allah calls this
land the holy land and does not give
the same title to Mecca.
But it does not mean that Mecca is
less.
Allah gives a different title to Mecca, which
Muslims today, unfortunately, as part of this intellectual
crisis that we live through, we confuse the
terminologies.
Haram, the terminology Haram, the Prophet ﷺ and
the Qur'an only use for Mecca and
Rasulullah ﷺ uses it also for Medina, so
we know it as al-Haramayn and it's
a different state.
This sacredness is a different status from what
Allah uses for Bayt al-Maqdis, holiness, muqaddas
and mubarak, barakah or blessing.
And Allah uses them specifically, the term holiness
is only used for al-Masjid al-Aqsa
and the land of Bayt al-Maqdis and
the holy valley in the Qur'an.
You know, you were talking about the holiness
of this special place to the Palestinians specifically.
People will leave a land if they're persecuted
and Allah gives us permission to leave a
land and actually our enemies and our frenemies
have often used this.
If the Palestinians are finding it hard, why
don't they just leave?
And it's as if we can compare the
Bayt al-Maqdis to, I don't know, let's
say Westminster Abbey or Notre Dame.
Would people in France literally accept, in a
way, the whole of their country being taken
and then fight to the absolute death for
Notre Dame?
Is this just another place on earth?
What is going on here?
Yes, this is what makes this land different
from any other place.
You see war has broken out across the
whole of the world and people generally leave.
We see what has happened in Syria, what
is happening in Sudan, what is happening in
Iraq, what has happened to the Rohingya, what
has happened to different places in the world.
And as you mentioned, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will question people if they say that
they were persecuted and would not leave, with
the exception of this land.
And Rasulullah ﷺ mentions this in a hadith
where Rasulullah ﷺ says, there shall be migration
after migration, but the best people will migrate
to the place where Ibrahim ﷺ has migrated.
So Rasulullah ﷺ, and I remember growing up
in Hebron, in Al Khalil, and this hadith,
it is amazing.
It makes you feel that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has chosen you to be in
this land.
And the hadith that we mentioned at the
beginning, Rasulullah ﷺ says, there is a group
of my ummah that will always be on
the right path, no matter what happens to
them.
And when they ask, where are they?
He says they are in Baitul Maqdis and
around Baitul Maqdis, in this holy land and
around this holy land.
And the people, Canada or the West or
whoever, when they open the doors for refugees
to go there, refugees would take the chance
because they will have a better life.
But you go and ask a little child
in Gaza, and you heard a video from
a Gazan just a few days ago on
the border of Egypt.
He says whatever they do, we're not going
to leave this land.
This is ingrained in them.
And whatever you do, even if you kill
all of us, we're not going to give
up this land.
This is the holy land.
This is the land of the prophets.
Give it up.
There's nothing left to enjoy in this world.
Even if we're left with a piece of
bread and a little za'atar, we're going
to live in this land and we're not
going to give it up.
And this resilience is based on that faith
that Allah ﷻ has given these people.
And you see it, and you saw it,
and you will keep seeing it with the
resilience of the people around al-Masjid al
-Aqsa with sisters like Hanadi al-Halawani or
Khadija al-Khwais or Aida al-Sidawi.
At the end of September, this last September,
the beginning of October, they were being attacked
by mobs of settlers at the gates of
al-Masjid al-Aqsa with Sister Aida kicked
in her face and thrown around her and
Sister Hanadi.
And they'll go there the next day.
This resilience is incredible.
And you saw this resilience with the people
of Gaza with a father who his son
has just become a martyr.
He will say, Ya Allah, I have another
son and take from our blood as long
as you are until you are satisfied, until
you are pleased.
This resilience and all of this, you will
hear that all of this is worth it
for al-Aqsa.
All of this is worth it for Palestine,
for this holy land.
And they're not going to give it up.
And I speak to my aunts who are
in Gaza.
And when I speak to them, the resilience,
I started feeling shy to even ask them
how they are, because every time I ask
them, they say alhamdulillah.
And once I asked my aunt, I said,
you keep saying alhamdulillah, but how are you
surviving?
How are you eating?
And how are you drinking?
And she said, alhamdulillah, we used to have
water before.
Now we have drops, but we used to
eat.
We use their well off.
We used to have sufficient food.
Now we deal with a single bite every
day.
Every bomb is like an earthquake.
But she says, wallahi, we are not complaining.
Wallahi, we are not complaining.
It's the whole of the world and the
whole of the ummah to shame that we
see this live on TV, and we are
not able to even bring through Gaza a
single bottle of water without the permission of
this sign.
Now, isn't there a hadith about that, Shaykh,
that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that there would
come a time when the whole of the
ummah would have to go to the kuffar
just for something to drink?
Are you aware of that hadith?
I'm aware of a hadith, maybe similar to
this, where Rasulullah ﷺ says, there will come
a time where the ummah is like an
open meal.
Every nation will * something out of the
ummah.
So he describes the ummah as hungry people
are coming and snatching part of it from
left, right and center.
And the Prophet ﷺ, the sahaba are surprised
and they say to him, are we little
then?
This is why they are.
And Rasulullah ﷺ responds and he says, you
are a lot.
And this Rasulullah ﷺ describing this 1400 years
ago and seeing this today, the sahaba are
surprised and they ask, why is this?
And Rasulullah ﷺ talks about a heart disease
that the sahaba were not aware of and
he called it wahan.
And they said, what is wahan, Ya Rasulullah?
And he says, love of this dunya and
running after it and fear of death.
It applies to the whole of the ummah
today, two billion people, with the exception of
the people of Gaza and the people in
Baitul Maqdis.
They have no fear of death.
I asked one of my aunts in the
first week, when this attack happened after the
7th of October, she moved from the south
to the north, which was the center of
all the attacks.
And I said to her, it's more dangerous
there.
And she said, Khalid, only Allah knows when
we will die.
We believe this in our heart and what
a better way to meet Allah in a
state of shahada, in a state of martyrdom.
And this iman, I have not even seen
in the people of Palestine as much as
I see it today happening.
And you look at the rest of the
it's in a pathetic state that we are
unable to assist our brothers and sisters in
Gaza.
We're unable to lift the siege.
We're not able to end the attacks on
al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
And we're just watching from a distance, unable
to do anything or come to their aid
with water and food and medicine, unfortunately.
You know, I look at it like this,
Sheikh, which is that those people who actually
have some power, and maybe they're sitting on
their thrones, or they're sitting in their big
conference halls and their conference rooms, thinking, oh,
I'm making a choice not to go in
and not to interfere in this.
But think about this.
Allah is refusing you the honor of being
a part of this.
And what we hear from the people of
Gaza, because I get the same phone calls,
I will call a friend, and they're in
Rafah now.
How are you?
Alhamdulillah, it's a bit difficult, but we're getting
used to it.
Like they're on a camping holiday, right?
And we know they're not.
I'm not belittling this.
But this is the, and then immediately, they
say, how are you?
And how's your family?
And they remember to ask about you.
And no, no, tell me about your news.
It's like, how can I tell you my
news?
And then you find out that they're living
by the side of the road.
Allah, this is supernatural, Sheikh.
Now, what isn't spoken about enough, I think,
and I'd like people on this channel to
be aware of it, is that the unseen
realm is active in this.
What does that mean to you that phrase?
Yes, actually, it is.
I have never seen it.
I've lived in Palestine, and I've seen the
resilience of people.
But I've never seen it as much as
I've seen it since the 7th of October.
And this is, reminds me of the seerah
of the Prophet ﷺ.
And just a few days ago, I was
speaking to a group of Muslims in Ireland.
And I used this phrase, I said, they
are like the sahaba of our time.
They are the best of this ummah.
There, and remembering the Battle of the Trench,
when the Muslims were besieged in Medina, from
the north, the south, they had little food,
they were in a very difficult position.
And Allah describes it in Surah Al-Ahzab.
And He says, the eyes of the sahaba
cannot see clear.
And their hearts came up to their throats
out of fear.
And they started thinking, the support of Allah
is not gonna come.
This is how desperate the Muslims were, because
of all these armies, not just Quraish, with
their own allies gathering against them.
They thought this is the end of Islam.
And it was, Allah says, Allah brought down
tranquility into their hearts, and supported them with
unseen armies.
And you see this in Gaza today.
Speaking to people in previous wars, they would
complain about everything.
This is the first time for the last
four months, speaking to the people of Gaza,
sometimes on a daily basis, no one is
complaining.
And you feel that this is the sakinah
that Allah has described, that He brought down
into the hearts of the sahaba.
They have exactly the same.
And in that battle, if you recall, Rasulullah
ﷺ was so hungry that the sahaba would
come to him and say, you know, I've
tied a stone to my stomach because of
hunger.
And Rasulullah would lift his shirt, and he
would have stones tied to his stomach, also
out of hunger.
The little food that, when a companion, Jabir
comes and invites Rasulullah for a meal, and
he says, just invite two or three people,
the food is not enough.
And Rasulullah invites the whole army, and the
food was sufficient for all of them.
You see this in Gaza today.
And as you were talking about, this is
something, the support of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, the guidance that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gives to these people.
And you see this, this cannot be explained.
No one, the people of Gaza didn't expect
this to last this long.
The enemies, their enemies did not expect them
to survive more than a few days.
And now they've been for 120 days, non
-stop, and they're not giving up.
And they are more resilient, and they're even
more stronger.
And you see a soldier stripping a young
man naked and standing in front of him
with all his armor.
And this man is sitting in a way,
with honor, he's just seen his father get
killed, the wife of his brother, and his
brother was killed before, his nephew being killed
in front of him.
And the resilience and sitting there with honor,
and not having any fear, just puts the
whole of this Ummah to shame.
SubhanAllah.
There is, there's Sakinah, and there's also Barakah.
I remember going to Bayat Lahiyah several years
ago.
And I met a family, Bayat Lahiyah no
longer exists, Bayat Hanun no longer exists in
its current form.
Allah knows best, it will come back as
Allah wills.
But I was in Bayat Lahiyah, and there
was a female family, they had no men
there.
And for some reason, they're probably either been
killed or taken.
And they were in the kind of series
of shacks, with a little courtyard in the
middle.
And we were going to sort of see
what we could do to help them.
And I looked around, and it was a
very difficult situation, even for Gaza at that
time.
And I said to the mother, it suddenly
came to me, when was the last time
you ate?
And she looked at her daughter, and she
went, when did we last eat?
I think it was three days ago.
And I went, sorry, what?
She said, when was it?
She said, it wasn't yesterday, day before.
It was the day before.
And I'm like, I'm sorry, how are you
surviving?
And she said, Wallahi, Miss Lauren, one mouthful
in Gaza has the barakah for three days,
if Allah wills.
You have no idea.
And they were smiling, and there was a
girl there called Noor.
And honestly, light upon light.
So in that way, there are miracles and
barakah, but that doesn't let us off the
hook.
Because Allah is sending his angels and his
barakah, that doesn't set.
In fact, we really have to be aware
of what we can do.
So I want us to know about going
to Al-Aqsa now, because I'm hearing from
a lot of Muslims, oh, well, obviously, it's
all shut off.
Oh, well, obviously, I can't go.
Is that the case?
For the people living particularly in the West,
it is easier for you to go and
visit Al-Aqsa than someone who's just living
two or three kilometres away from Al-Aqsa.
With your Western passports, you are able to
go through, you are able to get in.
It is much easier for us living outside
of Palestine to go and visit Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa.
And some people start saying, well, there might
be attacks in the month of Ramadan.
What's the point of going?
You've been there in a state of ribaat.
And these people have been paying the price
for the last 75 years.
They've been paying the price, not for Palestine,
on behalf of the whole of the Muslim
ummah, for the last 100 years, 160 years
to be exact.
And this does not let the ummah off
the hook.
Actually, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
on the other day, I heard this from
a scholar, he read this verse, and it
scared me to hear Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la says, If you do not
move, if you do not take action, Allah
will punish you.
And the verse, let me read it completely.
إِلَّا تَنْفِعُوا يُعَذِّبْكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا Allah
will punish you, a grave punishment.
It is Surah At-Tawbah, verse 39.
He will punish you, a grave punishment.
And وَيَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ And then Allah will
replace you with other people.
And you are not harming Allah in the
least, and Allah is the most capable of
everything.
So going back to the start of the
verse, if you do not move forth, He
will afflict you with painful torment and replace
you with another nation.
And today this is the message to the
Ummah.
If the Ummah does not move, there will
be a grave punishment.
You will see in this world and the
hereafter.
Another hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ that after this
started, this attack, a slaughter of Gaza, this
massacre of the people of Gaza, that since
the first day, this verse has been going
through my mind, and everywhere I go, this
hadith goes through my mind, that every Muslim
is aspiring that on the Day of Judgment,
Rasulullah will make intersection for his Ummah.
He will make shafa'ah for his Ummah.
And this hadith says he will not.
Rasulullah ﷺ will see a group of his
Ummah being dragged to the fire, and he
will intercede, and he will say, they are
part of my Ummah.
And the angels will say to him, You
do not know what they have done after
you.
And the response of Rasulullah ﷺ scares me.
He says, let them burn in the hellfire.
So, and Allah ﷻ is warning us and
threatening us in the verse I read in
Surah At-Tawbah, verse 39.
And Rasulullah ﷺ, he says he will not
make shafa'ah for some of his Ummah.
And remember that the Day of Judgment, as
Rasulullah ﷺ says in another hadith, the land
of raising and gathering, the land where everyone
will be gathered for their judgment is this
holy land, is this land, the land of
raising and gathering is the land of Bayt
al-Maqdis.
Do you think on the agenda you will
not be asked that you lived in the
21st century while al-Aqsa was under occupation,
while a massacre was happening, and you were
watching it live on your phone, live on
your screens, and you did nothing?
Do you not think this will be a
question that will be asked?
And this really scares me.
And today, seeing the people of Gaza die,
you saw just about 10 days ago, a
three-year-old, a three-month-old girl
die out of hunger, puts the whole Ummah
to shame.
And we're looking at the wrong thing.
While we're moaning, I can't go to Gaza,
I can't get through the desert on my
own, the Egyptians won't let us, there is
something we can do.
We can go right now, brothers and sisters,
to al-Aqsa.
In our thousands, in our millions, we are
all Palestinians, but in our thousands, in our
billions, we're all Muslims.
And so get on a plane and go,
and let your footfalls be counted by the
angels.
Oh Allah, we were there when the people
cried.
Oh Allah, we were there lending our prayers
against the wicked ones.
Oh Allah, we made our presence felt.
So don't let us hear, I'm a bit
scared about going.
I get so, ya Allah, frustrated.
We can do this.
This is our call.
Make the call, Dr Khaled.
Yes, people can, as I have mentioned from
the West, get on a plane and spend
this Ramadan inside al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
You can take time off your work, you
can take leave, you can put your life
on hold for a moment.
And let me mention something one of the
guards of al-Masjid al-Aqsa said to
me, and this is a call, he's now
in prison since the second week, the third
week of October, he's been in prison and
his family has not been able to see
him.
He's one of the guards of al-Masjid
al-Aqsa, and he said, Khaled, tell the
Ummah they need to care for al-Aqsa
more than they care for the Kaaba.
And I said to him, maybe that's a
little bit too much.
He said, no, ask them, ask the mothers,
ask the fathers, if they had three children
and one of the children is terminally ill,
would they stand by that child next to
their bed and ignore the other children while
they are trying to look after this child?
Al-Aqsa is ill.
Al-Aqsa needs the Ummah.
And then he says, actually, al-Aqsa does
not need the Ummah.
The Ummah needs al-Aqsa to get up.
This is a call for the Ummah and
not just for al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
Those who say, we want to help Palestine,
go to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, get on
a plane, most of you will be able
to get through, stand there and you say,
well, it is too dangerous.
Whether it's too dangerous or not, the people
are putting their life on the line.
The least you can do is take some
risk to support and to stand there and
to make your i'tikaf in al-Masjid al
-Aqsa.
And this is not a lot to ask
of this Ummah, particularly those living in the
West who can easily go there without visa.
I know many people in the Muslim world,
it is not possible for them, but for
them, they can prepare ships, because Gaza, Sisi,
may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
punish him for what he has done to
the people of Gaza, because what he has
done is no less than the Zionists have
done.
He's not opening the border from the Egyptian
side and you've heard Zionist politicians saying they
want to starve Gaza out to the last
bite.
And you saw them today shooting at animals,
even the animals aren't, you see our video
of them shooting for fun three sheep and
then shooting two horses or two donkeys.
The Ummah can raise ships, there is a
40 kilometre off shoreline with Gaza.
Don't think it's going to, you're going to
lift the blockade without paying a price.
The Ummah needs to challenge this blockade and
unfortunately, actually fortunately for them, may Allah bless
them, may Allah bless the South Africans for
challenging the Zionists and taking them to court,
which no Muslim state would do.
All of them are afraid of paying the
price, unfortunately, saying well our economy doesn't allow
it.
Many Muslim states have heard this excuse, South
Africa's economy is not better than Turkey's economy,
and they said we are willing to pay
the price and they went and challenged, you
cannot return Al-Aqsa, you cannot return your
holy land without challenging this Zionist.
And you can challenge them on going there,
you can challenge them on assembling ships, not
one or two ships, not 70 ships, hundreds
of ships to go to Gaza and they
will not be able to stop all of
them.
At least be by the side of your
brothers and sisters who are paying the price
for your impotence, they're paying the price for
the Ummah's silence.
And if you do not, Allah is warning
you, Wallahi, Allah will punish you, a great
punishment.
In your countries you will see this punishment,
you will see it in yourself, and you
will pay the price by Allah replacing you
with a better nation.
Maybe Islam will be rising from the West,
you see people becoming Muslim because of the
resilience of the people of Gaza, and maybe
it is them that Allah will replace us
with.
Allah knows best.
But there's a dua, Allahumma istakhdimna wa la
tassibdillana.
Ya Allah, use us as a force for
good and do not replace us with others.
And this is a time for this Ummah
to act.
And this Ummah, this night of the 27th
of Rajab, the night of ascension of Rasulullah
ﷺ, his night journey to Al-Masjid Al
-Aqsa, let it be an ascension and a
journey of the Ummah towards Al-Masjid Al
-Aqsa.
An ascension that this Ummah stands up again.
This Ummah has been, the last time I
was in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa I felt
ashamed of being a Muslim Ummah.
When I saw a soldier attack a Muslim
woman inside Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa and bite
her with his teeth like a bitch's dog,
that day I cried and I felt ashamed
of this Ummah.
Rasulullah ﷺ did not raise the Ummah to
be like this.
And today when I see what is happening
in Al-Aqsa, in Gaza, I feel ashamed
of my humanity.
I feel ashamed of this human race that
sees live on TV people being murdered and
do nothing.
Shaykh, we have the tools.
Allah has given us oil, wealth, health and
foreign passports and we need to get on
those planes and we need to get on
those boats.
And anybody who's feeling angry and impotent right
now and I can't imagine being a man
right now because as a woman I'm like
raging, but as a man it must be
if you're in Jordan and you know there
are places that cannot go to Al-Aqsa.
Get on the planes and it really is
very disturbing to hear people in comfort going,
but what if it's blockaded and I can't
go in to pray?
Pray in the street with the locals.
That prayer may be the barakah of your
life and it's your duty.
It's my duty.
I'm not putting this on anybody else, but
let's put our fear aside because there is
nothing anybody can do to us if we
are taking steps for the Ummah and for
the honour of Rasulullah because at the end
of the day that's the Palestinian struggle.
It wasn't called Palestine flood or Janine flood.
It was called Al-Aqsa flood.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
Any final words of inspiration inshallah?
JazakAllah khair.
I really appreciate you making this call and
I pray that your audience who are listening
in do not feel that there is nothing
I can do.
There is a lot you can do wherever
you are.
If you're in Jordan, go down to the
border and break this fear that they tried
to put in your heart.
If you're in Egypt, the same.
Do not.
Today the people of Egypt are starting to
pay the price.
The Egyptian pound, Junaid, has no value.
The economy is falling and it is a
punishment for what they are doing to the
people of Gaza and they know this.
It started with 1800 then it went up
to 15,000.
Now 18,000 trucks are waiting to go
into Gaza.
Some of them have been stolen.
Some of them have the expiry date has
gone and this is Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala is warning us.
If you do not take action and this
action, what we're asking is peaceful action that
everyone can do.
The people in Gaza are paying a very
heavy price on behalf of this ummah.
When I speak to them, when I speak
to the people there, the least they expect
is this ummah to take some form of
action to aid them, to give them some
clean water.
They're not going to give up, but at
least be by your side.
Be by their side and stand with them.
This Al-Aqsa is not their masjid.
This is not a Palestinian masjid.
As you have mentioned, this is the flood
of Al-Aqsa.
What they were expecting is the whole ummah,
two billion Muslims are going to come there
and Al-Aqsa would have been liberated.
But what we saw on the other hand
is this pathetic excuses Muslim countries have been
making, many of them complicit in this genocide.
You see, and let me finish with the
final verse from the Qur'an, which also
from the beginning of this has been going
through my mind.
Allah says, and the disbelievers are allies of
one another.
And we have seen when we see Joe
Biden come on the day that the hospital
was bombed and say that, I'm sure that
you haven't done it.
And they've killed since tens of thousands of
Palestinians and still they're still given arms, but
he didn't come empty handed.
He came with armor, he came with weapons,
with everything to support this Zionist state, because
this is their project.
This Zionist entity is a Western project before
it was even a Jewish project.
Then you had Sunak of the British Prime
Minister, then you had the French and the
Germans and the Canadians and the Australians, all
of them, not with empty words, we are
standing with Israel, they are standing literally with
all their might behind the state.
Not only that, many of these Muslim states
like Egypt and like Jordan and like Saudi
and like many others, unfortunately, are supporting this
genocide from either directly or indirectly, unfortunately.
Dishonor upon dishonor, shame, absolute shame.
Do you really want to be raised with
Netanyahu, Satan Yahoo, you want to be in
his queue on Yom Kippur?
Good luck.
Good luck, because when you stand next to
him, you know where you're going.
And these people will pay the price.
These people, this injustice, injustice everywhere has a
time limit, but read the books of the
Muslim scholars in the Tafsir of the Quran,
when they talk about Al Arab al-Mutaddasah,
the holy land, this is a land where
no oppressor will ever last.
The crusaders ended before the many oppressors came
and passed this land.
This Zionist state, Wallahi, will not survive any
longer.
You hear this from their political analysts and
you hear this from their religious rabbis, that
this state would not last.
Then this will not be the end.
This will not become the capital of Palestine.
Jerusalem will not be the capital of Palestine.
As Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, in this night
of hope, that Rasulullah, it was the hope
for him, Al Aqsa is the hope of
the Ummah.
Al Aqsa will and Baitul Maqdis will become
the capital of the whole of the Muslim
Ummah.
And from there, they will rule just, they
will bring justice to the whole world.
Not only that, Rasulullah tells us, the great
fitna of the world, Dajjal, the Antichrist, will
come to the whole world and conquer it,
with the exception of Mecca, Medina, At-Tur,
and Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, but his destruction
will be at Bab Lud, Lud, which is
not close from Tel Aviv.
That will be the end of the greatest
fitna in the world.
Then you have Gog and Magog.
They will go through the whole of the
land, the whole of the world.
Their destruction will be in the land of
Baitul Maqdis.
No oppressor will ever survive in this land.
And this will be the end of this
Zionist entity in the land of Baitul Maqdis.
Let us end with hope.
But in order to see this, Allah tells
us, Allah will not change your circumstances until
you change yourself, until the Ummah changes and
takes steps towards the liberation of Al-Masjid
Al-Aqsa.
Al-Aqsa will not be liberated.
Mashallah.
Thank you so much, Sheikh, for your great
dedication to the cause of knowledge, to your
great message for what we can do.
May Allah bless you in this life and
the next.
And I will put links below to the
best course I've ever taken on the importance,
the reality, and the meaning of Al-Aqsa
from an Islamic perspective.
And the best we can do right now
is arguably go to Al-Aqsa.
You can't get into Gaza, keep trying, but
go to Al-Aqsa because they are dying
for us to pray there.
Alhamdulillah.
May Allah accept their sacrifice and yours.
Thank you so much, Sheikh.
We'll meet again, Inshallah.
As-salamu alaykum.