Mohammad Elshinawy – How Can Muslims Stay Strong for Palestine
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the criminal behavior of Muslims who are too focused on the negative news and become ineffective. They emphasize the importance of balancing consumption with productivity and protecting one's own values. The speaker also talks about the crisis of evil and the need for individuals to figure out their own valves and balance.
AI: Summary ©
So as we see that what's happening today
on the news and everything like that with
Palestine, how can Muslims of today deal with
the despair caused by what's happening there, and
what can we do to stay strong for
them?
To move past the pain, like to ignore
it, to just move on with life, is
criminal.
It really is criminal.
But
unintentionally
unintentionally,
you can be as ineffective
as unhelpful
if you are
too consumed
with the bad news.
Right?
Like, when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
came back to the family
Mu'tah, he gave them time to grieve and
then he went up to them and said,
don't cry over Ja'far anymore. He gave them
a few days until they don't cry anymore,
right? Meaning let's move with it, not past
it, but move with it. We're gonna have
to sort of restore our functionality, restore our
productivity,
make sure more Muslims don't have to go
through this. That's the whole idea. Right?
And so you will be equally ineffective
if you're so consumed with the bad news
that you're emotionally paralyzed
as the person that is so checked out
of the news
that
they're
irrelevant,
right?
And so that balancing act is a balancing
act of consumption.
You're consuming less. It's not the first thing
you just look at the morning, last thing
you look at at night, and all this
other stuff. No. You should be as involved,
as privy
as you can be productive.
Right? And
I, somehow, I remember as a child because,
you know, this Umma has been going through
a period of weakness for
for a while.
And I remember as a child seeing, you
know, Palestine, seeing Gaza. This is the 5th
war on Gaza. People a lot of people
are just waking up now, which is amazing
and wonderful. But this is the 5th war
on Gaza in the last 20 years. Is
this true? How much is that? Yeah. And
then before that, there's Iraq and Afghanistan or,
like, in parallel, some some of these wars.
Then before that was Bosnia, right?
So
I remember as a child,
we had cable TV and Al Jazeera network
and it replays the same horrific image at
the head of every hour. Like the news
cycle was hourly because it's a satellite channel.
And so I just realized, oh my god.
How many times have I seen this?
This, like, traumatic site, truly traumatic site.
And so you the amount you consume
needs a filter.
Okay? You everyone's gotta figure out their own
valve, their own balance, their own threshold.
You know? Some of the greatest activists have
communicated in the last 6, 7 months their
regret
about being so consumed thinking it's doing the
right thing when it was actually slowing me
down from doing far better things for the
cause itself, not for, like, something else,
not not moving on to bigger and better
things. No.
And
at the same time, you so slowing some
of this down,
like being privy to what your valve, you
know, should be adjusted to, but also bringing
in bringing in the Qur'anic world view, You
need doses of
the filter, the lens, the reference point.
The problem of evil is not something you
have to deal with on your own. And
it's not something also that
is supposed to be easy to deal with.
Where do I get that reassurance from? From
the Quran.
The angel said, oh, God, you're gonna put
on Earth those that are gonna spill blood
on Earth? He said, I know what you
don't know.
Musa alayhi salaam comes, soot al kaff, we
read,
why are you doing this? Why are you
puncturing the ship? Why do you kill that
kid? Why do you sort of not take
payment from that? Those people were so stingy
with us. They were horrible.
And so how even the prophets even the
prophets.
Right? So how do you give yourself stamina?
It is by seeing this as well.