Mohammad Elshinawy – Palestine No Turning Back Now
AI: Summary ©
The success of success is measured by the amount of energy they give up, and individuals must stay on the course of a busy life to celebrate wins and celebrate success. The success of people working in mental health, including the pressure on political leaders to remove controversial content, is also discussed. The importance of celebrating wins and maintaining momentum in the political climate is emphasized, along with the success of Islamist movement and the pressure on political leaders to remove controversial content. The segment also touches on recent events, such as Facebook's halts of expansion and the use of markings on social media to engage in the digital age. The importance of acceptance and honoring Islam is emphasized, and advice is given on finding a way to make it happen.
AI: Summary ©
Oil & Water Brothers and sisters, every
single one of us knows that when you
pour water and oil into the same container,
no matter how hard you try to mix
them, the oil always winds up on top.
And you know the great scholar Ibn Al
-Jawzi, he actually reflected on this phenomenon and
how it symbolizes, it's like the perfect metaphor
for a very profound life wisdom, an ancient
wisdom.
He imagined it in the form of a
conversation, wherein water gets fed up and says
to oil, the olive oil, what's the matter
with you?
Where are your manners?
Where did your tree come up from in
the first place?
I watered you.
And he just sort of like, you always
take the higher road, you always look down
upon me.
And so the oil responded and said, yeah,
it's true, you sourced my tree out of
which the olive oil comes.
But I'm the one that put up with
getting squeezed, getting processed.
While you settled for the comfortable life, the
path of least resistance, you just flow between
the riverbanks, you'll trickle down into whatever hole
happens to already be there.
You don't put in much work like me.
And so it was because I endured that
I was elevated.
And so water responded and said, it doesn't
matter, I'm the source.
It all started with me.
And so the oil said to him, calm
down, don't embarrass yourself, you only operate underground.
And when we bring you close to the
lantern, you put out the flame.
I fuel the flame.
I give rise to the fire.
I am the source of energy.
And so this allegory or this metaphor, this
example that is struck is a very well
-known wisdom.
You know the Arabs used to say, لَا
تَحْسَبَنَّ الْمَجْدَ تَمْرًا أَنْ تَأَكِلُهُ لَنْ تَبْلُغَ الْمَجْدَ
حَتَّى تَلْعَقَ الصَّبْرَةَ Don't think that glory, even
in English we say, no guts, no glory,
right?
Don't think that glory are some dates, some
sweet, delicious dessert, some dates, that you're just
gonna just eat up, effortlessly.
You will not get to glory until you
put up with the bitter taste of patience.
That's the only way.
But how do you put up with the
bitter taste of patience?
That's where I want to move to now.
To be honest, we're human beings.
And even animals, if they don't see a
little bit of the success story, if they
can't notice that they're making strides, that there's
progress, that there's some sort of wins, they
lose wind, they lose stamina, they lose the
endurance that will elevate them eventually.
You know there's actually a very famous study
by a Harvard psychologist, his name is Kurt
Richter, his rat experiment.
So, he grabs a whole bunch of different
rats, and you know wild rats swim better
than like domestic rats, but it didn't matter.
He puts them all in water, it has
nothing to do with water and oil.
And within 15 minutes they all drown.
They give up, there's no point in swimming,
they drown.
Then he started taking these rats, right before
they drown he saves them.
And he like dries them up, maybe gives
them some food, lets them rest, and then
throws them back in the water.
Those rats kept swimming for days, not 15
minutes.
Why?
Because now they've developed, this is sort of
what people usually take from this study, that
if there's a reason to keep fighting, I'll
fight, but I got to see the reason.
Give me some sort of reason.
Likewise, how do you sustain momentum?
And the wounds of this ummah are many.
In Turkmenistan and in Sudan, it's not just
Palestine.
But that's front and center, and nothing unites
the ummah like Palestine.
And it will be the beginning for everything
else, inshallah.
A full year, how do you not lose
steam?
It is extremely important, that just as we
grieve their deaths, we celebrate their lives.
This is number one.
Celebrate their wins.
They are a success story, not just in
the hereafter.
You know, this mass conversion we're sort of
all feeling, of people coming to Islam, it's
not because they're being killed, it's because of
the resilience of the survivors.
Like, how in the world...
You know, we're in suicide awareness week as
well.
The whole world is being reminded as it
should be, about how many people are struggling
there, and can't put up with life and
its pains, and its anguish, and otherwise.
You know what does way better work at
healing people, than suicide awareness week, and the
whole mental health industry combined, and all of
us preachers up here doing da'wah?
The therapy and the da'wah of the
people of Gaza to the world.
The people are all looking like, I don't
know what that is, but I want that.
How are you so strong?
How are you so content, living through what
I can't even watch?
How do you keep going?
What is that?
Who are those people?
That's worth celebrating.
You know, you even think on the ground,
like, you cut off all electricity.
You cut off all water supplies.
I go and make homemade, makeshift tools, to
desalinate the water in Gaza, to go get
ocean water, and turn it into drinking water.
What resilience!
The superpowers of the world combined, can't keep
me on my knees.
It's unbelievable.
You read about a physician in Gaza, who
took the flimsy little aluminum wires that are
on the noseband of those COVID face masks.
You pull out that little wire.
She restores someone's blown off jaw with that
little wire.
And it works.
That's worth celebrating.
How are their phones still on?
Some of them were grabbing dynamite, remote controls
that failed, didn't explode.
And they're charging their phones with it, to
tell the world, we're still here.
Israel's lying.
Yes, they are targeting children.
You can't lie to the camera.
Incredible.
But not just that, brothers and sisters.
Don't just celebrate their wins to keep going.
Celebrate your wins as well.
That Allah has used you.
And you will lose steam if you don't
remember this.
Has already used you to begin turning the
tide.
This is not some premature celebration.
I'm not under any delusion that things can
ever change overnight.
But the tide is beginning to turn.
Allah has used you for that.
Wallahi, it's turning.
I put together a list that I'm going
to read to you.
Because I feel your pain and mine that
we do need to hear it.
You know, the banning of pro-Gazan, pro
-Palestinian content on nearly every platform, on social
media, it has made it 10 times harder
for us to get the word out, right?
The presidents of countries are meeting with the
CEOs of these platforms and arresting them.
And it's still not enough to keep us
down.
The suppression and the shadow banning on social
media has failed.
The narrative is swinging overwhelmingly in the favor
of the Palestinian people.
Even the university encampments that are restarting now
with the new semester, right?
Ripple effect globally.
The world has saw them.
And they were forced to react and try
to suppress them, which made it erupt even
more.
And it wasn't even coordinated, which was a
sign from Allah عز و جل, had they
all been centralized and coordinated, maybe they would
have squashed them all at once.
Every time they try to put one down,
15 more pop up all over the globe.
And then university after university in this past
year have been forced to vote on divesting,
removing money from these companies that are incentivized,
are encouraged in keeping wars going.
Because if there's no wars, how can I
make money off of the weapons, the arms
sales?
When a country like Colombia and a country
like the UK, the monster parent of the
Zionist state of Israel, have already halted some
of their arms sales to Israel.
When the number of students and employees that
were blacklisted, that were doxed for standing for
justice, standing for the people of Gaza, standing
against the genocide, do you know how many
have been overturned?
That's worth celebrating.
You did that.
Do you know that Puma, the famous company,
has rescinded already, has removed its endorsement, its
sponsorship of the Israeli national team.
American Airlines has canceled all flights to Israel
until at least next April.
You already know that Biden was forced to
rescind his candidacy.
He handed it off.
And Harris' numbers are nose diving.
No one's buying it anymore.
The scare tactics aren't working anymore.
The lies are out.
The Starbucks CEO has been fired.
And McDonald's was in denial and now through
their teeth they admit, yes, it's true.
We have lost 7 billion dollars.
And one of the two reasons why it
happened is what they call the Muslim boycott.
You did that.
And you already know what South Africa has
done of indicting the genocidal apartheid state in
the International Court of Justice.
And you already know that Mexico and Spain
and Ireland and Norway have now officially added
themselves to 140 plus countries in recognizing officially
the state of Palestine.
And just two days ago in a historic
moment, somewhat symbolic for now, but it was
not possible two years ago, right?
Palestine was just seated at the U.N.
General Assembly.
Samsung Next has just shut down all operations
in Tel Aviv.
And Intel, the juggernaut of a software company
and hardware have just halted 15 billion dollars
of expansion in Israel.
Which means that there is an overwhelming faltering
of confidence in that deranged genocidal state.
You did that, brothers and sisters.
And of the ways to keep going is
to stop and say, I need to celebrate
this.
وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَى۟ For
sure, as Allah said in the Qur'an,
you don't shoot when you shoot except that
it's Allah who shoots, right?
So when you make an attempt with some
sort of strategy, whether you're sharing or otherwise,
you're taking your shot at pushing back, right?
It is Allah ultimately who made it impactful,
but He used me.
He instrumentalized me.
He honored me with being a part of
this.
And some of it has started working.
And so through that you say, there's no
turning back now.
After He has shown me, this is a
point of no return.
Palestine is just the beginning.
We're just getting started.
May Allah give us the sustained momentum and
stamina to continue to push through in ways
that will earn us His pleasure.
Allahumma ameen.
أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله العظيم لي ولكم
الحمد لله وحده والصلاة والسلام على من لا
نبي بعد أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله
وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمدًا عبده
ونبيه ورسوله Lastly, brothers and sisters, since we
are just getting started, and this is a
marathon and not a sprint, we must also
remember to say that pacing ourself is necessary
and necessarily Islamic.
What do I mean by this?
Yes, we believe that in the same moment
they're being murdered by devils, they're being received
by angels, right?
But that doesn't mean while we're still here
on the ground, we can just keep watching
without effect them getting murdered by devils.
There is a trauma there.
And just accepting that is helpful.
Because the road from trauma to triumph is
a tricky road.
And our deen taught us how to pace
ourself, so it doesn't give you an adverse
reaction.
It doesn't sort of like break you.
And it's normal and it's human.
And the Prophet ﷺ justified it.
You know, like the way Allah created us,
created our minds, our brain.
Like when you're cold, your brain tells you
to shiver, so you heat up, right?
It's normal.
Survival mechanism.
When you're hot, your brain tells your body
sweat, so you cool off.
Likewise, when you're traumatized, when there's too much
of something, your brain just makes you numb
to it, so you can survive.
And I only say that to say, don't
feel too guilty.
Don't say, oh, I'm just a bad person,
imposter syndrome, or they call it survivor, whatever
terms we're gonna tack on to it, you
know, in our vernacular, in our language today,
right?
It's all right.
It's okay.
You're thirsty for some winds.
You're sort of, you're tired from all...
It's all right.
You know, even a marketing specialist was sharing
with us that when you put good news
on social media about Gaza now, it gets
engaged.
And you put more of the bad news,
the sob story, people have just stopped engaging
it.
Why?
It's normal.
They don't see it anymore.
Allah protects them, so you're not doing anyone
a favor by burning out.
So it's okay to take a breather.
Say, I'm not okay right now, so that
you can get back to it, because we're
just getting started.
That's the idea.
Where is this in our deen?
All over.
But I'll give you one important incident to
remember.
When the Prophet ﷺ was standing on the
blessed minbar, he was receiving news of what
was happening to the Muslims in the battle
of Mu'tah.
You can imagine it as if he's watching,
as if it was being live streamed to
him, ﷺ.
And he says, as Anas narrates, that Zayd
has been martyred.
This is his adopted son.
And he's saying this, and the tears are
streaming down his cheeks as he's sharing it
with the people.
It's happening live to him.
And he says, Ja'far, his cousin, his
brother, picked up the flag.
Flag can't fall.
And Ja'far is martyred.
And he's crying, ﷺ.
And then Abdullah ibn Rawaha picked up the
flag, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha is martyred.
And then the flag has now been taken
by one of the swords of God, and
he has given the Muslims an exit.
It was Khalid.
Khalid ibn Walid, رضي الله عنه.
And the army comes back 600 miles away.
They were out in present-day Jordan.
Exactly as he told, ﷺ.
But he goes to the family of Ja
'far.
And he goes to the Muslims.
And he says to them what?
Prepare some food for the family of Ja
'far.
فَإِنَّهُ أَتَاهُمْ مَا يَشْغَلُهُمْ There has come to
them that which has consumed them.
Give them room to breathe.
Spare them of some of their duties.
It's fine.
He didn't say, he's a martyr, no one's
allowed to cry.
No, no, no.
Give them, bring them some food.
They're not okay right now.
And they have a right to not be
okay right now.
Yes, it's amazing that this is his brother,
and he's the one anchoring other people.
But not everyone should be like that.
You know, I had an imam in New
York City who reached out to me a
few months ago, and said to Muhammad, I
promised myself I would not cry in front
of the community, regarding Gaza.
He said, but when I'm alone, when I'm
done with sort of like the busyness of
my preoccupation, I'm not okay.
And the first thing that came to mind,
by the way, when he said that, is
that's extremely impressive.
The fact that you can sort of keep
it collected, and take care of everyone else
first.
But not everyone's got to be like that,
and not at every moment.
Even the prophets, Musa Alayhi Salaam said to
his man Yusha, لَقَدْ لَقِيْنَ مِنْ سَفَرِنَا هَذَا
نَصَبَةٌ We have gone through great fatigue on
this journey of ours.
Surah Al-Kahf, it's there.
Yes, the best way, and sort of the
trophy moment, is when you can speak to
Allah, and that's enough.
But Allah showed us that even the prophets
get to speak to people, get to vent,
that's their right.
And so, the Prophet Alayhi Salaam, after three
days of giving Jafar's family their space, he
went and told them, now we're going to
move on.
That's how you do it, right?
He said, do not cry over my brother,
my brother.
And he's the one that watched it, after
today.
Meaning, don't get bogged down by this.
Space, resume.
And likewise, brothers and sisters, stop feeling sorry
for yourself that you took a little bit
of a break or a breather.
Stop feeling guilty.
Stop feeling sort of, you know, jaded about
this ummah ad infinitum, forever.
No.
It's now time to get back to work.
It's time to resume.
Allah has honored us.
He has used us.
And as much as I'd love to end
the khutbah with a ayah or a hadith,
just remember what the first prime minister of
Israel has reportedly said, years ago, the old
will die, and the young will forget.
Alhamdulillah, we haven't forgotten.
And more and more of this ummah is
accepting to work in the dark.
I don't even know how all these dots
are gonna connect.
I don't know how it's gonna come full
circle.
But I'm accepting that Allah has used me,
has honored me.
I accept it's enough for me to be
part of the process.
It's enough for me that Allah sees in
me that I believe in His words, إِنَّا
لَنَنصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ
يَقُومُ الْأَشْهَادِ We promise, on our clock, but
we promise, we will give victory to the
messenger and the believers in messengers, both in
this world and in the next, the verse
says.
It's enough of an honor that Allah sees
me believing in that, even if I can't
fully make it out.
He'll make it make sense later.
May Allah use us and not replace us.
Accept us in the service of His deen
and protect us from being distracted.
Protect us from being debilitated.
Protect us from being a liability for this
ummah, not a living force that carries it,
Allahumma ameen.
May Allah forgive us of our sins, public
and private, that slow us down.
And fill us with certainty and confidence that
will accelerate us forward.
Give cure to every sick Muslim.
And give healing to every pained person.
And use us as an asset for the
well-being of humanity.