Mohammad Elshinawy – The Quran and The Holy Land
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AI: Transcript ©
Brothers and sisters, in the last 9 months
as discourse among Muslims has for very good
reason of course,
pivoted to all things Palestine,
there has been a significant
hurdle that I have personal personally discovered.
And that there seems to be a major
disconnect
between many
Muslims
and the sacred,
not just the political, the sacred history
of these blessed holy lands.
And this is problematic not just because those
who are trying to take advantage of that,
historical amnesia,
they cannot be. We cannot just sit around
and let them be more knowledgeable of the
lies
about history
than we are knowledgeable about the truth of
that history.
And it's not just because those who are
unaware of history are bound to repeat its
mistakes
but it's because this is of religious significance.
Like the blessed lands, the holy lands
are like Mecca and Medina. There is no
real difference. They are in one category if
you will.
Allah azaawajal
allow me to begin where we left off
2 weeks ago with Ibrahim alaihis salaam. He
was driven out due to his stances,
and Allah says, and
we saved him and his nephew Lot.
We saved them to
the land that We blessed for everyone.
This is a blessed land that Allah made
holy, and blessed for the worlds.
And whenever you hear the blessed lands, unqualified
in the Quran,
or the muqaddas, the holy lands,
it's automatically referring to Jerusalem and its surrounding
areas. That's how significant it is.
But as for the history guided by the
Quran if you will, Ibrahim alaihis salam migrated
away from
his people
to the land of the Philistines, they called
them. That's why it became known as Palestine.
Interestingly by the way, the Israelites
were born, they are the grandchildren of Ibrahim
alaihis salam and we'll get to that in
a minute.
But not just in the Quran,
even in the bible it mentions that Abraham
came to these lands and he purchased a
small plot of land, actually a cave
to bury his wife in when she died.
So number 1, the great grandfather of the
children of Israel is not from Palestine, he
migrated to Palestine.
Second of all, he didn't arrive and say,
like, God gave me this land. He arrived
and needed a place when his wife died.
What do I do? He purchased a cave
to give her an honorable burial alaihis salam.
Of course as you know, Ibrahim alaihis salam,
the great Prophet of God had Ismail and
Ishaq.
Isma'il, he settled him in the lands that
would become the thriving city of Mecca, and
Ishaq
Isaac settled and remained in the blessed lands
of Palestine.
And Ishaq had Yaqub alaihis salam. All of
these great prophets of Allah.
Yaqub
is Israel.
Very important.
Many times you notice that Muslims What do
you mean?
The state of Israel, the the racist genocidal
state of Israel
try to appropriate
the name of the Prophet of Allah, Jacob,
because his other name was Israel. Even in
the Quran, Allah says,
Allah says that Israel would abstain from eating
certain foods just out of pious caution,
but these are not haram foods. So Allah
would call him Israel. That's his name. It
meant devout worshiper.
So the state today tries to just co
opt to that name to give it an
honorific
to justify through that name what can never
be justified
of their heartless Zionist project.
Alright? So in Palestine, Ibrahim had Ishaq, Ishaqal
Yaqub. Yaqub is Israel. Jacob is Israel.
And all of his children are the children
of Israel. You hear all the time, an
imam An Namimbar
say, the children of Israel or the Israelites.
All that means brothers and sisters is that
these are the children of Jacob.
The children of Jacob. One of them one
of the direct children of Jacob, his name
was
Yusuf.
So Yusuf
is a young boy in Palestine,
right? That eventually becomes a prophet. He is
of course
envied by his brothers, so betrayed by them,
thrown into a well, abducted into the slave
market,
sold into slavery in Egypt,
then framed for a crime he doesn't commit.
You And you know all of this from
the Quran.
And then he's sent to the dungeons and
forgotten about for years but through the faith
that the resil the resilience the faith gave
him, he finally emerges,
and he is appointed a position where he
can become a hero.
A hero This is our first hero if
you will for today
that not just rescues the people of Egypt
from the impending famine, the drought and the
food shortage that would happen, but even brought
his family over from Palestine
to save them from the lack of food
and resources there. And so now, Benu Israel
are where? The Israelites, all the brothers and
their father, they came to Joseph in Egypt.
Now the Israelites are in Egypt, and they
remain there for some generations
until there arises in Egypt a pharaoh and
a monster, the pharaoh of Moses
who was a a butcher who would massacre
babies.
And Allah Azzawajal caused to arise among them
the great Prophet Musa alaihis salam
who rescues his people by bringing them out
from Egypt and the tyranny of Egypt. And
then they return to where?
To their former home, to Palestine, to the
holy land, to Jerusalem.
And the Quran recorded this recorded this for
us brothers and sisters that when
they
got
there,
they
said,
There are big bad people there, occupiers, whoever
was living there, we cannot reclaim our land.
They were cowardly
and so Allah punish them. In Surah Al
Maida Allah says, Because
you refuse to listen to Musa alaihis salaam,
you are no longer allowed the honor of
living in these lands because of your disobedience.
Allah does not play favoritism.
And no believer in a God should ever
believe God is unfair. And yet you're his
favorites, you get this land or you get
this virtue no matter how rebellious you are.
Right?
The Quran and the bible by the way
are all in agreement about this that it
was never an unconditional promise. And so they
were punished
by Musa alaihis salam abandoning them.
He He said, Yeah Allah, I cannot be
with these people anymore. And so he separated
from Benu Israel, and they had to wander
in the desert. Can you imagine? May Allah
protect us.
Wander in the desert. Imagine not having directions
for 40 years, your GPS is malfunctioning.
For 40 years,
they were
wandering this desert.
As some of the scholars say, perhaps,
this is because
they needed to be stripped of the generation
that had internalized the cowardice,
internalized the weakness because they were a slave
class and they began to believe
that we can't do anything. We can't be
people of self determination, and that's a lesson
for everybody.
Until another generation arose
that was obedient to Allah and fearless due
to their faith, the student of Musa alayhi
salam,
Joshua, the one that was serving him in
the famous story in Surat Al Keth, when
he was looking for Al Khadr to teach
him and the young man was carrying the
food, that young man is Joshua.
That young man is Usha.
40 years later, Usha enters triumphant and brings
Benoit Israel back into the promised land. And
they said, Yeah Allah, we've been through so
much.
Every nation in the world has a king.
Why don't you give us a king? And
so he said to them as Allah captures
in Surat Al Baqarah,
Allah has sent you Talut which is Saul
in English or sha'ul in Hebrew.
Talut is your king. As soon as he
appointed them a king, Banu Israel said what?
How can he be our leader?
We are more deserving of being the kings.
They never thought it would be that guy
that Allah had elected.
And their explanation was, He's broke. He does
not have much money.
Of course, Allah does not make mistakes.
And Allah picked for them the worthiest leader.
And this is a lesson for us as
well. Perhaps it was the fact that he
was
living and growing through financial
distress his whole life that made him the
most durable and worthy of being a leader.
And as we live lives of privilege, we
have to be careful about this.
And so Talut becomes their king.
And he establishes for them their presence in
the region. And he was a righteous man
and some scholars say he may even have
been a prophet.
And he would even tell them that if
you are going to march in my army,
Surat Al Baqarah captures this. When we get
to that river, you're not allowed to drink.
Only take a sip. Only a sip. He
told them you have to be disciplined. He
said faith comes at a cost. People will
try to overrun you. You need to be
people of strength, people of resilience.
And eventually, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifts them
with an even greater hero which is the
great prophet Dawud alaihis salam, the prophet David
who was for sure a prophet and a
great king. And Allah had him take down
an enemy hero that was larger than life.
This is the famous story of David and
Goliath which we also have in the Quran.
And Dawud alaihis salam was a man of
great piety,
who would fast one day and break his
fast one day,
essentially for life. And would sleep only half
of the night and pray for a third
and sleep for the last 6. And in
another hadith, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
that when Allah showed Adam alaihi salaam, the
first human being, all of his children,
He he said, You Allah, who is this
one? With a very bright face, he said,
This is one of your best offspring
that I will send at the end of
time.
This is important because everyone's always wondering like,
you know, when's it gonna happen? When's it
gonna happen? At the end of time, his
name will be David.
So it's all relative. Right? You don't sit
there waiting for the the story to end.
You are an active part. Only Allah knows.
It's not just the Prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wasallam was a sign of the end times,
the Prophet Dawud alaihi wasallam was a sign
of the end times.
In that hadith, he said, Oh Allah, Adam
alaihis salam said, Oh Allah, how long will
he live? Give him 40 years of my
life. Let him live longer on this earth.
And so Dawud alaihis salam lived a blessed
life on this earth, and then Allah
caused his son, Suleyman,
Solomon to be an even greater king for
Benu Israel,
and this is what the historians by the
way,
and selectively the Zionist will say, it was
always our kingdom.
The golden age of Banu Israel
of those people was under the leadership of
Sulaiman alaihis salam. And the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said, how this man was given so
much kingdom by Allah, not just over the
people, but even influence over the animal kingdom
and even the jinn kingdom. And he was
of those who rebuilt Masjid Al Aqsa because
these masajid have been around since the beginning
of time. They have been prepared for humanity
that was created to worship Allah. So the
major houses of worship like the Ka'ab al
Aqsa have always been here even though they
get rebuilt. So he rebuilt them, al Masud
Al Aqsa. And he made dua to Allah
that whomever enters it and prays 2 rak'ahs
in it sincerely for Allah's pleasure that Allah
forgive for them every last sin of theirs.
May we pray to rakazil in a free
Masud al Aqsa soon.
And then Suleyman alayhi salam passes away
and when he passes away,
of course the ills of prosperity. Right?
This is the cycle of life.
They go for power grabs and the kingdom
is split in half. And that is when
the children of Israel become their own religion
for the most part. This is when the
ethnicity became a religion. This is when the
nation and the tribe became
non muslims essentially. They fell into idol worship,
they fell into paganism, they fell into sexual
perversions, they fell into oppression and power grabs,
And as a result, once again, Allah's promise
was conditional.
The empires of the world, one after another
would overtake them in the holy land,
and ravage them, and *, and pillage, and
burn
every few 100 years or decades.
And then Allah Azzawajal
sent Banu Israel
the last of their heroes
which was the great prophet
Isa alaihis salam, Jesus peace be upon him.
He was born among Benu Israeel. He was
a different kind of hero.
He did not have any supports
and was not permitted by Allah to have
worldly leverage
and yet he didn't care.
Isa alaihis salam did not just push back
against the political establishment,
the corrupt Roman regime that was there. Right?
He even pushed back against the religious establishment
because of the corruption of Benu Israel.
And that is why you are to know,
it was the people of Benu Israel, the
rabbis and the teachers there that went to
the Roman government and said, This man is
saying he's the new emperor. He's the new
guy on the block. He's about to start
a revolution. And so they convinced them to
as to execute Isa alaihis salaam but of
course we as Muslims know in the Quran,
in our infallible truth. Right?
That is Allah's words,
They were not able to kill him and
they were never able to put him on
the cross. They were simply put under the
illusion that they did so.
And about 300 years later, brothers and sisters,
in about 325,
the famous Roman emperor Constantine
creates what you know today as Christianity.
That's why it is called the Roman Catholic
religion.
And then 300 years after that around the
year 572,
common era. Right? About 600 years total since
Isa alaihis salam, Allah graced this world with
the prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam and before
turning the qibla to the ka'bah,
before turning it to the ka'bah till the
end of time, the prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi
wasalam taken on that miraculous night journey we
hear about in Surat Al Isra to Al
Masjid Al Aqsa. You would think about it
brothers and sisters. Think.
If the Kaaba is the greatest masjid on
earth, why did the miracle of ascending the
heavens not happen from the Kaaba? It happened
through Al Masjid Al Aqsa.
Perhaps to triple emphasize for us that his
Ummah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam will have a
relationship and a destiny intertwined with Al Masudu
Aqsa until the end of time.
And as the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
had promised
that after my death,
you will liberate Al Masjid Al Aqsa and
this in fact did take place during the
rule of Umar Al Khattab radiAllahu an. The
place was left to dump and historically was
never sanctified,
never protected except in the sanctuary of the
true believers, in the sanctuary of the Muslims.
Always historically, you will notice this pattern. And
he restored in Masud Al Aqsa.
And the Jews
and the Christians
lived there essentially for 1300
years
until the rabid dog of Zionism
emerged in the last 100 years.
So it was never a hatred of the
Jews. History attest to that being a lie.
It was the hatred of being oppressed. It
was the hatred of defiling that and
violating
the sanctities of human life.
And so Umar al Muqaddab liberated Masud Al
Aqsa, and then the ills of prosperity brothers
and sisters caught up with this ummah as
well. No favoritism.
And the Crusaders famously massacred everyone in the
city. Not just the Muslims
with their blood rising up to the knees
in the courtyard of Al Mas'ud Ar Aqsa,
the Jews were burned inside their temples
alive by the crusader army And even other
non compliant sects, different sects of Christianity in
the sect of the crusaders were killed there
as well.
Until a 100 years after that, Allah sent
them another hero in the form of Salahuddin
Ayubi. The famous Ayyubid Sultan Salahuddin.
And so we spoke of Yusuf alaihis salam
and his heroics, and then Musa alaihis salam
and his heroics,
and then Yusha,
and then Talut, and then Dawood, and then
Suleyman,
and then Isa alaihimus salam, and then our
Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam and Umar. And essentially
salahuddin
as well
and there are many in between.
As I close out this khotuba, whomever thinks
they were 10 will never be able to
be the next one.
There are in between so many brothers and
sisters.
Knowing our history is a small part of
it but knowing that this also is not
our history is something I want to close
out with. There were countless mothers
who raised Muslims
that were ultimately loyal to Allah and his
messenger and to the ummah and to their
principles
even with people outside this ummah. There were
people that never got jaded
between the time of the massacre, between the
time of the oppressions
and the time when Allah azaawajal restored to
those who deserved it.
There was 88 years between
the crusaders and between Salahuddin.
Within the 1st week, people started moving.
And right before salahuddin, the leaders before him
could have even been greater contributors.
It is not just the big names. And
I'll share with you one final anecdote that
I've shared before and will continue to share.
What I didn't tell you is that when
Musa alaihis salam brought them back to the
promised land,
I left 2 a'at out when Allah said
2 men and he refused to give us
their names
that fear Allah, You kafoon,
Allah bless them with the fear of him
only. They were telling their people, listen to
the messenger. Just listen to Musa alaihis salaam.
He said, If you march in, you will
win.
And Allah immortalized their mention.
It didn't work because there was not enough
of that umrah
rising to the occasion, owning their share of
the duty. But Allah still celebrated them and
uses them to inspire others. He puts them
in the Quran. Why? Because they said, You
know what? I may not have the biggest
job, the most famous job.
If my job is to say, Listen to
the messenger,
then I'll amplify the voice of the messenger.
May Allah Azawajal make us all messengers of
the messenger.
Help us focus in our little corners of
the world of wherever we can contribute.
Understand the honor that is in front of
us of being part of this sacred heritage.
May Allah help us understand our roots and
better comprehend our history and not be subject
to repeating its mistakes.