What Gaza Taught Me About Eid

And we begin every read saying, Allahu Akbarullahu

Akbarullahu Akbarullah

is the greatest.

None is worthy of our worship but Allah.

Allah is the greatest and to him belongs

all praise.

And Allah has

said,

Say to them by the virtue of Allah

or by the bounty of Allah and by

his mercy. By virtue of these two things.

Meaning because of these two things, they should

be celebrating.

That Allah azza wa Jal extended to you

the bounty of Islam. And by his mercy

made you one of its people, You should

be

celebrating

It is far better than anything they can

ever accumulate.

And I do know and I do understand

that many people are wondering how can we

celebrate

despite the fact that we are hurting so

much at the same time with what is

happening in Palestine and Gaza, what is happening

in Sudan and Turkmenistan.

We are not celebrating

despite what's happening.

We are celebrating because they taught us through

what's happening how to celebrate.

The people of Ghazza today are celebrating Eid.

They are celebrating Eid to remind us that

if you have Islam, then it's enough to

celebrate.

That you can break my home and break

my family and take my family members away

from me, and you can't take away the

thing that I cherish most. As our prophet

sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, no one will

ever understand.

No one will ever taste, he said. The

sweetness of faith until Allah and his messenger

are more beloved to them than everyone else,

and everything else. And they know that, and

they have that. And that is the one

thing that can never be taken away from

them, and that is the one thing we

need to learn and reflect on today above

all else.

That Allah

has chosen us

to be rightly guided for the time being,

and so we appreciate and we thank for

it.

They are in the streets right now saying

As I've said before,

we don't bow. Any nation whose leader is

Muhammad doesn't bow. We are the ummah of

the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We will

celebrate and smile on the faces of our

oppressors because we have Islam and they don't.

Our martyrs are in paradise and their dead

are in the fire.

You know, as the poet he famously said,

Of what increases me in honor above all

else

Almost makes me deluded from my joy, he

says. I'm almost intoxicated

from glee. How thrilled I am

To the point that I almost walk with

my own 2 feet

on the highest stars, he says. I'm walking

on the stars. Why? He says, because you

included me, oh Allah,

under your statement, oh my servants.

May we forever be worthy to be his

servants

because you included us under your statement, You

Ibadi. O my servants.

And because you sent Muhammad. Of all the

prophets, you sent Muhammad to me as being

my prophet.

You know, I remember

How can I forget this,

Palestinian brother,

elderly man if I'm not mistaken,

who was being told by his oppressors,

by

the smug Zionists, we are God's chosen people?

The God they don't believe in that supposedly

promised them that land.

He's Then he used to retort back to

them, no. We are God's chosen people. And

there is a huge difference brothers and sisters.

This is not tit for tat. This is

not stooping to that level. There is a

huge difference between being

so arrogant that you think god is a

racist and god plays favoritism, and you were

simply born into a certain ethnicity, and so

you're automatically god's favorites,

And between knowing that because you chose to

embrace Allah's guidance

and you accepted Allah's Islam which everyone has

equal access to, this is not a bloodline,

then you are God's favorites.

This is the day that we remember that.

And may Allah

keep us in his infinite favor.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, Allah

actually said this very theme

at the end of at the back end

of the verses on fasting.

He said,

I have legislated Islam and fasting, and I

have made it easy for those that are

sick and traveling. He said he set all

this up. Why? So that you may fast

these

days and glorify God for having guided you.

This is what today's about. For having guided

you and so that you may be thankful.

So today is a day of thanks. We

will be happy not because we're heedless. We

will we are going to be happy not

because we're tone deaf, but because Allah a

zawajal has guided us.

And the one who guided us to Islam,

we must be resilient and optimistic like those

people. He will guide us out of the

plight of the ummah today.

But be happy today.

Rejoice today. Make sure everyone in your family

is associating this day with joy and happiness

in their memories.

And be humble as well. Allah azza wa

jal said,

Why is it, the previous nations, that when

our punishment came, they did not humble themselves?

So stay humble. Live today and every single

day,

not however we wish. No. Like someone that

accepts the honor that is not unconditional. The

honor Allah has tested us with of being

the rightly guide, especially in times of difficulty.

It should not end at tears. It should

begin with tears. The tears that wash away

the rust and starts a new beginning for

us. To humble ourselves as if we are

guests in his universe because we believe that.

As if we are applicants for his paradise

because we believe that. As if we are

those who await his promise of support because

we believe that. May Allah

make this a day of appreciation

and gratitude,

of humility and obedience. And the days after

it to come,

again.

again.