Omar Suleiman – Don’T Let Them Steal Your Revolution
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Dear brothers and sisters,
Alhamdulillahirrubalahalameen.
As we stand here in this moment,
there's been this overwhelming
spirit
of victory
and joy
for what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given
to our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allahu Akbar.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
accept all of the dead Asuhada.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow this
revolution to not be hijacked by those who
want for Islam and the Muslims what is
not good for it. And may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
allow the people, the freedom fighters of Bangladesh
and around the world to persevere.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to celebrate victory in
the way that we are celebrating victory in
Bangladesh. Allahumma Ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I wanna walk back
to a moment
where the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam arrives
in Makkah
after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants him the
victory of the Fatiha, the victory of the
conquest.
And I want you to imagine that you
are watching
the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
as someone
who has only known the prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam for a few years.
And you don't know the history of that
moment.
The messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
sets up his tent
in an area known as Hajjun.
And if you've been to Mecca,
Hajjun is where you have the famous cemetery
of Jannatul Mu'allah, the cemetery of Al Mu'allah
where Khadija radiallahu ta'ala anha is buried,
where Abu Talib is buried,
where many of the early Meccans and Muslims
are buried.
And if you saw the prophet salallahu alayhi
wa sallam setting up his tent there and
you weren't aware of the history,
you wouldn't
know that in that very same place,
about a decade prior,
the el the elders of Mecca had come
together
and they had signed the pact
to boycott Banu Hashim
and to boycott Banu Muhtalib
and to put them
in the valley
where the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam and
his family would be starved
for 3 years
and sanctioned
for 3 years.
Eventually out of that sanction and out of
that starvation,
the death of Khadija radiallahu ta'ala anha,
and the death of Abu Talib. But if
you were watching the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam and you didn't know, all you would
think is that the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa
sallam is setting up a tent
in an area nearby the Kaaba.
Because nothing of his demeanor salallahu
alaihi wa sallam gave off
this idea that he was vengeful.
Nothing of the demeanor of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam gave off anything but grace.
But if you knew the history, you knew
the history
that in that same
area where the prophet shalaihi wa sallam pitched
that tent
as a
leader who was returning back to his homeland,
the prophet shalaihi wa sallam was once banished
and put through
some of the deepest pain of his life,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
If you watch the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam then proceed into Makkah
with his nose to the back of his
camel.
Not as a man
boasting
about returning victorious
over those who once harmed him, salallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
But as a man who was humble to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and understood that victory only comes from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
perhaps you wouldn't be able to appreciate the
pain
that he had been put through.
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did
not march into Mecca,
calling out the names of those who caused
him great harm and once banished him from
Mecca. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had
no interest
in crucifying anyone, in mutilating anyone. The prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam did not say to
the people of Mecca, here I am now.
Now what do you say of me? Instead
the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
is is putting his head to his camel.
Think of the sight
and saying, la tathriba'alikum
al yawm. There is no blame upon you
today.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive you.
Dear brothers and sisters,
if you were to see the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam and how he dealt with
the prisoners
after Badr,
perhaps you wouldn't know
the pain
that those prisoners put him through.
Perhaps you wouldn't know
of the torment
that those Meccans
had put him through because of the grace
of the messenger of Allah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam.
And I want you to compare and contrast
how they dealt with the Muslims in Uhud.
How Quraysh
was unrestrained in its brutality
In tearing up the body of Hamza radiAllahu
ta'ala Anhu,
and seeking to pour alcohol and wine on
the corpses of the Muslims,
and singing the songs of revenge against the
Muslims.
All of that because they said a day
for a day.
Uhud is for Badr.
And if you think about it,
what they had done to the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam and the Muslims before Badr
was far greater
than anything that had been inflicted upon them
in Badr.
If the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam dealt
with them with the same attitude
for the catalog of atrocities that they committed
against him and the Muslims salallahu alaihi wa
salam for
that decade prior to Badr.
Wouldn't Abu Jahl's corpse
be dealt with in the same way that
he dealt with Sumayyah radiallahu ta'ala Anha?
Wouldn't the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam shout
out to them
and say the day of Badr
for the torture of Mecca?
But he didn't do that salallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
Immediately
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam turned his
attention to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and sought
the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
that situation,
and how to build on that moment of
victory.
How to take that material victory
and turn it into
a longer lasting victory.
How to unify the hearts
and to turn those hearts collectively to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam was not
beating his chest
in some
display
of human superiority.
Instead the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
prostrating to the ground
in a display of vulnerability to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and seeking the greater blessings from
that victory.
The messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
had taught the Muslims
how to restrain their nufus,
how to restrain their selves for the sake
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that when
you saw them in victory and when you
saw them in defeat,
it materialized
in the exact same behavior which was fasabih
bihamdi rabbika wastaghfirhu.
SubhanAllah. Just like how on a personal level,
the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
when good news came to him, he fell
in sujood.
When bad news came to him, he fell
in sujood.
Likewise,
the nose of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam would be to the back of his
riding animal
in victory and in quote unquote defeat because
he was always a humble servant to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala
and seeking something else.
You see to the Meccans,
the only thing they had
to hang their hats on
was this idea of revenge.
They didn't believe in victory beyond this world
because they didn't believe in resurrection beyond this
world.
They didn't believe in any type of solace
and comfort and compensation
outside of this world because they didn't believe
in a Lord
who owns both the realm of this world
and the realm of the hereafter.
The Muslims had something different in their hearts.
They sought something greater from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Watarjunaminallahi
malayabjoon.
You want from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what
they do not want.
And the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam
was able to keep the Muslims calibrated
in such a way that if you were
to see them after Badr, you might think
that this was after Uhud. And if you
were to see them after Uhud, you might
think that this was after Badr. They were
constantly turning towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
looking to him for that next step.
Dear brothers and sisters,
one of the things that I want us
to take with us deeply,
and I want you to listen to me
very very carefully
as we insist
that your revolution
in Bangladesh
not be stolen.
That the revolution
in any place not be stolen as revolutions
before had been stolen. Listen to me very
carefully.
It is just as important to see through
the euphoria and victory,
as it is to see through the despair
under the darkness of oppression.
It is just as important to connect to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you're on top
as it is to connect to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala when you're under the boots of
the oppressor.
It is just as important to think about
how to convert this
into a gain in the hereafter,
and to be patient with yourself, and to
be patient with the moment
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has gifted you
a palace in this world as it is
to see the potential of a palace in
the hereafter
when you are under the crushing tyranny of
a firaoun like Assia alayhi salaam.
You have to see
in this moment
what comes next.
And you must not
allow yourselves, we must not allow ourselves
to be intoxicated by the moment so that
we forget what we're supposed to be building.
When the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam
arrives in Al Madina Munawara,
I want you to think about this. The
messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
was engaged in building a society in Madina,
engaged in building a state in Madinah,
engaged in implementing ethics in Madinah, already executing
covenants with the various tribes in Madinah,
already executing covenants with the Jews in Madinah,
Already building Mu'akha, building the ties of brotherhood
between the Muhajirin
and the Ansarib Al Madinah. Already conceiving of
system after system, and building and building and
building
while a neighboring state sought his annihilation.
While his people in Mecca were plotting day
and night against him, salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
If the story of Madinah
was merely to defend ourselves
against the plots of Makkah, then Madinah would
not have been established as the model state
that we look to every single year of
the existence of this ummah to see how
we can model what the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam modeled for us. But the messenger
of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
had something
to build.
He had a message
to put forward.
And sometimes we get so caught up
in fighting a system
that we forget that we have an alternative
system.
Sometimes we get so caught up in tearing
down the walls of oppression that we forget
that we're also supposed to be building the
walls of truth and justice.
Sometimes
we get so caught up in this country
in fighting Islamophobia
that we forget that we're also supposed to
be teaching the people the beauty of Islam
and offering them Islam as a way of
life for them as well.
Sometimes
we're so busy
in the work of decolonization
that we forget
that there's a community that we're supposed to
build as well.
And that's where the test comes in.
Once you throw off the shackles,
and alhamdulillah,
alhamdulillah,
alhamdulillah,
I want you to ask yourselves,
a month ago
how many of you would have believed the
news that you're seeing out of Bangladesh today?
How many of you would have thought that
this was possible?
The same people tell us
about Palestine,
that it's impossible,
that the
genocidal state of Israel is inevitable, that they've
demolished Gaza and that they're going to take
over the West Bank. Will
be free and all of Palestine will be
free and we, bayimillahi ta'ala, as a community.
As a community, if it's not us, our
kids will pray in Masjid Al Aqsa and
it will be free, bayimillahi ta'ala.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us,
Allah
subhanahu
wa ta'ala says
that they wish to extinguish the light of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with their mouths.
And bi afwahihim
is different bi suefihim.
It's different from their whips, and from their
swords, and from their government structures.
It's what they tell you through those structures
and the messages they give you through those
whips and through those police batons
that you will never overcome them. That Islam
will be crushed and suppressed.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you they
will run their mouths
and they will say,
that the people have gathered against you. And
sometimes even Muslims will inherit that type of
behavior and rhetoric,
And start to
say,
that people have gathered against us.
It's one thing when they say it to
us, it's another thing when we start to
say it to ourselves.
And Allah says and he will preserve his
light even if the disbelievers hate it.
Allah azzawajal turns your attention.
And
Allah
aza wa Jal goes on to say,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala turns the attention
from the fact that he will preserve his
light and he will not allow it to
be suppressed,
to calling upon you to saying how are
you going to sacrifice for this religion?
What are you going to do with the
opportunity that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala puts in
us in front of you?
'Isa alayhi salaam.
Allah mentions to us. And it's the last
mention
of 'Isa alayhi salaam chronologically
in the Quran. Powerful.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
You waladeenaamanukuna
ansarallallahu.
Oh you who believe, be helpers of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Like Isa alaihis salam said to his disciples,
who will be my supporters
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Who will be our helpers besides Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala?
Who will support the cause of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala?
Isa passing the baton.
Alaihi salaam. That's the last mention we have
of him in the Quran
as we're reading from start to finish.
And you know what dear brothers and sisters?
What's so powerful about that?
'Isa alaihis salam was speaking to a people
living under Roman occupation.
And 'Isa alaihis salam
was not just dealing with the corruption of
the Roman occupation, he was dealing with the
internal corruption of Bani Israel. And saying that
it's not just about lifting the Roman boots
off of our necks, it's about lifting the
poisons and the shackles from our hearts as
Bani Israel.
The same thing is true for us as
an ummah.
The same thing is true for the ummah
of Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
If you don't have to fight the kuffar
in Makkah, you have to fight the munafiqeen
in Madina.
And you have to remove from your hearts
and remove from your thoughts
this idea that only an external enemy exists,
and only a wall
needs to be torn down
that has been imposed against us, not the
ones that we build amongst ourselves.
If you look at the body of a
hadith
And one of my teachers, subhanallah, he shared
this. He said that if you were to
study the narrations
in hadith
where the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam talks
about the rights of the brother,
the rights of the
sister.
No one of you believes until he loves
for his brother what he loves for himself,
or he is not a believer who sleeps
full while his neighbor is hungry.
And all of these ahadith about the values
of society. If you study the narrators and
when these narrations were, they were an early
Madinah.
Because these are the values that give life
to a society.
These are the values that you build structures
with.
It wasn't just the akham,
the rulings,
and the scriptural
and textual
technicalities
that came in Al Madin al Munawara.
It was the values
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam brought forth
that you build societies upon.
You can't just focus on not being like
Makkah, not being like Quraish.
Who are you, oh Muslims?
Who are you, oh Ansar?
What are you going to build with the
opportunity?
What are you going to do in this
moment?
And we need to turn inwards
and look in our own communities.
SubhanAllah,
as we witness
in this
world full of oppression and tyranny,
Umar ibn Abdul Aziz
as
he assumed the Khalifa
and he had his moments,
he looked out
and instead
of puffing his chest out
like a man
who had just conquered the world even though
he had just been given the most powerful
post in the world,
he put his head down and he cried.
Because he said,
I swear by Allah that this world has
been filled with injustice.
And I have so much on my plate.
There's so much injustice
that I have to remove.
So much that we have to work towards.
And we have to shift our mindsets as
Muslims
about what it really means to usher in
an Islamic alternative,
an Islamic lifestyle,
an Islamic way of justice,
an Islamic way of governance,
an Islamic way of being.
Because I tell you what,
if the only thing you
do is you take corruption
and you throw some ayat of Quran on
it and put BismillahirRahmanir
Rahim on it, not only
have you not ushered in an Islamic alternative,
you have insulted the deen that you claim
to stand for.
If the only thing that you've done
is replace a tyrant
who is openly hostile to Islam
with a tyrant who wears the cloth of
Al Islam
but acts in the exact same way,
you have insulted the religion that you claim
to stand for.
We are not a people
of exteriors.
We're not a people of empty slogans. We're
not a people of banners. If I was
to ask you
to show me a banner
that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam carried
in Badr or in Uhud or in Khandaq
or in Fatiha Makkah.
No one of us
would be able to actually
reconstruct
what that banner looked like. We don't memorize
the slogans, but we remember the ethics of
the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
and the fundamental
change in society.
A non Muslim
who lived in Yathrib
and then lived in Madina, Madina to Nabi
salallahu alaihi wasalam,
would be able without knowing anything else to
tell you about the tangible differences of that
society.
Not just that instead of Abdullah ibn Ubay
bin Sirul, we have Muhammad ibn Abdullah Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
If a non Muslim
were to walk into Mecca
not caring about idol worship versus tawhid
and witness the interactions of the people
before and after Fatiha Makkah, they would be
able to tell you tangibly
something has changed about the society,
something is different.
That's what we have to work towards.
That's what we have to strive towards.
I repeat again,
it is just as important to see through
the euphoria of victory as it is to
see through
the despair under the darkness of oppression.
The people of Gaza
have clear eyes, clear vision.
The people of Bangladesh bidalaihi ta'ala, many of
them who sacrificed themselves for the moment that
we are in had clear vision.
Our prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had Basira,
had clear vision.
Let's not lose sight
of what the vision of American Muslims is
as well.
I leave you with this thought.
And I asked a few people recently in
a retreat.
I said, who remembers that great speech of
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
where he talked about why I am not
a sahir, why I am not
a fortune teller or a soothsayer,
why I am not a kazab, why I'm
not a liar,
why I'm not this, why I'm not that,
why I'm not a majnoon, why I'm not
a crazy man?
No one.
Because the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
refused to reinforce the discourse against him.
Refused
to play into the narrative against him. The
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam always knew how to
bring it back to message.
And instead of talking to them on their
terms,
the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wasallam focused
on his message and his mission.
I'm not just here to fight Islamophobia.
I'm here
to demonstrate the beauty of Islam.
I'm not just here so that you can
start to believe that Islam and Muslims are
acceptable,
that Islam is not the regressive
barbaric religion that it has been made out
to be. I am here
to show you that Islam is special
and that the value that it brings to
society
is greater than the value of anything else.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us