Omar Suleiman – Feeling Defeated Due To Gruesome Images
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I think that I speak for
the majority of us, subhanAllah, that when you
see
the images that come out of Gaza, particularly
Rafah right now. May
Allah make it easy for them and give
them victory. Accept their dead as shuhada, cure
their wounded and grant them safety and tranquility.
Allahum Amin.
Sometimes
the imagery
produces a certain type of shutdown, emotional shutdown,
that it's very hard for us to psychologically
get over that. And it has the impact,
the effect of perhaps
diminishing our efforts
or diminishing our du'a.
And so if you think about the range
of emotions that get produced, when you see
people torn up into pieces, when you see
the meat of human beings
trying to be identified, put into grocery bags,
SubhanAllah, things that we're just not accustomed to
seeing. When you think about the range of
emotions that it produces,
it actually helps you understand first and foremost,
the hikmah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
that he forbade something
that was very specific and it was a
practice of war back then and it has
always been a practice of war, which is
to desecrate the bodies as a means of
psychologically breaking down your enemies, to crucify
or to desecrate the bodies or to make
an example out of them as a means
of breaking down your enemy's psychology.
That is something that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam particularly prohibited. And there's a wisdom
to that that's very obvious
that it contradicts everything about the rahmah of
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, about the
mercy of the messenger salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But what about when it's done to us?
And so I wanted to kind of analyze
through the sila of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam how he taught the companions to
deal with gruesome imagery that was right in
front of them.
And sometimes it just means analyzing some of
the very specific incidents of the Sirah that
we're already familiar with, but through that particular
lens. So for example,
when you hear about Sumayyah radiAllahu ta'ala Anha
and the means by which Abu Jahl martyred
her.
Right. It's a very nasty form of literally
tearing through her body,
right, with a spear through her midsection.
Someone has to pick up the pieces,
right, and has to sort of come to
terms with that. And you can imagine the
specific task to the faith
of those that have to put the pieces
back together,
right, of the first martyrs of Islam and
what that can do to someone and how
that can shut someone off.
And SubhanAllah,
one of those incidents, and I start with
this for a reason,
is the incident of Khabab ibn al Arat
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu himself because Khabab himself was
a victim
of a heinous crime,
which made it very hard to look at
him.
And that is that everywhere from the back
of his head all the way down
to his lower back, the skin was completely
burned off.
It was completely melted off.
Why? Because his master used to torture him
in Islam by taking burning hot coal, and
she would run it down the back of
his head all the way down his neck,
all the way through his back to where
if you looked at him, it immediately struck
you.
Now imagine the people looking at Habab
and imagine Habab himself. Now consider the hadith
that is very well known
in the in regards to the subject that
we are discussing
today.
And that is the very famous hadith that
habab says that we complain to the Messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
and we said to him, Allah tastansur lana,
Allah tadru lana. Will you not seek victory
for us? Will you not make du'a for
us?
Will you
not ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to hurry
up and conclude this affair for us? It's
getting too much for us, it's getting too
difficult for us, And look at what's happened
to me,
and look at what's happening
to my brothers, my sisters, from the most
alaafiem, from the weak ones of Mecca, the
slaves of Mecca, who were getting the brunt
of it because they had no way to
protect themselves in this moment.
And what did the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
do?
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
spoke directly to
the root of the matter,
which was that the imagery
can blur perspective.
The imagery and the pain
can blur the ultimate reward that you are
seeking.
And he said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam immediately.
He said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that before you,
there used to be
a people
where a man would be put in the
ground and buried half way. He's gonna give
you a very specific image Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Can you imagine the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said that the practice of this people
was that when someone would become Muslim,
they would bury them halfway in the ground
and they would slice them into 2. And
the ulama said, this way and this way
as a means of making an example out
of them. Meaning what? That there was a
group of believers that came before you that
lived a very difficult time.
And can you imagine the psychological torture of
seeing their brothers and seeing their sisters sliced
into 2? And he said, sallallahu alaihi wasallam
why you must shout will be Imsha'atil hadeed
madoonalahmihee
wa'avmihee.
And he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam that they
would bring,
these combs of iron
and they would be on fire, and they
would comb off the meat of people.
So that the only thing that would be
left were the bones of these people. Subhanallah,
this is gruesome imagery that the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam is saying, meaning this is not
new. What you are going through is not
new. People before you have lived these very
gruesome times. And he said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
And none of that would be enough to
turn these people away from their religion.
None of that would turn turn them away
from Al Islam.
But here's what's very interesting.
There is a range of emotions that habab
is speaking to.
It's anger, why is this happening to us,
and we wanna be able to do something
back to them. It is frustration,
right? That when is the nastr of Allah
going to come?
There's there's a range of emotions. There's despair
that could come as a result of that
as well. Right? That are we are we
ever gonna get out of this?
And what did the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
choose to speak to? He said sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam Wallahi,
la yutimannahadalamrihata
yaseerahu
akibuminsalaha
He said, sallallahu alayhi wasalam, I swear by
Allah, Allah will see this matter through.
Meaning at the time where victory seems most
unlikely, I swear by Allah, Allah will see
this matter through for the community,
for the Ummah.
To the point that a person will be
able to ride from sunnah to hadramot. May
Allah bless our brothers and sisters in Yemen,
allahma ameen. From Hadra to San'a from from
San'a to Hadrumot.
Only fearing Allah and perhaps that maybe a
wolf would attack their sheep.
What is the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam speaking
to?
Fear.
In Makkah, you had to look over your
shoulder because these people were crazy. They spared
none of the mostadrafin.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is saying
there will come a time where not only
will you not fear
the effect of the, you know, fear in
your own vicinity, but a person will be
able to travel wide slots of the Ummah
in complete safety,
fearing no one but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But he said Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
You're too
hasty. Be patient with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Someone says, you know, when? It's been this
many days, the months are going on.
When, when, when,
if Khabab could hear from the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam, walakinna kumtastajiloon
Don't be hasty with your Lord. Who are
we to become hasty with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala? So I wanted to start with this
hadith for a reason that the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam in his hikmah always spoke
to the roots. And for us today,
I think that I speak for everyone when
I say also that when something is out
of sight, it's easier to reason with it.
Meaning, if you did not see what was
happening in the ghazah today, if you didn't
have the imagery of it, but you knew
the facts on the ground, then maybe it
wouldn't be as paralyzing, right? Maybe it wouldn't
be as paralyzing. You'd be able to be
a little bit more rational, a look, you
know, you'd be able to maybe analyze the
facts, look at the political winds, see the
light at the end of the tunnel. But
when you're looking at it,
fear,
anger, rage,
despair, all of those things can sit sit
in. And there could be a fear that
there won't be victory for the community
and that the individual will not be paid
back in the way that they should be
paid back. This was never more apparent
than in Uhud
and I wanna take you through some of
those scenes in Uhud
because wallahi this hadith I thought of in
particular. Anas ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu describes
his uncle Anas ibn Nada radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu
who ran towards the battlefield on the day
of Uhud. And he saw Sa'd ibn Mu'adh
fleeing
or or leaving the battlefield, and he said,
inmi ajiduriha jannah.
Where are you going, O Saad? I can
smell Jannah coming from Uhud.
Famala
fakutira and he dove into the battlefield RadiAllahu
ta'ala Anhu and he was killed. Now look
at the rest of the hadith,
SubhanAllah.
Because it gives you perspective.
He said,
When they were trying to identify the bodies
of the people of Uhud,
they couldn't figure out who this was
because of how badly he was murdered, because
of how badly his body was desecrated.
Until his sister
was able to identify him by his fingertips,
or by a mole on his body.
SubhanAllah,
think about that. So when you see the
scenes of unidentifiable
human beings, the Sahaba lived this. Rasool Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam lived this with his companions,
where people were completely desecrated top to bottom,
where nothing was apparent of who they were
to where you'd have to look at the
fingertips and find someone who was most intimate
with that person to be able to tell
who this person is in the same moment.
They go around and there's a hikmah from
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam which is the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was trying to stop
some of the loved ones from seeing their
family members in that state. It's also hikmah,
it's also wisdom and it's also mercy.
Jabir ibn Abdullah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who says,
My father was brought forth on the day
of Uhud and his body was made an
example of they chopped off they they cut
off his nose, they they poked his eyes,
they did things to his face,
but they they wiped him. Right. He was
one of the chiefs of Madinah.
And my people stopped me as they should,
right? To not go and see my father
in that state because what's what good is
gonna come out of seeing your father in
that state?
And he said,
but at that point when he was eventually
seen,
that there was this loud voice that came
out.
A woman shouted
and it was his mother or his, I'm
sorry his sister or his daughter. His sister
or his daughter. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
asked who is that?
And he said it's his sister
or his daughter. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
responded, he said,
So I swear by Allah that the angels
have shaded him with their wings
until he was raised up.
Is the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam just giving
generic advice? Is he just, you know, throwing
something out there that might land with her?
Is the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam speaking
again
to the root of the problem.
You see what you see.
You see a body that is missing some
of its natural parts. I see an extension
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given to
it.
You see Ja'far without arms, I see him
with the wings flying around Jannah.
You see your father laying on the ground,
the blood flowing and seeping into the ground
barely recognizable.
I see a man that is ascending to
the heavens with the angels
shading him.
How do we deal with this dear brothers
and sisters?
SubhanAllah,
there's a divine scheme
and there is a wisdom to how we
approach the divine scheme.
And it comes down to 2 things,
time and valma.
The hereafter is better and everlasting.
Time and value.
And the reward of the hereafter
is better and longer lasting. Meaning anytime we
are struck with a situation like this, if
we're struck with a pain in this world,
we remember that it is a limited time
and that the reward from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will be greater than the pain that
was felt here. When we face some sort
of a worldly trial, we remember how temporary
it is.
When the body is devastated,
we remember that the soul
will go on
and that what happens to the body
is limited whereas what the soul is rewarded
with is greater.
And so how do we deal with all
of these situations? It is a consistent
methodology from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
that something has to be better than this
in order to deal with what's immediate in
front of us.
This isn't
it. You are seeing
with a very particular lens,
but this is not it. And every single
time we see a body that is desecrated,
we have to remember that. And every single
time we see someone who seems unrecognizable, we
have to remember that.
What would the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had
said to us if he was walking around
the way he did in Uhud, if he
was walking around Ghazah and he was comforting
those families? He would have reminded them Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
that this is not it.
That what has happened to them is temporary
and limited.
And the reward of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is comprehensive
and forever,
everlasting.
But with that being said,
and I wanna come to this.
At the end of the day,
we're all human,
we're all human
And the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam lost someone
so beloved to him on that day Hamzah
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and we know how Hamza
was desecrated RadhiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. And the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he told Zubayr to stop Safiyyah
bint Abdul Mutarib, the sister of Hamza from
coming forward because he knew that if Safiyyah
saw the body of Hamza, that it was
going to be absolutely devastating to her. So
even though the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is
in his pain, standing over the body of
Hamza radiAllahu anhu, he says, go stop your
mom.
And she wouldn't stop until Az Zubayr said
that the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam orders you
to stop.
Otherwise, if it was just her son, she
kept on walking towards the body of Hamzalallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. Now with the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam. One of the things, one of the
athaar that's narrated from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam is as he was standing over hamza
radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, you'll find it in the
books of Sira that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam
said, I will mutilate 70 of them in
your place.
It's one of the things that we find
in the books of Sira. Now again, hadith
methodology
is a little more stringent. In fact, a
lot more stringent than the books of Sira
because they say that an ayah came down
after this. Now whether the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam said these exact words or not, you
can imagine the sentiments,
right? That what was done to us, we
will do to them. However,
what is more authentically narrated in the books
of hadith about the ayah
that they say is related to this because
we don't find, you know, a particular narration
that completely checks out in terms of authenticity
tracing back to the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
even though we know the anger and the
hurt of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam that
day is indeed what Ubayy ibn Kab radiAllahu
anhu narrated.
That when the Sahaba finished picking up the
pieces,
they looked around
and they said to themselves,
That if we have a day upon them
like they had upon us, we will show
them
what they showed to us. We're going to
double it.
We will do to them what they did
to us. We will mutilate them like they
mutilated us. We will do to their bodies
what they did to our bodies.
And then guess what?
That day came
and that day was
the day of Fatih Makkah.
And you know, when you've been through something
like that, you don't forget.
For a person who would have lost his
loved one in Uhud in that brutal way,
walking into Mecca now and having these people
at his mercy,
Uhud is like yesterday, it's not years ago.
It's not a decade ago, it's yesterday,
right? This is the day I was waiting
for to do to you
what you did to my loved one,
to put you to the sword the way
you put my loved one to the sword,
to wipe your body, to do to your
face. I mean SubhanAllah, it's human to think
that way, it's human to feel that way.
And this hadith is authentic.
This is where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala revealed
on the day of Fatih Makkah, wa innaqabatum
fa'aqibbu mimithlima'aqibtum
bihi. Wala insabartum lahuwakayrunasambri.
That if
you are struck,
if you have been punished or if you
punish them, then punish them with exactly what
you were punished with. But if you show
patience and in this Ayah here, patience means
grace.
Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has certainly prepared
a better reward for those who are patient.
Meaning Allah azza wa Jal is telling them
on that day when they have that power,
that they swore that they would one day
take revenge.
Don't do it.
The reward with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
better.
And Ubayd radiAllahu anhu continues in this narration
he says,
There was a man who said there's not
going to be any Quraysh after today. Quraysh
is done. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said,
Leave them except for 4 and we've already
talked about who those 4 are in the
first. Leave them except for 4.
So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not
do this
nor did he allow the companions to do
this. And of the instructions, SubhanAllah that we
find in authentic hadith that the Prophet SallAllahu
Alaihi Wasallam would give to an army when
he dispatched them, he would say SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam
la toumathiloo,
walataghdiroo,
walataghulu,
walataktuluwaleedah.
He said sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he
would send out a military dispatchment. Do not
mutilate.
Do not mutilate. It's not who we are.
We don't mutilate people's bodies. We hate when
it's done to us.
It's disgusting.
And the first thing you tell yourself when
you say Volm is, may Allah protect me
from becoming a Valim like that. Alhamdulillah, we're
not the shayateen
that we see on the other side. Alhamdulillah,
we're not these people because
these people on the day of judgment are
gonna have a long eternity.
They're not gonna be dancing on TikTok on
the day of judgment.
They have a long
eternity ahead of them of punishment and may
Allah allow us to see that punishment with
our own two eyes.
But may Allah protect us from ever becoming
that evil. How sick,
how evil. May Allah protect us from ever
inheriting that evil or ingesting that evil ourselves.
So the first thing he would say sallaihi
wa sallam is don't mutilate then don't be
treacherous.
SubhanAllah, we see the lies, the treachery,
the ceasefire
agreement.
We see the treachery, constant treachery, the lies,
the treachery. Don't be treacherous.
And he said, Sallisan, don't steal from the
spoils of war. And he said, and don't
kill a child.
These are our ethics as Muslims.
This is who we are.
So dear brothers and sisters,
in conclusion once again,
does it feel like you wanna shut down
when you see the bodies being mutilated?
Absolutely.
But you remind yourself,
this is temporary,
this is limited.
What Allah has promised is forever
and what Allah has promised is better.
As for the Ummah,
that's where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
Layutimannahadal
amri
Allah will see this affair through. Some of
you saw that I got to meet brother
Waal ad Dhanu.
I could do a tafsir of that entire
lesson of 2 hours. I'll just tell you
this, SubhanAllah.
He didn't say a word of complaints and
what he said, he said Alhamdulillah
Allah chose us to be one of the
Asbaab of his Nasr.
One of the means by which he brings
victory insha'Allah. And even if I don't live
to see that victory, I know that my
entire family was chosen to be
One means of the means of victory. May
Allah make us of the means of victory
and may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala not deprive
us of the reward. And may Allah never
allow us to be paralyzed by what we
see in front of us and may Allah
allow us to be focused
on what we believe is ahead of us.