Omar Suleiman – How Do I Stand Against Evil When ItS Mainstream

Omar Suleiman
Share Page

AI: Summary ©

The speaker discusses the importance of affirming the reward of sticking to the truth during difficult times. They stress that people should embrace the challenge by knowing the reward and learning the reward. The speaker also discusses the impact of COVID-19 on people's faith inquiry and how it has changed people's views of Islam.

AI: Summary ©

00:00:00 --> 00:00:01
			So one of the questions,
		
00:00:01 --> 00:00:02
			raised,
		
00:00:02 --> 00:00:05
			is asking, so what do you do when
		
00:00:05 --> 00:00:06
			evil is a mainstream,
		
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10
			basically flavor of the day?
		
00:00:10 --> 00:00:12
			It's everywhere. You see it everywhere. You try
		
00:00:12 --> 00:00:16
			and combat it, but it's so prevalent that
		
00:00:16 --> 00:00:16
			it's difficult,
		
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20
			to actually try and stand up against it.
		
00:00:24 --> 00:00:25
			You know,
		
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28
			you have to think of the greater incentive.
		
00:00:40 --> 00:00:43
			Allah says those who embrace the message early
		
00:00:43 --> 00:00:44
			on, who
		
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46
			struggled, who strove, who spent
		
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48
			blood, sweat, and tears, and wealth,
		
00:00:49 --> 00:00:50
			at a time when it was unpopular,
		
00:00:51 --> 00:00:52
			are not like those who came afterwards.
		
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56
			Everyone has their individual reward, but those who
		
00:00:56 --> 00:00:56
			struggle
		
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59
			when it is most inconvenient, those who uphold
		
00:00:59 --> 00:01:00
			truth,
		
00:01:00 --> 00:01:03
			when it is most inconvenient to uphold truth,
		
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05
			are those who are rewarded the most. And
		
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07
			so, as people,
		
00:01:07 --> 00:01:09
			we have to embrace the challenge
		
00:01:10 --> 00:01:10
			by
		
00:01:11 --> 00:01:12
			affirming the reward.
		
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15
			What's the reward of sticking to the truth?
		
00:01:18 --> 00:01:19
			If you're the only person doing so.
		
00:01:20 --> 00:01:21
			That means that just as you affirm the
		
00:01:21 --> 00:01:23
			truth, even if you are alone, you will
		
00:01:23 --> 00:01:26
			be rewarded in an exclusionary and special manner
		
00:01:26 --> 00:01:27
			on the day of judgement.
		
00:01:28 --> 00:01:30
			Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will reward you accordingly.
		
00:01:31 --> 00:01:32
			And so you have to think about the
		
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35
			reward of it. Now here's the thing, many
		
00:01:35 --> 00:01:36
			people
		
00:01:37 --> 00:01:37
			prefer
		
00:01:38 --> 00:01:39
			comfortable ignorance
		
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42
			over uncomfortable clarity.
		
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46
			Comfortable ignorance over uncomfortable clarity. I'd rather not
		
00:01:46 --> 00:01:47
			know. It's like when someone asks me a
		
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49
			question, Is this Haram Sheikh? And if I
		
00:01:49 --> 00:01:50
			say it's Haram, just have to be like,
		
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52
			do you want me to really answer that
		
00:01:52 --> 00:01:53
			question?
		
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55
			If I tell you it's Haram, are you
		
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57
			actually going to abide by it? Or are
		
00:01:57 --> 00:01:58
			you just going to go find another Sheikh
		
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00
			and ask him, Until you get the answer
		
00:02:00 --> 00:02:01
			that you're looking for.
		
00:02:02 --> 00:02:03
			Right? So a lot of people will be
		
00:02:03 --> 00:02:06
			like, I don't want to know what's actually
		
00:02:06 --> 00:02:08
			impermissible or what's permissible because it it might
		
00:02:08 --> 00:02:09
			be an inconvenience
		
00:02:09 --> 00:02:10
			for me. I'd rather
		
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12
			instead go with the mainstream.
		
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14
			The majority of people want to go with
		
00:02:14 --> 00:02:15
			the majority,
		
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18
			but we as believers want to be from
		
00:02:19 --> 00:02:20
			Al Khalil, from the few.
		
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23
			When Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was walking around
		
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25
			the cabin, he heard a man making dua,
		
00:02:25 --> 00:02:28
			Allahumma jalim minalqaleeb. Oh Allah, make me from
		
00:02:28 --> 00:02:29
			the few. So what kind of dua is
		
00:02:29 --> 00:02:29
			this?
		
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32
			He said that, doesn't Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
		
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33
			say,
		
00:02:34 --> 00:02:35
			Only a few of my servants are gonna
		
00:02:35 --> 00:02:36
			be grateful.
		
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38
			And he said, SubhanAllah. Everyone is
		
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41
			more knowledgeable than Umar. Everybody gets it but
		
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44
			me. Right? What a beautiful answer. So we
		
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45
			take
		
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47
			pride, not kibr. Pride
		
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50
			in being amongst the few who are grateful,
		
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52
			who are humble, who are
		
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54
			pursuing the truth, and seeking to be sincere,
		
00:02:54 --> 00:02:56
			and seeking to be fast, and we're humbled
		
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58
			by that reality that Allah has made it
		
00:02:58 --> 00:02:59
			clear to us even when
		
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02
			there are many many ways
		
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05
			of misguidance, and there's an incentive
		
00:03:05 --> 00:03:06
			to follow
		
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09
			erroneous ways of error around us. So
		
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13
			embrace the challenge by knowing the reward. Embrace
		
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15
			the challenge by knowing the reward. And know,
		
00:03:15 --> 00:03:16
			by the way, that when you stick to
		
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18
			the truth, despite the difficult storm,
		
00:03:18 --> 00:03:21
			eventually you'll find other truth seekers that will
		
00:03:21 --> 00:03:22
			join you in your cause. This is the
		
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23
			sunnah of Allah
		
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27
			It starts off really really really hard and
		
00:03:27 --> 00:03:27
			eventually
		
00:03:28 --> 00:03:30
			the mainstream is impacted by you.
		
00:03:31 --> 00:03:33
			Because you refused to succumb
		
00:03:33 --> 00:03:34
			to the mainstream.
		
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37
			Eventually, people will search what is real. I'll
		
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39
			share this mamhallah with covid. So we saw
		
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42
			2 waves of people embracing Islam. Covid and
		
00:03:42 --> 00:03:43
			Gaza.
		
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44
			Covid and razzah.
		
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46
			At Yaqeen Institute, we actually study
		
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49
			inquiries of faith. We actually look online. We
		
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51
			do data studies as to what are searching
		
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53
			about religion, what people are searching about faith,
		
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55
			what people are searching about Islam.
		
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58
			We saw the inquiries completely change in 2020.
		
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01
			It went from very Islamophobic
		
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04
			questions, to people actually asking, Is Islam a
		
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07
			solution to my seclusion? To my loneliness? To
		
00:04:07 --> 00:04:07
			my emptiness?
		
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11
			People stopped looking at Islam with suspicion. They
		
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13
			started looking at it as a possible solution.
		
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15
			Faith inquiry changed. Because at the end of
		
00:04:15 --> 00:04:18
			the day, when I needed something real to
		
00:04:18 --> 00:04:19
			to lean on,
		
00:04:20 --> 00:04:21
			I wasn't finding it fulfilling
		
00:04:22 --> 00:04:24
			in any other product.
		
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27
			Islam offers me something that I can actually
		
00:04:27 --> 00:04:28
			lean on, that I can find meaning on.
		
00:04:28 --> 00:04:31
			It's not polemical. It's purposeful. It's something that
		
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34
			I can actually find nourishment in. At the
		
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36
			end of the day, when people face real
		
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38
			challenges, they're going to look for real solutions.
		
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40
			And they will find that Islam, the truth,
		
00:04:40 --> 00:04:43
			despite all of its inconveniences offers clarity.
		
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46
			And in that clarity there's conviction. And in
		
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47
			that conviction,
		
00:04:48 --> 00:04:49
			there's the comfort of knowing that you are
		
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51
			upon the side which Allah
		
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54
			will favor. May Allah make us a people
		
00:04:54 --> 00:04:55
			who are not deluded, and make us a
		
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57
			people who are sincerely upon truth.