Omar Suleiman – Our Priorities as an Ummah
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Mr. Barrett began by praising Allah subhanaw taala by bearing witness that nun has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa Salam is his final messenger, we ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessing path until the day of judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them allow him I mean, the brothers and sisters this morning, I had extreme sadness over what many of you probably witnessed of the shamelessness of the Zionist occupation of Palestine, and
attacking the funeral of a Palestinian American Christian journalist, in fact, and probably facing no consequences for whatsoever from the powers that be but ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada of course, is greater and bigger. And Allah Subhana Allah to Allah is Swift in his accountability, and then before Juma, intense joy, with two sisters with Nikita, Anna, that will be embracing Islam today with us after a very long journey, after having tuned into much of what has happened from this masjid, for a very long time, and now being able to physically be present with us and to officially come into this religion and to come into this family. And it's sort of like that on a daily basis now, isn't it,
you have this roller coaster of emotions. And the feelings are certainly intense that you see intense injustice and then moments of intense joy. And in many ways, when we spoke about the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they were between moments of intense sadness and intense joy. There wasn't a dull moment in the spirit of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and all of them, forced us to take a step back and to ask ourselves, what should our priorities be as Muslims? And this is a deep question, a very deep question that has multi multiple facets to it. One of them is what cause of the Muslim should take our energy most, there are so many causes so many areas of
oppression, if I start to mention them, I will inevitably leave some of them out, and hence offend somebody. And I don't want to do that. But it's just that many people. It's that many causes. And the reality is that the blood of your brothers and sisters is sacred everywhere, it sanctified everywhere. And Allah subhanaw taala is not driven by the trends by the media by the proportionality of exposure, but rather, whoever saves one life, it is as if they have saved all of mankind, and whoever kills one person as if it is as if they have killed all of mankind, if it has done an injustice, and we see murder, murder, murder, injustice, injustice, injustice, and all of that can,
can really hurt and pull. And it's natural, that the causes that perhaps we can relate to due to some sort of personal experience or connection are the ones that are going to pull that our hearts more and of course, when it comes to Al Aqsa, and outside the first qibla of Islam, Jerusalem, Palestine, pulls more at the heart of the believer, and that is part of iman that's part of faith.
That's one layer of this, which costs How do we do a proper assessment of the needs of the Ummah and then have specialized efforts that we can support? And the other part of this is, of course, what parts of the religion should we be focused on right now? Should we even be talking about this or that? Should we have KOTTARAS and spiritual reflections when so much is happening of oppression? Should we be talking about Philip, should we be talking about jurisprudence and getting into some detail? Some people find that deeply offensive, you bring up certain issues that might be deemed minor. And people say you're talking about this when this is happening? Is there any truth to that
any way to actually peel that back and evaluate it?
And the answer is actually, yes. To an extent. I started with a very powerful narration because you can actually hear the emotional outrage in this narration from Abdullah Muhammad Ali Allahu taala, and humor. It's narrated by a man by the name he is a temporary of the ramen of Norman Rahim Allah. He says Quinto Shahidan living your Amaravati Allah Azza
wa sallahu Rajan and Daniel baru, he said I was with Ibn Amara, the Allahu Taala and Houma and someone asked him about the blood of the mosquito. What does he mean by that? When you go into the story, a man came to him and asked him about the the ruling. If you kill a mosquito on your clothes, or something of that sort. Is it going to nullify your will do is it going to nullify your purification for the prayer? And this is happening in a very charged environment? And even almost all the Allahu Taala and Hamas certain amendment as if he was bothered by the mace said, Where are you from? Parliament and Iraq. He said, I'm from Iraq. This is not an indictment of the people of
Iraq, but a very particular
situation by the way, in our model the Allahu Anhu might recognize something in this person that was in front of him. Carla Andro. Isla hada Yes. aronia and Daniel battled what could Cthulhu Edna Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Look at this man asking me about the blood of a mosquito. And he is from those that killed the son of the Prophet sallallahu. It was Saddam
Hussein or the Allahu taala. And you are amongst those that spilled the blood of an Hussein or the Allahu taala. And if the NABI sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in that he's his grandson. And you're here asking me about the blood of a mosquito on your clothes. And he said, and I heard was submitted to Nebia Sallalahu and he was sent me a call Huma Rihanna, Thai, I mean a dunya. They are my two sweet plants. Rehan is a plant, a basil that gives off a certain aroma. The prophets lie some said about it hasn't heard her say, may Allah be pleased with them, that they are like my two sweet plants of this world. By the way, before anyone says, where'd you get this from? It's actually in the body.
Because this is the end of the narration, a narration from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so phenomenal, the Allahu Taala and was looking at I'm home, I was looking at this man, like, where's this cognitive dissonance of yours. You could spill the blood of someone so beloved to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and that's what you're worried about. And of course, this was a trait at the time, the extremism of the time the Hermitage what these people would read Quran until their eyes, would would go dark. I mean, they would weep, they would not sleep, they would fast on a daily basis. And these same people were reading virtues of the family and companions of the Prophet
slice on them in that same Quran and they were killing them in the day and the Sahaba were perplexed by these people. How is it that you consider yourselves to be so religious, but you're so corrupt? Like how are you missing? The bigger picture here? And indeed, there was a problem. The Scholars say that there are two types of
Miss priority and prioritization here that ends up ruining the faith of the people. Number one is the most common one, which is AlLadhina ficolo becomes Avon fair to be ruined. Amata Chabahar minha. Tila, Al fitna, Baba Tila, tweedy, those who actually dig into the ambiguous the things that aren't as clear cut, and they go into these minor details to divert and to delude, to divert and to delude what does that mean they divert other people and they delude themselves how these are the people that say well the Quran is not very clear on this. The Sunnah I haven't read anything in the Quran and Sunnah. It's not very clear here. So I think this and this and that mashallah giving fatwas on
major issues of faith and creed, changing the religion right and left violating every principle of interpretation. Forget about the you know, any of Islam scholarly thought forget about a dramatic forget about consensus. Forget about Illuminati Medora forget about the things that are known by necessity. Forget about the Sunnah. Forget about all of it. Just like well, I read this I and this is how it speaks to me and this is how it's going to be because that's what my that's what I feel like right now. It will be him Zaid, like you're messing up yourself and you're messing up other people here. And you're starting to assign priorities to the religion and account to make haram
Halal in a way that suits you. That's one way, right? Have it your way, customize the religion the way that you want to have it so that you can assign priorities as you see fit based upon your own reading of the translation of the Quran. And you're done. Right? That's one way so it is to divert and to dilute and of course, Allah mentions that these people would end up ruining communities, right, but plug it in a WhatsApp group. And now you got a bunch of people that follow your fatwa. Even if you didn't call it a fatwa, that's essentially what it was. Divert and delude. The second group are those who get into minor details to distract and divide. This is a very interesting group
of people. They distract from major character flaws on an individual level and major corruption on the individual and societal level by focusing on some of the more minor points of the religion until they even get to the point of making the halal haram
is so religious, so religious, right? An individual this is again, this this quality, this characteristic, someone who, who's talking about the shortness of the throat but has a long tongue. Someone who's talking about rituals and talking about things that are a part of the everything of the Quran and Sunnah as part of the religion. We don't want to get any of it that's an extreme. Anything called Allah and kala solaz by some as part of the deen don't negate a moment of it. An Adam's worth of it. It's part of the religion, but you see someone living a very strict lifestyle and they're ignoring you know, just major character flaws and corruption. You sit with people that
are super religious and they backbiting gossip all day. They lie they slander
Are they? You know, they're arrogant, they have ego and you're like, what Diem is this. You're talking about the Sunnah. And your, your character resembles nothing of the profit slice. And I'm like, what religion is this? And people don't check them because it's a religious group. Right? So it's like the circle grows, the religious group grows, they're talking about things that are part of the deen. But they are elevating them to a point that they're distracting from major, major creedal things, major character things and excusing major corruption to the point that what they even get to the point of making the Haram or making the halal haram right Allah criticize people of the book in
this regard, right? That they even took things that were halal and made them haram. Why? By focusing on these things, they were able to distract from major things, excuse their own corruption and excuse the corruption of others around them. As it was convenient and divided the people along those issues that were not prioritized that way by the profit slice I'm in his community, but divide the community so that they don't focus on the major corruption amongst them, the major corruption amongst them and solving major issues amongst them. So how do you actually find a middle ground? Number one, the threshold of what is part of this religion is what comes from Allah and His
Messenger, some Allah audio some divine revelation.
Number two, the proportionality we should assign to these things is what the prophets like Selim used to assign to them in the early communities used to assign to them.
Number three, when religion becomes a tool for corruption, that is one that isn't the fact that's hypocrisy, that actually is at the core of hypocrisy at the core of the funk, when people start to use the religion to escape and divert. And so brother sister, I don't care what elements of the Sunnah you're practicing. The Sahaba saw a woman whom they said she used to pray all night, she used the fast every day. Totally Gianna, but what a nasty tongue she had. What a nasty tongue she had, but people excuse that right because this is the lady that praised the app. This is the lady that fast and the prophets lie Selim, the one who sunnah she was claiming to follow says lithography her
here for now, there is no good in that woman whatsoever. completely devoid of good May Allah protect us. She's only deluding herself and she's diluting the community. This is this is gaslighting, right gaslighting with the religion to a point that you have no religion inside of you. nasty character, nasty corruption. You know, people that can talk about these these things, small things within the religion, and even exceed and spirituality. But then they have nothing to say about oppression and corruption and in fact, become parts of it as well. You come into this message if you come five times a day.
But your neighbors can't stand you you're abusive to your family. You're someone who can't be trusted in your business. You're someone who has absolutely no moral consistency when it comes to the situation of oppression around you, wherever it may be. What makes you different from the religious hypocrisy that we see in other religions that's present around us so often.
It's not part of our deen. Now, I want to end with a good example.
A good example, the man had been put down I'll knock the see Rahim Allah to Allah, very unique scholar in Islam, one of the greatest scholars in Islamic history. Even for them, I'll mark the sea and mark the sea meaning from the baits and muftis. He was actually from Palestine from the area of Nablus. So from the Holy Land, one of the greatest scholars that this religion has ever seen. A person who wrote books in the in the School of Imam Muhammad Rahim Allah to Allah and Rhonda and Kathy and McNair and mockney some of the most amazing books and, you know, books on Islamic law that other schools of thought used because of his fairness, his fairness and how he represented other
schools in the Ummah other scholars in the OMA a person who was loved across the tradition, because he was such a noble man, he did not do what other people would do with their schools of thought and with their teachers. He actually did not impugn other scholars and other teachers and other schools of thought he admired them to the point that something unprecedented happened with him, which is that scholars from other schools used his books to explain their schools. It was never I mean, that was unheard of in Islamic history because of how fair he was what a noble man he was great character, the most possibly the most knowledgeable scholar of his time.
And subhanAllah this was a man that wrote in the details of the details of Islamic law and legal theory, but you know, whose time he lived in Salah Medina UB
Rahim Allah to Allah, the great Reviver the great leader, Salahuddin and even Kodama Rahim Allah at that point was in Damascus when it wasn't a sham legalistically as differences with Salahuddin, by the way, Salah
Dean is a Shafi Ashati he is a humbly fit there are schools of thought there are different schools of thought but they're Muslims and Jerusalem is under occupation. Palestine is under occupation Muslim blood is being spilled right and left. What does he do when that innocent blood is being spilled right and left he goes and he joins him, fights under him, follows his lead, writes in praise of him, and he happened to be there with him. On the day that Salahuddin liberated Jerusalem, may Allah subhana wa liberate it once again, Allah him I mean, he was with him. And this was a sight for people like wait, what?
Here you have a man that's writing about the fifth of law Bahara the small details not in a way that he makes haram hallander Halal haram but in a way that gives us a legacy of Islamic legalistic work spirituality. And at the same time, you recognize that there was a priority at the time that I can't ignore everything. In lieu of these books. Dear Brothers and Sisters, when we see what's happening around us, it is all part of our faith and spirituality. You don't say well, we're in the masjid. Now let's just talk about you know, cuyama land and salon. See, I'm gonna ignore the fact that this humiliation is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world that there is oppression all
around us, even at our own border over here. That's hypocrisy. What type of deen is that? And at the same time, we don't use the issues around us to excuse neglect of the deen neglect of the religion and say none of that is important right now, how could you be giving the ultimate about the AMOLED? How could you be talking about spirituality? Because you know what the Sahaba understood
that it could be that man in the corner, that woman in the corner that's making dua that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada gives us victory through.
It could be that person who is chipping away relentlessly with a good effort to and some sort of oppression, championing a cause keeping it on the radar of people organizing people in a way that is righteous, Allah subhanaw taala and it opens up things on their hand. You don't know where the fight is going to come. As we talked about an agility Rahim Allah when he said, you know, a great Muslim General was asking about his troops. And he asked about a particular man, and he said he's in the corner and he said, as long as his fingers up going like that Allah as long as he's making sure that's what I need from him, you go do that. We don't impugn the efforts of Dean. We don't impugn
the efforts of people and collective work for the deen. We bring it all together. And we keep what Allah and the messenger salaam salaam kept ahead of us at all times. And we do not become divided along small issues to excuse the corruption, the corruption that is apparent within our own Ummah, that continues to allow for these transgressions to happen from within and from without May Allah subhanaw taala guide us guide our hearts guide our thinking, guide our efforts unite us for that which is pleasing to Him and forgive us when we indulge in that which is displeasing to Him even when we delude ourselves into thinking that it is pleasing to Him Allahumma Amina portofolio that
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