Omar Suleiman – Resistance In Exile From Hijra To Nakba
AI: Summary ©
The holy land of Mecca is a hubris that connects people to it, and is linked to a culture of worship. It is a love for the holy land, not just a homeland, and is a act of worship. Visitors are encouraged to be rewarded for their actions, as it is a act of worship. Visitors are encouraged to be a positive person and be a positive person in life.
AI: Summary ©
We begin by praising Allah
and bearing witness that none has the right
to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for
him. And we bear witness that Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam 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 blessed
path until the day of judgment, and we
ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahum
Aamin.
Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to
imagine with me the scene of Hudaybiyah.
If you were to pop into the scene
and you were to see the Prophet
coming out and speaking to a group of
about 1400 of his companions.
And these were a people that would put
their lives on the line for the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
These were the people who mastered and manifested
Samirna wa'ata'na, we hear and we obey.
These were the people
who loved the prophet
more than they loved their own selves.
And in that moment
where they are all in their ihram and
ready to enter into Mecca
because it seems like the time is right,
what more validation
do you need? The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam had a dream.
It's coming.
We're on our way to Mecca.
Surely we will enter it. Hudaybiyah is a
stone's throw away. We're almost there, so much
closer to Mecca than we are Madinah.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam comes out
and says
that we've made a truce
and that we're going to come back
next year. We're going to turn back to
Madinah
and come back next year. So go ahead
and exit out of your ihram,
and nobody
moves.
Think about it.
1400 people,
loving companions of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi, sallam,
and they don't move.
And they are so
hurt
that they will not be able to return
to Mecca.
But here's the point that I actually want
to seize for a moment.
We are entering into now 76 years of
what is called the Nakba,
76 years from the day that the illegal
state of Israel was established on occupied Palestinian
land,
that 750,000
people were driven out,
and the consumption of territory has never stopped
nor the theft of Palestinian lives.
And I want you to think about
these people now who have been out for
almost a decade,
but here's what makes this so interesting.
You would think that all 1400
of them were Maqui or Maqawi. You would
think that they were from Mecca.
The reality is that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, when he made the Hijra, only made
the Hijra with about a 100 or so
people.
These were not Meccans
that wanted to enter into Mecca so badly
and that loved it and desired it so
much.
But you would think they were
because the love that they had for Mecca,
even though they were almost all Ansar, I
mean,
over 90% of them, just by simple math,
were over
or were amongst the Ansar, were amongst the
people of Medina,
by looking at them, you would think Mecca
was their homeland.
But the love of a holy land
is different than the love of a homeland.
The love of a holy land is different
than the love of a homeland.
Why did they have that desire? Two reasons.
Number 1, because of all that the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam had taught them about the
virtues of Mecca. We received your refugees. We
received the Muhajid.
We received your migrants.
We were all together, and we have heard
the virtues
of Mecca come down in the Quran. It
is our qiblah. We face it when we
pray. We know the stories of Mecca from
those who came from Mecca. Mecca has been
embedded in us at this point,
even though we're not Meqi in our nature,
and salAllahu alaihi wa
sallam, taught us so much about Mecca. We
faced it in prayer, and we know its
great virtues.
Number 2,
because no one of you believes until he
loves for his brother what he loves for
himself.
And these Ansar that took in these
and the greatest
the greatest migrant being the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam himself,
they loved for their brother what they love
for themselves. In fact, they even love for
their brother more than what they love for
themselves.
And so I know how bad
my
brother, my sister wants to go home.
I know that the memories and the trauma
and what they have been put through when
they were driven out in that Hijra has
left a bitter taste in their mouths
and has left a longing in their hearts.
And I love it for them as if
I loved it for myself.
There's also an element of that.
When you look at the similarities between the
hijrah and the nakba,
The similarities are uncanny.
You can find them from the very start
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
his companions
being driven out of their homeland.
How do you preserve
a love for a place in a people
that have been exiled?
And then how do you teach
a people that are not even from that
place
to make that place the home of their
hearts? How do you do that? How do
you cultivate
that sense of a connection? How do you
cultivate that resilience?
How do you cultivate that resistance?
And what's the end game here? What comes
as a result of that?
There is a cultural element,
and there is an element of hubulwatin, of
loving your place, loving your homeland. We know
the prophet
when he left Mecca, he loved Mecca. He
spoke to Mecca. He wanted to go back
to Mecca. He said that you are the
most beloved of land to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and the most beloved of land to
me.
We know that when Bilal
was expelled.
And who is Bilal to love Mecca with
all the trauma that was inflicted on him
by Mecca?
But Aisha mentions
Bilal
and he is
laying down sick,
homesick
from Mecca,
and he says,
These words would mean nothing to someone in
Madinah.
Absolutely nothing to someone in Madinah.
Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, oh, how I
long for the day that I could one
day spend the night once again in the
valley and be surrounded by the Ithkir and
the jaleel which are the 2 types of
grass
that occasionally come out
in the mountains of Mecca. And if you've
seen Mecca, it's not that pretty
in terms of its mountains and in terms
of its nature. But he's remembering the very
specific forms of growth, and he's having memories
of his homeland because even though he was
a slave there, he still loved it.
He still had a connection
to that place.
And he starts to say, and I wish
that I could one day drink the water
once again of Majinah, of the spring of
Majinah. And if only I could see Shama
and Tafilu once again, the mountains of Mecca
once again. He's remembering the specifics, and that's
part of preservation, by the way.
That's part of preservation.
How beautiful
that most Muslim kids in the world could
draw Palestine
on the map as it should be.
And that we don't say Tel Aviv and
Hebron. We say Yafa and Akkah, and we
mention all of the names, Khalil, and we
go through the names of the cities,
the culture has not only been preserved of
Palestine,
but there is a love that people have
for its culture that have never even been
there and that know certain elements of its
dress. You go to the graduations around
and you see people wearing the embroidery
of Palestine. Why is that? You see the
kafias. You see it all preserved
Because it's more than just the Bilal that
was expelled now.
It's transferred in that regard. But a Muslim's
love for a holy land is not like
a person's love for their homeland alone. There's
an element of that that's being preserved here.
A human element. Yes. The one who lived
there and was expelled is naturally going to
have a greater love. But how did Allah,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and how did the messenger
cultivate a different love? What unites Mecca and
Jerusalem in this regard is that they are
both holy lands.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam mentioned that to
Shudur Rihal,
that journeys, pilgrimages should not be undertaken except
to 3 masjids,
Mecca and Medina and Al Aqsa.
The prophet
put inside of you.
Go to it and pray in it if
you can. You know what that means? That
means it's an act of worship for you
to formulate the intention to say that I
will pray in Masjid Al Aqsa insha'Allah.
That's a niyyah. That's an intention. That's an
act of worship that you formulate
that I will pray there. And if I
can't pray there, then I will put oil
in its lamps. I will connect myself to
it. But there is holy land, not just
a homeland. There's something different to it that
connects you to it.
And so you formulate that intention.
One of the beauties and the wisdom of
how Allah brought then
the Holy Land of Mecca, Al Masl Haram,
to the people of Madinah
is that as you long for its reward
and even though you can no longer go
to Masjid Al Haram and pray in Makkah,
you go to Masjid Al Quba
and you pray 2 rakas and Allah will
write down for you the reward as if
you went and you did Umrah.
Bringing Mecca
to the Ansar and the Muhajireen.
Of course, this is only one of the
benefits of that.
But the point is,
is that by the end of the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam's decade in Mecca,
the Ansar were more Maqi than Quraish in
Mecca.
They had a greater attachment to that place
than Quraish in Mecca did. And this is
how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala turns around the
days.
I asked you to step into Hudaybiyah for
a moment
and to look at 1400 people.
At least a 1000 of them are not
even Mekki, are from the people of Medina,
are Ansar.
And their disappointment
in that day
because they wanted to go in there in
Mecca. Fast forward to the eventual Hajj of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, Hajjatulwada.
And Hajj is right around the corner, and
you should connect these scenes to the Hajj
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
I want you to see it from the
perspective of someone who drove the messenger, alayhi
salatu wa sallam, and his people out of
Mecca.
We thought we drove out a 100 or
so of you.
Why in the world are there a 120,000
of you that are now at our doors?
Where did that come from?
We drove out a few of you. You
are our children. You are our families.
We drove out the weakest of you, the
Bilas and the ibn Mas'uz, not weak in
terms of strength in in the sight of
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, weak in their weak
lens.
We drove out the masakin, the poor people.
We thought this was a family affair, and
we were just kicking out a handful of
you. How are there a 120,000
people now saying Labayk Allahumma Labayk trying to
enter into Mecca? Where did all these Meccans
come from? They weren't Meccans, they were Muslims.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put something in
their hearts.
Not only could the the enemies not see
it, but those who were being driven out
in the Hijra, maybe they couldn't perceive it.
And here's what I wanna put in your
heart and your minds about of the wisdoms
and the benefits of what is going to
come out of all of this Shaa Allahu
Ta'ala, after this Nakba, after the expulsion continues,
after the consumption of land continues, that when
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala frees Palestine
and when Masl al Aqsa is liberated and
when the people return to their rightful homes
and when it is being rebuilt,
more people in the world will have an
attachment to that land than would have been
the case
had these 70 plus years of catastrophe not
been there.
You're gonna have people, some of you even
in this congregation, who converted to Islam
for becoming exposed to Palestine
going to Masdul Aqsa on the first flight,
saying Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar,
praying in that place.
You're gonna have Muslims from around the world
who otherwise
would not have maybe appreciated the significance of
Masjid Al Aqsa and the significance of that
land, but it was impressed upon them for
the last few decades
to when that time comes
it's going to capture
a greater sentiment.
And so when the scholars say that of
the greatest wisdoms and beauties to the Prophet
alaihi wasallam of his hijrah
is that he left with a handful of
people from Mecca. Allah gave him
a city in Madinah
and a whole bunch of other people to
go back with him to Mecca,
along with character, along with sincerity, along with
steadfastness,
along with a renewed commitment
that just doesn't come in times of peace.
It comes through turmoil.
Those fitan,
those tests and tribulations grind out the greatest
gems of people, and that's why the greatest
gems are showing themselves to be in Gaza
because they're being grinded out of this, and
they will lead the way back, biden Allahu
Ta'ala, for the people back to their homeland
and a bunch of other people that will
now claim it as their homeland
because this is the affair.
And the last message that I need to
Inshallah Ta'ala impart,
and I can't say this enough,
if at this point still
we're still treating Palestine like just another nationalist
cause,
whether it's Palestinians treating it like a nationalist
cause or non Palestinians dismissing it as a
nationalist cause, we're failing
to understand
this connection.
Yes. There's a connection to a place.
Yes. There's a connection to a Masjid.
Yes. There's a connection
to seeking the end of oppression.
Yes. All of that is supposed to be
in your heart and is supposed to be
passed on to our children. And so when
you hear Nakba, don't think about another group
of people that were driven out of their
homes. Think like the Ansar when they saw
the mujahideen.
You drove us out of our homes.
You drove us out of our homes.
Take it personally.
You drove us out of our homes even
if I never lived a day in Palestine.
You drove us all out of our homes,
and so we seek that return fully
with the rightful occupants, 1st and foremost, being
those who were driven out. May Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, place in our hearts that honor.
May Allah place in our hearts that love.
May Allah place in our hearts that certainty.
May Allah place in our hearts that courage.
And may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, allow us
to see it materialize in our lifetimes, and
if not in our lifetimes for us to
receive the good news of its liberation
while we are dwelling in his paradise. May
Allah grant our brothers and sisters and all
of us shahada.
May He allow us to have the reward
of shahada and may
Allah give us what cools our eyes in
this life and in the next.