Omar Suleiman – Thank God WeRe Not Them
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AI: Transcript ©
Dear brothers and sisters,
the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam says to
us
that
of the babies
that spoke from the cradle
and SubhanAllah, we know the famous stories
of Isa alaihis salam, Jesus peace be upon
him speaking from the cradle and then there's
another famous story of Jurayj
whose
whose child or the child that was alleged
to be his spoke from the cradle.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam says in
an authentic hadith in Bukhari that there was
once a woman from Bani Israel
and she was nursing her child.
And as she was nursing her child,
this handsome rider
came by
and he was a man who carried himself
with strength, power,
who had the looks and the feel
of everything that you would want from your
own child.
And as she's nursing her child and as
this rider passes by,
she says,
Oh Allah, make my son like this rider.
And the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that of the miracles of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, Allah caused that baby that was nursing
from his mother, from Bani Israel
to leave the chest of his mother and
to say, Allahumala Taja Alimiflah.
O Allah, don't make me like him. O
Allah,
don't make me like him.
And then he went back to nursing the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said.
Then a woman came by and she was
a slave girl in that society.
Oppressed,
beaten down,
has no place in her society.
And the woman said having just witnessed that
miracle with her child,
Oh Allah, don't make my son like her.
And the prophet sallallahu anaihi wa sallam said
that the baby left
the chest of his mother
and said, Allah.
Oh Allah, make me like her.
At this point, the mother says,
why?
Why is it that you would say such
a thing? Why would this child speak to
say, oh Allah, don't make me like that
powerful
handsome writer
and oh Allah, make me like that oppressed
slave girl.
And so the child spoke and the child
said,
as for Arraqib,
as for that rider,
then he is Jabarmin
al Jababirah.
He's a tyrant from the tyrants.
He's an arrogant man. He's a tyrant.
And as for that woman,
she is an oppressed woman.
They say,
They say to her all sorts of accusations.
You stole. You committed adultery and she's innocent
of their claims. Think about this. Oh
Allah, don't make me like him. Oh Allah,
make me like her. From the outside, it
looks like this is the place that you
wanna have in society.
But we are not a people who seek
power on this earth. We're a people who
seek the praise of the most powerful on
this earth, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I want you just to remember that
dua, Allahumala
tajani miflahu. O Allah,
don't make me like Him.
Because sometimes
you don't just need good examples,
you also need bad examples. And that's why
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us both in
the Quran. You don't just need heroes, you
actually need to see villains so that while
you're aspiring to become a hero yourself, you
don't become a villain unknowingly or slowly
by adopting the characteristics
of those evil nations or those people. You
need to know about Musa alaihis salaam but
you also need to know about Firaoun.
You need to know about Jibreel alaihis salaam
but you also need to know about Iblis.
You need to know about
the righteous that came before you. You need
to know about Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
You also need to know about Abu Jahl.
Why? Because you don't know if you will
slowly
embed within your own personality
those characteristics
and those attributes and become like that.
As I was speaking to my own children,
subhanAllah, this week in particular,
it's a nauseating political process every 4 years
in the United States.
You see the moral bankruptcy
of both parties, you see the hypocrisy of
both parties, and you sit there and you
wonder and you watch them celebrate, and you
watch them in their joy, and you think
to yourself,
wow,
that's what a party of shaitan looks like.
I'm, like, completely disgusted. And now, in particular,
when you have a genocide playing out on
your screen, some of you might have seen
where they put the images of what's happening
in show the
contrast of
these images,
the dancing and the joy and the death
and destruction caused to those people by those
that are in dancing and in joy, and
then you see the commentary, and then you
log on online, and you see colleagues at
work, people that you thought were decent human
beings, and they're celebrating this,
and they're going along with the flow,
and there has probably never been a point
in society
or in our time where you can see
evil and righteousness
so obviously contrast against one another.
Is there anything more evil
than what you are seeing of the perpetrators
from those soldiers or beyond, and anything more
righteous than what you're seeing in Gaza? It's
never been so obvious and so blatant,
the contrast, right, of what evil and righteousness
looks like, of what wickedness and righteousness looks
like.
And SubhanAllah, as we're watching this nauseating
process play out in the last few days,
I'm talking to my own children and I'm
realizing that they're realizing something that Alhamdulillah, we're
not them.
Alhamdulillah, we're not those people.
Alhamdulillah,
Allah spared us of that hypocrisy. Alhamdulillah,
in a moment where
such a contrast is so blatant and obvious,
we
understand
what side we're supposed to be on and
we get it. Alhamdulillah,
Allah spared us from being a part of
that tyranny knowingly and of course there are
many other ways that unfortunately
we do participate. But alhamdulillah,
we have clarity because sometimes in order to
find moral clarity, you have to see such
a blatant display of moral hypocrisy. Alhamdulillah
Allahumma latajalna
miflahum. O Allah, don't make us like them.
But there's a point here that I wanna
get to.
Going back to that hadith.
That the ugliest characteristic
that can be found in a human being
is to be
is to be that particular type of a
tyrant on this earth. And I wanna sit
with this because, subhanAllah, there is something, you
know, throughout the Quran
that you find about this word.
There are names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that denote
a particular
Of course, all of His names and attributes
belong only to Him,
and nothing is like Him subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But they have a quality from those names
and attributes
that human beings can channel in the most
beautiful of ways. Of course, the most obvious
being Ar Rahman,
the Most Merciful who sent to us, a
mercy to the world.
Be merciful to those that are on earth.
The one in the heavens will be merciful
to you. Al kareem, the generous one. You
want to channel generosity
and be a source of generosity
while connecting it to the ultimate source of
generosity.
And our generosity is not like his generosity.
Al haqq Al Adil, the truthful one. The
the truth, justice. Allah is the just. You
want to be a source of those things
in this earth
while connecting it back to the ultimate source.
And the way we manifest it is nothing
like what is denoted by the names and
attributes of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. He is
alone in that Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But then
there are names
that only belong to him
and the manifestation
when it takes on a human form becomes
the exact opposite of that.
Jabal
is the name I want you to sit
with. Jabbar as it applies to a human
being. As imam al Baghawi rahiimullah
says, the easiest definition of Jabbar when it
comes to a human being
is,
The person
who does not see that there are rights
that are due upon him to others.
No one has rights upon that person. So
the more power that person accumulates,
the more that they are enslaved to that
power, and the more that they use that
power to channel their own goals and aims
on this earth, and they do not see
anyone falling within the domain of their power
as having any rights upon them. They have
complete disregard for those rights. Meaning, the more
powerful they become,
the more they disregard
those that come under their authority.
The more power they have, the more they
break.
As for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
it has an entirely different meaning. Allah is
the most powerful, Allah is the compeller. But
you know what? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with
that power mends.
He restores and that's one of the implications
of Al Jabbar.
That when you turn to him, he puts
you back together.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has power over all
things and he mends with that power.
Human beings on the other hand,
tend to
absorb
what Allah gives them of the illusion of
power.
And then, use it to wrong and use
it to oppress
and you need to see that sometimes to
say, oh Allah, don't ever make me like
that in any way whatsoever.
What is the proof of it with this
particular
name? Sit with it for a moment.
This woman that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam was talking about
was a woman from Bani Israel.
And we know as Ibn Al Qayyim Rahim
Allah says, the most wicked generation of Bani
Israel
was the last part of it where Allah
ahsawajal sent Yahya and Aissa. May Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala send His peace and blessings upon
them all. Zakariya,
Jesus, John, these noble prophets that Allah
sends towards the end of Bani Israel.
And as these prophets
speak about the traits that they have
or Allah speaks about their traits, Allah Azarajal
gives us a long list of what they
actually represent.
And so, Yahya alaihis salam. When Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
describes that he has sent Yahya alaihis salam.
Walam yakunjabayun
asliya. That
Allah
has given him all of these beautiful traits.
Hannahamin ladunna wazakat and wakana taqiyyah.
A person with special compassion.
A person with special mercy.
A person who was especially God fearing and
pious.
A person of authority and wisdom and judgment,
but he is not
Jabal.
You know what he's not? He's not a
tyrant
and he is not one who is disobedient.
Something very powerful here by the way. Barlan
biwalidayhi.
He is dutiful to his parents
and he is not a tyrant and he
is not disobedient.
A few ayat after Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
talks about, Isa alaihi salam, Jesus peace be
upon him. Who speaks from the crib like
that baby from Bani Israel
miraculously
and introduces
himself
to society.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made me dutiful
to my mother and He has not made
me a tyrant who is unblessed.
Mal Qayyim Rahim Allah says, notice by the
way, this phases
out from the same
stream which is, has not made me
one who is disobedient to my parents or
one who is not dutiful to my parents.
Allah made us dutiful to our parents. And
he says that
the most obvious feature of the moral decay
of society is how the parents are treated.
SubhanAllah. And if you read about Bani Israel
at that time, the way that they started
to treat their parents, it was obvious. And
when the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam talks
about the moral decay of society towards the
end of time,
that a woman will give birth to her
master. And one of the implications of that
that the scholars mentioned is that a child
will treat their parents like a slave
because they no longer have moral constraints.
They no longer have the values
that would make them want to treat the
elders in their society in a certain way.
Everything becomes about access and opportunity and power.
And at some point, your parent becomes a
hindrance to that if you don't have values
and you don't believe in anything greater than
yourself.
And so that decay shows and so as
they introduce themselves, Yahi alaihis salaam. I am
dutiful to my parents
and Allah has not made me an oppressor.
He has not made me a tyrant
and he has not made me one
who is disobedient.
Isa alaihis salam Allah
has made me dutiful to my mother. Margam.
One of the the beautiful signs that Isa
alaihis salam was only born to Maryam alaihis
salam in a virgin birth was that he
says,
my mother
instead of my parents. And he did not
make me a tyrant and he did not
make me unblessed. The scholars say that as
for the second word,
for
Yahya alaihis salam because Zakariyah alaihis salaam was
making dua for a child that will embody
the best of all of the scholars and
all of the prophets and the righteous ones
of Bani Israel. And Allah bless Zakariyah alaihis
salaam with a child that would have a
special type of compassion for his parents. So
he is compassionate already but his compassion to
his parents is beautiful. As for Isa alaihis
salaam that the accusation of Christ, the accusation
of of Isa alaihis salaam is that he's
unblessed, that he's a curse and Isa alaihis
salam is Mubarak.
He's blessed and he carried Al Amrubal Marufu
Nahi Anil Munkar wherever he goes in joining
the good and forbidding evil. He is not
a curse to his mother nor was he
a curse to his society but he was
blessed. But the first thing they denounce
is we are not.
We are not tyrants or arrogant people.
Our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
This is so powerful. Our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, as he's sitting with his companions
and a man serves some food and if
you watch the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sit
and eat with his companions,
he sat in such a humble way and
he ate with them from the sides of
the plate and
someone looked at him in absolute amazement like
this is not how the king of a
people behaves.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says to
him in authentic hadith, Inna Allah Abu Adhani
Abdul Karima. Allah Azzawajal sent me as a
noble servant. Walam yaba athni
aulam yajalni
jabaaran
anida. O kamaqal alayhis salaahu alayhis salaam. Allah
did not make me jabaaran anida,
a stubborn arrogant tyrant. That's not who I
am. That's not the ethos of Islam. That's
not what the prophets are like. That's not
what the followers of prophets are supposed to
be like. That this quality is so hated
that it's the first quality that these prophets
throw off of themselves. We are not these
people.
And on the day of judgment when Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
establishes
once again
as he always is in Dominion, but announces
his Dominion
as everyone has passed.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, Anil Malik Anil
Malik, I am the king. I am the
king. Where are the kings of the earth?
Where are those people
who claim
power? Where are those tyrants today? Where are
those proud boastful people today?
So may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us
from this trait.
And the beauty of it is that, the
more you connect yourself to Al Jabbar,
the less chance you have of becoming Jabbar
yourself.
Because you realize that He has all power
and that He restores and compels with that
power. And so when Allah azza wa Jal
gives you some sort of authority, whatever that
is, some sort of power over a situation,
you don't oppress with that because Allah azza
wa Jal does not oppress.
You don't feel proud with that because you
know that anything you have of wealth or
power or access is because Allah gave it
to you, So it actually humbles you instead
of making you arrogant.
You maintain clarity instead of hypocrisy because you
know that Allah is testing you with that
power. Allah is testing you with that authority.
Whatever it is, even if it's the authority
in your house
as opposed to giving you free reign to
do whatever you want.
And now,
in this time,
what a clear example that is right in
front of you. What a way to speak
to your kids and to say, we are
different.
There is
there is being strange
that we should
actually adopt a mindset of
of being against the curve of society. There
are very few times that Islam is gonna
go with the trend or become the trend
in society.
We're going to be at odds with society
when it comes to morality, and standards of
morality, and culture, and materialism,
and all
sorts of things. We're gonna be at odds
with society and we should embrace that. We'll
be at odds with society, with tawhid,
with monotheism and everything stemming from la ilaha
illallah. We should embrace that and all sorts
of other things. We're going to be at
odds with society. But one of the ways
that we have to be at odds with
society is this,
this idea of oppression.
You look at that
and you go you go, oh Allah, don't
make me like that.
Oh Allah, don't make me that person.
Oh Allah, don't make us like this group
of people.
Oh Allah, protect us from embodying that because
it is so hated to you. It was
so hated to your prophets
to have an element of that in their
lives.
What's the practical step?
Other than looking at our
political system as it is
and
by the way, my views only represent my
views and not the views of Rahma. Looking
at the political system and the complete moral
bankruptcy of the political system,
or looking at the presidential candidates, or looking
at this, or looking at that, or looking
at the hypocrisy of people as they speak
about Gaza and as they speak about the
genocide today and somehow find themselves still justifying
a genocide almost 200,000
dead people later and where it's undeniable.
What's the practical manifestation?
Analyze in your own life.
Every single domain of power that Allah has
given to you
and connect yourself to Al Jabbar and say,
oh Allah, don't make me Jabbar.
Don't let me be like that.
Look at the bad examples that are in
front of you and use that to educate
your own family and say, you know what?
With everything bad that's happening to the people
of Gaza,
every heartbreaking video that we see, every video
of starvation,
even the videos of children with their heads
blown into 2. I would much rather meet
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as one of those
people than one of those people.
And I'm happy to be on their side
and not on their side. I don't care
what the power dynamics look like. I don't
care what the media looks like. I don't
care how ostracized and isolated I'm going to
be. I would much rather be on their
side than be on that side.
And it's a blessing that we have the
clarity to see so clearly what truth and
righteousness look like and what oppression looks like.
What a feat
for the magicians of the Firaun today being
the media to pull this this this act
to somehow convince people
that the people that are carrying out this
genocide daily are actually the innocent ones
and oppressed and in need of protection and
defense.
What a feat.
What a feat.
It's more than it's more than the pythons.
It's it's more than an optical illusion.
What a feat.
And what a time for us to be
alive in, but pull yourself back.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala put us always
on the side of the oppressed.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allow us to
have moral clarity. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
never allow us to be deluded by our
power.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala never allow us
to have the wool pulled over our eyes
such that we can't see the truth anymore.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be with our
brothers and sisters who are oppressed in Palestine
and all over the world.
Dear brothers and sisters, I leave you with
this.
Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that when the time of fitna comes,
be the servant of Allah who is oppressed
not the one that is oppressing.
Be the servant of Allah who's killed not
the one who is killing.
Even if it means that you have to
be oppressed yourself
in order to avoid taking on some of
that oppression
in your own life.
It's better to meet Allah that way.
And sometimes
you have to fast forward in order to
make sense
of what's happening in the present.
There will come a time where all of
us will hear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say,
ein al jabbaroon ein al mutakabbaroon.
Where are they today?
Where that's what the convention will look like.
Allah 'Azza wa Jal calling those tyrants forward
and holding them accountable. And then Allah Azza
wa Jal calling forth the oppressed to give
them justice.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala put us on
the right side of that and everything else.