Omar Suleiman – There is Life for you in True Justice

			I've been connecting a verse from the Quran to lessons for us. And
		

			I know that many of us have been following the news that came out of Minnesota where we had a sigh
of relief where the officer who murdered George Floyd
		

			was actually charged, rightfully so with murder. And then at the same time,
		

			within that same time period, you have news that comes out of Columbus, Ohio of a 15 year old girl,
Nikki O'Brien, who was shot four times to death by an officer when she called the police actually to
help her and instead was was murdered herself. And it's like Subhanallah, you go from one thing to
the other. And I wanted to actually talk about this from the perspective of an eye on the Quran,
actually.
		

			And I know that we address this from various angles. But it takes me back to how are you supposed to
feel when you've you see something that resembles justice happen in this world? Now we know as
believers we take comfort in the ultimate justice of Allah subhanaw taala the ultimate justice of
Allah on the day of judgment that not only that there will be no oppression, no injustice that will
be tolerated today. Everything will be set right on the day of judgment in the last setting. He's up
and Allah will be swift with his justice. But how do you deal with when you see what seems to be a
semblance of justice in this life? Do you celebrate it? I mean, do you say it's all over? I mean, do
		

			you? Do you feel joy? How are you supposed to feel when you see these types of things? And I
remember Odell Edwards, Jordan Edwards father, Jordan Edwards was 15 years old and shot in his car
by Officer Roy Oliver, who was an Iraq war veteran. And Allah knows if he shot people and head off
to I've never had a trial in this life. And I remember when when Jordan Edwards when that trial
played out, and the sentencing of Roy Oliver was 15 years, 15 years for a 15 year old boy that was
innocently killed, literally doing absolutely nothing. Nothing. That would hurt him that gunshot the
way that it came to him. And his father said Yeah, but I don't get my son back. I don't get my son
		

			back. Okay, fine. You know, we're supposed to celebrate and hug and shout with joy. The there's some
semblance of justice, but I don't get my son back. There are certain things you can account for, you
know, and Tatiana Jefferson, the young lady that was shot in her home playing with her nephew,
		

			October 2019. I think it was October 2019. She was She shares a driveway with the masjid in Fort
Worth. And she was literally playing video games with her nephew and an officer shot into the house
as a result of a wellness check. And she was killed in front of her nephew. Since then, by the way,
the trial has not even started yet. Like you think about in the wisdom of in the law study or an ace
up the swiftness of justice. Sometimes the delay is torture. The trial hasn't even started yet. It's
it's expected to start later this year, since her murder, and the trials, which has not even
started, her father died. And then her mother died, both of them, you know, natural causes. But can
		

			you really just discount the impact that the the dunk the murder of their daughter had on them?
There's no justice in that you can account for that there's not going to be a trial for her parents
and the heartache that that's called the cause of the trauma that it caused her eight year old
nephew that was playing video games with her when she was shocked that stuff is not going to be
accounted for. Right? I mean, how do you even start to take that into account. And the first thing
that came to mind that I wanted to speak about today was welcome Phil, please fancy hire to interact
with an adult. It's a beautiful verse. Allah says the increased loss, you have life, you have life,
		

			the sauce is actually retribution. It's retaliation. It's one portion of Islamic criminal law. And
that is that as a departure from what was written upon, the Israelites have an eye for an eye and a
Life for life. Allah subhanaw taala gave us good sauce and the sauce was that when there is murder,
the family of the one that is murdered are given the full choice, either a life is taken for the
life that was taken for them, or they can forgive and some sort of compensation is given to them.
But the point is, it is for them. And this should be applied equally so that people have a sense of
justice that they have the right that it's in their hands, the families have a look at the wisdom.
		

			It goes to the family, you have the right now. This is the person that murdered your loved one. You
can either have their life taken as well or you can forgive and there's a reward for forgiveness and
you wouldn't be compensated as well in some other way. But
		

			The choice is yours, you're not blamed, if you choose the option of essentially what would have what
would have amounted to a death penalty, right or you are rewarded and praised if you chose to
forgive and take some sort of compensation, but it's in your head and the word when that confidently
saucy Hyah, you have life and that old people the rhythm that the scholars talk about this verse,
and they say that because, number one, if there is a law that is applied across society that ensures
fairness, and to sauce is applied for every single person, then that will serve as a deterrent from
anyone that thinks they can get away with murder. And so there will literally be more life in
		

			society, because people will think twice, because in most societies, if you kill someone who belongs
to those that have been reduced to a lower class on the basis of anything, right, like their, their
race, or their tribe, or their, their being poor, or whatever it is, you know, in most societies,
you can get away with it. But if it's applied across the board, that a person is going to think
twice about it. And so it will be men, or it will be a form of forbidding injustice in the future.
And what are people saying right now? Look, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that if George Floyd
was not murdered on camera, that the verdicts would have never happened?
		

			If someone was not recording it, if there weren't multiple people recording it, does anyone really
think that any of this would have played out the way that it played out? I don't believe it would
have played out that way, it would have been documented in the police records just like everyone
else, right? After a medic, I forgot how it was written after a medical incident. An interaction
with the police resulted in the death of a person Case Closed. Now many other people like that they
had a case that came out a Muslim, Mohammed Mohammed, who was killed in the same way, as George
Floyd in a very similar way. And he said, Please Allah, and the officer said, Allah is not going to
		

			help you now. And he took his life. And that was a couple of years ago. But then the footage started
to arise done that offers officers still on the force, both of them John, who was murdered here in
Dallas, their street renaming after him, you know, where he was, where he was murdered. I mean, some
of the same politicians that were standing there and that were clapping their hands are literally
proponents of the same types of policies that lead to the repeated injustice is over and over and
over again. And so it's it, it makes us think, because I know, it's Ramadan. And we're supposed to
be deriving some wisdom from the Quran as well. When a society does not have protocols in place to
		

			ensure that things are not repeated in the sense of injustice. There's no real life in that society.
There's no blessing in that society. You just have to keep on hoping that someone's going to catch
it on camera. And you have to keep on cope, hoping that it's not going to happen again. And again.
And again. Again, that's not the way we're supposed to function. That's not the way that we were
created. That's not normal, and it should not be tolerated. It shouldn't be like a football game,
right? Every single time. Something happens, like let's hope that they pull it out in the end, and
we get some sort of justice semblance of justice. In the end, you know, how many people have been
		

			killed. I mentioned the sister in New Orleans, Dr. Jamila otter SHA, Allah humma. Probably one of
the worst police brutality incidents that I have ever heard of. The officer that killed her is still
on the force in New Orleans, a Muslim woman that stopped a doctor to help a young boy that was hit
by a car on his bike and an officer came in assumed assumed something about her and threw her on the
ground and sat on her and then suffocated her and she was killed, and she died in the back of a
police police vehicle. There's no justice in this life. That's not how a normal society functions.
That's not how Allah created us to function. And so it's like, am I supposed to feel the conflicted
		

			feelings are warranted? Am I supposed to say hamdulillah for a moment? And then Whoa, another one.
That's not how we're supposed to function. And so it's important for us to derive from that wisdom
from the Quran, that unless you set a society, right, unless, unless there are things put in place,
and this was the beauty of how encompassing the message of the Prophet sallallaahu Salam was, was it
sets society right? Unless you set society right, you're gonna keep on having this over and over and
over again. And you don't bring people back to life when you sentence a murderer for a few years
here or there and Allah knows we haven't even got to the sentencing. Yeah, so we take comfort in the
		

			day of judgment for sure. As believers what attacks have been Allah have often on me, I'm gonna lie
when Allah is not unaware, and the transgressors will face their penalty and those that were
victimized will have their justice given to them not Lindemann young there is no oppression that's
tolerated on the Day of Judgment in Allah has said he or he's up and Allah has slipped in his
justice, and we take wisdom, wisdom as well. From these these injunctions from the Quran.
		

			that what you're supposed to bring is a sense of consistency and fairness so that people do not
always feel suffocated by repeated in justices. And subhanAllah. You know, and with this, Ahmed have
been optimized Rahim Allah to Allah. You know, the scholar has mentioned that when Amara bin
Abdulaziz became the Khalifa because of the justice that he saw across the board, wolves would not
even attack sheep, under the feed off of American organizers, it brought so much blessing to the
world that he was in that there is justice even being established across the animals. So we have to
ask ourselves, like what role are we supposed to be playing in all of this? And how do we how do we
		

			move forward and deriving from that wisdom? And again, you know, relating some of these aspects with
the nine Tata to how we approach societal affairs today. So may Allah subhanaw taala allow us to be
a source of comfort and goodness and justice to the societies that are around us. May Allah subhana
wa Tada comfort the families of the victims of injustice and give them some semblance of clarity and
comfort in this life. May Allah subhanaw taala move us towards good May Allah subhanaw taala allow
us too, to answer the call to that which gives us goodness and to apply that in our own lives first,
and then to bring that to the world around us. Allahumma Amin Subhan Allah, I just by the way, Odell
		

			Edwards, his cousin, actually hurting a cat was in the middle of the few months ago. Subhan Allah
and this masjid so these we are tied together in ways that we don't even realize. So please do pray
for the families of people that are going through these types of ordeals, as well to Zachman la
Plano, Santa Monica Monica Ancelotti, Katha