Omar Suleiman – To Truly be Free
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promise of freedom is a promise that is often sold, to actually enslave you to something else that will make you dependence upon something that allows you to be manipulated, exploited, and abused. And it's a promise that many political leaders have tried to sell, it's a promise the social movements sell this idea of freedom, and SubhanAllah. It's not all without merit, this idea of what it means to be free. However, the Islamic conception of what it means to be free, is not to be free in a way that you live out your most animalistic desires. And do that to the detriment of yourself, in the process, corrupt your spiritual being in the process, corrupt your emotional well being. And
the process leads to the deterioration of both the individual and the society, but it's something so much more. And I want to go to that early promise of Islam, and then break it out into something else. It's a famous narration that I'll start with one that's actually known to many people and narration of it or even around all the Allahu Tada. And when he walks into the palace of Rustom. In Persian river, you know, I'm being a person who came from very humble circumstances, who did not have the wealth of this world, who did not have the power and name and stature of this world. And when he walks into the most pompous palace in the world at the time, belonging to a pompous leader,
he's riding a donkey. He's not wearing the best of clothes, he does not as presentable as even the guards in the palace from a physical perspective.
And when he walks in, dragging his spear down the red carpet, and doing so with full confidence, and unfaced Roustan looks at him, and says to him, What is it with you people? Who are you? Who are you desert folk that we had abandoned and that we didn't think much of and now you're walking with such pride? What is that? And he said in the laptop tonight, he knows each other a bad, Reba. Reba. Reba, that's your opportunity that first and foremost, Allah has sent us to take people from being enslaved to other slaves, to being enslaved to the Lord of all slaves, Allah subhanho wa taala. Woman leave the dunya aside to dunya with Ashkelon from the constriction of this world, to the
expansion of this life and the hereafter, woman, Jota young ILA Abdul Islam and from the injustice of all other systems, to the justice of Islam, when he's saying that he recognizes that he's not just making the statements in front of Muslim, but that all these guards, all of these people that are serving in the palace, that have been put down and enslaved and treated in certain ways, and told that their ceiling is a certain heights.
All of them are listening to this, and they're seeing this man. And they might think to themselves, what is this Dean, that is provoking that type of confidence in a person? We've never seen that before? What is it that he has inside of him because whatever he has inside of him, I want that to, I want to at least understand what it is. You can imagine when below the Altana animal was dragged out and tortured, and there were others that were tortured as well in certain fashion. So may Allah Allah has had on of course, well known about it all the allotted time. Above Okay, others that were tortured in these in these fashions. And the people that were watching this thinking to themselves,
what is it about these men? What is it about these women that causes them to insist on a certain way? And why is it that they seem unfazed by the harm? Remember, when Fidel took out his own wife ossia it has set up and tortured her, because for their own worships his own self, his own power, and when his wife dare challenge that he wants to make an example out of his own wife's power, laughter all these years of being together, he's bringing these strange men to humiliate his wife in public fell mohicans and she's laughing during the torture infidel is saying, Look at this mad woman, Madonna. She must be crazy. She's not crazy. She's, you know, she's a believer. And Allah
showed her certain things with her eyes and before he showed her certain things with her eyes, he put certain things in her heart to where she was untouchable in the true sense. uncaptured you cannot capture a person like that you cannot torture a person like that. You cannot own a person like that.
And that frustrates oppressors who depend upon certain devices of power to try to break you. And there's no greater example than the prophets of Allah Highness and him himself. All of the breaking or the attempted breaking of the companions around the prophets of Allah Islam was really to get to him. They wanted him to hear the children crying at night out of hunger and out of thirst during the boycott of ventilation, minimal thought of so that it could be said to him, they know the empathy of the profit slice on him. This is because of you. Your uncle who took care of you have a thought of dying in the fashion that he died. This is because of you. So many over the allotted time and her
and her family as you walk by them, and the only thing you can say a suborn Yadi acity be patient Oh family of Yasim. You have an appointment with Allah subhanaw taala. In general, your place is gentleness, Paradise, they wanted to tell the prophets license. This is because of you. So they tried to break him. Through that. They tried to emotionally manipulate him. They tried to break him by calling into question his loyalty to his people. They tried to break him with riches, then that didn't work out. So they tried the negotiation tactics right. After you break someone down. Then bring them not just a restoration package, bring them the sweetest package that they could ever
think of. You want the riches of Morocco. You want the women of Makkah, you want the keys to the kava all of it. That's fine, we'll give it to you. What do low totino For you to know. And they're like, if only you would compromise we would happily compromise. Give us something so that we can say we won, we got something out of you, right. But the prophet Seisen was unconquerable, because he was the greatest Abbott's of all times as well, the greatest worshiper of Allah subhanaw taala, he understood the nature of that relationship with Alonzo that you couldn't break him some law when he was in them. You couldn't buy him either. Salalah Hardy was so dumb, you could neither break nor
buy, and then who has that type of connection to Allah Subhana Allah to Allah.
Now, where do I bring this all back to for us? Sometimes it's the examples that inspire in a people the resilience that they themselves don't even really know that they have.
And you look at the famous story of mum and Tamia rocking along to Adam, when he was being thrown into the prison and being threatened with all of these different types of things. And
he doesn't seem to be bothered by this. And he says, What are they going to do to meet an agenda to you I'll be my paradise is in my heart. You can't access my agenda. So what are they going to do to me? Hopefully, shahada, you kill me, you make me a martyr. You send me to Allah subhana wa Tada. I'm okay with Habsi Halawa. If you imprison me, it's seclusion with Allah subhanaw taala I still get to be with my Lord, You can't seclude me from my Lord. You can't take him away from me. Raji, sia and if you deport me, then I'll just contemplate the sons of Allah subhanho wa Taala will still be connected to my Lord, do what you want to me. Paradise is here in my heart. We read that we think,
wow, what was he really saying here he was saying that you can't use worldly devices of power to disconnect me from one who is not subjected to your limitations. You're not going to be able to disconnect me from him, because he's not subjected to your power and therefore I'm free.
I'm free. I'm a free man. Do what you want to me, kill me in any way that you want. harass me in any way that you want. But I'm free because I have Allah subhanaw taala who is free from all of your limitations Subhana Subhan Allah free from imperfections free from your limit limitations, so I'm free because I'm connected to him. And it's really interesting. I was reading a lot of it'll say you remember that play Rahim Allah who was a student of him and Tamia. He says something really interesting because this is where you take inspiration from people. He says that he could not eat a lot but to be in a dunya.
When we used to feel like the world was getting tough, life was getting really hard.
He said that we used to go to heaven, not easy. Auntie Heath decision, we used to go visit him and take me on prison. But just think about this for a moment. When we felt like things were getting tough on us. outside of prison. We would go visit him in prison and domestic. Because when we saw him in Damascus, may Allah subhanaw taala liberate and make easy the affairs of the people of Hashem Allah. I mean, when we saw him in prison, our hearts were expanded, our chests were expanded, like everything that we were going through on the outside, we saw him in prison. And suddenly, we felt like we were the ones in prisons, and he was the one that was free. He's the free man. We're the
ones that feel like we're in prisons. And then he said, and he said these words. He says, what county a cool element
June and such on Oahu, Hawaii. Well Natsu then OC Ron Mola. Beautiful words, beautiful words. He said the prisoner is the one who is imprisoned by his desires.
And the captive is the one who is taken captive from his Lord.
By what? By disobedience to his Lord. The true prisoner is the one who was a prisoner either to his desires or to his disobedience of Allah subhanaw taala if a person breaks himself free from those shackles of Shala of desire, disobedience to Allah subhana wa Tada. They're free.
They're free. You can't conquer a person like that. You can't capture a person like that. We're coming up on Monday on the 57th anniversary of the assassination of hegemonic a Chavez Malcolm X Rahim Allah to Adam and last 100 to grant him shahada Allahu Amin drove people crazy how fearless he was. It drove people crazy how fearless Muhammad it was you threaten him with his career. It doesn't work, threaten him with prison. It's not working. It frustrates oppressors when they can't concrete. And sometimes, like even if not being able to handle Allah saying, you know, sometimes we needed to go see even Tamia to refresh that concept and ourselves to remind ourselves what true freedom really
looks like seeing the man in prison who seems completely unconquered, unfazed. And yes, there are tough times, sometimes, we also need to look at the brothers and sisters around the world that continue to inspire that within us.
Watching the images of that sister, Muskaan Han,
in India, and loss of parents, I liberate our brothers and sisters living under the fascism, of the regime in India, walking with her a job through these mobs saying Allahu Akbar, with her fist up, of course, that's not popular to the American freedom movements. And so it didn't make the rounds here, except in the Muslim community. But putting that fist of power up, but the power was not that the power was not her fist was in her voice, Allahu Akbar.
I'm not afraid of you. What are you going to do? What are you going to do to me?
You watch that, and you could say, share, retweet, forward. But like, take a moment and put yourself in that situation and be like,
do I have that inside of me too?
If I was placed in the same situation, do I have that freedom inside of me? That certainty inside of me? You know, I'm loving my boss all the time. And he says that leadership is given in the Quran when Allah Subhana Allah talks about the Imam of any Islam, the righteous ones from running astray the righteous leaders he says it was given to them lemma sub oral or can we it you know, you're keen on, they're described with two qualities. They had an exemplary patience, and they have certainty and ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada, those two things can't be disconnected from each other. Because the patient's translated itself into courage and resilience. And that came out of their Yaqeen there's
certainty and ALLAH SubhanA wa, tada. The certainty generated the courage. And so was this young woman passing through thinking this is a chance to go viral on social media? Or was it a natural reaction? Allahu Akbar. What are you going to do to me?
The same way we see the Haram, the free people of us
living under that barricade, but they're free. You can't conquer people like that. You can't conquer people that will go to Mestre oxide, despite all of the the tactics of terror at the hands of the occupation. You can't conquer people like that. Where's that in us? And what I'm what I'm seeing here too, just to start is don't just look at those people do it if no Rahim Allah said we were doing when we'd go and we'd look at it and take Nia renew that inside of yourself. So you know what I need to find out inside of myself. I know it's very beautiful is that Imam and Samia Rahim Allah Tala as he answered that question to his students and said I'll miss June man such an emo haha.
Well, not Superman. Oh, Syrah and Melda that the one who's truly imprison is the one who's imprisoned by his desires. It didn't say me it was saying, Look, this is not some sort of like macho strength that you're seeing that I that I garnered by watching, you know, motivational video on YouTube or something like that. This comes from what
this comes from what break free of your desires. What does it mean to break free of your desires, it means to not be imprisoned by them. If you look at the world today, where do people run from a shadow when the chef what goes wrong? They run to the next chef, they run to the next desire that relationship. Let me go to another relationship really, really, really quickly. Life is getting tough. Let me jump into this drug
So, I'll go from enslaving myself to this to enslaving myself to a drug. This master that drug this master
is no longer giving me what I need. Let me go and slave myself to another one and another one and keep on enslaving myself so this and this and that but we'll play oh definitely be hurrying.
Birds bird picks a person up like a person in the air getting picked up from birds a bird and the wind taking him to faraway places, and he doesn't know where he is anymore.
And so what's the solution? Just like when we talk about wealth that a zoned Lisa is Allah Tony Kushida, chemical rd or the low tide and Mozilla asceticism is not that you own nothing. It is Eliam liquid kashaya And so that nothing owns you. So if the wealth is in your hand and not in your heart, a person could have a million dollars, a person could have $10 million
and be Azhar heads and be an ascetic and another person could have $10,000 and be a complete slave to their wealth. Just like we talked about subaqua charity, charity is not about the quantity of charity. It's about the quality of that charity. The same thing is true when we talk about Zuma asceticism, so they made it his Salam was is that he was an ascetic, despite having a kingdom that was unrivaled in this world because the Kingdom never detracted from the glorification of ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada in his heart.
It never got in there. It stayed here. As long as it stays here. You're okay. The same thing is true with our Shabbat with our designs. Allah did not create us to be a form of creation without desire, we have desires. And Allah did not give us a deen a religion that is unreasonable with those desires, we have permissible outlets for our desires. We don't have a difficult religion. We have a religion that requires sacrifice. We have a religion that requires commitments. We have a religion with rules and restrictions. We have a religion that gives us discipline through the Quran and the Sunnah in every way in our lives. But it's not a it's not a hard religion in the sense that it's not
how much it is not overbearing. Now you Kelly for long enough, Sonny Loza. Allah is not burdening us beyond our scope. It's there, we have the capacity. Sometimes you don't understand the true nature of your capacity until you stretch it a bit. But it's there. It's there. And so just like when you talk about wealth, not owning you, you talk about no desire owning you
know, desire owning you know, disobedience owning you, you can't be owned by a sin. And sometimes you have to ask yourself, Do I really want to be doing this for the rest of my life? Do I really want this to be my source of happiness? Do I really want this to be the relief that I run back to every single time something goes wrong in life? Whatever that drug is for your drug in the broader sense, whatever it is for you?
Am I really going to continue to allow my apprehension, my fear to lead me
to a place of unprincipled life?
Am I going to let my fear of Allah Subhana Allah Tada
caused me to have no fear of any human being whatsoever.
You see, that's the, the ingredient for the believer of how they break free from fear. It's not that they fear nothing, it's that they fear Allah subhana wa Tada. That's a Haku Maha Huni they fear Allah subhanaw taala more than they fear the creation, so they're free, and they're a bother to Allah subhana wa to add. And in the process of that, Allah as it opens up this dunya for them, woman Leka dunya from the constriction of this world, because when you run from thing to thing, to try to free you and empower you, it's just going to keep on messing you up, and it's going to keep on frustrating you and suffocating you. And so you escaped that it has to do with appeal to the
expansion of this life. And the next you live with Jenna in your heart. You live with Jenna and your heart. No one can by you. No one can break you. We need that these days, dear brothers and sisters as individuals and as communities. Yes, we look at our brothers and sisters in India right now, and many other places in the world. It's so sad Subhanallah that sometimes I feel guilty if you mentioned a few places. I don't I mean, I can't start
with the various places in the world. But you look at those brothers and sisters you look at those people and the resilience that they're showing and some of us might feel sorry for them. We look at them and we say
ally Raynham and truly May Allah make it easy for them that sister, the young sister being harassed May Allah make it easy for her. But if we as an American Muslim community, or wherever we are sacrifice our deen for the sake of safety and our dunya then we're the losers. They should feel sorry for us.
They should feel sorry for us.
Can't be bots can't be broken.
That's the key to freedom. And that freedom is freeing yourself from desire and freeing yourself from disobedience to the one who is not limited to the one who is not conquered by anyone, to the one who rewards without measure, to the one who enforces eternal justice to the one whose mercy we depend on Allah subhanho wa Taala al Jabbar, Allah subhanaw taala allow us to be connected to him and allow us to break free of our flesh, free of our lusts, free of our disobedience free of the worldly promises that only lead to more delusion and disappointments. And may Allah subhana wa Tada. Please, gentlemen, certainty in our hearts and may Allah allow us to arrive at the agenda that he
has promised us in the companionship of our beloved Prophet salallahu it Who are some of them, and may Allah subhana wa Tada liberate our brothers and sisters from the worldly oppression and liberate ourselves from worldly delusion May Allah subhana wa Tada allow us to be truly His rebound. And amongst those that are pleasing servants to him, Allah Amin Gurukul Jada was stuck about he will accompany satin Muslim universe stuff we don't know for Rahim
no hamdulillah him
and how hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen whenever you want to learn a lot, I mean when afterwards we were talking almost it was in the Vatican amico so they can Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it was it was still interesting and I feel a lot more thrilling when you know what you know? Well mostly me you know what a Muslim that I hear in what and what it gives me on curry when would you put out a lot more thriller now welcome no one no one did not open. Well, I'm personally I'm tougher than I was on Hamner, then Akuna. Manohar serene Allah in the castle when Kareem went to Hamburg alfalfa. Allah Masoli Wiley Dena probably have more my commercial bonus a lot of them have lemon as
well as you know Dr. Tina Kurata Aryan Madonna limits Athena a mama llama is one and I've been a female charlatan Aluma gotta be Allah and Nikhil by immunoblotting Minnewaska DeGeneres one and then being inside I mean about a lot in the light and we're gonna handle their sandwich eater Cordoba while young her and in fashion you will want to be with your incoming Allah come to them the Canon Fatcow Launius croquembouche Truvada Nirma is one of the law compatible long toss in our own weapons Saul