Omar Suleiman – Unshakeable Faith
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of knowing one's faith and trust in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the Lord of the Middle, and the fear of the worldly consequences of actions and inaction. They emphasize the importance of showing faith and trusting one's faith to avoid the consequences of one's actions and the thirteenth Empire in history. The speaker also addresses recent injuries and failures of a former member of the H-label 5 community and the criticism of the community's actions as not representing the values of the HUA 5 community.
AI: Summary ©
I want you to begin
tonight
by visualizing
yourself in a place that is extremely unfamiliar
to us.
I want you to imagine
if you
were
the person that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
chose
to go out on the Hijra with him.
Imagine being out in the middle of the
desert
and not only do you fear for your
own life,
but you fear for the most consequential
life that has ever been sent
for humanity
right next to you.
At every moment
you're in the desert,
you hear a sound.
You might see some dirt start to kick
up.
Imagine trying to go to sleep
between Mecca and Medina
knowing that you have
a murderous
group of people that are after you,
and there's a price tag on your head,
a bounty on your head.
Every tribe that you might come across, every
Bedouin,
every
noise,
every speck of dust,
every time you hide in a cave,
every time your animal, your camel starts to
make an unfamiliar noise,
how many times
would you have thought
that death is near?
Now transport yourself
to Rafah
right now.
May Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, be with our
brothers and sisters in Gaza.
The satanic zionist regime flies a drone
over you so you constantly hear that buzzing
sound.
The bombs are dropping on tents, hospitals.
The snipers are out.
There's absolutely
no place
that you feel
safety,
And it's in those moments, dear brothers and
sisters, that you have to garner
something
incredibly special
inside of you to deal with something that
is particularly
sadistic.
This is happening
now.
In the moments that we are speaking,
by the time I finish my talk tonight,
it is very likely that we will have
more shuhada out of Gaza.
When I put you in that mindset, in
that place with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
I want us to make a connection,
not just between
the lack of fear that you have for
your enemy or for your difficult circumstances and
the the courage
and the resilience
of a people.
But there's a very specific
scheme
of courage
that our religion
plants in our heart,
and it's a courage
that is based in certainty.
It's a courage that is based in this
concept
called
tawakkul.
Trusting in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and trusting
in Allah's divine plan.
Abdullah ibn Abbas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu Ma, he
describes the prophet sallallahu alaihi was Salam on
that night
as he departs for Madinah.
And he says, and listen to the words
in Surun al Asahi,
qara radiAllahu ta'ala Anhuma
khara jah Rasulullah hisallallahu alaihi wa sallam min
Makkah ila almadina
layahafuillahrubbaalamin
yusali rakaatayn.
That the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam departed
from Mecca to Medina,
not fearing anyone
except for the Lord of the worlds, and
he prayed to rakas.
Why include
He only feared
the Lord of the worlds?
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, as he
departs from Mecca to Madinah,
he understands
that the one who controls
the heavens controls the earth.
That the one who protects from above is
the one who protects from below.
That the one who protects in front of
you is the one who watches your back,
that the one who controls your vision and
your perception
also controls the vision and the perception
of your enemy. That the one who allows
your horse or your camel to move is
the same one that allows their horse or
their camel to sink into the dirt.
That the one who controls your heart also
controls theirs.
That the one who instills courage in your
chest
instills fear in their chest.
That the one who is controlling the elements
and the emotions, the atmosphere, and everything in
between is the Lord of the worlds.
In
the
world.
Therefore,
this is not a type of courage
that is born out of a natural ability
to be able to weather the circumstances.
This is a different type of courage.
This is not the type of courage that
comes from not caring so much about your
life.
This is not a courage that is born
out of recklessness.
This is a courage that's actually born out
of fear,
but it's a different type of fear.
Allah
says,
Don't fear them.
Fear me if you are indeed
believers.
Do not be enamored
by them.
Do not consider
their power. Instead,
I often think about Khaled and Walid radiAllahu
ta'ala Anhu.
And we know Khaled as this brave warrior
as he was, and before Islam, he was
a general.
And before Islam, he was courageous.
And before Islam, he was a military genius.
But I guarantee you
that the Khaled that was on the horse
in Uhud
against the Muslims
was not the same Khaled, radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu,
on the
horse as they were striking into the heart
of the Persian and the Roman empires.
That there was something else in his heart.
That his courage was nurtured by something else.
You find strong people that aren't Muslim. You
find strong people that don't believe in anything.
You find courageous people whose courage is born
out of recklessness. They don't care what you
do to them.
You find
courageous people
who are dedicated
to a singular
value or principle
but don't have the whole picture.
But the believers
fear and faith is anchored in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
and in particularly trusting His divine plan.
At Hajj Malikas Shabaz, rihimuallahu ta'ala, Malcolm X.
Shortly before he was assassinated, he was being
interviewed by a Chicago reporter. I can't recall
the name of the reporter right now.
The reporter as he's interviewing Malcolm between a
firebombing and assassination,
he says, I painted to Malcolm
all of the gloomy scenarios
of his assassination,
and he just walked to the window of
the office,
and he stared out
completely
in contentment
at the birds as they were chirping
and flying from tree to tree, and then
he turned around and he looked at me
and he said,
sir,
I don't believe
that a single one of these birds can
fly without the permission of Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
I don't believe that a bird can fly
without Allah.
I don't believe that anything
operates
without the permission of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I'm not afraid of these people.
Why?
Not because I fear no one, but because
I fear a greater one.
Not because the elements of the desert and
the elements of assassination and the elements of
a tyrannical genocidal army and the elements of
an empire that continues to surveil and intimidate
our community here at home and the elements
all around us are not daunting,
but because I am in such consideration
of the one that is above them
that I really don't care about them.
Our courage,
our fear,
our hope
is anchored
in knowing our Lord.
You cannot truly
overcome your fear of everyone else unless you
fear one who is greater than them.
And your fear of him is not like
your fear of them because your fear of
him is anchored in love and in knowing
who he is, not in fleeing from him
because you believe that he will hurt you.
And you cannot have that true fear of
him unless you have tawakul, that true trust
in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's anchored in
the divine scheme. When the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam walks out of Makkah, la yakhafu
illa rabbil a'lamine.
He doesn't need to know
how Allah is going to protect him along
the way but he knows that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
will protect him and that nothing will benefit
him or harm him except
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allows it for
a divine purpose.
Therefore, I trust
his divine plan.
When Ali radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu sleeps in the
bed of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam as
he is on his way
and Quraysh
sees a figure in the bed of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam who has already fled
to Madinah.
And Ali knows that they are intending to
kill the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and
they could easily just throw their spears onto
the bed. Ali radiAllahu ta'ala an, who sleeps
at
peace because he knows who controls
his sleep
and who know he knows who controls their
vision.
He knows Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He trusts Allah.
Therefore, the elements
become subdued
in who your Creator is. It's anchored in
that divine plan. When Musa, alayhis salaam, is
facing the sea on one end
and a tyrant in the pharaoh behind him,
and a genocidal army that is trying to
massacre him and his people. And his people
say to him,
We are caught. Musa alayhis salam says, no.
Inna ma'irabi say adeen, my lord is with
me. He will guide me. It's not just
knowing that Allah is there. It's knowing that
Allah has a divine plan.
Therefore,
Don't fear them. Fear me.
Where is that courage born out of? When
Khaled was fighting against the Muslims.
Khaled was fighting for tribalism.
He didn't believe in an afterlife.
He was ready to be reckless with his
body
and die for the tribalism.
But when Khaled knew Allah and he knew
the reward of Allah
you're no longer finding courage out of recklessness.
You have courage in hopes of his reward
That no matter what they inflict upon us
as a community or as individuals,
no matter what they do to our people,
I want you to know, dear brothers and
sisters, that every single shahid in Gaza
that exited this world
in the most horrific of ways,
if you were to ask them, would you
wanna come back to this world? Each one
of them would say absolutely
not.
Except to be a shahid again.
Because in His divine plan,
the greater the pain, the greater the reward,
and all of it will eventually transpire
in His victory on earth
and his dominion in the hereafter.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is not making mistakes.
Allah does not make mistakes.
It is one of the strangest things in
the world to hear someone outside
of the people of Gaza
say why is this happening to them where
the people of Gaza never asked that question
about themselves.
If there was anyone
that would have the nerve
to say why, it would be the people
that are the greatest recipients
of the torment
of the Israeli and the American governments right
now as this genocide is cocarried out by
the 2,
but they don't.
They know why they're here.
They trust Allah's plan.
They are anchored in that plan,
and there's a different type of fear.
I wanna bring it to
each one of us.
I too am afraid.
I'm not afraid
of the enemies of our people.
I'm not afraid of this government. I'm not
afraid of Israel.
Not afraid of their power.
I'm afraid of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, asking
me why I didn't do more for the
people of Gaza.
There's a difference between being afraid
there's a difference between being afraid of the
worldly consequences for your actions
and being afraid of the divine consequences for
your inaction.
At some
point, we look back,
and we see ourselves
in this twisted moment of history
where different worlds collide
endlessly and instantly on our phone constantly,
where you live in 1, but your mind
is somewhere else, your heart is somewhere else,
and fear
is a tactic
that is used by those who masquerade as
powers on this earth
to paralyze you from pursuing truth.
It's the oldest tactic in the book
to crucify and to mutilate,
to make an example out of someone so
that no one else ever thinks about standing
up in the same way that they stood
up,
to humiliate and berate so that a person
has more fear of their reputation
than of their resurrection.
It's the oldest
tactic in the book
and in every single episode of Empire in
History.
At some point,
you meet a people who just don't fear
you.
At some point,
every pharaoh
meets a follower of Moses.
At some point,
every
tyrant meets someone who has the power of
faith
that is not afraid to stand up to
them and to speak a word of truth
in their face even if that means that
their bodies will be taken away from them
because they operate with an understanding that we
are souls
with bodies, not bodies with souls,
and that this world is a temporary stop
in our story of existence
and not the end all.
And they wanna meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
having said that they did right
by the moment,
that they did right by their brothers and
sisters.
I'm afraid. I'm just not afraid of them.
I fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I don't
fear his creation. We fear the consequences from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We don't fear the
consequences of these people.
For too long, dear brothers and sisters, we
have been shackled.
We've been shackled by fear
in this country speaking for our brothers and
sisters
overseas.
We've been shackled by fear
to speak for our brothers and sisters
right here at home.
You have political prisoners
who it would be
terrifying
to say their names
from a convention stage
because to challenge
the United States security apparatus is to put
yourself in its path,
And so we sat by.
The HLF 5, the Holy Land Foundation 5
were taken away from
us. Doctor Afia Siddiqui
was put away,
And by the way, her sister is here,
and I want you to say Allahu Akbar
as loud as you can to show that
we will stand with doctor Afia. Takbir.
I want you to know
that your sister is not forgotten by this
community.
Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin was put away
in a sham trial,
a leader
in this country,
a hero in this country,
and many of us looked away
because to support the HLA 5,
to support Afiyyah,
to support Imam Jamil
is to risk staining yourself
with what they were smeared with.
It's time for us to take a page
out of the book of the people of
Gaza
and to show that we are not afraid.
We are not afraid to speak the truth.
We are not afraid to bear the consequences
of the truth.
We are not afraid
of the people of falsehood.
We are afraid of meeting
the creator who sent his messenger sallallahu alaihi
wasallam in truth,
for truth holding us accountable
for our silence.
Now here's the good news.
Here's the good news, dear brothers and sisters.
You're seeing courage
bred all over the world right now on
college campuses,
in the streets of the United States,
and Germany, and France.
Throughout the entire world, they have not been
able to quell
the fever
that has been born out of Palestine.
They have tried to torment.
They have tried to suppress.
They have failed in every regard.
They will continue to fail insha'Allah.
They have overplayed their hands because they have
hearts of stone and they do not understand
what is in our hearts and the hearts
of the people of Palestine.
Our fear is born out of faith, and
our faith
requires Tawakkul trusting in the divine plan, and
the divine plan is victory
for our ummah
and reward for every single person
that sacrifices in his cause.
We are not afraid to stand for the
truth and face the consequences. I wanna end
with one thing Insha'Allah ta'ala. Some of you
might have seen,
this particular brother
get thrown out of, Anthony Blinken's
hearing the other day.
I don't know if you all know this,
but this administration does not like nicknames.
And so what do you call Joe Biden?
Joe Biden.
What do you call Joe Biden?
What do you call Joe Biden?
That's good.
He doesn't like that.
Staff doesn't like it.
It's humiliating. It's embarrassing,
And only Allah knows what he's gonna see
in his sleep tonight and talk about tomorrow,
but his failure to see
the tens of thousands of Palestinians
massacred
by his constant sign off
requires
that we challenge him,
that we shame him
because this is perhaps
of the most shameful episodes of American history,
Anthony Blinken
doesn't like the nickname,
Blinkin the Butcher.
Came out in one of the leaks of
the State Department.
Some of you saw this brother,
Mohammed Hebba. Come on up here.
I just had to do this to make
sure he doesn't heckle my speech.
I saw him backstage and I was like,
Alhamdulillah, you're not arrested again.
Because it seems like he's always in jail.
Mohammed and
our brave brothers and sisters from Columbia and
those that you have seen
have stood in the face of the tyrant
here
and have said to them what they hate
to hear,
but in the process delivered a clear message
to the rest of the country and to
the world
that we will not rest until Palestine is
freed.
And you know what's amazing about about what
and by the way, I have to say
that this is the incredible work, mashaAllah, of
AMP, American Muslims for Palestine,
the Irvine 11, who I shouted out earlier
today who set a precedent
for student activists as well. All of the
work that AMP is doing, all of the
work
that our brothers and sisters are doing that
are challenging
this government, this administration
at every turn. Somehow,
he managed to speak longer while getting arrested
than I did in the last like 30
minutes.
Really impressive,
But this isn't a joke.
This isn't a joke.
We do this
because we feel like we have to,
and we fear the consequences of our inaction,
and we fear meeting our Creator
with that level of neglect for His creation.
If the people of Gaza are special,
advocacy for them is special.
And to all of the Zionists that will
be reporting on this event, I want you
to know from this crowd that this community
will not turn its back on a single
Muslim figure that is targeted
by this
state and will not turn its back on
a single institution or organization that is targeted
by the United States government, whether it's a
Democratic
administration
or a Republican
administration.
We are all ICNA. We are all MAS.
We are all CARE. We are all AMP.
We will not allow them to isolate us
and to pit us against each other and
to smear or stain or surveil one of
us without the entire community saying back off.
And here's what I'm gonna have Mohammed do
because
I know that they're here. It's always nice.
You know, the Islamophobic outlets report more on
the ICCAN Convention than it seems like Muslim
media does as a whole. So I know
that y'all are here.
I want Mohammed to lead
some chants for Palestine here, and I want
this to be
the loudest
the loudest. We got walls here. We got
all these thousands of people contained. I want
you say what you wanted to really say
to Anthony,
the butcher blinking.