Omar Suleiman – Uphold The Right Of People

			The last a lot of Samarra sweetie la vida honey, he was happy woman. Voila.
		

			inshallah Tada, since this is a workshop, and there should be some interaction, and there should be
some q&a and significant q&a, and I know that mother that was coming up. And I don't want to take
away from what sister Linda has to say she's the guest from out of town. I'm local here. So pretty
much everything that I say you've heard before, when we speak about this topic. So when we talk
about this topic, in particular, I actually don't want to lace this particular discussion with too
much about the ahaadeeth from the Prophet sallallahu wasallam and the IRS about the need to stand
for justice. Why because you've heard those before. You've heard the IOD you've heard the ahaadeeth
		

			you you know from the Sierra of your Prophet sallallahu wasallam, how our Prophet it has a lot to us
that I'm upset upheld justice, not just for his own community, but for other than his community for
everyone else. In fact, the norm was to uphold it for outside of his community. But how much of that
has translated in the last however many decades as we've been talking about this in this community,
how much of that has actually translated into action, where we actually do uphold justice for other
communities, and stand with those who are marginalized, and stand against the oppression and the
supremacy that harms not just our community, but as harm harm to other communities before us for
		

			generations. And there are a few concepts that I want to lay forth but I don't want to spend too
much time on that which is conceptual. The first of them is when we do talk about our Prophet
sallallahu wasallam something common that you may have heard in many different talks that the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a saw that I mean before he was also the law, that for 40
years, the profit slice in him was the trustworthy one, the truthful one, then he is the Messenger
of Allah sallallahu wasallam at the age of 40, when he receives the revelation, Now typically when
you hear that and you think truthfulness, what comes to your mind when you think about slips, when
		

			you think about truthfulness?
		

			What What comes to your mind when you think about truthfulness?
		

			Anybody
		

			nobody knows anything about truthfulness? It's not a good sign,
		

			telling the truth,
		

			what is an
		

			integrity? Mashallah, telling the truth, integrity. Now, if we talk about spoken truth, first and
foremost, a specific beliefs on a levy law. So the the first quality of a person who's truthful is
that they don't line up. Hello, one of the scholars of the Sierra actually said something, I was
listening to a lecture by the scholar. And I don't remember which scholar it was. But he recalled
something that was very, very interesting. He said that if you look in the history of the Arabs,
before the Prophet sallallahu, Alayhi, wasallam, you know, the Arab were strange, because they were
incredibly backwards on some things. And they were incredibly noble and other things, they have
		

			traits, and they had values that they held firm to, that were incredibly noble, without any religion
without any order without any standardized code. And they had some things like burying their
daughters alive, you know, other you know, things that you look at, and you just think that the most
backwards people in the world, right, but they're the particular qualities that they were known for,
were qualities that were praiseworthy in Islam and qualities that were enhanced by Islam. And what
this scholar pointed out, is that if you look at the ATA, even before the Prophet sallallahu,
Alayhi, wasallam, lying was not something that they used to do.
		

			The most low person or the lowest person in that society would not lie, Kevin was something that was
looked down upon by them. And in fact, even when Islam came, they had to be very honest about who
they thought the prophet SAW, I saw them was, and when they were asked about his qualities, I think
his thought was solid, they could not deny His qualities that we've only seen good from him. we've
only seen that he's a noble man, and so on, so forth, meaning that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam was not assigned the names. I mean, I saw that because he spoke the truth all the time,
because that was not something that was extraordinary in that society. That was not exceptional in
		

			that society, speaking the truth was the norm of that society, but his actions. I think his thought
was his integrity, his consistency, and standing up for people, his nobility, it is taught to us to
love his
		

			humility. All of that contributes to these names that were given to him. I think his Salatu was
Salam that he was known for being a man of consistency. A man who would stand up for anybody, a man
who would always take the side of the oppressed, whether or not the oppressor was from his tribe or
not, which was huge in that society. That was the exceptional part of that society, willing to take
the side of the oppressed, even when the oppressor is from your people. That was practically unheard
of amongst the auto because it was a tribal system. No matter how wrong your tribesmen was, he was
part of your tribe and you have to have his back the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not
		

			abide by that particular code. And he was respected for that sallallahu wasallam this idea of
upholding the rights of the weakest of the citizens. Now some of you might have heard a Juma today I
told the story, very beautiful Hadith where the prophets I seldom asked the companions from habitat
he asked, as Java will the law and binaries. What was the strangest thing you saw on Abyssinia? And
they said, We saw an old nun, an old woman, a nun that was carrying a huge water container on her
head, and a young man came and shoved her.
		

			And as she fell to her knees and the container broke, she said to that man, she said to that young
man very poetic words, obviously I'm paraphrasing it. She said to that young man, you know, oh, he
she called him
		

			a thug or a hoodlum. Right. And she said to him, you will come to know of your situation my
situation when Allah subhana wa tada sets up His courtesy on the day of judgment and the hands and
the feet start to speak and they testify of all that they used to do as the first and the last of
the last creation are all gathered together and the profit slice and I'm said socket socket socket,
she told the truth. She told the truth she told the truth. How can Allah honor an oma that does not
stand up to the oppressors that does not stand up for their vulnerable when they're being oppressed
by the stronger ones in their society How can a lot do any good for that? oma How can I honor that
		

			oma, we talked about that. And we said that the Prophet slicin um, cultivated a culture where that
was looked down upon this idea of allowing going to go unchecked against the weaker people of
society that was looked down upon that was frowned upon harbor. We're not used to that. In fact,
		

			I forgot this part.
		

			The very famous speech that Jaffa wrote the allot of time who read to an A joshy when he went to
Abyssinia, and he addressed the joshy, the Leader of Opposition Yeah, highlighting what Islam is.
JOHN Farrow, the low tide I knew as a 21 year old men, young men, addressing the joshy, about the
effect of the religion on him, and on the companions of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. And he
says, oh, King, we were a people in a state of ignorance and immorality, worshipping idols, and
eating the flesh of dead animals, committing all sorts of abomination and shameful deeds, breaking
the ties of kinship, treating guests badly, and the strong amongst us exploited the weak. We
		

			remained in the state until a law sent us a profit. One of our own people whose lineage
truthfulness, trustworthiness and integrity were well known to us. He called us to worship Allah
alone, and to renounce the stones and the idols which we in our ancestors used to worship beside a
lot. He commanded us to speak the truth to honor our promises to be kind to our relatives, to be
helpful to our neighbors to cease all forbidden acts, to abstain from bloodshed to avoid obscenities
and bearing false witness to not appropriate and orphans property or slander a pure woman, he
ordered us to worship Allah alone and not associate anything with him to uphold the law, to give the
		

			cat and to fast in the month of Ramadan, we believed in him and what he brought to us from Allah and
we follow him and what he has asked him we keep away from what he has forbade us from the speech
goes on. The point is, this address of Jaffa was in the fifth year after Prophethood. There's 18
years of Islam, Not yet Not yet. completed.
		

			The entire many phases not yet there. Most of the religion is not yet codified. All that had been
revealed in the Quran was some of them are possible at some of the smaller suitors of the Quran.
There wasn't much of the religion because you have to keep in consideration five years after the
barista after the prophets lie. Some receive revelation half of that time the prophets lie some of
them was not even able to preach publicly.
		

			So the way that this was formulated the
		

			fact that the religion is not sophisticated, and have that much of an effect on Jennifer all the
allow on one on the Society of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam before the religion is even
codified, imagine what Jonathan's speech would have looked like. If he would have lived to the last
day of the prophets, Eliza. Imagine if Java was giving the speech.
		

			After the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam passed away after the religion had been complete, what
more would he have said of it, which means that the prophets lie some reformed their ethics and
placed within them the sense that you have to stand up for the weak and you have to stand up for the
oppressed. Now I'm gonna move to our contemporary times.
		

			There are a few problems we have as Muslims with this. Number one, we will not attend any type of
social justice events, any community organizing event, unless we're speaking.
		

			And that's a major problem. We don't show up for anyone else. Unless we have a seat at the table.
Unless we're speaking, unless we have a role to play. Suddenly, when we are targeted as a community,
we expect everyone to be up in arms and to stand for us. What do I mean by that? There are multiple
community organizing events, you see sister Linda at a Bernie Sanders rally, which was pretty cool,
admittedly, right? You don't see her at the community organizing events where there are no cameras,
and it's not glamorous to be there. days and days and days and days of that.
		

			You go, you work, you plan, you organize, not for the Muslim community, for the marginalized,
period.
		

			You stand up for people, and you're there as a supporter, not because you want them to turn around
and help your community because your religion calls you to them. You don't want to lost them. I
don't know how to mention about us punakha wamena Lila, be witnesses for a loss. I don't want to
show her that the
		

			people that stand for justice. If there was one thing that the Muslim community should be known for
its justice, we should be known as a community by for Anak terminology as the community when anyone
is being wrong, we know the Muslim community will be there, we know that they will be present. That
means something.
		

			The social justice marches, the Black Lives Matter protest, even if we have nothing to say, Your
presence there matters.
		

			Your visibility matters, your supporter, I don't have to speak. I don't have to say anything. I
don't have to be recognized. This doesn't have to be an official platform for us as a community. But
we're supposed to be there. How many speeches? Have you heard about social justice? And how often is
our community out there for somebody else, yet we expect somehow that people are going to come to
our aid.
		

			When we're targeted as a community, when we ignore the oppression and repression of communities that
have been repressed for hundreds of years, and we say absolutely nothing about it and do absolutely
nothing about it. This is not enough.
		

			Your hookah and your message, it is not enough.
		

			You got to be there. You have to show your support.
		

			And you have to be vocal, that it's absolutely unacceptable, that anyone is targeted. And when the
messenger Salalah. It was on one of the things about headphones. When the prophets lie, some
gathered with multiple tribes of the Arab society at the time, before Islam and the profit slice on
took a covenant, a pledge that if anyone is targeted, anyone no matter what tribe they are, if
anyone is wronged, then society as a whole will side with the one who's wronged the prophets, like
some said, after Islam, if I am called to that pledge again, then I will witness it. And one of the
and one of the things that scholars mention here is the prophets lie. Selim said, If I am called
		

			meaning we don't have to initiate it.
		

			If someone calls me to a call of justice, even if I have nothing to do with its initiation, and he
is the prophet of God, he's a little sooner lost a lot. He was Selim, I'll be there. I'll be a part
of that.
		

			And so we don't always have to have a seat. We don't always have to have the podium. But it needs to
be a consistent presence of Muslims. And not all Muslims are cut off for it, that's fine. But
someone has to be there. It has to be a consistent presence of Muslims for causes that are not
exclusively Muslim.
		

			And we've also got to go to the difficult, long organizing events. We've got to be a part of that
stuff. And you know what happens when your community is targeted? Other people say we know them, and
not just we know the Muslims or we'll go stand with them at the masjid. I know Muhammad.
		

			I know a smile.
		

			I know it, I know this person, I know that person, someone can actually send you a text and say,
Hey, listen, what can we do for your community? We're gonna come stand with you, we're not going to
tolerate this. I know those people. Those are the people that stood with us.
		

			Those are the people that were there for us. So social justice, is to initiate causes, to actually
take the lead, and doing things for people and upholding the rights of people that are not
necessarily Muslim. It's also to join hands with other people who are the victims of social in
social injustice, or repression, even if you're not initiating and even if you're not speaking. And
thirdly, and this is going to be very, very blunt.
		

			as Muslims, I alluded to this in the hope but we need to abandon respectability politics, no one is
going to suddenly appreciate us or except us, if we start to appear in every magazine appear on
every TV station. And look, I'm Muslim, and you can you can throw out every visit Han in the world
and the pocket constitution, that stuff is temporary, it's not going to work. never in the history
of this country, have people who are being oppressed, stopped being oppressed, because
		

			people's good conscience suddenly woke up and said, We shouldn't be doing that. to them. Slavery
didn't end because slave owners said, you know, it's, it's wrong to be doing this.
		

			Right. You know, African Americans were not granted voting rights.
		

			Because suddenly, you know, the white America as a whole said, you know, what we should let black
people vote. They organize, they fought, they marched, they demanded their rights.
		

			If you think as a Muslim community, that the more we can appear American and say, accept me, bring
me in love me, I'm just like you that suddenly things are gonna change, you're out of your minds.
That's delusional. No community has ever done that, and it's not going to work for us. However, if
you are part of a coalition
		

			of people that demand the rights of everyone, then you can bet that that coalition will be there for
you. And that's the direction that will always take and Allah subhana wa, tada would protect this
community and bring justice for this community. So I'll give you a last example. You know, when we
talk about police brutality in this gym, Mashallah, there was a there was a community organizing
event, a community building event, where we had the urban police come and they played basketball
with some of the members of our community, wonderful. You need to speak about police brutality as
well though.
		

			That's not going to solve the problem.
		

			Build relationships when it's healthy to do so. But be ethical, be moral, and be principled, and
continue to speak. Mothers Against police brutality should be here as well. They should be speaking
here as well. And last thing by the way, there are a lot of people some how to lie in our community
that are doing great work that are not getting the recognition most of them Islam. He Ma'am, harder
than that, that entire mustard what they do in the city of Dallas, what they've been doing for
decades, that they have dignity that they held, I was out of town. And I wish I could have been
there. How many of you went to they have dignity?
		

			Not many of you. That type of stuff. How was it? How was the dignity?
		

			made you more thankful? hamdulillah Didn't you wish that your community was out there? There we go.
Those types of things sister idea my shot lost his job. He stopped him from care the types of things
that she constantly does for this community. It was amazing when things happen in the community in
Dallas city officials, people inside Dallas would be like someone called idea because she can
organize something much quicker than everybody else. That's work. That's hard work behind the scenes
that needs to be appreciated and needs to be supported in our community.
		

			Pizza