Omar Suleiman – What If I Cannot Look Anymore
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AI: Transcript ©
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and bearing witness that none has the right
to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for
him. And we were bear witness that Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
is his final messenger.
We ask Allah to send his peace and
blessings upon him. The prophets and messengers that
came before him, his family and companions that
served alongside him, and those that follow in
his blessed path until the day of judgment,
and we ask Allah to make us amongst
them.
Dear brothers and sisters,
there was an auntie that
spoke to me last week and I want
to start with her story and then come
back to it.
And she conveyed
a very interesting sentiment.
She said to me,
sheikh, am I sinful
if I don't look at the images that
are coming out of Gaza anymore
because I can no longer consume
those images?
Am I sinful
if I don't look at those images anymore
because I am on antidepressants
because I cannot handle
those images.
I'm gonna leave that inquiry
for a few minutes insha Allah ta'ala and
move on to a framing that I pray
will help us address this question in light
of a deeper question.
There is this sentiment that I can't look
and I can't look is not the same
as I don't want to look.
And there's a difference between not wanting to
look because you feel helpless and you cannot
do anything for the people that you are
seeing on the screen
and I don't want to look because it
ruins my own happiness, my own day and
inability
to function and I'd rather not know
because out of sight is not always out
of mind.
Out of sight is not always out of
mind.
And so it brings us to this idea
of meaningful
consumption. What does meaningful consumption look like? And
I wanna give you a few scenes
that might seem like they're unrelated
at the onset.
I want you to first and foremost think
about the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
That when the Quran is recited, then listen
attentively
and be quiet so that mercy may come
to you.
It may be that some people as they're
driving to Jum'ah
are having conversations and the Quran is on
in the background.
It may be that you walk into a
store and the Quran is playing in the
background
while no one is actually paying attention to
what's being recited and there's no intention to
pay attention
to what's being recited.
It may be that a few people are
praying and it's been common in our gatherings
that a group is praying maghrib or isha
and the rest of the gathering is having
their conversations
as if they are competing with the recitation
from the salah.
I want you to put that on the
side.
And then I actually wanna take you back
to something subhanallah I remember experiencing
that I felt very strange and I know
it came from a good place but I
remember feeling like it was very strange. I
remember when I was studying overseas and the
war of Iraq
happened
and
the scenes which is very common now,
the news channels being turned on and the
devastation playing in the background of a dinner
gathering.
And while you see people that are devastated
on the TV screen
and everything falling apart in their lives,
another group of people having dinner and inevitably
in the very beginning when you get to
the gathering, people sit on the couch, look
at the TV and they say, and
then they start talking to each other.
And eventually,
the devastating scenes become background
noise as well.
I want you to think of another thing.
We have seen the uptick of homelessness
in our lives.
Beggars wherever you go.
And we have accustomed ourselves that when you
pass by those things, keep your head down
and don't look at it.
And there may be some reasoning to it
that you can't give everybody everything and it's
hard to, you know, to really get into
who's deserving and who's not deserving but the
point is a very unnatural
intentional
ignoring of what is happening.
What is it with our attention span to
what is meaningful?
And why is it that eventually we tune
things out? And at what point does indifference
become sinful? And so I wanna give you
a principle
that to be meaningfully present with something for
a short time
is more beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
than to leave something on in the background
for a long time.
And so I actually start with the Quran.
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to the
idea that when the Quran is being recited,
listen to it, listen
to
it. And Allah
makes very clear, be quiet.
So that mercy may come to you. That
it is indeed according to the majority of
scholars
sinful in fact to have the Quran playing
in the background just as background noise. This
is different from someone that's reviewing hifth while
they're going about their day and they have
it on so that they can try to
reflect upon it or try to review their
hifth. This is different from someone that is
trying to reflect. But the idea of just
reducing it to noise could actually become sinful
because it creates the wrong type of relationship
between you and the Quran.
The Quran
is not meant to be heard in the
background, it's meant to penetrate
deeply into your heart.
And so to reflect and listen meaningfully
for a few minutes is better than just
having it on somewhere and talking over it
especially becomes sinful.
Right? If that's what it's reduced to.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't want you
to just hear it.
Allah azza wa jal wants you to reflect
upon it. There is an attention span with
divine revelation.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had that
attitude. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam had that
approach to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's word being
descended upon him and being recited around him
alaihi salatu waslam where it immediately caught his
attention
and it was as if nothing else
was in the background
once the Quran was being recited. And subhanAllah,
the ilhamah mentioned, look at the profundity of
this that the prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam
used to receive the Quran
from Jibreel alaihis salam
in a way that would flatten the mountains.
But if he heard ibn Mas'ud radiAllahu anhu,
or Abu Musa ash radiAllahu anhu, or Abad
bin Bishr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, or Hudayf ibn
al Imam radiAllahu anhu. Reading the Quran, the
prophet shalallahu alaihi wa sallam was immediately penetrated.
He immediately stopped
and he listened to alaihi salatu wassalam and
he paid attention
and he interacted with it in a deep
and profound way. But the idea of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam hanging out with
the companions in the Quran being recited somewhere
in the background, it's not there because that
creates the wrong type of relationship.
That's not mindful consumption and reflection of the
words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Those are the ayaat of Ar Rahman, the
ayaat of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as in
the verses of the Quran and
there are also ayaat as in signs of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all around us at
all times.
And there are different signs.
And of those signs
is tragedy.
Of those signs
is difficulty.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wanted
his companions to get the point
that never
stroll or scroll past something without thinking about
what just happened,
without being meaningful and mindful about what you
just saw, about what you just heard. SubhanAllah,
even when it comes to
even when it comes to funerals,
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam
was the one that would go, that he
would be in the grave alaihi wasalam to
receive his companions and the prophet salallahu alaihi
wasalam told us to visit the graveyard because
it reminds you of death. Go to it.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam would would've frowned
upon someone who was talking about something other
than the affair of death during the janazah.
And you see it happening where people start
their conversations.
The body is not even buried yet and
people are already talking about something else.
See it all the time. It's strange. It's
weird. It's counter fitra.
It's an opposition to who we're supposed to
be.
But that's not our messenger sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
He gave the sahaban attitude where when the
janazah was happening, it was as if there
were birds on their heads.
Why? Because they were silent in their dua,
immersed in their individual dua.
Make dua for your brother, fa inna hul
aana yustal he's being asked right now.
Ask Allah to grant him firmness. And people
were in their dua immersed in the affair
at hand. And the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam did not want people to lose that
even when it wasn't the janazah of one
of the sahaba. So if there is an
equivalent to scrolling,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam sitting
with his sahabah
and the janazah of a Jewish man in
Madinah passes by.
The natural Muslim reaction was that's not our
janazah. It's just like someone on a highway,
right, coming by, the hearse comes by, you
don't interrupt your phone call, you don't It's
just something passing by, something across our screen,
something across our sight.
But the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam stood up.
He stood up and he said, alaihi salatu
waslam, he's narrated 3 things. He said, number
1, alaihis salafsan, is it not a human
being? Is it not a human soul?
Number 2, kumna lil malaika, we stood for
the angels.
Number 3, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam was
narrated to have said,
death is not a light matter.
Death is severe. I don't want you to
get used to this idea of sitting
and a janazah passes by even if you're
not gonna follow that janazah and participate in
any ritual and make du'a for the dead.
I don't want you to get used to
the idea of a janazah passing by you
and you just sit and continue on with
your conversation
as if nothing just happened, as if Allah
did not just strike you with a stern
reminder.
Something I witnessed just a few weeks ago,
I was in a Muslim country, let me
not say what Muslim country it is, that
always
goes the wrong way. I was in a
Muslim country and there was it was a
tourist site, a big famous mas'id and it
was a tourist site
and there was a janaza
that was to happen in that famous masjid.
And so the body of the person that
had passed away was outside in the courtyard
of the masjid and a few family members
standing around crying.
And because people were in their tourist mindset,
people were walking around them with their phones
and and filming them.
If you've been to Jannah Al Baqir in
Madinah,
people are being buried in Madinah. You have
a crying father burying his child, you have
people burying their brothers and sisters and their
parents, and you have people with their cell
phones trying to catch it all on footage.
It's strange.
It's not who we're supposed to be.
There's a human problem. There's a Muslim problem
of how you interact with what is in
front of you of a very serious affair
that you're supposed to look, but not just
look. Look in a certain way. Look with
a certain lens.
Look with your heart,
and be mindful about what you're seeing.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was not
a person who could stroll by a person
in tragedy
or who a person would come to, alayhi
salatu wa sallam, and he would do nothing
for. SubhanAllah, very powerful narration that comes to
my mind sometimes
in this regard and I and I thought
about it with this sister that I mentioned
in the beginning of this khutbah. There was
a woman by the name of Bujayed radiallahu
ta'ala Anha. She's one of those who gave
allegiance to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam early
on. She was an Ansari woman
and the Ansar had that beautiful spirit.
Giving selfless spirit. That's what they're praised for
in the Quran.
And she said,
That a man comes and he stands at
my door, a poor person comes to my
door and I don't have anything to give
him. What do I do?
The prophet
says to her,
he says,
even if you don't have in your house,
which is literally a burnt sheep's foot.
Like what value is a burnt sheep's foot
to a person?
He's saying, if that's the only thing you
can find in your house,
then the prophet
said, put it in his hands.
Put it put it in his hands so
that he doesn't live leave your home empty
handed. Subhanallah, if that's all you have to
offer
in this situation, is that you could go
and you could find a burnt sheep foot,
just don't let someone come to your door
with their hand open
and then you send them away empty handed,
that it wouldn't be good for you.
That is the prophetic ethic. How much we
can act upon it,
that's a different story.
Now, what does this have to do with
the moment
that we're in right now where things become
so distant,
things become so digital, things become
so extra.
We are inundated
with imagery
of tragedy
all the time,
and sometimes we don't know how to interact
with it anymore.
And
you know, I I I was heartbroken at
the idea of a Sudan,
all eyes on Sudan. It was a hashtag
because no one's even had their eyes on
a Sudan
throughout this entire tragedy of devastation.
When people have to say, look at us.
Look at what we're going through.
Then that shows you the devastation in the
world today. When you open up your feed
on social media and you see another
Palestinian's
child blowing off or in pieces.
It's not normal.
We've seen more people in pieces in the
last year than we've probably seen in our
entire lives unless we lived in a war
zone,
And you're trying to audition
dead Palestinians for the empathy
of heartless people in the west to say,
look at this you hypocrites.
Look at this.
This is your money.
These are your weapons. This is your policy.
Look, look, look, and eventually it gets exhausting.
And you don't know what to do with
that anymore. At this point now, what do
I do when I'm inundated with these images
and at this point, I'm just shut off?
I can't even look anymore. I just scroll
quicker
because when I see it, it breaks me.
I can't look at the video. I can't
look at the picture. I don't know if
I wanna share it. I don't know if
I wanna see it.
At that point, dear brothers and sisters, and
this is where I wanna bring this to,
I wanna first and first and foremost remind
you.
1st and foremost,
it doesn't matter how much you stare,
what matters is how much you care.
You're not sinful
for the amount of minutes or hours that
you spend watching that stuff.
You're sinful for neglect.
And so, it's not that Allah
will hold you to task
for how many minutes you spent looking.
Because just like if one ayah of the
Quran passes you by and you stop and
you read that ayah of the Quran and
you deeply reflect on it and you make
du'a for that ayah of the Quran, if
you come across just one of those images,
one of those stories and you stop and
you make du'a,
You have the name of that person. You
put your phone to the side. You put
your computer away, and you make dua. And
you exert that brokenness
and emotion into a sincere supplication with Allah
And if the name of that person was
mentioned, you mentioned that person's name in your
dua and you connect to that person just
like you would have gotten the news if
your own son or daughter just died.
Then that is far more beloved to Allah
then.
You're not tasked for that.
You don't have to do that part.
And I'm not saying neglect it altogether,
nor am I inviting selfishness.
Look. There is a reality here
that it's important for us
to consume of it what is necessary to
activate us and to spread awareness, but
you're not tasked
with a certain amount here. You're tasked with
how much you care. You're tasked with how
much you do. You're tasked with how much
you allow that to activate you in a
certain way. And if it shuts you off
at some point,
that's not where Allah
barrier is.
It's not where the threshold is met.
But don't neglect it altogether.
Don't neglect it altogether.
Also don't scroll and this is this the
algorithm of the devil, it is the algorithm
of shaitan
that you scroll
from people dying
and crying
to people laughing and in joy.
You scroll
from devastation
to complete meaningless
nonsense that's that's often degenerate.
Degenerate nonsense.
And that's how the algorithm feeds you
because it desensitizes
you and it makes you indifferent to it
all. That's not who we are.
Don't scroll from the dead baby
to a laughing idiot.
Scroll from the dead baby to some moments
with the Quran and du'a.
Go from that image
to a moment of reflection
because otherwise that social media is gonna kill
whatever is left of your fitra just like
it's doing for everything else. Whatever is left
of your natural goodness will go with that.
Don't stop that human
element that Allah azza wa jal put inside
of you to meaningfully engage when you do
see. It's far more beloved to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And then I come back to this,
the conversation of
with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
It's not just a burnt sheep's foot
that you can physically give.
Let not one of those images confront you,
except that you give something equivalent to the
burnt sheep's foot of your emotion, of your
du'a, of your action.
I know it's hard for us to continue
to act.
It's hard for us to continue to do
whatever is in our capacity.
But Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, calls upon us
to act within our capacity.
Fear Allah as much as you can.
Jahidoo,
strive.
Waladhinajahadoo
fina lanahdyanamsubulalaa,
and you'll be guided
to the next path.
Strive in your capacity.
Keep on going and doing what you can.
Do not let the fatigue of emotion
lead to
the fruitlessness of your efforts.
Don't let it crush your efforts.
Keep going, doing what we can as a
community.
And at the end of the day,
we know
that we see them
and Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, sees them.
And the difference between
our sights
and the sight of Allah,
and there is no comparison of our sight
and the sight of Allah
but in this regard,
especially,
is that Allah
will compensate them accordingly,
and Allah
will not let their pain go to waste.
Watched that 5 year old boy
breathe his last breath
2 days ago.
Killed by devils, greeted by angels.
While we're grieving him,
he's already being greeted by Allah
into his new abode and his new home.
If we don't have that
we will shut down when we don't see
justice in this world. But we have that
tawakkul,
that trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
divine justice is inevitable
and it's all encompassing.
And that of his divine justice
is that he would take us to task
if we did not do what was upon
us when we see such blatant injustice in
front of our eyes. May Allah Azzuzal forgive
us for our shortcomings. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala forgive us for our shortcomings. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our hearts, our minds,
our eyes, our efforts to be activated for
His sake. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow
us to do for our brothers and sisters
what will benefit them by His permission. And
may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
allow us
to not be taken to task
for the shortcomings that we have and forgive
us for our shortcomings
and instead, may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, guide
us to the tasks and to the ways
that are pleasing to Him. And may Allah
'azhu wa za'l keep those intentions sincerely for
his sake and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
keep those efforts blessed and may Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala guide us to collective action that
is good and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protect us from collective indifference.