Omar Suleiman – Who Do I Vote For A Message To American Muslims
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The importance of showing the truth and avoiding evil behavior in upcoming elections is emphasized. The use of duchesses and cautioning behavior is emphasized, along with the use of the "has been" concept to protect against evil and the importance of community and deeds for future generations. The success of the Sunents and the Prophet sallali alayhi being a powerful force is emphasized, along with the need for actions and deeds to be taken.
AI: Summary ©
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 bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi 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 their blessed
path until the day of judgment And we
ask Allah to make us amongst them.
Allahumma ameen.
Dear brothers and sisters I begin with a
du'a that we should be making frequently
in these days Allahumma arina alhaqqa haqqa warzuqna
attiba'a Wa arina albaatila baatila warzuqna jtinaba.
Oh Allah We ask you to show us
the truth as truth and then to enable
us to follow that truth And we ask
you to show us evil as evil and
then enable us to avoid that evil Allahumma
arina alhaqqa haqqa warzuqna attiba'a wa arina
albaatila baatila warzuqna jtinaba Before I get into
the subject of today I want us to
take a step back and to first and
foremost start from the basic premise That as
Muslims one of the things that makes us
unique is that we submit our entire Existence
to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and in that
process we submit our hearts and our minds
We submit our emotions and our intellect and
in that is an inherent humility That we
might get things wrong and that we want
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala To lead us to
what's right and that we commit ourselves to
doing what's right once what's right has been
made clear to us There is submission.
There's humility especially when things become Further unclear,
especially when difficulty becomes so much that it
can cloud our senses Why?
Because Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala mentions to us
that shall I not tell you about al
-akhsareena a'maala Not those who have lost an
election, not those who have lost a race,
not those who have lost a position But
those who have lost their good deeds Shall
I not tell you about those who have
lost their good deeds allatheena dhalla sa'yuhum
fil hayati al-dunya wa hum yahsabuna annahum
yuhsinuna sun'aa It is not those Who
fail to exert themselves?
It's those who exerted themselves in wrong while
being sure that they were right And so
I start from that place of humility for
all of us not just in regards to
the current climate but in regards to every
climate that we have and Now to the
elections and to what's ahead of us May
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide us to what's
right and may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala use
us in ways that are pleasing to him
Allahumma ameen It's not the first time that
I'm speaking about this election or what it
means or how we should move So I'm
not going to be able to say everything
in this khutbah But I do want to
share some things that are heavy on the
heart first and foremost How many people realistically
have you seen change their minds in the
last four months?
In the course of your discussions, your whatsapp
groups, your conversations online, your conversations at your
dinner table How many people have actually changed
their minds?
And if you're being honest with yourself, then
if you're lucky, maybe it's one or two
and so to say that people have their
mindsets is probably true for the vast majority
of Muslims as it is true for the
vast majority of Americans and that the rest
of this is a circus that plays out
and Unfortunately takes a lot of people along
the way and we accumulate many sins in
that process Number two, even if you've seen
someone change their minds When's the last time
you saw someone change their mind when you
call them a naive idiot or a soulless
sellout?
When you insulted them into changing their minds,
it doesn't happen.
Not online, not in real life You don't
walk through the masjid doors and say who
are you voting for?
I'm voting for this person.
You're this you're this You're that I think
you're right.
I'm gonna vote like, you know, it doesn't
happen like that in real life So let's
deal with the reality that we have right
now It's too late for me to try
to change your mind on anything, but I
hope bid me like it's had at least
something for the hearts in this last Juma
and So what I want us to do
first and foremost because it is Juma is
to go back to our du'as What
are the du'as that we should be
making in these times?
We have the du'a for guidance We
have the du'as that we are to
be making against our enemies and let's be
clear We have a clear enemy and we
should be making du'a against that clear
enemy and I want to share with you,
too One of them from Abdullah ibn Amr
al-Aas radiAllahu ta'ala anhuma He says
in the Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Kana
yad'u biha ula'il karimat that the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would frequently make
du'a with the following words Allahumma inni
a'udhu bika min ghalabati al-dayni wa
ghalabati al-adu wa shamatati al-a'da Allahumma
inni a'udhu bika min ghalabati al-dayni
wa ghalabati al-adu wa shamatati al-a'da
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would say,
oh Allah I seek refuge in you from
being overwhelmed by debt From being overpowered by
my enemy and from their gloating at my
misfortune.
It's the first du'a The second du
'a is a du'a that Abu Huraira
radiAllahu ta'ala anhu also reports as being
a frequent Supplication of our Messenger sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam.
He says kana nabiyu sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
Yata'awwadu min jahdi al-bala, wa darak
al-shaqa, wa suu'il qada, wa shamatati
al-a'da He said that the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam would frequently seek refuge from
four things Number one, jahdi al-bala, from
the severity of trials May Allah protect us
from the severity of trials, the types of
trials that Overwhelm our senses so that we
can't even see right and wrong anymore And
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would seek
refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from
darak al-shaqa from being met with deprivation
and The greatest deprivation is the deprivation of
faith, not the deprivation of anything else The
deprivation of faith when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala writes down upon you.
This person is shaqi Deprived of good Because
of their insistence upon taking a path of
evil and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
would seek refuge in Allah from suu'il
qada From the difficulty from being met with
an evil decree and may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala protect us from an evil decree
wa shamatati al-a'da and the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam would seek refuge in Allah
from the gloating of our enemies When our
enemies see us struggling, when they see us
fractured, when they see us Unable to protect
ourselves, when they see us unable to move
in a cohesive direction and they celebrate They
make jokes.
They make memes They celebrate our impotence.
They celebrate their supposed * over us May
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala show us a
day where they no longer gloat.
Allahumma ameen These du'as are incredibly important.
Not just because du'a is the weapon
of the believer Greater than any other weapon
or tool that we have But because they
help us calibrate and they help us think
about well What is a misfortune that will
do that to me?
What is an enemy that should be defined
that way?
And so first and foremost, who is your
enemy?
And I'll tell you that if you're a
sincere Muslim and I assume that of every
brother or sister that walks through the masjid
doors Then may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
reward you for your sincerity and I ask
Allah to guide you and to guide me
to the best Course of action.
You're not my enemy Even if I think
very differently from you.
Period.
A Muslim is a Muslim.
You are not my enemy I do not
think of you as an enemy Nor should
we think of each other as enemies because
of battle lines that are not the ones
that we take from the Quran and The
Sunnah being drawn between us.
We don't do that in our community No
matter how much we disagree No matter how
severe and real those disagreements become even if
a person is a sinful Muslim, you're a
Muslim You're not my enemy.
So I start with that Your enemy is
not your brother or sister Who's trying to
figure out what to do with this all?
Your enemy is the system of evil that
forces you to try to guess who's going
to genocide less Who's gonna oppress less?
Who's gonna kill less Muslims?
That's what your enemy is.
Your enemy is that evil but in that
process anyone who tries to sanitize or downplay
the evil of any party or any Politician
that has the blood of your brothers and
sisters on their hands needs to do some
soul-searching so there's a difference between trying
to calculate in the midst of an evil
a great evil that can be overwhelming with
sincerity and Sanitizing that very evil.
Those are two very different things in whatever
calculation You're making the worst human rights atrocity
of our lifetimes playing out on our screens
has to be the number one factor of
that calculation It starts with them We're not
the people of Gaza's bad, but so are
our groceries Nor are we the people that
insult Palestinians or use the word Palestinian as
an insult?
Because there is no greater honor right now
than standing with the most honored people on
earth And those are the Palestinians that are
fighting this cruel beast right now So we're
not we're not those people and when we
make our calculations We have to make sure
that we are operating with sincerity to our
cause as an umma No matter what that
is and I want us all to recognize
that while we're glued to our screens on
Tuesday night Seeing a percentage move this way
or a percentage move that way and seeing
this political football.
I Want you to understand that at that
very moment Your brothers and sisters in Gaza
and Lebanon will be looking to the skies
to see if there is a movement of
an American bomb Some of the manufactured by
General Dynamics here in Dallas that's going to
fall on them in that moment they're not
looking at things the way that you're looking
at things and That's your brother That's your
sister and that has to be the number
one concern that is on your heart and
your mind at all times But what if
in that calculation?
We get this wrong What if we don't
take the right course of action as a
community even with the right?
Intentions and even with the right mechanics to
arrive at the right goal What if we
get this wrong not just in regards to
our vote by the way a vote for
anyone or not voting at all?
Not just in regards to that but in
regards to anything in regards to our strategies
sincere strategies through a class through Shura through
Through deeply contemplating the Sunnah together, which is
the Sunnah to try to figure things out
as a collective community What if we get
things wrong in our lives?
I want you to ponder this Hadith and
Subhanallah, it's a powerful Hadith and I don't
want to lose the context because sometimes We
can be highly dishonest if we speak of
a Hadith like this without situating it in
the context this Hadith is talking about bedded
or a hood a person that has been
in charge with holding an arrow an Archer
who has to watch the backs of the
Muslims and has direct orders from the Prophet
Sallallahu alayhi wasallam to protect themselves against an
evil tyrant it is talking about that context,
but there's something deeply profound that the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam shared with the archers and
Some of the scars say that this was
before the battle of a hood Because of
the turkeys because of the focus that the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam had on that small
group of people and by the way Subhanallah
in that is deeply profound that it was
a group of 50 that were the key
strategy of the rest of the ummah in
this situation and When 40 of those 50
disobeyed it changed the entire dynamics of that
battle so think about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam speaking to you and you're one of
those archers whether it's the battle of Badr
or the battle of Uhud and Amr ibn
Abasa says I heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam say The
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said Whoever shoots an
arrow Whether that arrow hits its target or
misses its target That arrow will be equivalent
to the reward of freeing a person from
slavery Subhanallah think about that that message how
that resonates what that says to a person
Look, you're in this situation You're shooting your
arrows and to be clear because I know
how our khutbas get taken out of context
I'm not suggesting that you shoot an actual
arrow or shoot anything else at anybody else
Stick to the spirit of the hadith, please
What the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is putting
in their minds You're gonna shoot and sometimes
you're gonna miss You're going to strategize and
sometimes your strategy will fall apart You're gonna
make determinations and sometimes those determinations are going
to be dead wrong even if everyone around
you says they are absolutely right it's gonna
happen and In this situation in such a
clear and pure situation Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
is saying look whether it misses or not
You've just freed yourself from hellfire Because the
reward of freeing a person from slavery is
freeing yourself from hellfire as the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam said Limb by limb if you
free a person from slavery you free yourself
from hellfire So do your part Not just
tawakkal alallah don't sit there and beat yourself
up too much over the missed arrow over
the missed target It's about the spirit.
It's about who you are when you assume
that position It's about you calibrating with sincerity
and with clarity It's about you trying to
make sure that you take the right decision
I may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide us
to a sawab guide us to that which
is right in all of our affairs and
with that I Want to leave you with
five things, but if they're lying to Allah
as we go into this Tuesday number one
the definition of our community needs to change
to include our global community to speak of
American Muslims as if what they do only
affects them or that their interests are to
be spoken about in Isolation is a flagrant
violation of the concept of an ummah that
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has given to us
from the Quran and the Sunnah The Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
It's number one number two when you're a
part of that community When you're a part
of my community, you're a part of my
community.
No matter how much I disagree with you
and So your sanctity as a Muslim in
your honor in your dignity is Still just
as sacred as any other moment in our
existence So I still love you even when
I'm mad at you and I hope that
we get to Jannah together That's the spirit
of a community inside outside number three Don't
ever throw your community under the bus or
think that you're better than your community when
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ Or when they're with
the believers, they say that we're with you
وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَى شَيَاطِينِهِمْ And when they're with
their devils, they say no, we're with you
إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِيؤُونَ We're just making fun of
them We're just you know, shooing them around
Don't ever speak to anyone outside of this
community as if you're not a part of
it It's your community.
Don't ever throw your community under the bus
And you know what that means post-election
if a pro-genocide candidate from any party
loses an election or loses a race Don't
come back and yell at the Muslims yell
at the candidate that lost their morality and
lost the Muslim vote in the process Don't
yell at the community and say the community's
fault the community's fault the community's fault.
Absolutely not We're a community of clarity number
four staying focused on our common enemy and
fighting the common evil that we've all been
seeing means staying focused on the beast in
its entirety and Striving to the best of
our ability to tame that beast in its
entirety that doesn't happen through a vote in
isolation Especially if that vote is taken in
the spirit of insecurity We have to act
with confidence sincerity and a sense of security
Number five Allah is always in charge He's
in charge on November 4th.
He's in charge on November 5th He's in
charge on November 6th.
You get the point Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
is always in charge Inna hu laa yadhillu
man waalayt wa laa ya'izzu man adayt
No one who Allah befriends Will be humiliated.
No one who Allah takes as an enemy
will be honored Therefore we cannot seek power
or dignity through any candidate.
We seek it through our Creator alone And
we act with a sense of confidence in
that process alhamdulillah Whatever Allah throws our way
There is an opportunity for us Individually and
as a community to internalize that and to
find our path back to Jannah biidhnillahi ta
'ala May Allah guide us to what's right.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide our intentions.
May Allah guide our thinking May Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala guide our strategies May Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala guide our deeds and may Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us as a community
to be a pillar of strength For the
rest of the ummah and not to be
a pillar of weakness and not to be
a pillar that forgets the rest of The
house may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide us
guide our children guide our future generations May
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide our neighbors and
guide all of those around us to that
which is best and that which is most
pleasing