Sami Hamdi – Oct 7th Changed Everything –
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
This is a very special episode, we have
Sami Hamdi live in studio with us tonight.
Salaam alaikum.
Wa alaikum salam.
So a couple of housekeeping things.
We will be taking questions, so definitely make
sure to put your questions in the chat.
Number two, Yaqeen Institute is a 501c3 organization,
we're a non-profit.
We have no stance, positive or negative, against
any candidate in any election whatsoever.
We're here to talk about policy and reflect.
It's been a year since October 7th, it's
October 7th, 2024.
What's changed?
Where are we now?
What's different now, a year on?
I think that when we're looking at October
7th, one year on, I think first of
all it's important to note that we are
witnessing one of the most horrific genocides of
modern times.
Lancet reports that 240,000 Palestinians are estimated
to have been killed.
I know many people focus on that 40
,000 from that ministry, but it's been 40
,000 for the last 6, 7, 8 months.
Which is why Lancet puts it at 240
,000 and possibly higher.
I think that it's one of the most
horrific genocides we've seen.
Kids with their heads blown off, Palestinian kids
with their heads blown off.
We've seen images we never thought we'd see
in our lifetime of these garbage bags with
limbs that it hasn't been identified who those
limbs actually belong to.
We've seen very graphic images and audio calls.
Hind Rajab, for example, desperately asking for help.
And according to international law, she should be
afforded that help.
The ambulance turns up, but the Israeli forces
choose to shoot the ambulance and bomb the
ambulance instead and leave 6-year-old Hind
to die in the midst of the corpses
of her family.
I think that we've seen within a year
that the basis of the international order, which
was alleged to be one of law, we've
seen that law be thrown out of the
window as there has been a dogged and
stubborn support for Israel's genocide and consistent cover
being given to Israel's committing of genocide by
the United States in particular, which at the
United Nations now stands alone in resisting all
the resolutions that call for an end to
the occupation and the like.
At the same time, we've seen politically a
huge shift with regards to the perception of
the state of Israel in particular, one in
which in the space of one year it
has gone from being seen as a haven
of genocide victims to a haven of genociders.
I think that we've seen a tremendous shift
in public opinion, unprecedented, where we've seen now
that as a result of the voices that
are being raised for Palestine, as a result
of the voices that are being raised by
the Palestinians and the Ummah that amplifies those
voices, and now non-Muslim audiences who've heard
that amplified voice and changed their opinions accordingly,
we're now seeing France call for an arms
embargo on the Israelis, the Belgian Deputy Prime
Minister calling for sanctions, Norway, Ireland and Spain
recognizing a Palestinian state, even as the U
.S. desperately tries to prevent them from doing
so by insisting there should be a negotiated
settlement before any recognition.
We saw that this public pressure has led
to a shift even in the verdicts that
are coming out of international institutions that were
never designed to condemn Western interests, they were
designed to preserve it.
We've now seen a subversion of the original
intention of these international institutions in which the
ICJ now comes out and says that the
withdrawal of Israel from occupied territories is not
dependent on negotiated settlement, they need to leave
now.
We've seen the ICJ declare that Israel must
be dragged on charges of genocide.
We're seeing that companies are now hesitant to
go and invest in Israel and even leaving
Israel, AXA, Itochu and these other multi-million,
billion-dollar companies choosing to do so.
We've seen Moody's downgrade Israel twice, saying their
economy is not worth it anymore.
We're now seeing that even amongst Jewish populations,
we saw some of them before coming out
for Palestine, we're seeing many of them now
start to read about what's happening and changing
their opinions dramatically.
We're seeing that issues that were once considered
taboo on the American political spectrum, we're seeing
now people talk openly about why is it
that the U.S. actually supports the Israelis.
Tucker Carlson coming out and saying, why are
we funding them?
Perhaps if we stopped funding them, they might
be forced to finally sit down and make
peace because the only reason they're able to
do what they do today is because we,
the U.S., give them support.
We saw Candace Owens, a corner that we
never thought would become pro-Palestine, go on
the Piers Morgan show and say bluntly, verbatim,
that before October 7th, her words, not mine,
I believe that Israel was a firm ally
of the U.S. that we needed to
support, that we needed to help.
And after October 7th, the Zionists in the
media said they demanded we pay attention to
what was happening.
So we looked and we didn't like what
we saw.
We didn't like what Israel was about.
We didn't like what Israel was doing.
And as a Christian, no one can convince
me that you can bomb kids under any
premise.
She went from one side to the other.
Many will have seen the Middle East Eye.
There was a video they're interviewing protesters in
my beloved city of London where they are
coming out and saying, why are you here
today?
And she says, quote, I was Zionist before
October 7th.
I'm pro-Palestine after October 7th.
October 7th made people read.
And when they read, they started to explore.
And when they started to explore, they started
to see.
And when they started to see, they realized
they didn't like what they saw.
And it only made them start reading further
to the extent that Ta-Nehisi Coates is
now doing a whole roadshow on individual media
telling people that I went to Israel for
10 days and I know it's an apartheid
regime.
Imagine if he'd stayed there one month.
Since October 7th, while everybody is focusing on
the disaster and the genocide, there is something
that is happening that is now causing severe
concern amongst the Israelis and amongst those who
support them in the U.S. itself, in
which Nate Silver is now saying, the pollster,
coming out and saying that Gaza has now
become a major issue in electoral considerations in
the U.S. In the U.K., we
saw how the Muslim vote emerged.
And it wasn't just a Muslim vote.
It was a Muslim vote that backed Jewish
candidates, that backed non-Muslim candidates like Jeremy
Corbyn, insisting that it was Brits against genocide.
And they delivered a body blow in that
although the Labour Party won a landslide election,
they won the majority on only 32%
of the vote.
To put it into context, 32% of
the vote produced a 117-seat majority.
Boris Johnson got 42% and only got
an 80-seat majority.
And Jeremy Corbyn got 40% of the
vote and lost the election.
So when the papers came and read, they
didn't say Labour won.
They said conservatives lost and Labour are in
trouble because safe seats were becoming marginal seats,
meaning that a seat with 30,000 majority
was now only 500 majority.
We're seeing Gaza become a key electoral issue
in Australia, where suddenly you find there's a
senator, Fatima Payman, who raises her voice for
Gaza and disrupts the powers that be within
the ruling Labour Party.
And when she eventually resigns in the most
attended press conference of any Australian politician in
history, the posters at ABC are now saying
that her stance on Gaza, her stance against
genocide resonates with so many Australians, so many
non-Muslim Australians, that it is convincing them
to abandon two-party system of Labour and
conservatives and going towards independence because they believe
they're in a fight for the heart and
soul of their country and they do not
want their country to be one that legitimizes
genocide.
And this is why I argue that when
people are focusing on the genocide, it's horrific,
it's tragic.
But at the same time, there's something happening
that suggests that we will never go back
to pre-October 7 days when people were
steamrolling the Palestinians on issues of normalization and
trying to suffocate the Palestinian cause.
And the final point worth noting on the
political side of things is that although there
is a PR campaign now suggesting that Netanyahu
is on a winning streak, I think it's
New York Times the one that posed it,
there is a consensus amongst political analysts that
Israel is losing badly.
And I explain what I mean.
When Netanyahu went into Gaza, one of the
reasons he went in was he needed to
offer something to the Israelis for breaking the
social contract of Israel.
The social contract in Israel is not one
of democracy or liberal values or the like.
The social contract is we Israelis stole this
land and the government's primary duty is to
ensure that the homeowners never come and assert
their right over this land.
The government has to guarantee security over the
and that's why when 60,000 settlers left
those territories in what is referred to as
Northern Israel, Netanyahu panicked.
Why?
Because the social contract was broken and Israelis
were willing to topple him not because they
were against genocide but because he dared to
scupper the promise of security of that stolen
land.
So when he goes into Gaza, he had
three options.
The first was to take over Gaza, occupy
it and establish apartheid.
But he couldn't because there are too many
Palestinians in Gaza.
It's too expensive to impose apartheid there and
even Ariel Sharon could not do it which
is why he withdrew in 2005 and decided
instead to make a wall and make it
into a concentration camp.
Failing apartheid, Netanyahu's plan was ethnic cleansing.
Let me kick these Palestinians out.
Take the land and offer that land to
the Israelis and say that although there was
a threat, security threat, here's my compensation.
Take this land.
The problem with ethnic cleansing, however, is Gaza
has a sea behind it and the Rafah
border that Sisi refuses to open because Sisi
knows if he opens that border, the Palestinians
go into Sinai.
If the Palestinians stay in Sinai, it's likely
they will continue resisting.
If they resist, Israel will invade Egypt-Sinai.
If they invade Sinai, when Sisi goes to
Washington and says get these Israelis out of
Sinai, Washington will say there is a terror
threat, we need an international peacekeeping force, we
need a demilitarized zone and therefore Israeli forces
should stay in Sinai.
And when Sisi looks at other Arab countries
hoping for support from their lobbying power against
Washington, he'll find these Arab countries have instead
joined the peacekeeping force, which is why Sisi
says I'm not opening the Rafah border.
Netanyahu, when he realized there's no strategic victory
in Gaza and instead it's hemorrhaging support internationally
because the genocide is so horrific that even
Antony Blinken has to fly from Washington to
offer a PR strategy of a humanitarian corridor
because it's shifting American public opinion.
The second option was to go to the
West Bank.
The problem with the West Bank however is
when Netanyahu attacks the West Bank, he finds
greater opposition from Washington than he does when
he attacks Gaza.
Why?
Not because Washington is against genocide, but because
the condition for normalization between certain Arab countries
and Israel is that in the words that
was leaked once by one particular Muslim ruler
who said I don't care about Palestine but
my people do, West Bank is the theater
that is required for normalization.
The Palestinian state, the paralyzed Palestinian state, the
impotent Palestinian state where 80% is controlled
by Israel anyway, the West Bank is supposed
to serve as that Palestinian state.
That is theater to throw to the masses
to say this is Hudaibiya, look what we
did and Ya Ibadallah, this is the stepping
stone.
If Netanyahu annexes the West Bank, there is
no theater for these countries to continue to
do the normalization which is essential for normalization.
These states are still opening their airspace to
the Israelis.
They are still investing in Israel through Jared
Kushner's investment fund.
Their channels are still promoting the Zionist line
but they need the theater of a state.
So Netanyahu realized I can't go after the
West Bank and this is why now he
is attacking Lebanon.
He is not attacking Lebanon from a position
of strength.
He is attacking from a position of weakness.
Why?
Because there are only two moments in history
where Israel was able to impose mass ethnic
cleansing.
They are the 1948 Nakba, the war, and
1967, the Six-Day War.
The only way that Netanyahu believes he can
ethnically cleanse these areas is if he drags
the US and his allies into a war
with Iran.
So he's attacking Lebanon to try to provoke
them so that the US will go into
a war.
When there is an all-out war that
the US wholeheartedly backs, then Netanyahu can go
and really try to drive out all of
these Palestinians in an ethnic cleansing drive.
In other words, when we look at October
7th, it's easy to feel despondent about what
is happening with regards to the genocide.
And it's true the hearts are breaking.
It's true there's a permanent sadness in the
heart.
It's true that you can see how vile
the international powers are in their support.
But there is hope.
There is hope because you see how public
opinion is shifting to such an extent where
it could decide the elections.
There is hope in that Israel is now
talking about an existential crisis because people are
seeing it for what it is.
And this is why Netanyahu came out in
the press conference and said, Biden, stop these
students doing the encampments.
Why would Netanyahu come out and do a
press conference if he felt there was no
threat?
He's doing it because he knows that these
Muslim and non-Muslim students are forcing a
shift in America.
When Netanyahu comes out in a press conference
and says, Macron, how dare you call for
an arms embargo?
It's because there are taboos that once you
could not call for, once you could not
push for, once you could not mobilize for,
what was taboo before October 7th is now
becoming normalized and mainstream.
And this is why, and I promise I
finish on this point, but this is why
I always say, if you want to look
at a parallel in history, in 1945, when
the French were liberated from Nazi Germany, the
Algerians took to the streets in the same
week that the Geneva Conventions were written that
every man is born free.
The Algerians came out and they said, Oh,
this document, they're saying every man is born
free.
We also, we want to be free.
So instead of Kharata and Gelma, they protested,
they demanded their right to freedom.
The French danced at their freedom in Paris
and proceeded simultaneously to massacre 50,000 Algerians
in one week, telling them freedom doesn't belong
to you.
Alistair Horne in his book, The Savage War
of Peace writes that this was the turning
point because global public opinion shifted.
The shock and horror of what the French
did in that week was such that it
mobilized society to move.
It deterred public opinion from the French.
And it meant that in the next 10
years, France could not call on international support
when the Algerian Liberation Front emerged.
And here is the irony.
When I always say that for Muslims, it's
non-Muslims who believe in the power of
Allah more than Muslims do.
Because when Muslims saw that massacre and they
felt that the Ummah was really in the
depths of despair, that truly it is weak.
When they look at Gaza, they said truly
it is weak.
The French general who committed the massacre in
1945, according to declassified documents by the French,
is the only Frenchman who went back to
Paris when the French said, look at the
lesson we taught these Algerians.
Look at the lesson we taught these Algerians.
Look at the * lesson that we taught
these Algerians.
They said they will never revolt again or
they will never pursue their rights again.
The only Frenchman who said, no, you're wrong,
is the general who committed the massacre.
He said, guys, after the massacre we've committed,
I've bought you 10 years of peace.
But after 10 years, after this, I think
there's no going back.
I think that this is going to be
a turning point.
He was wrong.
It wasn't 10 years.
It was nine years and eight months when
the declaration was declared on the 1st of
November of 1954.
I know that you ask me, where's your
area and I've done the long route round.
But I think that when we look one
year on from October 7th, I'm wary of
people falling into the sense that somehow it's
Palestine who's losing.
I think when you look at the election
dynamics here in the US, it's Israel that's
losing.
When you look at the lobbying efforts here
in the US, it's clear that Israel is
losing.
When you look at what happened to the
UK elections, it's clear that Israel is losing.
When you look at new media narratives, it's
clear that Israel is losing.
When you see how many people are shifting
their opinions, it's clear that Israel is losing.
When you see the way that European states
are defying US over their stance on Palestine,
you can see that it's Israel that's losing.
When you see that the US wanted to
help with ethnic cleansing by breaking the back
of UNRWA so that there would be no
support for refugees and they criminalized it in
Congress, you saw Canada break with the US
and restore funding.
UK break with the US and restore funding.
Australia break with the US and restore funding.
We saw the UK, the impact was such
that David Lamey, the foreign minister, announced that
he was going to suspend 10% of
weapons to the Israelis.
The Muslims, they said, what's the 10%?
What does it mean, 10%?
But Netanyahu knows what it means, which is
why he refused to meet David Lamey because
he knew that if one day he's brought
before the ICJ, the judge will say, Britain,
why did you halt 10% of weapons?
What is it you saw in Gaza?
What did you see in Palestine that made
you do it?
And the only explanation is I thought there
was a war crime.
I thought there was something here that could
get me in trouble.
The world is shifting in a way Israel
did not imagine.
It's shifting towards justice.
Yes, it's not on the terms that you
wanted it to be on.
Yes, it's not as clean as you wanted
it to be on.
Yes, it's heartbreaking in terms of the tragedy
that is unfolding.
But it is undeniable that the ones who
believe themselves to be in an existential threat
are Israel, not the Palestinians.
And this is why Henry Kissinger said that
a conventional army loses if it does not
win.
Israel has not won.
But a guerrilla force wins as long as
it does not lose.
And the guerrilla force here I'm referring to
is the Palestinian citizen who continues to be
in their home, who continues to be in
their land, who refuses to leave, who refuses
to be ethnically cleansed, who refuses to be
erased, who refuses to be eradicated.
And in the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates,
is now imposing themselves into the frame of
discussion after being shafted from it by the
Zionists for so long.
I think one year on from October 7th,
there is much to be heartbroken about, but
there is much to be hopeful for as
well.
Mr. Panela, you know, one of the historical
principles that you touched on, I think it's
so key to even repeat that, you know,
we worry about is it going to get
worse?
Is it going to get better?
Is it going to lighten up?
Or is it going to become more severe?
And it's almost as if the worst thing
is invisibility.
And even if there is a short-term
price to pay, the fact that an enemy
or particularly arrogant head of state plunges headlong
into something actually creates the conditions that are
his own undoing, because now it's something everybody's
aghast.
As you said, public opinion shifts against him,
international support dries up.
And so sometimes people are trying to forecast
into the future and they're saying, well, this
scenario, it's going to get worse, or this
scenario, it's going to get worse.
But we have to also keep in mind
that these things actually, they force conversations, they
obliterate support, they isolate political actors.
Now, one of the things that you mentioned
was the student movement.
Now, we're back in session, and much of
the summer, at least in the U.S.,
and I imagine also in the U.K.,
was spent by Zionists trying to basically figure
out the formula in regulations to crack down
on student protests, crack down on free speech,
to basically make it easier to prosecute, easier
to expel, easier to eliminate this thing, which
was perceived as a threat.
What are your reflections on that, first of
all?
And what is your advice to students who
might be wondering, well, this is really risky
to my career prospects, this might be really
risky to my personal safety, I'm being doxed,
the vans are driving around with my address
on them and my photo on them.
What would you say to the students?
One of the things that's first and foremost,
I think, is worth doing is acknowledging how
you got here.
What is it that you have, that you
manifested?
What is the power that you displayed that
was such that Netanyahu came to try to
lobby for a change in the regulations?
What is the power that you manifested that
you don't believe to be great, but it
frightened Netanyahu enough for him to do a
press conference pleading with Biden to stop the
student encampments?
What's the power that exists in your hands
in the absence of the money that you
think you need, in the absence of an
army that you think you need?
What's the power that you manifested that shook
Tel Aviv, that shook Netanyahu's office in Tel
Aviv and those who support him here in
the United States?
It was your voice.
It was the relentless attitude with which you
embarked in raising your voice for what was
happening in Gaza.
Why?
Because what happened was the other students were
listening to you.
And when they started hearing you, they listened
to you.
And when they started listening to you, they
started debating with you.
And when they started debating with you, they
ended up losing and being forced to read.
And when they started to read, they started
to shift.
And as they started to shift, they ended
up joining you in the encampments.
And not only that, because of social media,
because of TikTok, may Allah protect and preserve
TikTok and elevate its status.
Say ameen, those of you who are watching
this video.
I was in Philadelphia.
I tell the story of time, but I
was in Philadelphia and somebody in a masjid
said to me, you know, I made this
point.
I said, say ameen.
And he went, we're making dua for TikTok
in the masjid.
And I said, well, I'm sorry, audio, if
I'm causing you a big issue.
He said, I told him, what's the problem
with it?
He said, TikTok is fitna.
I told him, shh.
He said, don't shush me in my own
masjid.
I said, no, shush, shush, you're embarrassing yourself.
Don't tell them TikTok is fitna.
He said, but it is.
I told him, if you tell people TikTok
is fitna, you are telling them that you
taught the algorithm to show you fitna.
Because the algorithm only shows you what you
like.
It doesn't show you what you don't like,
because it's worried you'll uninstall the app.
So when you tell people it's fitna, you're
telling them you search for fitna, so the
algorithm realize you like it, so it shows
you the fitna.
Give me your phone later, I'll fix your
algorithm.
But don't say it loudly that TikTok is
fitna.
You humiliate yourself, in any case.
I was gonna say jokes aside, but that
wasn't a joke.
But in any case, as a result of
TikTok, when Sydney saw the student protest in
Columbia, they embarked on their own encampment.
And I know it because I was there
at a Sydney encampment when I went to
meet them.
What made you do it?
They said, we saw the videos of our
American brothers and sisters going out and doing
the encampments.
When the Americans did the encampments, those in
London said, look at these Americans.
Why aren't we doing it as well?
We should be doing it too.
The social media spread that message like wildfire.
Because even if the American student felt their
encampment didn't achieve what they wanted it to
achieve, it set ablaze the fire of justice
across the whole world where all these other
students were doing it, perhaps more effective than
you were doing it.
But you started it.
You inspired it.
You went for it.
And this is why the student who is
scared, it's not about the extent that you're
willing to go.
Move and watch how Allah makes everybody move
with you.
Move and watch how everybody is inspired to
move with you.
Move the way Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did
that made the other Sahaba move with him.
He didn't tell them move.
He moved and they followed him.
And this is why we say that if
the seerah does not terrify you, then you're
not reading it right.
Because the seerah of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam is that in the first 13
years of Mecca, he only has his voice.
It's the dawah that he's given.
And this is what I always say to
students when they say, we feel powerless.
I always say, why is Netanyahu after you?
Why the Zionist lobby after you?
It's because there is a power that if
you manifest it, will cause irreversible consequences to
the power of the Zionist.
There is a power that you have, not
me, that you have as a student that
will have irreversible consequences for the way in
which you talk about these issues in the
universities, the way that professors have to talk
about the issues.
Vietnam was not the student movement, one of
the driving forces to end the war in
Vietnam, was not the student movement protest key
to getting civil rights for African American population,
that the government continuously tried to deny them.
It was the students.
Why?
Because the voice matters.
And this is the point that I emphasize,
and this doesn't just apply to the students.
The voice matters.
When the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says,
بَلِّغوا عَنِّي وَلَوْ آيَة Convey from me, even
if it's just a verse.
If you read that hadith like a dajjal
with one eye, you think that it's walking
down the street, say, قُلْ وَلَا أَحَدًا You
feel the spiritual boost.
But when you open the other eye, you
realize the emphasis is not on ayah, the
emphasis is on وَلَوْ Even if it's just
an ayah.
Ummati, don't be quiet.
Ummati, don't be still.
Ummati, don't be an ummah that doesn't move.
If all you can do is convey an
ayah, if all you can do is raise
your voice, if all you can do is
like what Wayne State University did today, I'm
on the plane, I see they're live on
Instagram.
It said they're live on Instagram.
And I see a few students gathered together,
and they're giving talks, raising awareness for Palestine.
If that's all you can do, do it.
Because the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ لا ينتق عن
الهوى He does not speak about something that
has no impact.
When he says do it, it's because it
has an impact.
And this is what it has been magnificent
since in this past year.
What's been magnificent is people are now believing
their voice matters.
They're starting to see it has an impact.
They're starting to see it does make Jamal
Bowman who voted for the Israeli Iron Dome
and voted for weapons.
It does make Jamal Bowman say, hang on
a second, maybe I need to hold the
stick to them in the middle, and maybe
I need to call for a ceasefire too.
It has power.
It makes David Lamey, who keeps saying Israel
has the right to self-defense, but the
moment he becomes foreign secretary, he says I'm
going to need to withhold a few weapons
just to keep myself safe.
No one threatened David Lamey.
No one bought David Lamey.
What's the power that made him do it?
It's the power of your voice that convinced
the masses to go on these million man
marches for no other reason, no self-interest,
for no other reason than that their fitrah
resonated and knew that something was wrong.
The power of the voice matters, and what
I would say to the students, the brief
answer, what I would say to the students
is that you are in the midst of
a fight.
Sometimes you have the sense that because the
Zionists came and changed the regulations, the battle
is ended.
It's not.
You move, they move.
You're pushing, they're pushing, and now there is
a struggle, and this is the struggle of
justice.
Who's going to win?
The Zionists want you to go back.
They want you to go home.
They want you to give up.
They want you to believe that it is
unbreakable, that it is impregnable, that there is
no hope for change, and so you go
home and you stop talking so that when
you stop talking, you stop talking to American
society, and when American society no longer hears
your voice, their hearts stop flipping, and when
their hearts stop flipping, they'll start forgetting, and
when they start forgetting, then it opens up
room for the Zionists to regain what they
lost because you moved, and that's the point
with regards to the students in that many
of them are adopting tactics in their own
way, but don't stop talking.
I'll finish on a sports analogy, only because
I played soccer.
I played it at various different levels.
There is a saying during the 90 minutes
when you can't break down your opponent, or
you're unsure.
He hasn't scored yet, but you're aware that
your tactic is not working in the way
that you wanted to, but you still have
80 minutes on the clock, so you do
something called just move the ball around.
Move the ball.
It's just the opponent.
Do they press high or do they stay
deep?
Do they rely on the flanks or do
they come through the middle?
Move the ball.
Keep raising your voice until a weakness is
identified, and that weakness is showing.
It's showing in the way that Congress tried
to ban TikTok.
Who were they trying to silence, Tom?
Who were they trying to silence?
They weren't trying to silence any of the
Arab rulers.
The Arab rulers are making it clear that
it's fine.
In 1982, King Fahd calls Ronald Reagan and
ends the attack on Beirut.
In 2001, King Abdullah, he calls Bush and
he tells them that if you support the
Israelis on Intifada, we will cut our ties.
Bush ends the Israeli repression of the Intifada.
The Arab rulers are making clear they're not
going to make that phone call.
The Turkish or these other, they're making clear
we're not going to make that phone call.
But the reason TikTok is being banned is
not because of billionaires, not because of a
power of millionaires.
It's because Mitt Romney and Antony Blinken and
Joseph Biden and Netanyahu, they got together and
they said, there is something that is emerging
that is hurting our influence.
The source of this hurting of our influence
are a bunch of ragtag group of students
who have no jobs, who don't even know
what they want to do in their career,
who can't even afford proper clothes, who have
to rely on mommy and daddy, they're desperately
applying for scholarships.
These people are flipping global policy.
These people are breaking global alliances.
These people are making Macron flake.
They are making Belgium flake.
They are making Norway flake, flake is a
colloquial term in the UK, meaning that they're
not as firm in their support as they
were before.
These students, we need to silence them because
Candace Owens can hear them.
Tucker Carlson can hear them.
Ta-Nehisi Coates can hear them.
Kamala Harris's daughter can hear them.
These American society can hear them.
And all of the millions that we're spending
is not buying those hearts back because something
they're saying is permanently keeping those hearts.
Let's shut them up by banning TikTok.
Let's shut them up by shadow banning their
accounts.
But there are too many of them here,
Tom.
You can shadow ban 100.
You can shadow ban 1,000.
You can shadow ban 10,000.
You can't shadow ban 1.9 billion.
You can't shadow ban the millions more of
non-Muslims who are also talking about Palestine.
What is going on?
Why won't they stop talking yet, Tom?
And this is the point that I would
say to the students.
It's not what should you do.
It's know where you are right now in
this battlefield.
You moved and caused such an impact that
they are bringing the juggernauts to silence you.
Don't stop now.
Don't stop talking now.
Don't get tired now.
You are in a place that we've never
been before, and it's because you believe, continue
to believe, don't falter now.
Yeah, it's a testament to the power that
they have, the panic that they have elicited
from the Zionists and from the powers that
be, that the reason that they're cracking down
so hard is because of the power, because
of how effective it is.
And one thing that I saw you mention
in another forum that I thought was very,
very important was that the Zionist tactic is
to use almost like an asymmetry of violence
and force and money and influence, not just
to win, but to protect the perception of
invincibility.
And it's almost as if this is the
critical moment because the invincibility has cracked.
It might even have shattered.
And they're trying to throw the kitchen sink,
as we say, at the problem because they're
worried that it will continue this way, that
10% of arms that Lamy took off
the table for Israel might become 20%
soon, might become 50% soon.
Other nations doing it.
And then what happens to the occupation?
Because when he did the 10%, I don't
mean to interrupt you, because when he did
the 10%, what is David Lamy saying?
He's trying to say, listen, Zionists, I'm still
with you.
I'm supporting you, but I'm hedging.
I'm trying to, meaning David Lamy said, you're
not as invincible as I thought you were.
So just to be safe, I want to
play both sides.
And Zionists are saying, what is it that
you doubt in our power?
What do you mean they are making you
doubt us?
You should be completely loyal to what we
say.
What is it that's making you hesitate?
And that's why, Tom, they spent so much
money on primary races in the US.
That's why the lobbying power spent so much
money on media campaigns in the UK.
It's because there is a power manifesting that
they fear.
If it brings them, Thomas Massey, let's use
Sahih Non-Muslim, because I find it very
effective.
In Sahih Non-Muslim, in the book of
Republicans, chapter of Congress people, it says, Astaghfirullah,
I should be aware of it.
In any case, Thomas Massey told Tucker Carlson,
there are many representatives who don't believe in,
they don't want to support Zionism.
But when I tell them, speak out, they
say, no, but they will punish me in
my home district.
It's not worth it.
Meaning, what prevents them?
The aura of invincibility.
But when suddenly you see that the aura
of invincibility no longer exists, all these international
allies are now turning against them.
This is why I think that this is
the first time that the Zionists believe that
their lobby now has an existential crisis.
Because all of the oppression that was committed,
it's now the House of Cards is now
falling down.
But why?
Because the power of justice is manifesting.
The voice is manifesting.
And I always give it back to, because
when I start Sahih Non-Muslim, I feel
the shame in my heart.
So I want to bring it back to
Muslim.
The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when you
think about politically, let's not read the seerah
like a Dajjal, the way we were raised.
Open the other eye just for a second.
And I always tell people, read the seerah
and ask yourself one question.
The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has no
army when he's in Mecca.
He has no army.
He spends 13 years with no army.
He has no wealth, no billionaire, no Qatar
behind him, no Saudi or anything to make
sure that no one says partisan, no Brits,
no Russia, no China, no America, no any
of these things.
What is it about him, about what he
does that makes Quraish feel insecure in their
material superiority?
They have the F-16s.
The Quraish, they have the wealth.
They have all that material superiority.
The logic should be that they should feel
at peace.
And this is just a man who's, you
know, talking, raising his voice.
Let him do it in the Kaaba.
Why should we be worried?
And this is the point in that sometimes
the answer is staring you in the face,
but you never realized it because you needed
to open the other eye.
What is the power that the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had in Mecca that made
the Quraish feel so insecure?
And I remember there's an American student.
He came to me after a talk, and
he said, Sammy, you know, you keep referencing
these books, but I don't read books, you
know, like anything more than 20 pages.
I don't read it.
And I didn't want to want to want
to discourage you.
So I said to him, okay, but go
watch the movie The Message by Mustafa Haqqad.
It's a really good movie.
I know some people on Twitter, they'd be
like, how dare you reference movies in a
serious debate, but I'm trying to get the
Ummah to learn.
In that movie The Message, Abu Talib talks
to the leaders of Quraish.
And this is what I mean when I
say don't doubt your power, don't falter now.
The leaders of Quraish, they asked Abu Talib,
tell your nephew to stop talking.
Tell him to stop raising his voice.
Tell him to keep his dawah in his
home.
Tell him to stop going to downtown New
York to the center of the city and
tell the people about what's happening in Palestine.
Tell him to stop going to Taif and
telling them and doing all these images and
these posters and tell them there is a
land called Palestine and this is what's happening
to it.
Tell him to stop raising his voice and
talking to people.
Abu Talib says all he wants from you.
He's telling me he doesn't have the material
superiority to threaten you.
All he wants from you is a word.
He just wants justice.
He just wants you to stop the genocide.
He just wants Palestinians to have the right
of return.
He just wants the Palestinians and Palestine to
go back to what it was before, a
haven where all the religions lived side by
side, coexistence.
Interestingly, when the Muslims ruled, when the Muslims
ruled Sarajevo, when they ruled Andalusia, they were
the epitome of coexistence.
When the other religions came, they ruined it.
I don't say that in terms of superiority.
Historical facts.
Historical facts.
Go to any university.
When they point to the objective epitome of
coexistence, they point to three areas, Andalusia, Sarajevo,
and Jerusalem.
But the interesting thing is, Andalusia was a
haven for coexistence when Muslims ruled it and
ceased to be one when Isabella ruled it.
That Sarajevo was a haven for coexistence when
Muslims ruled it and ceased to be one
when the Austro-Hungarians came in and took
it over.
And Jerusalem was the haven for coexistence when
Muslims ruled it and ceased to be it
when the British and when the Zionists came
in, and they ruined it.
And they can go reference Abishleim, the Israeli,
or put it in quotation marks, Israeli professor
who teaches at Cambridge.
He was asked by Muhammad Jalal in the
Thinking Muslim podcast, can it be said, in
Oxford, sorry, can it be said that the
Jews suffered anti-Semitism under Muslim rule?
He said, categorically, it cannot be said.
The tensions began after what the Zionists did
in 1948.
Otherwise, in the Muslim books, it has the
rights of Ahlul Kitab and Muslims are obliged
by Allah to uphold them.
But the point that I'm saying is that
Abu Talib says, all he wants from you
is one word, the word of one state,
the word of right of return, the word
of justice.
And Abu Sufyan says something remarkable.
He says, if all Muhammad wanted was a
word, we would have given him a hundred
words, would have written him articles in New
York Times.
The problem is the word that he wants.
And Abu Jahl says the word that he
wants is making our children turn against us.
It's making our children pro-Palestine.
What did the ADL lobby say in the
leaked recording?
We've lost the whole generation of America to
the dawah.
The word he wants is flipping the whole
social order.
The word he wants is making those who
are Zionists into pro-Palestine.
The dawah that he wants is something that
our material superiority cannot reverse.
And this is what I mean when I
say that Netanyahu sometimes believes in the power
of Allah more than most Muslims do because
the Muslim is saying my voice doesn't matter.
Netanyahu is spending millions to silence it.
But Blinken believes in the power of Allah
more than Muslims do because Blinken is desperately
trying to get TikTok banned in Congress while
the Muslim says, what's the point of TikTok?
Biden believes in the power of Allah more
than most Muslims do because he is doing
everything he can to prevent scrutiny of Zionism
on the university campuses while the Muslim says,
what's the point of the university campuses?
They know what the dawah means.
They know the power it can achieve.
They know the shift it can bring about
which is why they're trying to silence the
dawah.
And this is what I mean in that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says it in
the Quran.
If only you would open the other eye
when he says, وَلَا تَسْتَوِي الْحَسَنَةُ وَلَا السَّيِّئَةُ
The good deed and the bad deed in
dawah are not equal.
If they respond with racism, we are not
the racist.
They are not our teachers.
If they respond with xenophobia, we are not
xenophobes.
In fact, the biggest anti-Semites are the
ones supporting the genocide because they made Europe
unlivable for the Jews while the Muslims made
the Muslim lands livable, which is why they
came to the Muslim lands rather than go
to Europe.
But the ayah finishes, اِدْفَعْ بِالَّتِي أَحْسَنِ Push
back with that which is best.
Dawah pushing, why?
فَإِذَا الَّذِي بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَهُ عَدَاوَةٌ كَأَنَّهُ وَلِيٌّ حَمِيمٌ
For the one who is your enemy today,
the one who was racist to you today,
the one who was pro-Zionist today, tomorrow
might become your warmest ally.
Ta-Nehisi Coates has done in two weeks
what many of us could not do in
10 years.
But Allah tells you who achieves it.
And this is the point of the students.
I know it sounds like I went around
the wrong way.
But this is the point with the students.
Allah says that the ones who achieve it,
وَمَا يُلَقَاهَا None achieve this shift, no one.
وَمَا يُلَقَاهَا None achieve it except إِلَّا الَّذِينَ
صَبَرُوا The ones who are patient.
Patient with what Tom?
Patient with a process that is not producing
outcomes at the pace that you want.
But if you persevere, will produce an outcome
greater than anything you imagine.
Ya Imam Tom, Allah is saying that if
you are patient with raising your voice, patient
with your movement, patient with the encampment, patient
with the protest, patient with the boycott, in
the space of one year, you can shift
the whole global public opinion with regards to
Zionism.
But Allah ends the ayah with وَمَا يُلَقَاهَا
إِلَّا ذُوْحَضٍ عَظِيمٍ Meaning that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is saying that Allah, when you
move, when you take one step, I will
take the ten.
When you come to me walking, I will
come running.
When you make the effort, I will amplify
it.
I will amplify your voice.
I will amplify the power of the boycott.
I will amplify all of it.
If only you would move.
And that's why with the students, it's not
about the tactics, it's keep moving.
Sometimes there is badr, sometimes there is uhud,
but keep moving because you are forcing a
shift that it doesn't matter how much money
the Zionists spend, they will never be able
to reverse the shift that was brought about
by the da'wah.
I'm talking about not the dijalik one, the
da'wah of the Muslims and those non
-Muslims who have been their fitrah is resonating.
The da'wah brought about the shift.
And I always like to say this phrase,
Israel spent millions on a PR campaign that
the ummah broke for free.
Yes, subhanAllah.
There's so much to say about that.
Another analogy that draws to Benny Israel, when
they come to Philistine for the first time
and all they're told is, listen, you move
and it's yours.
And they want to say, you and your
Lord go and fight.
Yeah, exactly.
SubhanAllah, sometimes we, like you said, if I
might just translate a little bit, is that
our actions do not demonstrate that we trust
Allah.
Our actions do not demonstrate that we trust
Allah.
Sometimes to my students, an alien race came
down and UFOs and looked at us and
said, do these people believe in Allah?
Do these people trust Allah?
Sometimes our actions demonstrate that we don't because
we're too worried about, what about this, what
about this?
Allah told us He made us a promise.
You go and you move.
You do what you can and Allah will
take care of the results.
And sometimes the results are not linear.
Sometimes it's like a hockey stick.
You put in, you put in, you put
in, you put in.
It seems like a hockey stick.
It seems like a hockey stick.
You can't see what's happening.
But then once it cracks, everything breaks.
But even to reinforce that point, I was
in Sarajevo in the summer and Junaid was
with me as well.
He was witness to the conversation.
So the imam gave a khutbah and he
started with الحمد لله الذي فضل المجاهدين عن
المتقاعدين Praise be to Allah who elevates those
who strive, those who are willing to struggle
for the sake of Allah SWT, those who
are willing to protest, to raise their voice,
etc.
Praise be to Allah who elevated those who
take action over those who don't.
So at the end of the khutbah, of
course, me and Junaid, you know, we looked
at each other.
So we went to speak to the imam.
We said, that's a very provocative way to
start a khutbah.
So this Bosnian imam, he says, I said
to him that, you know, many Muslims, they're
feeling the fatigue and you know, we're trying
to keep the morale up, etc.
But it seems that they believe, you know,
as long as they make dua, it's fine.
He said, if only they would make dua.
I said, what do you mean?
He said, the Muslim thinks they're making dua
sincerely, but they're not.
I said, what are you talking about?
He said, take for example, have you ever
seen people pray for rain?
I said, yes.
He said, how do they pray for rain?
I said, I've seen them in tourists, etc.
The mosque is full.
The imam is going, Allahumma Asqina, Allah, and
everyone is going, Ameen.
He goes, they're so energetic, etc.
He goes, yeah.
And they bring umbrellas.
No, he said, have you ever seen an
umbrella in those places?
Have you ever seen an umbrella?
And I said, I didn't see an umbrella
in mosques.
He goes, because they think they are sincere
when they call it.
But the absence of the umbrella, that's what
shows that there isn't the belief that Allah
can deliver.
Because if they believed it, they would have
brought it with them.
And that's why, I mean, to your point,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you mentioned about
Bani Israel, ...
But even the generation after, because Allah says,
because this generation didn't move, because they didn't
trust the promise, Allah left them 40 years
at the mercy of all of their enemies.
The next generation come, Allah gave them the
same choice because Muhammad Asad says, it's not
Muslims that make Islam great.
No one does a favor for Allah.
It is Islam that made the Muslims great.
If Allah so willed, the whole world would
be guided.
Did Yunus Alayhi Salaam not abandon his people?
And then they are the only people that
disbelieved in their prophet, and Allah still guided
them.
Allah making the point, yeah, Yunus, I could
have done it myself.
I didn't need a prophet to go and
do it.
But Talut, when you read his story in
the Quran, you read about all the tribulations,
whoever goes drinks from the river is not
from me.
The sense you get is how on earth
is this army going to beat Jalut?
And Dawud Alayhi Salaam is not introduced until
the ayah when Dawud delivers with Allah's solution.
The whole surah is designed with Allah saying,
I won't give you an indication what victory
looks like, but I give you a promise,
move for that promise, I'll give you the
victory.
Move on the basis of that promise, move
on the basis of the promise, the victory
will come.
And this is why I think that sometimes
those who doubt the power of movement, I
think it's less to do with whether they
believe in the feasibility of the movement and
more to do with right now, we're in
the tunnel and it's dark.
Allah tells us you keep walking, the light
will show eventually.
And they're saying, I don't believe the light
will show eventually.
Let's stay here for a sec.
I'm happy with the status quo.
I'm happy with the comfort I've achieved.
I'm happy with my success that I've achieved.
I'm happy with my three bedroom home.
I'm happy with my new Tesla.
I'm happy with that Cybertruck.
It's not very pretty, that Cybertruck.
In any case, I shouldn't say, Yaqeen does
not get involved in Elon Musk.
I'm sure there are many people who love
the Cybertruck stuff.
Yaqeen takes no position on the style issues
of Cybertruck because you're a 501c3.
But the point is, it's the issue of
comfort.
And the reason why I say that is,
and I'll finish on this point because I
know that there are other issues that people
probably more relevant that they want to go
to.
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and
this is a hard one for me to
take.
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, one
day Hafsa, his wife, she changes the bedding
that he sleeps on.
So according to the narration, he wakes up
as he usually does.
But he says to, has somebody changed the
bedding?
And she says, I made it more comfortable.
He says, change it back.
The implication being, it made me too comfortable
that I was starting to neglect, either tahajjud
or waking up earlier that I used to
or the like.
And Omar bin Khattab has a dua that
I really love.
And the reason I said it's hard for
me is because it's the idea that what
you want in this dunya may not be
what is good for you.
Omar bin Khattab said, Allahumma, do not give
me too little in this dunya that I
am reliant on people.
But do not give me too much that
I become negligent in my responsibilities.
And this is the point that, and I
won't go into it for too much, but
the idea that what stops you from moving?
Is it because you don't believe in the
feasibility of the movement?
Or is it because the idea that you
might sacrifice something that Allah gave you in
the first place is so heavy on your
heart that you will begrudge the sacrifice that
is necessary?
And that's why I always, you know, somebody
stood once at the end of a talk,
I remember, and he said, you know, Sami,
I don't like listening to you because I
believe the ummah is weak and you keep
insisting it's strong.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
one day we will be weak.
I said, wallahi kathab, you have lied.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did not
say the ummah will be weak.
He said, I have the hadith.
He says, one day you'll be like the
foam of the sea.
I said, he didn't use the word weakness
or da'if.
Finish the hadith, ya dajjal.
He said, I don't appreciate that.
I said, no, but you've done a dajjalic
interpretation of the hadith.
The hadith goes that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said, one day Allah will remove
the fear from the hearts of your enemies,
meaning it's a proactive removal of fear.
And they will come at you like you
are a feast on a plate.
Sahaba, they asked a very pertinent question.
Ya Rasulullah, will we be many on that
day or will we be few?
Will it be because we're weak, few in
number and unable to resist?
Or will we be many?
Will we have resources to fix this?
Will we have the ability to resist?
Will we have the ability and talents and
manpower and money and resources to push back
against this wave that comes on us?
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says, you will
be many.
You'll have the money, you'll have the resources,
you'll have the talent, you'll have the numbers,
you'll have the knowledge, and you'll have all
of that.
But you will be like the foam of
the sea, not because you will be weak,
but because your hearts will be afflicted with
wahan.
Your hearts will love the comfort so much
that when it is called on you to
sacrifice for what is right, you will hesitate,
you will doubt, you will say that I
love this so much.
The idea I might sacrifice it is not
worth it.
And this is the point that every Muslim,
I think what Gaza saved us, saved us,
is that Gaza reoriented the priorities.
From October 7th, you asked me the first
question.
You said, what has changed?
The world realized how much the global order
doesn't value the life of the other.
How cheap it considers the life of the
other.
The Palestinian baby is not equal to the
Israeli baby.
The lie of 40 beheaded babies took mainstream
news.
The reality of Palestinian babies beheaded didn't make
any headline whatsoever.
It showed that value in terms of, but
the idea that you can have no dignity,
but be rich in that no dignity, have
a good house, but with no dignity, have
a good car with no dignity.
The comfort is such that you're hesitating to
restore that dignity itself.
And this is why there is a Sheikh,
actually he contributes to Yaqeen, Yasser Fahmy.
I don't mind naming him.
Yasser Fahmy said something to me once in
a car.
He says, you know, Sammy, he said, what's
the hardest part?
I mean, you've been across America, Sammy.
What's the hardest part of these talks that
you're giving?
I said to him, Sheikh, the hardest part
is convincing people that justice is the right
thing to do and that the price you
pay for standing up for justice is worth
paying.
Telling you that there's no comfortable way to
uphold justice, but the price you pay for
it is worth it.
And I remember, I'm sure you've met him
before.
Yes, that silly grin on his face.
And he goes, he grinned and he went,
Sammy, do you not think it's because in
many ways, Islam can be quite problematic for
a modern Muslim.
I said, Astaghfirullah, what do you mean?
He said, think about it.
The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, what was
his relationship like with Quraish in the first
40 years of his life, before the Wahi?
I said, it was good.
He said, he was the golden boy.
Two tribes are beefing.
Call Muhammad bin Abdullah.
We trust him to mediate.
My cousin cheats me in business, in the
trade.
Get Muhammad bin Abdullah.
He won't cheat you, even if he's not
related to you.
I want to send a caravan to Syria,
Khadija.
I want someone I can trust.
Send Muhammad bin Abdullah.
You can't do better than him.
The status quo is he is loved and
they love him.
When do his problems begin, Sammy?
His problems begin.
He comes down from Hira after the Wahi.
And he says, La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah.
Free Palestine.
Stop burying your daughters alive.
Stop cheating people in business and the like.
He said, has his character changed?
Is there anything that Quraish can point to
and say that he's become a bad person?
Hasha.
Nothing.
They still know he's sadiq.
They're still leaving their amanah with Rasulullah.
He said, okay.
So they start repressing him and oppressing him.
He said, in modern day, when we teach
our children what success looks like, we take
them to the nicest street in the city.
And we say, Habibi, when you grow older,
I want you to study hard, get a
good job.
So you can be successful like the dweller
of this big home or the driver of
this lovely car.
When we point to someone's success in our
modern society, we don't point to somebody who
has humble means.
But Ibn Allah is great.
We say, don't be like that person.
He failed in life.
Be like the dweller of that big home.
Sammy, by this criteria, point to me to
where Rasulullah s.a.w. achieves success.
And I went.
I saw your face as well.
He says, why?
He says, when does the struggle of the
Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. end?
The way we say it ends when you
buy a house.
When does it end for Rasulullah s.a
.w.? I said, it doesn't end until his
dying breath, even when he enters Mecca, which
he said, Wallahi, you were the dearest land
to me, and I would never have left
you if your people have not driven me
from you.
When he enters Mecca, he doesn't even stay,
he goes to Medina, and he dies there
within a year of Fatah in Mecca.
He doesn't even, I don't want to say
it in a blasphemous way, but he doesn't
spend years in Mecca, enjoying the fruits of
what he achieved.
He goes straight back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So he says, Sheikh Yasser Fahmy says, point
to the point where you'd say the Prophet
s.a.w., the struggle ends.
It doesn't end until his dying breath.
So he said, the success that the seerah
is telling you is that he persevered through
the struggle, he kept going, he kept persevering
through the trials, and so Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala rendered him khairul khalq, and my
heart rated him as the most influential person
in history, not because he conquered lands like
Genghis Khan, he didn't.
He didn't conquer lands like Alexander the Great.
He wasn't as rich as Enrico Dandolo of
Venice.
He didn't see Al-Aqsa liberated.
He didn't see Islam being given in the
English, Dawah being given in the English language.
He didn't see Yaqeen, mashallah.
He didn't see flat Dallas.
He didn't see the hills of California.
He didn't see Islam there, but he didn't
need to, because my core heart says, the
magnificence of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
is that he left behind the spirit, where
generations would move in his name, though they
never met him.
They would move in his name, though he
was not amongst them.
They would move based on the message and
the promise that he gave them, and no
amount of dunya offered to them would make
them give up the cause.
They would rather resist colonization in Algeria than
succumbency to these colonizers.
And this is the point that I want
to finish on.
I know I've gone on long about this,
but this is the point I want to
hit home on.
And I didn't realize it until recently, when
I saw this interview.
There is a Turkish boy.
I think he's an actor in Kuruluş Osman,
one of these Turkish series.
He's 13.
He has an interview with a Turkish presenter,
and the Turkish presenter says to him, what
is your dream in life?
He says, my dream is to meet Rasulullah
s.a.w. one day.
At 13, I was not saying that.
At 13, I was not saying that.
I wanted to play for Arsenal.
I was a decent footballer, and I wanted
to play for Arsenal.
That was my dream.
So the presenter is shocked.
So he goes, and what would you ask
Rasulullah s.a.w.? And he says, ask
him.
I wouldn't ask my beloved prophet anything.
Now, at this time, when he's asked the
question, I'm thinking I would ask him about
Badr, Uhud.
I'd ask him about this.
I'd ask him about that.
I'd ask him why he went to Jannah
instead of waiting to see Al-Aqsa liberated.
I'd ask him about what Wahi felt like,
you know, when he got it.
I'd ask him what was it like, you
know, when Jibreel spoke to him to smash
five between two.
All these questions you want to ask.
He says, I wouldn't ask my beloved prophet
anything.
So the presenter says to him, well, then
what would you do?
He said, I would thank him.
He said, what do you mean?
I would say to him, ya Rasulullah, Jazakallah
khair, that when your people started persecuting you,
you didn't give up the message.
When they would throw the organs on top
of you when you were next to the
Kaaba and try to humiliate you, that didn't
stop you conveying the message.
When Abu Lahab and his wife would put
the thorns in your path, and they would
spite you at every turn.
You didn't say, what's the point?
This isn't worth it, and give out the
message.
You kept going.
When you saw your friends and your Sahaba
being persecuted, and that pained your heart, you
didn't stop moving.
You kept going.
When they would laugh and mock you when
you would go speak to the tribal leaders,
you kept going.
When they told you, why are you going
to Najashi?
Najashi is a NATO ally of Quraish.
You still believed in Allah's promise.
You kept going.
When you lost Khadija r.a, and she
dies during the boycott, you didn't give up.
Your heart was broken.
You kept going.
When Abu Talib, your protection was taken from
you, and you were at the mercy of
the rest of the tribes, you didn't give
up the message.
You didn't say like the Muslims said, let's
preserve our status quo, and keep our head
down, and preserve what we've gained.
You kept going, ya Rasulallah.
When you were kicked out of Mecca, and
it broke your heart, you looked at it,
they drove you, they chased you in the
cave.
You had to hide in the cave with
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, and you were only
saved by the web.
In that moment, when Abu Bakr felt feared,
you said, ...
You kept that faith, Rasulallah.
I don't know if I would have had
the same in that situation when you're being
driven from Mecca and you go to Medina.
Ya Rasulallah, Jazakallah khair, that when a thousand
came on you in Medina, and they told
you, there are one thousand well-armed army,
and we are 300 ill-equipped army, and
as you marched out, your hesitation was clear.
When you said to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh,
ashiru alayya, Sa'd, are you with me on
this or not?
And Sa'd says, ...
As if you are seeking reassurance from us,
and Rasulallah says, and if I am, and
Sa'd ibn Mu'adh says, we've given you
our promise, we'll go with you, and you
defeated those thousand, bi-idhnillah.
But Ya Rasulallah, when you were met with
defeat in Uhud afterwards, and they said, you
see the hypocrisy, you see, they shouldn't have
gone to fight.
That didn't put your morale down, you kept
going.
When you dug the trench, you kept going.
Hudaybiyah, you kept going.
And when you entered Mecca, you set aside
the grievances.
You forgave them, Ya Rasulallah, for what they
did to Hamza.
You forgave them though they drove you out.
You forgave them though they stoned you.
You forgave them though they persecuted you.
You forgave them though they harmed you.
And Ya Rasulallah, that act of forgiveness meant
that those individuals carried Islam to Turkey for
their deen to reach me, for me to
reach here, for me to sit with you,
and tell you, ...
that you kept struggling.
What thinking!
What magnificence!
That he could do dawah for 13 years
in the absence of an army, sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, and wealth, and he would keep
going based on the promise.
He said, ...
has given me white hairs.
What did he mean?
Surah Hud is full of prophets who didn't
achieve the success by your criteria.
No, alayhi salam, his people are destroyed.
Salah alayhi salam, his people are destroyed.
Hud alayhi salam, his people are destroyed.
Salah alayhi salam, his people are destroyed.
Lot alayhi salam, his people are destroyed.
Shaykh Ibn Hud, I don't know if I
would be like them or if I would
be achieving the success that I want to
achieve.
He keeps going.
He doesn't need Sami to explain the plan
from A to Z to sell the scenario
of the dunya and the life.
And the reason I make this point, and
I promise I finish on this point, Imam,
I promise on this point.
When I was in, I was giving one
talk and I was given the example that
after 13 years of Dawah, the prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam creates an environment where Aws
and Khazraj go and they're willing to give
him all the support that he needs.
So I was telling the story in a
talk and I said, Aws and Khazraj, they
come, they say to Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam, Ya Rasulullah, you have no army, you
have no wealth, but we love your message
so much that we want you to use
Medina as a base, Yathrib as a base,
and we'll give you everything that you want.
And Abbas radiallahu anhu says, wait, before you
give the pledge, this path has struggle.
You might get sacked from your job.
You might be persecuted.
You might be repressed.
All of Arabia will come against you.
The whole Zionist lobby will come against you.
If you're not ready for that, don't give
him a false promise.
We are ready to support him.
He doesn't need you for that.
So Aws and Khazraj say, this is perfectly
fine.
We are ready to struggle with Rasulullah salallahu
alayhi wa sallam and ready to give the
Bayat.
So my father called me after I gave
a talk this, and I always say, everybody
needs a teacher.
In my case, it's my father.
So my father called me and usually when
my father calls, my father doesn't call me
normally.
If I speak to him, it's through my
mother.
My mother calls me and says, Habibi Waladi
Ghali and then she gives the phone to
me.
If my dad calls me, there's something up.
So I see Baba on the phone.
For those youngsters watching this, your relation with
your parents never changes.
It's always that level.
So I see Baba and of course I'm
going, you know, Bismillah, what did I do
this time?
Bismillah, Bismillah, I can't keep him waiting too
long.
Salaam alaikum.
Salaam alaikum Sami.
Wa alaikum salaam Baba.
How are you Baba?
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
Sami, I was listening to one of these
speeches that you gave in America.
And I heard you tell the story of
the pledge of Aqaba with Abbas and Aus
and Khazraj.
And you told the story quite well, but
the point of the story, you missed it
completely.
I said, Baba, I don't understand.
Aus and Khazraj, they say to Prophet ﷺ,
we're ready to struggle with you.
And they say we're ready to?
He said, that's not the point of the
story.
I said, Baba, I don't understand.
I'm trying to convince the Muslims that the
price they pay for upholding justice is worth
it.
So I use the example of Aus and
Khazraj.
That's not the point of the story.
I understand the struggle part.
I see you giving dunya scenarios to try
to convert.
That's not the point of the story.
Don't subvert the seerah in that way.
I said, Baba, I don't understand.
What did they ask Sami?
What did Aus and Khazraj ask Rasulullah ﷺ
after their exchange with Abbas?
And I went, Baba, I forgot what did
they ask.
They asked him, what's our reward?
And I went, oh.
Sami, he tells me.
If Rasulullah ﷺ had said to them that
your reward is every Khalifa will only come
from Ansar and their descendants as a reward
for them giving him the support that he
needed at the time that he needed when
no one else would give it to him.
Muslims would probably have accepted it as qaeda,
as fiqh.
If Rasulullah ﷺ had said to them that
50% of zakat goes to Ansar and
their descendants out of appreciation for them giving
to Rasulullah ﷺ what he needed most when
he needed it most when no one else
would give it to him.
Nobody would have objected.
So what did he promise them, Sami?
I said, Baba, he told them al-jannah.
And what did they say?
They said, that is enough for us.
And when we were in Kuala Lumpur together,
remember we had somebody at the end of
the talk.
She stood up and she almost mockingly said,
not mockingly, but the pain was great.
She said, you all talk about ummah, ummah,
ummah, ummah.
But in the Rohingya, most of the money
comes from non-Muslims to look after them.
But in that moment she asked the question,
something clicked.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the promise of Jannah
moves Ansar so much.
It moves them, galvanizes them so much.
In a way, perhaps it doesn't do for
many of us.
It galvanized them so much that when they
entered Mecca, when the Prophet ﷺ enters Mecca,
remember he's dividing the spoils amongst the people
of Mecca.
And Ansar are whispering between themselves.
He's entered Mecca and look how he's treating
his family now.
He came to us when he had none
and now he's, and there is, you know,
consternation amongst them.
But the Prophet ﷺ realizes it.
So he calls Ansar, he tells them, gather,
hear me, O people of Ansar.
And he says to them, if you were
to say to me, O Ansar, that, Ya
Muhammad, you came to us a refugee and
we gave you sanctuary, one knows you'd be
correct.
They're too embarrassed to say yes.
He tells them, if you were to say
to me that, Ya Muhammad, you were kicked
out of Mecca with nothing and we gave
you everything that enabled you to get back
to Mecca, you would be correct and no
one would dispute you.
They said yes.
They're still embarrassed what he's saying.
He tells them, how do you feel, O
people of Ansar, that they get the dunya
while you go home with the Prophet of
Allah?
And they all celebrate.
They put a refugee as leader of their
city.
They loved him so much.
For no material reason, he didn't make them
khalifa.
Even after he died, they accepted Abu Bakr
Al-Siddiq who came with the muhajireen.
They loved his promise so much.
They didn't say, no, this is our city.
You make us the leader.
They loved him so much.
They loved his promise so much.
They loved Jannah so much that whatever was
asked for them for that which is right,
whatever was asked for them for that with
justice, they paid it with Sa'd Ibn Mu
'adh who was killed.
They paid it with so much and still
they said, for this promise, I'm ready to
give it.
I'm ready to give the dunya for what's
right.
Does Jannah move you in that same way?
Does Jannah move you in that same way?
Does punishing genocide for the sake of what
is right, for justice, does it move you
in the same way?
Does Jannah move you in the same way?
Or is Jannah something that you read in
the masjid like a fairy tale and then
as soon as you go out, it's discarded
immediately.
And this is the point of the whole
essence and my father was right when he
rebuked me.
He said, Sami, I understand that you are
strategizing.
I understand that you're presenting political scenarios.
I understand that you're analyzing politically, hoping that
those political analyses might inspire the ummah to
move, but never forget the pact with Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
He made one demand for us.
Allah is supreme and we worship only Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala and the reward is Jannah.
Do not take that pact dear Sami by
promising something in the dunya that who did
not get, that Noah did not get, that
Salih did not get, that Shuaib did not
get.
For wallahi Allah did not ask you to
change the world.
He asked you to try.
Allah did not tell you to go and
liberate Aqsa.
He told you to try because Allah has
already appointed the time for all of these
victories.
The only choice you have is whether you
want to be the vehicle that Allah uses
to deliver it.
And the audio guy is going to hate
me for life.
You know, I was thinking about something and
I thought that you would like it because
it's a similar point, something that I hadn't
thought about until the last few weeks that
we remember Hudaybiyyah but we forget Bayat Ridwan.
And there is a similar dynamic I think
at play there because after the sulh, you
get ease, you get 10 years peace, you
get time to, that was when the companions
started to be able to gather their resources
and that was sort of like, but what
did it take even to get that, you
know, to get to that point?
They didn't know that was going to come.
They had to watch Uthman ibn Affan go
into the city, not know what was going
to happen.
They were humiliated, stopped, prevented from making pilgrimage
which was unprecedented.
And then he was gone for so long
that they thought he was assassinated.
They gather under a tree and they say
that we with nothing, with them, on them,
we are ready to pay the ultimate price.
We're ready to sacrifice anything just to, you
know, they have these phrases, you know, we
would rather die on our feet than live
on our knees, you know.
Now, on this point, when I was a
teenager, my father was concerned that when you
pray tahajjud and all these things, there is
a difference between praying tahajjud because you are
arrogant in your, you know, you like the
idea of being, you know, close to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and actually being close
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So one day he wanted to do a
test that I only realized later on that
I failed miserably.
So he gave me, he put the seerah
in my hand and he said to me,
Sami, read this seerah and tell me which
sahabi or sahabiya you would most like to
be like.
Now, the correct answer is, I would accept
to be any one of them.
I would accept to be any one of
the chosen people that Allah use as the
companions.
But the jahil picked the seerah, he goes,
okay, let me see.
So astaghfirullah, he's watching me go through and
you know, the disappointment, and I don't understand
why he's getting so disappointed.
So I'm going through and Sumayya radhiallahu anha,
killed before the prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, can
give dawah even in public.
And I've gone, turned the page with the
same pace that I turned the pages before.
Why did you turn the page so quickly?
I said, Baba, there are many sahaba.
Okay, Sumayya is the first one, we'll continue.
You can see how everybody's, you can feel
it and you keep going, Musa ibn Umair
radhiallahu anhu, but he dies in Uhud.
Eloquent, etc.
MashaAllah, you know, he reminds me of my
friend.
You continue, Ja'af from Abu Talib, but
he slashed with both arms and etc.
Brave, he reminds me of Imam Tom.
That's for him.
Hamza radhiallahu anhu, Asadullah.
You pause slightly on Hamza, Ahlulbayt and you
know, you want to show a bit more
respect, but you've turned the page again because
he dies in Uhud.
And you realize the sahaba you are considering,
the list, are all of those who are
alive after the opening of Makkah.
And that's when he looked at me and
he said, why didn't the others?
And he didn't put it in this way,
but I would later reflect on it and
say, Was it because I was subconsciously imposing
conditions for my sacrifice for Islam?
Allahumma, I'll do it, but not if I'm
Sumayyah.
Allahumma, I'll do it, but not if I'm
Musab.
I respect Musab.
And in that you realize, I didn't know,
I'm praying to Hajj, I didn't know this
disease was there.
I didn't know that, that I was subconsciously
bartering with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on
whether, and this is the reason why I
always argue that when it comes to the
path of justice and struggle, the Qur'an,
you know, at the end of the day,
you know, you can paint all the pleasant
scenarios.
But what if, what if, la qadar Allah,
la qadar Allah.
What if some of us are destined to
be like Ashab ul-Ukhdud?
Yeah.
They raise what is right.
They say what is good, but they are
thrown in a pit and burn.
Ashab ul-Ukhdud, we celebrate them in the
surah.
You know, they are mentioned by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala himself.
I'm not saying everyone should aspire to be,
but I'm saying, what if Allah has written
that your ending is not what you want
it to be?
The question is not whether you'd be happy
or not.
Would you be content with it?
Would you accept it?
Would you say Allahumma, it is what it
is, but Jazakallah, you know, thank you for
using me.
Thank you for using me in this regard.
Because Sumayyah ibn Anas in Firdaus, she's where
we want to be.
And I really grasped this when we went
to Sarajevo in the summer.
There is one of our friends, his name
is Almir, Almir Payevich.
So Almir is with us, and we brought
these groups that came from America, and we're
taking them around.
And then while they're in the Srebrenica Memorial,
they're seeing all the tombstones and everybody, you
know, it's a horrific sight to see how
many, etc.
But then Almir is next to me, and
I told Almir, I hate coming to this
place, because it breaks my heart when I
remember what happened here.
He says to me, you know, brother, I
get jealous when I come here.
I said, what do you mean you get
jealous?
He said, didn't Allah say, shuhada, go straight
to Jannah, no day of judgment, no limbo.
They're in Jannah playing, and me and you
are still struggling, how to get to this
place that they're already there.
I'm jealous, Sami.
I'm jealous about the people who when the
Serbs came in and told them, give up
Laila Muhammad, they refused to do so.
They paid a heavy price, and it breaks
our heart.
But don't you feel a bit jealous, Sami,
that right now they are, ...
While me and you are stuck here, wondering
if our Salat is accepted or not, and
how on earth are we going to get
to Jannah or not?
I feel the Ummah is not weak, because
it lacks power.
The Ummah is weak, because there are a
lot of these subconscious locks on our own
consciousness, and in our hearts, that sometimes we
don't even realize those locks actually exist.
And this is why, and this is the
story that I finish on.
My kids, when I put them in front
of the cartoon, about Muhammad Al-Fatihah, when
it is Constantinople, I didn't know this, because
I was brought up, and in my mind,
Muhammad Al-Fatihah conquers Constantinople, because he's the
genius, and the others didn't know how to
do it.
He's the one who knew the secret code,
and the others were failed attempts.
But the narrator, when he starts, he says,
by the time Muhammad Al-Fatihah got to
Constantinople, all of the, most of the areas
around had already become Muslim, because of the
previous generations.
He was saying there is no Muhammad Al
-Fatihah, without the eight generations before him.
And when they sort of did the layup,
they paved the way for it.
And that posed a horrible, not horrible question,
but a question that shook me personally, which
is, Sami, would you accept for yourself, to
be Yazid, who leads the army with Abu
Ayyub Al-Ansari, to Istanbul?
Not the Yazid, who everybody thinks I'm talking
about, another Yazid.
Would you accept to be Murad, the lightning
Sultan, who tried but didn't manage to get
there?
Would you accept to be the one who
led the army, but couldn't take Constantinople, but
you would be satisfied, that at least he
was somebody who paved the way?
Would you accept Sami, not to be the
main character in the story, and accept Allah
is the main character?
Would you accept to be the supporting role,
even though Allah doesn't need you?
Would you accept to be the vehicle that
Allah uses, and accept and say that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He's the protagonist of
the story?
And that's when I understood, you know, at
least, if I've understood it correctly, when Allah
says, مَنْ كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْعِزَّةَ فَلِلَّهِ الْعِزَّةُ جَمِيعًۭا
Those who seek glory, let them know, all
glory belongs to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
None share in it.
And I know that it sounded like, I
rambled off some thoughts, but the reason, my
desperate attempt here is, Ibadallah, there are locks
in your subconscious mind, that is blocking you
from unlocking your power.
You have it now.
We have more than what the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, had in his times.
I saw Omar Abdul Kafi, I saw him
once, they filmed him on a plane, and
he's looking out the window.
So the person is taking out the camera,
without his permission, and is recording him, and
says, you know, Sheikh, what do you think
about, when you're on this plane?
He says, I think, imagine what Sahaba would
have achieved, if they had this technology.
And it reminds me, how much I'm lacking,
given that I have this technology.
It's a perspective thing.
It's a perspective thing.
Absolutely.
Now, you know, sometimes the examples of the
companions, and of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
they seem so larger than life, that sometimes
it can seem daunting.
Off camera, before we started recording, you were
telling a story, from your own life, if
you don't mind sharing it, about, because people
need examples, that they can follow, even if
they're quaint, or even if they're just like,
0.0001% of the famous examples, that
we have.
Of a moment, when you chose to stand
up for something, even at a personal cost.
You were talking about, your professional journey.
And I've had similar things.
And you know, I think that relaying them,
shows people that, this is what Allah throws
at you.
And you are in a critical moment, and
you have to decide.
So would you mind, sharing that briefly?
Without mentioning the names, of the people involved.
Yeah.
So I don't get Yaqeen in trouble.
I don't want myself in trouble.
So, when I started the whole political, geopolitical
risk consultant, eventually I didn't last long at
the company, but clients I worked with, they
came to me, and one thing led to
another, and then I started appearing on TV,
on Al Jazeera, Sky News, etc.
And then eventually, government started knocking on the
door, saying, you know, we want to hire
you as a consultant, you know, advise us
on communications here, etc.
and the like.
And you know, we were talking before, about
how access can be intoxicating.
Yes.
That sometimes, it's not that someone has a
bad intention.
But you delude yourself.
You delude yourself.
The access is intoxicating, because, you know, I
always give the example, Ali Izzet Begovich, in
his book, Inescapable Questions, which for me, anybody
who wants to do politics in Islam, will
understand it.
If they haven't read that book, don't move.
Read that book first, and then move.
So he has something interesting, where Richard Holbrook,
was the U.S. Ambassador, who was the
architect, of splitting Bosnia, and rewarding ethnic cleansing,
by doing the Autonomous Republic, of the Srebrenica
region.
Izzet Begovich, used to say that, when you
met Richard Holbrook, you never got the sense,
that he had some evil plan.
Yeah.
He would please speak to you, and make
you feel like, you were so special, you
were absolutely right, he would say.
He'd make you feel like, he fully understood,
what you were saying, and you would be
tempted to believe, he truly did understand, and
that he was, you had to pinch yourself,
when you walk out the door, to say,
no, no, this guy is.
So, one of the governments, that came, and
I was advising them, on the communications, they
fly you first class, and they give you
five-star hotels, and when they sit you
down, and they introduce you, you know, because
they came to you, you didn't go to
them.
When they come to you, it's, you know,
you've been recommended by these, you know, ambassadors,
and by whatever, this guy is good, they're
like, he's a bit Islamist, but his analysis
is very good.
So, you know, you go and everything, and
five-star, and you start believing that, your
access is making a difference.
So, one day, this particular government, I was
working with, there was a dissident, of another
country, he fled to their country, and they
told him, you can't stay here, it will
affect our relations, with the other country, so
you need to leave.
So, he applied for refugee status, and he
got it, but when he was on the
tarmac, this government had an idea, why don't
we surrender him, to the other country, and
that will help, to ease the tensions, between
them.
So, when this happened, of course, I'm an
analyst, to analyze etc., and I tend to
talk, about these things, you know, like, you
know, so I'm sitting at home, of course,
I've been traveling quite a bit, I don't
see my family, as often as I should
have, during that period, I see them more
often now, and I'm sitting in the living
room, and Sumaiyah, my wife, she walks in,
so I've been sitting three hours, trying to
carve a tweet, that would protect, the five
-star hotels, and flights, but help me have,
an ease of conscience, in terms of, so
I'm sitting there, and Sumaiyah walks in, Sumaiyah
may Allah bless her, may Allah bless her,
may Allah bless my parents, who instilled this
in me, and may Allah bless Sumaiyah, he
sent her into my life, to reinforce, what
my parents said to me, I always say,
surround yourself with people, who are bitter in
your ear, because they help to keep you,
the ones who are like, you didn't tell
the story properly, or my mother, who tells
me, Sammy, you know, like I remember once,
somebody said, you know, Sammy, let's fly business
class, and my mom would be like, Ummat
la ilaha illallah, travels economy, hey, don't get
carried away, with luxury lifestyle, it's good to
have these in your life, so Sumaiyah walks
in, so Sumaiyah of course, like she's a
tourism expert, you know, travel guide and stuff
like that, she's not into politics too much,
so she walks in, and she says, Sammy,
it's almost Maghrib, you promised to take the
kids out, and you haven't, yeah, what on
earth are you doing on your phone, that
you would neglect your kids, and you don't
take them to the park, I told her,
Sumaiyah, if I publish this tweet, they will
rip up the contract, and do you know,
like I'll be, it will become known, Sammy
is a double-edged sword, et cetera, and
maybe I can do more impact, if I
keep quiet, and have that access, maybe I'll
have more impact, if I, you know, you
should, stay in Tunisia, uncommitted, you said it,
in any case, maybe if I, if I
maintain that access, and keep my, I will
be able to convince that person later, et
cetera, and Sumaiyah wasn't having any of it,
Sumaiyah said, if another Arab leader, that you
regularly criticized, did it, would you have tweeted
or not, I said, I tweet, there's your
answer, now take the kids to the park,
well, I like that, I tweeted it, and
sure enough, the next day, no, no, really,
and it would later, if you talk to
some foreign ministries, they say, listen, Sami is
good on certain things, but he's a double
-edged sword, you know, he doesn't know what
loyalty means, I always say, their loyalty, I
am loyal to Haqq, and disloyal to Batil,
some people's loyalty, is not to that, is
not, exactly, and to be honest, for me,
when it happened, I remember, sitting in the
living room, and you know, like it's, it's
like, I will give this anecdote, before saying
this, so I don't condemn myself, I was
in Berkeley, San Francisco, and somebody said to
me, Sami, what's the hardest part of the
boycott?
And I said, no, he said, are you
finding, how are you finding the boycott?
I said, I'm finding it hard, he said,
Astaghfirullah, how can you find the boycott hard?
I said, no, the boycotting is easy, the
finding alternatives is hard, I said, I wanted
to buy Timberlands, but they said, no, I
can't find the Muslim equivalent of Timberlands, you
know, like these things, etc, you know, like
it's, and then one guy said to me,
Subhanallah, you are showing this face of, you
know, boycott hard, because of Timberlands, I said,
easy, brother, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him, left Makkah on
the promise of Allah, but still said, I'm
heartbroken, and wallah, I would not have left
you, he said, how can you bring Seerah
for Timberlands?
I said, because for you, Seerah only applies
to certain things, for me, my beloved Prophet
applies in big and small, that's the difference,
so I remember sitting on the sofa, and
I was like, you know, by this time,
of course, you know, it's spread, you know,
Sammy, you know, was giving advice to this
government, and look how he, and also this
government, during his communication strategy, I was already
intending on leaving, because, that's a different story,
but in any case, so I remember sitting
there, like with Sumaiyah, and you know, things
sort of took a bit of a turn,
I was still comfortable, Alhamdulillah, but not, you
know, in the way before, you know, sometimes
you sit there, and you're like, was it
the right thing, was it this, you know,
should have been smarter, should have been whatever,
but I don't know, maybe you might have,
some of these stories, and maybe the other
people here, will have similar stories, when a
door is shut, in your face, when you
feel that isolation, Allah opens doors, from where
you don't expect it, and I remember a
student asked me, and said, what's the best
advice, you'd give for a career, or like,
what do you regret, if you had to
look back, I said, I don't regret anything
that happened, I don't regret the way, the
career path went, and Inshallah, I won't regret
where it goes, what I regret, is those
transitional phase, where you feel isolated, those transitional
phase, where you feel, it's not going your
way, those transitional phase, where it's not going,
the way you want it, I wish in
those moments, I've been more grateful, for what
I had, as opposed to saying, Allahumma, when
is it coming, I wish in those moments,
I understood, وَإِن تُعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْسُوهَا
if you were to count the blessings of
Allah, I wish in those moments, I could
say, that Allahumma, I know it's, I'm isolated
at the moment, I know things are not
going my way, in the way that I
want them to, بَأَنَا رَاضِي I'm content, Ya
Rabb, that is the true test of character,
not what you say, when the doors open,
and that's why it was funny, there was
a particular client, who finally came knocking on
my door, and when they came in, Sumaiyah
said, why you're not so happy about it?
I told her, SubhanAllah, this was always written
for me, this was always written for me,
this was always written, and I was impatient,
this was always written, and I was saying,
when is it coming?
Allah had written it in the, you know
Sumaiyah, I said to her, if it had
come to me earlier, I wouldn't have the
knowledge required, to fulfill my obligation, if it
had come, I wasn't ready Sumaiyah, at that
time, I was desperate for, but it's like
I realized, Allah was saying, Sami, I want
it when it comes, that you maximize it,
you're not ready yet, I need to show
you first Bosnia, I need to make you
meet, Imam Tom and Sheikh Omar Suleiman, I
need to make you see, what America looks
like, I need to make you meet, all
these people first, I need you to go
through, these processes first, I need you so
that, when they come, you know, and you
are ready to be the vehicle, for this
struggle, when this genocide comes, because you're able
to reflect, on what came before, Ya Rabbi,
I wish, I had in those moments, the
fortitude and wisdom to say, Allahumma, I know
you've written something, I don't know what it
is, but I know you've written it, and
so I'm happy jamming, having the coffee with
Imam Tom, discussing Tom, see I didn't say
Tom this time, Imam Tom, plotting or planning,
the next step to move forward, because we're
convinced, we may not succeed in the plan,
but we may as well move, because if
we move, Allah will come 10 steps, Allah
will come running, as long as we move
in his name, even if this plan doesn't
work, Allah will guide it, that hockey stick
that you said, Allah will guide it, in
a way in which it comes, and that's
the thing, it's about perspective, I know that
some people might say, how did they start
with Gaza, and get here, if that's how
you feel, it's because, it's the Dajjalic interpretation,
where you don't see, how that applies to
Gaza, Gaza, to stand up for Gaza, is
perspective, it's the belief, if I stand for
what's right, Allah will make the change, if
I raise my voice, Candace Owens will flip,
if I raise my voice, Tucker Carlson will
flip, if I raise my voice, Ta-Nehisi
Coates will flip, if I raise my voice,
companies will start leaving, the Zionist apartheid occupation,
and movies will start downgrading, if I boycott,
McDonald's will end up shutting stores, because I
didn't believe I had power, but the McDonald's
CEO believes I do, which is why he's
shutting those stores, it's all about, if you
move, if you have the perspective, that move,
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, will amplify
that result, if you have that understanding, that
Allah is always there, that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, never left you, that in surah
Taha, when Musa alayhi salam, makes the dua,
asking Allah, Allah says, wa laqad mananna alayka
marratan ukhra, Musa, we've given you what you
asked, qala qad ootika su'laka ya Musa,
wa laqad mananna alayka marratan ukhra, and Musa,
this is not the first time, we've shown
you favor, implying, ya Musa, do not ask
me, as if I've never given you, do
not ask me, as if I never looked
after you, do not ask me, as if
I have ceased giving you, at any moment
in time, because let me remind you, what
saved you as a baby, was I bestowed
my favor, when you could not even ask
for a favor, I saved you, when you
could not even ask to save you, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala was saying, I am
always blessing this ummah, I am always giving
you capabilities, I'm always giving you talents, if
only you would appreciate, that nahnu akrabu ilayka
min hablil warid, that I am there with
you now, so move and leave the rest
to me, believe in Allah, believe in the
promise of Jannah, and you will find, that
Macron calls for an arms embargo, and Netanyahu
starts panicking, and the ICJ rules, that Israel
must be tried for genocide, and the ICC
begins the process for arrest warrants, and Israel
goes from being, a haven of genocide victims,
to a haven of genociders, bi iznillah, because
you moved.
Subhanallah, I mean, committed to the truth, and
ready to sacrifice, I mean, I think that's
so important, you know what I was doing
10 years ago, you know where I was
10 years ago, you have any idea, wild
guess, I was a vegetable farmer, I worked
on vegetable farms, yeah, 2014, I was on
farms, working, in my hands, and you know,
how does that go, you know they're saying,
how do you go from Gaza to here,
how do you go from vegetable farm to
here, I mean, that's the thing, from a
convert's perspective, from a convert's perspective, it's just
like, every time, I've sacrificed something for Allah,
Allah has elevated me even higher, and it's
like, it's a theory, until you live it,
and once you live it, it's almost like,
you know how some of the, some of
the tabirin, they said, if you had seen
the companions, you would have said they were
crazy, and if the companions had seen you,
they would have said you don't believe, you
know, there comes a point, and I'm not
saying that I've reached it, or anything, but
I can get it, right, theoretically, that the
more you sacrifice, the more you see Allah
just elevates, and elevates, and elevates, and you're
presented with these moments, of moral clarity, because
as one of my sheikhs said, he said,
the devil, the shaitan always gives you a
maslaha, that's how the delusion works, or I
have access, or I have my relationships, or
I've been working so hard, with this party,
or that party, on the inside, massaging this,
I got this, you know, thing, and now,
and you, you tell yourself you see progress,
but in reality, you've sold it all, you've
sold your dignity, you've sold your people, you've
sold your deen, and you're not getting anything,
that's going to move the needle, and there's
a story, you know, it's interesting, you mentioned
that, it shows you that wisdom can be
given, regardless of age, so one of the
hardest things, about traveling, is that while my
wife Sumaya says, go to waqal Allah, Salma
holds on to my leg, weeping, crying, Salma
once told her class, she said, the world
sees my dad more than I do, which
really breaks my, like really, so one thing
that, you know, I started doing, is every
night, you know, you call her, and I
tell her, Salma, read me one of the
stories, she loves it, so the other day,
she's telling me, and I don't know if
it was, as if Allah, had written it
for that moment, when I needed to hear
it the most, she tells me, Baba, I
was reading today, Baba, you have to listen
to this story, a man realized, that there's
a village, they were worshipping a tree, so
the man was really upset, so he said,
I want to show them the power of
Allah, I want to remove this tree, so
that they don't, so he went, and then
shaytan came in front of him, and shaytan
said, why do you want to cut the
tree, he said, because I want them to
remember, that Allah is supreme, so shaytan wrestled
with him, and he beat shaytan, but just
before, he was about to chop the tree,
Baba, shaytan says, wait, don't chop the tree,
and I promise to put the dirham, under
your pillow, I'll give you a maslaha, every
single day, so the man hesitates, and then
he says, okay, so he goes home, when
he wakes up the next morning, there's no
dirham, the access didn't produce anything, there's no
dirham, so when, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have
done that, when the man goes back to
the tree, someone didn't say that part, when
the man goes back to the tree, the
next day, he's going, so he resolved to,
bring the tree down, so shaytan emerges again,
and says, why are you going to cut
the tree?
He said, you didn't give me the dirham,
and I'm going to cut it, because I
don't want the people to, sway from Allah
SWT, so they wrestled, but this time shaytan
beats him, so the man says, shaytan, how
did you beat me today?
He said, yesterday you came for Allah SWT,
so I had no power over you, today
you came for the dirham, and so Allah
SWT, did not give you any power over
me, and that's the frightening aspect, in that
Salma told me a story, that she read
in some book, but this story when I
heard it, I said, subhanAllah, this answers the
dilemma, with regards to the genocide, when you
move, because you had nothing to lose, because
you want, you were so heartbroken at the
genocide, that you were willing to do anything,
if it's tweeting, sharing etc, because of that,
Megan Rice, looked into the Quran, and two
weeks later became Muslim, Shaun King, opened the
Quran, and ended up becoming Muslim, I was
with him in MCA the other day, he's
quoting hadith, and the Quran, off the top
of his head, I'm not talking about hadith
like, even though they're valuable, but I mean
not the basic hadith, that you learn, he's
quoting complicated, meaning he's learning the deen, you
watch all these people entering Islam, because they
see a power in the deen, that is
greater than the missiles bombing, the Palestinians, they
see a power in the deen in Islam,
that is greater than, the Zionist superiority, with
regards to the material wealth, and the lobbying,
and the like, what is the power, because
I only remembered it, when you mentioned convert,
what are these converts seeing the power, that
you who were born Muslim, are unable to
see, what is the power of Allah, that
they see manifest, that you are blinded to
it, you believe that everything, is going into
tragedy and disgrace, when in reality, it's the
Zionists who are panicking, and this is the
point that I make, in that why are
you tired, when Netanyahu is panicking, why are
you tired, when the Zionists are panicking, why
are you tired, when they're trying to change
regulations, in universities, because you moved, why are
you tired, when they're trying to ban TikTok,
because your voice was loud, how can you
be tired, when you're winning, how can you
be tired, when you're shifting the tide, how
can you be tired, when an enemy, that
you thought was so overwhelming, is finally revealing
the weaknesses, for no other reason, than you
chose to move, with the limited powers, and
the collective voice of the ummah, is shaking
the whole narrative, from around the world, this
is not the time, when earlier before we
walked in, we said what should be the
aim, of what we're doing over here, and
somebody mentioned fatigue, the tiredness, how can you
be tired and fatigue, when you're winning, when
one year on, from what happened in October
7th, and I'm not getting involved, in what
happened in it, the death of civilians, is
condemned by anybody, by anybody, including those in
Islam, the reason I always say, they say
do you condemn, is because they always, they
believe killing civilians, is fine, they did in
Afghanistan, they did it in Iraq, for them
it's normal, they can't believe, that someone automatically,
revolt against it, but the point that I'm
saying, is that in that one year, we've
seen changes, we never thought could happen, and
I think the lesson from Gaza, and the
lesson everybody, should take away from this, is
before you didn't move, the way you move
today, before you weren't moving, with the same
urgency, you move today, which is why the
urgency, with which you move today, produced in
11 months, what you couldn't produce, in 20
years, so the lesson of Gaza, is imagine
what you could achieve, if you continue the
momentum, and you keep moving, and that's why
move, just keep moving, just don't stop, it's
not about what is the right path, moving
forward, is that as long as you move,
for the sake of justice, Allah will bring
these pieces together, the same way it brought
us together, with Yaqeen, we had never met
before, that podcast beforehand, thinking Muslim led to
Yaqeen, which led to the American, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, in my view, saw these
parallel parts going together, and said, these people
who are moving, bring them together, and let
them reinforce and amplify, and that's why my
mother, always used to say, may Allah bless
her, she said, Sami, the path you decide
to take, Allah sends the relevant people, for
that path, if you choose to embark, on
the path of justice, Allah will send you
the people, who will help you to deliver
justice, and if you choose the path, of
comfort, Allah will send you those, who will
only preserve that comfort, and turn you into
a people, of humiliation, and Alhamdulillah, if I'm
sitting with Imam Tom, I must be doing
something right, right?
Astaghfirullah, Alhamdulillah.
Now, my read, on the Muslim street, here
in the US, and maybe we'll end on
this, and we'll see if there's questions, is
that, the people are disappointed, in the leadership,
that there are several, that the people are
actually ahead, I've actually been surprised, over the
last 12 months, how many people, who maybe
were suspicious, or doubtful, as to the power,
that they wield, I see a lot of
people waking up, I see a lot of
people, who your message, what I've been trying
to tell people, what Jada's been trying to
tell people, what other people, have been trying
to tell Sheikh Omar, other people, it resonates,
but they're disappointed, that the institutions, that we've
had thus far, are not necessarily getting it,
or not leading the way, what would you
say, to those people in this situation?
I'm going to word this carefully, we were
raised in a household, where our parents, would
always use, Seerah and life of Sahaba, as
reference points, so I want to make my
dad proud, by using one here, Khalid Ibn
Walid, radiallahu ta'ala anhu, receives more spoils,
than he's entitled to, after a particular battle,
when news reaches Omar Ibn Khattab, radiallahu anhu,
he says that, if Khalid took it, without
knowing, then he's become negligent, and if he
took it knowingly, then it's an offence, either
way, it's an excuse to remove him, as
Chief of Staff, of the army, when Khalid
Ibn Walid, reaches Medina, Omar Ibn Khattab, tells
Bilal Ibn Rabah, one of the other Sahaba,
I think it's Bilal, that when Khalid enters
the Masjid, take his turban off, and tie
his hands, when he does, all the Sahaba
are like, it's one of the most important,
that we've built in the Muslim society, Khalid
Ibn Walid, sword of Allah, invincible sword of
Allah, Omar Ibn Khattab, eventually demotes Khalid Ibn
Walid, and Khalid Ibn Walid, is angry for
three, four days, but he accepts it, when
Ubaid Abu Jarrah, says to him, I'm to
replace you, Khalid says, no better man to
replace me, you entered Islam before me, and
Khalid goes to Syria, and then he quells,
any suggestion of dissent, by naming Omar Ibn
Khattab, as the executive of his estate, but
Omar writes an interesting letter, Omar Ibn Khattab,
who realizes that Sahaba, this is one of
the main institutions, of our community, and you
know, I'm not too eager to see it
changed, or to see it replaced, or to
see something new, so Omar Ibn Khattab writes
a letter, and he says, Wallahi I did
not remove Khalid, except that I feared people
would say, that victory comes from Khalid, not
Allah SWT, Muhammad Asad says in his book,
Road to Mecca, it is not Muslims that
made Islam great, it is Islam that made
Muslims great, what made the Ummah great, was
its ability, that there are some institutions, that
serve the purpose, in a certain point of
time, and there is a new era, and
a new chapter, that requires new organizations, that
requires new leadership, we had Khalid Ibn Waleed,
today we need Obeid Al-Jarrah, we might
need Sa'd Ibn Waqas, we might need Amr
Ibn Al-As, each one in the eyes
of Allah, they are vehicles, that Allah SWT
used, Obeid Al-Jarrah, is not necessarily better,
than Khalid or the like, but all of
them, Allah used them as vehicles, and Umar
Al-Khattab, was making this point, do not
hold on to a vehicle, if it no
longer serves its purpose, do not hold on
to a leader, if they are no longer,
serving their purpose, Umar Al-Khattab himself, made
the dua, Allahumma do not keep me, in
this position longer, than my ability to serve
in it, Allahumma leave only the one, who
is talented in this position, if I need
to step down, let me step down, if
I see somebody, who is more talented, I
always say, and this is not just, because
I'm here in Yaqeen, and people can testify,
that I asked this question, even before Yaqeen,
I asked, why is it that Yaqeen, is
an organization, compared to other organizations, how is
it that, yes you have Sheikh Omar Suleiman,
but you have so many people, popping up
around it, etc., it's because there is a
structure here, that says that, one is not
greater, than the institution, it's the institution, and
the vehicle, it being is a vehicle, which
is the pride, and that's why I always
say, and I say it in a roundabout
way, and I'll say, I'll use my words,
that I used exactly, somebody said to me,
Sami we are moving, but the organizations, are
not moving at our pace, what can we
do to convince them, and I said bypass
them, I remember organizations, they said the community,
is moving too quickly, we want them to
slow down, and I said, you risk being
rendered obsolete, because the Ummah keeps moving, the
Ummah elevates those leaders, that are relevant to
the time, it's for you to adapt to
the Ummah, not the Ummah to adapt to
you, unless you adapt to serve, the needs
of the Ummah, at that particular time, then
Barakallahu feekum, Jazakumullahu alf khair, you were wonderful
once upon a time, and that's not taken
away, Khalid Ibn Waleed was wonderful, when he
took Iraq and Syria, it's for Ubaid Abu
Jarrah, and then Amr Ibn Aas after him,
to lead the next page, it doesn't take
away from each other, it's not about, this
is bad and this is good, it's that
we have a time, we need a leader,
you're not there, let's elevate somebody, who is
at this moment in time, and this is
why the Ummah has survived, for 1400 years,
because the Ummah is able, to refresh its
leadership, the Ummah is able, to retire leadership,
I'm not saying that should happen here, I'm
saying the Ummah is able, to find new
leaders, why?
Because what inspires this Ummah, is not a
personality, in terms of the leadership, what inspires
it, is a message delivered, by the Prophet
of Allah, by Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, which
said, that if you move for the sake
of Allah, Allah will give you, from where
you do not expect, he gives you assistance
from angels, Allah will give you, he will
give you Dawood Alayhis Salaam, he'll bring from
you Talut Alayhis Salaam, when he was appointed
Talut, you know Imam Talut, what did the
community say?
What do you mean Talut?
What do you mean Talut?
Shu'aib Alayhis Salaam, what is it?
we do not see you, as someone from
outside, but Allah elevated him, if these organizations,
do not want to lead this initiative, then
allow the space for Talut, allow the space
for Dawood, allow the space for Sulaiman, allow
the space for Obaid Ibn Jarrah, allow the
space for Amr Ibn Aas, for Allah they
are there, they just need you, to loosen
your grip a little bit, Mashallah, okay, so
we got some questions, we got questions, do
we really have questions?
then, it's late, it's late, Sami, you have
any final words, you'd like to say?
I think that, the final thing that I
will say is this, whatever happens, as a
consequence of our movement, is not what should
make you move, the idea that we will
achieve something, should not be a condition, on
which you move, for the Qur'an is
full of examples, of Nuh Alayhis Salaam, who
for 900 years gave Dawah, to the extent
where he would say, يَرَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي
لِلَّهُ وَنَهَارًا وَلَمْ يَزِدْهُمْ دُعَائِي إِلَّا فِرَارًا وَإِنِّي
كُلَّ مَا دَعَوْتُمْ لِتَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ جَعَلُوا أَصَابِيَهُمْ فِي
أَذَانِهِمْ وَاسْتَغْشُوا ثِيَابُهُمْ وَأَصَرُوا وَاسْتِقْبُرُوا اسْتِكْبَارًا
Allahumma, I've called on my people for 900
years, I've called on my people day and
night.
And every time I call on them, they
run away from me.
And when I call on them, so you
might forget, they put their fingers in their
ears, and they cover their faces, and they
treat me with arrogance.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about
Ashab ul-Ukhdud, their ending was not what
you would imagine you would like your ending
to be.
Allah gives all of these various different examples.
وَذَلِكَ فَوْزُ الْعَظِيمِ But this is why I
think that, what does it mean to be
successful in Islam?
And that's why we came back to the
point of struggle.
What made Rasulullah ﷺ great?
It wasn't the lands he conquered, it wasn't
the wealth he had.
By the time he died, Rome was still
a superpower, and so was Persia, but he
predicted they would fall.
His magnificence was, that people would move, knowing
they might not see the outcome.
His magnificence was he convinced an ummah to
move, even if they believed they would not
achieve it, because they weren't desperate for an
outcome, they were desperate for the pleasure of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
They were desperate to be vehicles Allah would
use.
They were desperate to hear when they die,
يَا أَيَتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّ اِرْجِعِ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً
مَرْضِيَةً Come back to Allah.
Allah is pleased with you.
This is what they were striving for.
This is what the French could not understand
when they were in Algeria.
We have taken over their land.
We have persecuted them.
We beat up their men.
We shame their women.
Why do they not succumb?
And why do they not just accept the
status quo?
What makes them move?
What makes them keep going?
What makes them willing to give everything for
the sake of something higher than them?
What makes them move and resist us when
we have the material superiority?
We commit a massacre, they keep moving.
We go and abuse them, they keep moving.
We do all sorts of harm and all
sorts of torture.
And we do the most inhumane things.
We blow up the heads of their kids.
But this community keeps moving.
What is it?
Make me understand what this message is.
The glory of Islam, the beauty and magnificence
of the Prophet Muhammad was not that he
conquered Aqsa, he wasn't there.
It was that he put the spirit in
people's hearts that if I don't do it,
let me pave the way for somebody else
to do it.
Let me keep moving.
If I don't see it, I'll meet in
Jannah the person who did it and then
I'll hear the full story.
Let me strive because the dunya is for
them and Jannah is for us.
That's the magnificence.
Do not move on the basis that you
want to see an outcome in your lifetime.
Do not pursue this cause on the basis
that you believe you have to see the
liberation in your lifetime.
Pursue it that you want the ultimate success
that any Muslim can have, which is, and
this is what keeps me, gets me out
of bed every night.
When I feel the sadness of when I
see Sidra's picture with the legs blown off
and she's hanging on the wall.
When I see Hind Rajab 320 bullets shot
at her car.
When I see Reem and the picture of
her with her grandfather.
When I see the heads of those kids
blown off.
When I see the utter inhumanity.
When I see that there are people who
are willing to forgive the genociders.
When I see that there is a global
order that is sanctioning what is happening.
I would prefer to see these Zionists bomb
the living daylights and set the world on
fire then stop them and stop this genocide.
Let's take a risk.
What keeps me going is this, is that
Allahumma, I know that you exist.
Allahumma, I know that your will is manifest.
Allahumma, I know that your promise is true.
Allahumma, I know that you've already appointed a
time for this promise.
Allahumma, on this basis, I will move.
Allahumma, I'm trying to come up with these
eloquent arguments and I don't know how eloquent
they are.
I'm trying Ya Rabb and I do it
for you.
Allahumma, I'm worried about what the consequences might
be.
I know I'm doing activism and luxury, but
I'm worried something else will come.
Allahumma, make me strong in doing it.
Allahumma, I'm trying to call on my people,
doing research.
What are their fears?
How can I address it?
Allahumma, I don't like flying.
I'm getting on those planes.
I hate turbulence.
Allahumma, I'm doing it.
Instead, I'm doing it.
Ya Rabb, please accept this from me.
I'm not the one who's going to deliver
the victory.
I know it's only you Ya Rabbi subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
But Ya Rabb, I imagine that it may
well be Imam Tom, that on our deathbeds,
we are sitting there and maybe we are
whatsapping each other.
We say our time has come, but the
world is in a worse place.
The world is in a horrible place.
Killings are still happening.
The global order is still messed.
And we will tell each other, you know,
maybe were we wrong to, maybe the arguments
in the podcast was wrong.
Maybe we should have focused on a different
angle.
Maybe we should have done this.
Maybe we should have done that.
Maybe, oh, you know what, Imam Tom, maybe
I didn't think about it properly.
We weren't as wise as we thought we
were.
Maybe we should have, etc, etc.
And the ruh starts leaving the body and
we think subhanallah, inna lillahi wa inna lillahi
rajul.
And it leaves.
This is what keeps me moving.
I imagine the angels will say, I imagine
that as I'm weeping with the heartbreak of
everything that's happening.
I imagine the angels will say, ya ayatuhal
nafsul mutma'inna, Oh, beautiful, sweet smelling soul.
Oh, lovely soul, wonderful soul.
The angels will say, you know, the soul
used to do, the community say there's no
point, what impact does your voice have?
But they kept going regardless.
They couldn't see the outcome, but they kept
moving.
They said, this is impregnable.
They kept moving.
The odds are against you.
They kept moving.
They said, we have Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
They kept moving.
Oh, sweet, beautiful smelling soul.
Come, come.
Why are you crying?
Come.
Irji'i ila rabbiki radhiyatan mardhiya.
Allah is celebrating you.
Allah will say, look at my Sabbath.
I gave them a promise and look how
they move.
I didn't show them Jannah, but look at
how they move.
Like the hadith of the angel.
They talked about my Jannah.
Have they seen it?
No, they haven't seen it.
Then I will give them the Jannah.
So they look how they move based on
the promise.
Irji'i ila rabbiki radhiyatan mardhiya.
And Dino, a friend of mine from Bosnia,
when they asked him about the Jannah, he
said, you know, my dream is, that when
I sit in Jannah, I want Allah to
show me the full tape.
I want him to show me from beginning
to end.
And one of the Americans who had the
story said, Subhanallah, do you know what struck
me the most?
Look how he dreams.
I want to be in Jannah and I
trust Allah and I want Allah to show
me how he made his justice manifest.
Dream of these things, in that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, at the end of the
day, I will stand before him and so
will you.
Allah will not ask you about things that
you are unable to achieve.
He will say, I gave you power.
I gave you a voice.
I gave you money.
I gave you comfort.
I gave you luxury.
I gave you everything in this dunya.
What did you do with it?
I gave you the money.
It's not your work.
I gave it to you.
I blessed you with it.
What did you do with it?
I gave you the microphone.
I gave you the camera.
What did you do with it?
And the frightening thing is, can you imagine
somebody who will see somebody and they will
say, you know, this person, his voice that
he raised, moved and frightened Netanyahu, but you
sat at home and you did nothing.
Don't be the guy who says, yeah, Netanyahu,
I wish I did something.
Move and you will see that the water
starts flowing and chances will open up.
And this is why I finish on this
point.
It's not a matter of whether you have
power or not.
Everybody has power.
Martin Luther King.
It's a universe.
It's a Fitrah concept.
Martin Luther King says, if you can fly,
fly.
If you can't fly, run.
If you can't run, walk.
If you can't walk, crawl.
But by God, keep moving.
بَلِّغوا عَنِّي وَلَوْ آيَةٍ مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا
فَلِغَيْرُوا بِيَدِهِ If you see something is wrong,
change it with your hands.
If you can't, then change it with your
tongue.
Speak out.
Speak out and do something.
There's a genocide.
Speak out and do something.
Kids are being killed.
Speak out and do something.
They're buckling, the Zionists.
Speak out and do something.
The world is shifting.
It's shifting because you're moving.
Don't look at each other and say, what
are we achieving?
You're winning.
You are making them buckle.
Blinken is buckling.
Biden is buckling.
The genociders are buckling.
Macron is buckling.
The Belgian deputy PM is buckling.
The ICJ is buckling.
The EU, why are they buckling?
They're buckling because you're moving.
Only a fool would turn around after this
and say, I'm going home.
There's no point.
Move and keep moving.
You're winning.
And Allah has written that victory will come.
And one day, Allah will remove everything.
And he will say, Allah will remain.
Believe in Jannah like you can see it.
And I always say, and I promise I'll
finish on this point.
Well, Yaqeen did the Jannah series.
Sheikh Omar Samed did the Jannah series.
And it was the first time somebody encouraged
me to envisage Jannah.
I'd never envisaged it before.
I just say, as long as I avoid
hellfire, I'm fine.
I'll be above web in the first Jannah.
I'll take that.
I'm not the kind of guy who should
imagine Jannah.
So you see, you had the lights behind
him and he's talking about it in that
lovely way that he talks, you know, like
mashallah.
And then that night I went and lay
down in my bed.
It was only 10 minutes.
I lay down in my bed.
And usually I put my head on a
pillow and I conk out.
I can't sleep.
I think, what would Jannah look like?
First Jannah.
He's described it for me, right?
So I think I can be a bit
brazen and think about first Jannah.
I won't think about Firdaws, just first Jannah.
And what you realize when you imagine it
is the first Jannah, you go through everything
you want in the dunya, which takes you
a few hours.
Let's say you went to bed at 10
o'clock by like 2 a.m., 3
a.m. You've exhausted everything that you had
want in the dunya.
By the time you exhausted it, you tell
yourself, you get to a place where you're
like, I'm here.
I may as well see what second Jannah
looks like.
I may as well imagine it.
But when you get to second Jannah, you're
imagining things that you didn't think that you
liked or wanted.
Because you've completed dunya.
So you're like, what is it that I
would like that I have not considered?
So you start thinking about prophets that you
would meet in the second Jannah, third Jannah.
By the time it gets to 4 a
.m., Fajr is 6.15. 4 a.m.,
you're on the fourth or fifth Jannah.
I may as well.
I'm here.
I may as well.
When you get to the seventh Jannah at
6.14, one minute before the adhan of
Fajr, the reason why I'm saying it is
I want everybody to imagine it.
What is it that Ansar saw in the
promise of Jannah that made them move?
I always imagine that one day you walk
in, you see Ali ibn Abi Talib, you
see Saba ibn Waqas, you see Khalid ibn
Walid, you see Abro ibn Aas, etc.
You walk in.
I imagine a scenario, I always walk in,
and then I see three men sitting underneath
a tree.
And I love this.
I dream of it every night.
Three men sitting underneath a tree, and you
walk by.
And because you're limited in your imagination, you
can't imagine what Jannah looks like.
So you imagine it in terms of someone
in New York or someone in London or
whatever.
You're walking by, you're overhearing.
And you hear one guy say, So ya
Rasulullah and ya Amirul Mumineen, when I liberated
Al-Aqsa, I came in and I kicked
out Bailyn and the Crusaders, and I established
Islam and the deen.
And the other person says, But ya Salahuddin,
when you entered, what was the laws that
you imposed?
He says, Ya Umar al-Khattab, I imposed
the same laws that you imposed in Al
-Aqsa.
You'd be like, Allah?
He said, Umar al-Khattab and Salahuddin Ayyubi.
So of course you're not gonna walk straight
past.
You're gonna walk in.
I'm enjoying this dream.
It's still 6.14. The seconds are ticking.
I don't have long.
You go and you say, salamu alaikum.
Wa alaikum salam.
Are you Salahuddin Ayyubi or Umar al-Khattab?
Yes, I'm Salahuddin Ayyubi or Umar al-Khattab.
MashaAllah.
MashaAllah.
It's wonderful to be here with you.
Which generation are you from?
Allah, I am from a miserable generation.
From a generation where we could have punished
genocide.
But we were unwilling to shake the status
quo because we'd established a comfort in it.
So we didn't think it was worth it.
But I tried.
I used to go all across America.
Very big country.
Salahuddin Ayyubi.
It was four hours to fly from Detroit
to Arizona.
Four hours at that time was longer than
London to Istanbul.
You should have seen the Raleigh to California
flight.
Five hours, 15 minutes.
It was almost from London to Riyadh, etc.
But you know, we tried and we tried
to do this, etc.
Say it to Rasulullah s.a.w. You
are Rasulullah and you're saying, but this time
you feel guilty.
Ya Rasulullah, we weren't like your generation.
We tried and we moved, etc.
And then you sit down and then somebody
else will walk in.
When the other person walks in, be like,
salamu alaikum.
You tell him alaikum salam.
Rasulullah s.a.w. will say to him,
what generation are you from?
And he will say, we are from the
generation that liberated Al-Aqsa in 2050.
Very close because of all the efforts there.
So I don't know if you can feel
jealous in Jannah, but you think to yourself,
you think, oh man, I died too early.
How was it done?
What was that?
You know with Asim Muhammad al-Fatih.
What did he know that the others did
not know?
So as the person goes and sits down,
I imagine, it's just my imagination.
I blame Sheikh Omar Suleiman.
I imagine that he walks in, before he
sits down with Rasulullah s.a.w. and
Salahuddin Ayyubi and Umar Al-Khattab, you know,
Imam Tam Fakini and Inshallah, and Sheikh Omar
Suleiman and Abdullah Uduru and his others.
Before he sits down, he looks at me
and you.
He goes, Do we know you?
Allahu Akbar.
You guys are here as well?
We'll be like, do we know you?
Ya Rasulullah, you know, I used to watch
these guys on Yaqeen and I used to
watch these, and they used to say, the
Ummah is strong, you're powerful, you can do
it, don't let them come for this.
Move, go boycott, go protest, go do this.
Yes, they're buckling, yes, you're winning.
And he made me believe it.
I believe it, I believed it.
And so I would go when I would
protest.
I would go to the incumbent.
I would spend my money, I would go.
And Ya Rasulullah, one thing led to another.
They paved the way of a new generation
of thinkers who didn't fear as much as
they hoped.
They hoped, they believed it.
We could see it as if we could
see it right in front of us.
They painted the picture for us, Ya Rasulullah.
They painted the picture what Jannah looks like.
They painted the picture what liberation looks like.
And one thing led to another.
And then eventually, Ya Rasulullah, I finally got
to pray in Al-Aqsa, but it didn't
happen without the efforts of those who came
before.
They paved the way for us.
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I find you here.
Ya Rasulullah, we are not here without that
generation that came before us, that paved the
way for us.
I accept that bit part role, if you
would call it a bit part role.
If the reward is Firdaus, if the reward
is Jannah, if the reward is sitting with
Rasulullah ﷺ, give me the bit part role.
Give me Sumaiyah r.a, even though she
wasn't a bit part role.
Give me Sumaiyah r.a. Give me Musa
ibn Umair.
Give me whatever.
When next time that book is put in
my hand, I'm ready to be any one
of the sahaba or sahabi, if it means
that I get there.
But the best thing that I imagined, just
for 6, 15, 58 seconds, just before the
event comes in, I didn't realize that I
could love something so much until I imagined
it.
Because once you get to Firdaus with the
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the question is, what is
there left for me to see?
And there's only one thing left, which is
a promise that I learnt about, but never
thought about.
I never contemplated it.
It never moved me or the like, which
is that maybe Rasulullah ﷺ will stand up
and say, Ya Ibadallah, stand up.
We have a meeting.
What's a meeting with Rasulullah?
Allah is about to reveal his veil.
It's done.
You are here for eternity.
He's about to reveal his veil.
And Allah looks at you.
You finally see the face of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And He says, Ya Ibadi who believed in
my promise, O you, look at what I
prepared for you.
Look at what was waiting for you.
Look at it here.
Do you feel pain here?
Was the dunya worth it?
Look where you are today.
Look, have it for eternity.
Have it forever.
Allah says, have it, have it.
I always wanted you to be here.
All I needed was for you to trust
me.
O you who trusted me.
O you who trusted me without seeing me.
I think that is worth moving for, regardless
of what happens in this dunya.
So let's enjoy the journey and see where
life takes us.
Bismillah.
Bismillah.
That's a wrap.
We're going to do it.
May Allah bless you Sami.
Thank you very much for coming here.