Sami Hamdi – Your Voice for Gaza Is Making a Difference
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The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam told us 1400 years ago that
the Ummah is like one body, that when one part of the body
complains that the entire body reacts with sleeplessness and
fever, and we're feeling that now more than ever before. But one of
the good points is that that pain that we feel is a sign of our
iman, it's a sign of our faith, and it's a sign of our unity. And
it's also a call to step up and act join us every night this week,
at 9:30pm
where, Inshallah, that's Eastern Time, 830 Central time. We'll do
two things. We're going to collectively find solace in Allah
subhanaw taala and his plan, and we're going to learn how to
actively contribute to the betterment of our world. Join us,
ask your questions, explore how our faith is the light in the
darkness that gives us the strength and the courage to face
any situation. And today's conversation, I'm delighted to
have two wonderful and esteemed guests with me, Sammy Hamdi and
mikayo Smith, who need no introduction. Welcome to the
program. Baraka fikom, so how we're going to do this tonight?
We're going to break it up into kind of two sections where we're
going to talk to each one of you individually for maybe 15 minutes.
I've got some questions that I prepared, but it's mostly going to
be you taking the floor. Anybody who has questions, please leave
them in the comments. We're going to be selecting questions, and
we'll have a brief Q and A a break for a brief Q and A after each
speaker is done, then we'll come back all together and we'll do a
larger Q and A after I add some commentary of my own. First we'd
like to direct, and the theme for tonight is towards an unbeatable
Ummah, right? Or an ummah that is indomitable or undefeated.
Turning to Sheik mikayo Smith, you know, one of the things that that
I wanted you to maybe give some voice to was, what is a Muslim's
duty to contribute to society. A lot of times we see these things,
and we have a very consumerist attitude towards them. The way
that the media is structured, it's part of we call it a live feed. It
just is something that we consume like we're feeding off of it, and
really our deen asks us to do more. So could you speak, perhaps,
to what is a Muslim's duty to contribute to the society around
them. Yeah, Bismillah, Alhamdulillah wa Salatu
was an honor to be here and to be able to contribute some way to the
struggles of our people. You know, the Prophet taught us to hate the
evil, strive against it in whatever capacity we can, and we
are all trying our best to stop the evil that is around us in
whatever way we can. And so your question is a very interesting
one. The question is, what is the duty of the Muslim? What do we owe
to society? What do we have to give back? And there's one
Prophetic narration that really speaks to me right now, which is,
it's a long narration, but I'll just paraphrase it for the sake of
time. Which is the Prophet sallallahu sallam. He taught us
that all of us are like this. All of humanity is like this group
that's on this, Safina, this, this ship, and we're all on this
journey together. We're all going to a distant, a destination
together. And then the Prophet sallallahu, sallam, said, just by
the drawing of lots, some people on a higher deck and some people
on the lower deck, just by the lots that they drew, that's where
they end up being. And so the people on the lower deck, every
time they want to get water, they have to go through the upper deck
to get water, and they have to, you know, inconvenience the people
on the on the upper deck, and the Prophet sallallahu Saddam say that
said that at one point they kind of get worried that, you know, we
keep inconveniencing these people. Why don't we just make a hole in
the bottom of the ship? And this is where the metaphor gets
extremely powerful, because it's truly speaks about the right, the
responsibility we have in this moment all the time, but
especially in the moment that we're in right now. The Prophet
sallallahu sadnam said that this group in the lower part of the
deck, under the deck, they say, you know, why don't we just make a
hole in the bottom of the ship so that we could just take water from
the bottom? And it's a horrible idea, obviously, and they think
it's a great idea, but they don't understand how detrimental This is
to the entire society. They only see the benefit that it brings
them, right? They only see what it brings them, not the entirety of
our society. And and I think this metaphor is so power Imam. And I
think this this metaphor is so powerful because the Prophet said,
if we if the people on the upper deck just leave the people on the
lower deck to make this whole if they allow them to cause
corruption, to spread evil and do what's wrong, then halaku jemian,
the Rasul Ari sarato is time. He says everyone's done in that case.
And so Imam Tom, this, this. This.
Hadith to me, really speaks about our responsibility to society.
Right now, we have to be those voices of truth, speaking up and
grabbing the hand. There's one more Hadith that really comes to
mind about our responsibility, and it's unsurakah volume and Alma
Newman the Rasulullah Salam. He said, help your brother, be he a
oppressor or oppressed. And in that moment, the Sahaba, they were
kind of like thrown off, and they said, Ya Rasulullah, like we
understand how to help an oppressed person, but how do we
help? Notice the word help, and this is the key. How do we how do
we help the oppressor, right? And this goes to show the mentality
that we have. The mentality is like we're removing something
that's detrimental in our society. So the Prophet sallallahu, sallam,
he said, grab the hand of your brother. This is how you help the
oppressor by stopping them. And so right now, as we lift our hands
and we lift our voices and we speak, we are bringing here to
society. We are bringing good by trying our best to remove the evil
that's going on. Now, that's, that's extremely profound. And I
think especially, you know, with the Hadith of the boat, the
Safina, you know, it's, it's countering the perception that
Muslims are a fifth column, right? Or,
in fact, and we also ourselves, I think, have to be sinceensive. We
have to be sensitive to being sort of colonized by this mentality
that we are trying to redeem and and save it right now. It might
not be on the terms that are, you know, that broader society
imagined that they would be saved upon, but you know your default
position of wanting good and having goodwill towards the people
around you the what better thing could you give them than truth,
right and to show them the error of their ways and to take them out
of the position of wronging themselves? How many times in the
Quran does Allah spun, Allah describe the oppressors as people
who wrong themselves? So that's, I think that's immensely profound.
Now, when it comes to contributing, okay, there are
certain obstacles. Actually, there's several obstacles, and
those obstacles come from a multitude of directions. One of
the obstacles that I hear on the ground is that some people, they
have sort of a a balkanized attitude towards the the things
that other people are suffering, suffering. So whenever, some
whenever a group of Muslims takes their turn, right, the sort of
question that is asked is, well, why should I care about their
issue when they didn't care about mine? So how do we, how do we
respond to this, this type of attitude, I mean, subhanAllah,
just the this, just the mentioning of It enrages you. It makes you so
upset. Because at a time like now when the wahdania of the umma is
needed more than ever, the Unity all voices focused on one thing at
this is not the time at all to focus on. Well, my issue didn't
get the the lives are lives are at stake here. This isn't just talk.
This isn't, we don't have the the privilege of debating what's the
most important issue right now? That's not what's happening at
this point. The only focus is and there's another thing. There's
another thing, subhanAllah, wala, ya Ji, Menna, Anu, Kamala, Allah,
tadi Lu like Never. Ever allow your emotion to take you from
focusing on the Hakka a moment of the justice of a moment. So So
there could be these different segments of our community that
truly, and I feel the pain when their issue came up, maybe it
didn't get the global response that that this issue is getting.
And I understand that, right, but don't let that take you away from
the thing that God wants from you right now, and what Allah,
subhanta, Allah wants from us right now. Undoubtedly, there is
not a Muslim on this planet. There isn't an Imam, there isn't a
sheik, there isn't a activist, there isn't a analyst. There is no
Muslim on this planet that doesn't agree to the for the most part,
that now is the time for us to all be together, and now is the time
for us to focus our voices on one issue right now, and it is the
massacre and the the attempt of genocide of our Philistine
brothers and sisters, if not, if not for that, for your love of
foots, for your love of of the Rasul, of the of the of the Quran
and all of these things. So, um, I understand Imam, like, definitely
SubhanAllah. It is definitely, definitely, uh, there are these
moments where people say, Okay, well, my issue didn't get this
focus. But for now, I asked the brothers and sisters, man, put
that to the side. Put that to the side. Now is not the time for
those things. We don't have the privilege of having these
theoretical What about isms? What about this? What about we don't
have that privilege right now, right now is raise your voice as
loud as you can and let every person that you know, be they
Muslim or not Muslim, know that what is happening to our brothers
and Philistine is wrong. Is genocide, and we will not act like
we did after September 11 and just be quiet, right? No, this is
incorrect, and we have to, we have to speak up. And so
I appreciate the.
Question, and it's important that we get ahead of these
conversations before they before they start to materialize. Yeah,
definitely. And I appreciate your strong stance on that. And it also
occurs to me that we have to break the cycle, right? Because if
that's going to be everyone's mentality, right? Yeah, it's kind
of like a Kantian ethics thing, right? It's like, if everybody
were to have that attitude, then we wouldn't, we'd be trapped in
this sort of attitude for forever. And we've got to break the cycle.
Yes, we need to show up for all of our brothers and all of the
sisters and all the situations that we face. And this is an
opportunity to actually break out of that cycle and start thinking
umatically, start thinking as an ummah, thinking collectively and
acting collectively. So that whole, you know, yeah, go for it.
The next issue, and the next group takes their turn, then we're
ready, because we've already been thinking So collectively, sorry,
I love that. I love that. What you said, thinking automatically,
right? And breaking the cycle. There's a clear Hadith where the
prophet was speaking about the Wasil and the Qatar, the wasat is
the one that's joining the relationships, and the qata is the
one that's breaking it. And he teaches a very important rule,
which is, it's it's not enough to only be fighting for people's
causes, helping people reaching out to people when they're
reaching out to you, no, the true Muslim, because we're doing it for
the sake of Allah, the true Muslim, even if you didn't show up
to my cause, I'm showing up to your cause because it's not about
you. It's about what I'm doing for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa,
and that's where we got to dig deep right now and realize that
that there's one focus right now, man, one focus. One focus. Yeah,
that and that takes a tremendous amount of spiritual maturity and
sincerity SubhanAllah. May Allah grant us that.
Switching gears a little bit, many people have likened this scenario
that's unfolding in Philistine to a David and Goliath situation or
to a Musa fir Alan situation. I know many people have talked about
how many lessons there are from the story of Musa alaihi salam and
the showdown he had with faraun. I wonder if you have any thoughts on
that, or reflections that you could benefit us with? Yeah,
Bismillah. Alhamdulillah. I mean, listen, brothers and sisters. You
know, I was at a rally yesterday. Sheik Umar usuiman was there. The
whole Dallas came out around the world. People are coming out. We
are we are not just talking. We aren't just we aren't only making
dua, right? We are also lifting our voices as we lift our hands.
Is the slogan I'm using for it. We lift our voices and we lift our
hands. And with that said, with that said, I think what we all
need to realize, though, every Muslim listening to me right now
needs to realize something really deep in your heart. We always have
to turn back to the Quran and the Sunnah to give us our guidance in
these moments. We have to, we have to, we have to, we cannot. We.
This is the time when we need that the most, right? This is the time
when we should be most connected to the the Kitab of Allah and the
son of our Habib. And so, you know, Imam Tom, there was one.
There's one moment in the in the story of Moses. I think the entire
story speaks so much about what we're watching right now. And so,
if I could just share one thing, and the reason I'm sharing this, I
want you to understand when the Prophet Alayhi Salatu was Salam
was making Hijra. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go into this narration, but
hear me out when the Prophet sallallahu Salah was making Hijra
suraqah was chasing the prophet. He wasn't Muslim at the time. He
was chasing, he was chasing the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and he
says that I was, I was behind him, and I was, I was many, many, many,
you know,
yards behind them. And I saw two people. And I saw this, one person
who kept looking back at me, right, and then another person who
was just walking straight. And then he says, As he got closer, he
says the person looking back, he kept looking checking to see how
close I am, and the other person just kept but he says, As I got
closer, I could hear the person in the front walking straight was
just reciting Quran. And he tells us later that it was the Rasul
SallAllahu, alayhi wasallam that was just walking reciting, and the
one looking back was Abu Bakr. This is profound. It is so
powerful because there's a bounty after his head, there's a there's
a killer after him, but that Quran Allah, Quran, Rabbi Abu lubina,
like make it the thing that guides us. Ya rab. So with that said,
let's look at one moment from the the Moses Pharaoh story that I
think we can gain insight from and here's one more thing, Imam Tom,
forgive me for my digression. We're enjoying it. Yeah, here's
another thing. The beautiful thing is that when you read about it and
realize this isn't the first time it's happening, you're like, Man,
this ain't my first rodeo. I'm from Texas, you know, this ain't
my first rodeo. So.
We read about it in the Quran, and you're like Subhan Allah. Allah
already told us this. He's already showed us this and and so let's
get into this Subhanallah,
what call mahuli. You see the Philip wa yakawa, ali hatak, crazy
verse, Surah araf, verse number 127,
the councilman of Pharaoh, they say to Pharaoh, a tetheru Musa
Moses is trying to leave with his people. He's trying to liberate
his people. He's trying to liberate his people. Subhanallah,
and what does the mele that the councilmen say. They say, uh, are
you going to leave Moses and his people to sow corruption in the
land? First point we got to understand is what they called
corruption. We called liberation. Yeah,
Moses was sent only to liberate Beni Israel, only to bring them
out of that oppression, but from the vantage point of Mela. You
said, Phil up, man, if your facade filled, Adi is my liberation, I'm
causing corruption all day. That's right, yeah, if your facade is my
liberation, then I guess we got, we got we got issues. What? What?
Leo Sid fiddle, so first thing that that, that spinning of it, of
the making it seem to be facade, making it, spinning it to be other
than liberation, that alone right there. It's not the first time.
And to me, when I read those verses, you know, my heart smiled
that ya ya rab Al Hamdulillah. And then the verses go forward. Allah
sanukti Lu abana Aho, wana stakinisa Aho, I mean, he was
better than what people are doing now. Now he said, I'll keep their
sons alive and I'll I'll slaughter their sons, and I'll keep their
daughters alive. And now, here's the key
within kahiru. Look what Pharaoh said, Indeed, we have power over
them.
The here's the problem, the Muslim is amazing. Aja Ben Liam, you know
why the Muslim is amazing? When the Muslim is the subject of
oppression, he realizes that the one above him doesn't have true
power because there's one above him, and
when the believer is the one in power, we never oppress why?
Because we remember the one above us that has power. So no matter
where we are, AHA is Aha.
And in this moment right now, and it's it's hard to talk about.
But right now, there are brothers and sisters of ours looking up,
but we don't realize they're looking above the planes. To
Allah,
they're looking above the planes. The planes above. They're looking
above
right? Subhanallah,
Allah, Musa Ali told me, Moses is speaking to me and you, through
the Prophet, sallAllahu, sallam, through through decades of
centuries of Revelation, he's speaking to you. He says, ya told
me is that in UBI was be rule, seek help from God, guys. And I'm
saying this after all of us, guys, all of us have been at rallies.
We've been posting, we've been sharing, we've been sending money,
we've been doing what we can. But on top of that, if you lose your
spiritual connection, you've unplugged everything from the
source of all guidance. He says, istainable. He was spiru. Look at
the next words in Yuri tuha, hot.
Man, yes,
well, ate, but look, the earth belongs to God. He'll give it to
who he pleases. Like all of this Subhanallah, the verses speak so
powerful. So, um, you know, I just thought these verses right here
sort of out of I want our audience to remember we are being active.
We are doing what we can. We are getting the most accurate and
detailed analysis from our our Ustaz here and other experts. We
are have political activists who are leading us, but our spiritual
connection when they describe Sahaba for San and bidna hard, but
at night time, Ruhani connection with Allah subhanho wa Taala sa
but I just want us to get connection by understanding this.
Allah subhana wa Tada has already told us about this, and we must
stay connected to the Gita of Allah while we stay active trying
to bring change in the world. Now, I mean, those are very profound
reflections. Thank you so much for offering them up and sharing them
with us. It's really couldn't ask for a better segue to, I think,
our segment with, with Sam, please, because, because I think
we're going to take a few questions first, just to give some
some air to the program. But you know, so many things to touch on,
and as and Sam, you can keep them in mind as we go forward. The
first is language games.
Okay, I mean, if you're in the the Battle of discourse, it's all
about language games. What you call a thing, it might win or lose
the battle, right? So we're, we're talking about, you know, is it?
You know, what is occupying? What is terrorism? What is this? What
is that? Right, everything that we call something. And obviously we
know that the opposition is extremely crafty in how they wield
the language to set them up to win the debate. And I was on a local
radio talk talk show this morning, and that's the first battle that
you have to win. You have to win the language battle so making sure
that we understand what that language battle is, and then
having all of our activism and all of our actions tie back to our
sincerity and our devotion our worship. That is the key. And
there is no success without the success of Allah. That's also
another thing that I had already had written out to get into with
Sammy. But let's, let's take just a quick break for some questions
before we get into that. Iman A asks, what do we do in the West?
Are we betraying our brothers and sisters? I'm guessing that the
implication is here, that because, due to virtue of the fact that
we're in the West, I'm sharing content and making dua as much as
I can. Is this enough? And that's for either of you, if either of
you would like to field that
had to land. Yeah, the Prophet saw them in many narrations. He would
try. He would give his best effort, and he would say, Ya
Allah, this is my johud. This is my johud. This is my johud.
Do everything you can. Do everything you can. I'd love to
hear from you know, Sami here Inshallah, he could share some
light on some practical tips. I think some of our activists have
been organizing the rallies. I think the rallies, wallahu, Alam.
I was speaking to some of the some of the people we see some change
coming. And I was listening to Sami, he'll enlighten us.
Enlighten us, inshallah. But, uh, please, please
follow my I think, first of all, thank you for having me, and thank
you. And it's great to see friendly faces mashallah and faces
that I watch on YouTube during Ramadan mashaAllah. I think one of
the things that to answer the question directly. I think it's
better to have the Israeli Defense Minister, the former Israeli
Defense Minister, answer this question in 2021
when the Israelis were bombarding Gaza, when they went in, when they
were saying that this was a terrorist threat, when they were
mobilizing their million dollar PR industry to try to really paint
the Palestinians as animals, and to assert that their bombing of
Gaza, their destruction, the slaughter and the like, was
justified. Benny Gantz hit a problem, and what he did was he
summoned the directors of Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram, to
an emergency meeting. The meeting was held very quickly, within 24
hours, and he ordered, or he commanded, or he asked them, and
he pleaded with them to take down hashtag Palestine, to take down
Palestinian content. The Israeli Defense Minister, who oversees all
of the mobilization, who has the PR under his command, was asking
the social media platforms in which ordinary people, ordinary
Muslims were posting. He was telling them guys, as part of this
effort, it is breaking our control of the narrative, breaking our
control of the monopoly. We are telling you to take this content
down. And this is why, when the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu
Sallam says belly, huaniwala ayah Sayyid conveys something from me,
even if it's just an air, because he knew the value of what
conveying even an air can make when the Prophet Muhammad,
sallAllahu, Sallam says, Malala Amin kumunkaran faluha, who
beheaded He who sees something that is wrong, let him change it
with his hand. And if he cannot with his hand, let him change it
with his tongue. And if he cannot with his tongue, let him condemn
it in his heart. And that's the weakest of faith, already. Sister.
Amen, you're in the second category. You're not in the
lowest. You're already in that second category. You're already in
an elevated status when you are sharing that content and pushing
and the like, and you pushing it, not somebody who's got 1000s of
followers? You as the individual. You with your Twitter account or x
account, you with your Facebook or Instagram or the like. You're the
reason Benny Gantz summons Tiktok Facebook and Instagram to tell
them to take down content. And you're the reason that the
European Union, some of the officials who are sympathetic to
Israel are trying to push a motion to reimpose restrictions that some
of the social media have lifted because they believe that they are
losing the narrative war. And one of the reasons, and I'll make a
very bold claim, because, based on my analysis in terms of the
politics, the reason there hasn't been a ground invasion yet is
because the Israelis are concerned that the narrative is not yet in
their favor, that everybody in the world has seen the destruction
that Tamar that they've done, and that because of protest in London,
in Chicago, in Canada, in Bangladesh, in Pakistan, in Rome,
in Berlin in.
Paris, in all of these capitals where protests were not supposed
to take place, there's a deep concern that the public opinion is
overwhelmingly against Israel, and that's why they're very wary that
if they go in with a grand invasion, as it stands, if they go
in with a ground invasion, and you sister Iman, and everybody here at
Yaqeen Institute and everybody else making the efforts, if they
go in with a grand division, and these people and yourself are
showing the world that Palestinians are human, not the
animals that Israel has been insisting for so many decades with
its monopoly of the narrative, then they will permanently lose
global opinion, and that's why the second US Secretary of State
Blinken when he went to Tel Aviv to show support, his intention was
to go to Tel Aviv and come straight back to Washington. But
in Tel Aviv, he announced he would launch a regional tour. And if you
open Washington Post to the today's article, or might have a
time difference, so I'm not sure what's today and tomorrow, but if
you open the Washington Post article, you'll see Blinken pleads
with US allies in the Gulf, to rein in the public backlash, to
reign in the public opinion. He asked the regimes to help him, to
get you, sister Eman, to stop publishing the content, to stop
talking about the Palestinians, to stop raising awareness, to stop
doing what? For the first time since 1948
convinced the neutral, convince the one who was on the fence that
this Palestinian is human and that he has legitimate cause. And
that's why I think sometimes Muslims undermine their agency.
They undermine the power that Allah, Subhanahu wa has given
them, Allah, even amongst the prophets, Wa rafana abarajat, that
we elevated them in terms of status, some prophets convinced
their populations and Allah gave them success, such as the Prophet
Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam. Some of them were promised
success, but never saw it, such as Ibrahim alaihi salam when he was
told your progeny would be like the stars some prophets, they saw
their people destroyed, Saleh, alaihi, salam, who
and these other shweeb and the like Allah, Subhanahu wa taala,
delivers success as he wishes, when he wishes, in his own span,
whatever he wants, Allah does, but the striving is odd. One thing
that I always strike, and I know I've gone in terms of the answer
to the question. But I really want to emphasize this point. Allah
says, In the Quran and I was younger, this area used to always
strike me. It used to hurt my head a bit. Woman, a Gen woman, a Genna
to Minun fakana. Say, You who mash Qura? Allah didn't say, what can
it
in? Allah says, What can I say? Who mash Qura? Allah doesn't say
that. The rule, the result is rewarded. He says the striving is
rewarded. He who strives for Jannah and is a moment. Allah says
the striving is thank the striving. Because Allah is saying,
it's not you to decide whether you succeed or not. It's not you to
decide what the outcome should be. It's not you to decide what course
should be taken. Your decision is whether you want to strive for it.
Your decisions if you want to take the steps within the powers that
are available to you in order to achieve what you what you believe
to be just and right. And you hope that Allah will guide you on that
path where, if you're veering, He guides you back to the path, and
that's why, to answer the question bluntly and a wrapper up with
this, you're asking yourself, What can we do? I feel like I'm
betraying all the like but Wallahi, La Ilaha, Illa who
Blinken and Netanyahu sit together in a war room trying to find a
strategy to get you sister Imam to be quiet. They are trying to find
the strategy to make sure that not Sam al Hamdi or Imam Tom fertino
or Mikaela or Smith or these others, to get them to be quiet.
There's no it's not about the big accounts. It's about the small
ones like you, because the more you retweet and share, the more
the algorithm favors your post. When the algorithm favors your
post, it goes higher on the homepage. When it goes higher on
the homepage, more and more people see it. And one of the things that
I found quite fascinating there is a very prominent analyst. He's not
he's often believed to be the father of the political risk
industry that I work in, a guy called Ian Bremmer, prominent
politicalist in the US. Ian Bremmer posted on truth, and he
said, I've never seen the levels of disinformation in my life
regarding this conflict. What he means is, I've never seen so much
pro Palestinian content get onto my feet from the algorithm I'm
used to the sanitized version. I'm used to the pro Israeli narrative.
And I am stunned and shocked that the Palestinian voice has broken
through and Wallahi La ilaha illaw, it has broken through
because of people like you, sister Iman, because of the ordinary
Muslim who sits on his phone and says, Ya Allah, I want to use the
powers that you gave me to make.
A difference. I fear that I am weak, but I am striving. I am
striving within what I have. And Allah is rewarding that striving,
and he is thinking that striving. And everybody can see that the
occupier and colonizer is losing the war on narratives. That's why
they had to spread fake news about atrocities that were committed
despite never giving proof. Consider this, we are being told
by the Israelis what is happening, but being shown by the
Palestinians what is happening. The reason being is the Israelis
have nothing to show about what is happening that will prove their
accusations, but the Palestinians have all the evidence in order to
show and proliferate on social media. And that's why I think that
the reality is that when I'm looking at things unfolding, I'll
be honest with you, I'm speaking from London. I'm not I know you
guys are in the US, but it's unprecedented the loudness with
which the Ummah is roaring. It's unprecedented to see so many 1000s
of people across the world take to the streets, and have everybody
see that they are taking to the streets as well. It's
unprecedented, so much so, and that's why, when you look at
mainstream media itself, they're using the word unprecedented. But
the reason they're using the word unprecedented is because they've
never seen a phenomenon of the Ummah moving as one body. It was
supposed to be divided. It was supposed to be weak, and now it's
like a roaring, irresistible wave, so much so that CNN has had to
apologize for its coverage. BBC has had to apologize for its
coverage. Journalists peddling fake news have had to come out and
tried to rescue their integrity by admitting that they fell far short
of journalistic standards. And the reason they did that is not
because they were scared of the Israelis. Israelis contractuated
them. They weren't scared of the Americans. Biden is openly
supporting the Israelis. They weren't scared of the Europeans.
It's you. It's the pressure you put it's the loudness that you
roared with. It's you who kept going on their back, demanding the
proof, demanding the evidence, undermining the reputation. Really
going through and analyzing, investigating, using social media
in an unprecedented way that they're using the word sorry. It's
not even an ambiguous apology. They're saying We apologize and
we're sorry and we should have done well, and that's because of
you who were told that you had no power. You who were told that you
were insignificant. That's why. And I go back to the first mind,
the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu, sallam, layan, tikwa, Hanil Hawa.
He does not speak from emptiness or the like in the hula. Wahiyunu
Ha he is somebody who Allah has revealed to So when he says belly
huaniwala Aya, he's saying that even the most basic individual, if
you have no power convey, even an area from me for it will make a
difference. And that's why I think to answer your question directly,
Sister Imam, and also to address some of the points that I hope to
address in what Imam Tom was going to ask. It's this point. The
unique thing about everything that's unfolding before us is the
fact that the overwhelming force and battle is not being fought by
the politicians. It's by us. When Saudi Arabia, which has been
removing the word colonizer from its official statements because
it's been pursuing normalization of times with Israel. When it goes
back to calling Israel a colonizer, when the Saudi Crown
Prince lifts the restrictions on dua in the Haram with regards to
Palestine, you will have known some Imams have been taken off
their member and the like, for criticism of these policies. When
he lifts that, it's not because he's changed his mind over
normalization is because the overwhelming public opinion is
making him hesitate and making him believe. I don't want to be caught
on the wrong side of this public opinion. When the UAE comes out
with a statement blaming the Palestinians after Blinken,
Secretary of State has called them and said to them, please give me a
positive statement. When the UE then announces aid to Palestine
afterwards, after the backlash, that's because of public opinion,
you are making a difference. Sister Iman, everyone listening to
this stream is making a difference. Everyone sharing it,
retweeting it. Everyone's sharing content, retweeting content.
Everyone amplifying the voices of Palestinians, amplifying the
voices of the activists, amplifying the voices, if you all
of this, is making a huge difference. And that's why I
think, in terms of tangible some people might say, Okay, fine, it's
higher on the algorithm. I truly believe the ground offensive
hasn't happened, because the narrative is not yet in favor of
the Israelis, because they lost their grip in it. I believe that
Blinken traveled all those hours from Washington to Tel Aviv and
the regional powers because the public opinion is not ripe and
he's desperate for it to be changed. When CC met with Blinken
Sisi, who whatever your opinions about him, cc put the cameras on
and lambasted blinking with a lecture.
Are telling him you came here and you said you're a Jew. We've never
oppressed the Jews in this region. Rebuking him in public, it may
well have been a political stunt, but it shows you that public
opinion is in such a level that the leaders of the region do not
want to be seen to be against the Palestinians. They don't want to
be seen to be aiding the oppressor. They don't believe that
there is any political expediency in setting aside the public
opinion, as they used to doing, in favor of the occupier. And that's
because we are conveying well area, because we are retweeting,
because we are sharing, because we are shouting, because we are being
loud, because we are mobilizing, because they are seeing that. When
you guys did the stream with away mir Angel and Omar Suleiman, may
Allah reward them both, within one day, it got to 230 k2, 40k they're
seeing these numbers. And I know, because I was hoping you're
thinking Muslim podcast would would wish the same levels
inshallah. But the point here being is they're seeing those
numbers, and they are saying, You know what? Something here bad is
happening in London. Only 10,000 were supposed to take to the
streets. The police were ready for 10,000 more than 50,000 marched
through the streets of London, causing a panic that even the
politicians had to respond to when you look around the world, that
despite France trying to ban pro Palestinian protests. The protests
still took place. When you look at Rome, they deployed the police to
push the protesters back. More protesters came out because
there's an irresistible wave, and that's why the EU itself, Spain
has come out and said, with the EU von der Leyen does not represent
our position. We don't support Israel unconditionally. Von der
Leyen put the Israeli flag on the European Parliament, the head of
the European Commission, the European foreign minister, Joseph
Borrell, told the press conference, she has no right to do
that. She has no right to speak on behalf of the EU. We decide
foreign policy, not her. When, when, when there's a spillover of
differences. That means that the divisions internally are so great
and so fierce that they spilled over into the public in other
words, even the EU itself, as a result of the public opinion, as a
result of what we're doing, they are tripping over themselves and
contradicting one another with regards to the stances that they
are taking. So the question here is this, Iman, your sister. Iman
question implies that I feel a set of weakness. But Wallahi la Ilahi
Lahu the Israelis are feeling your overwhelming power. The EU is
feeling your overwhelming power. Blinking is feeling your
overwhelming power. Bin Salman is feeling your overwhelming power.
Bin Zayed is feeling your overwhelming power. Erdogan is
feeling your overwhelming power. All of these governments are
feeling the overwhelming power of the public opinion, and that's why
I finish on this point. The greatest tragedy of this ummah is
not that it's weak, but that it believes it's weak when everybody
else believes it's strong. The greatest tragedy of this ummah is
that it believes it doesn't have strength when the world still sees
that it has strength and that strength needs to be contained. I
think it all boils down to this Allah subhanahu wa decide the
outcome, as he always has, in his own way, when he wants, in his own
terms. The question that we ask ourselves, and as sister Iman is
asking a very poignant question, and one that all of us are trying
to fulfill here, is given that we have the choice in striving. How
are we choosing to strive? And because this ummah chose to strive
over this past week, because it chose to strive to break Israel's
monopoly on the night, to break the occupiers monopoly on the
narrative, we are seeing a resounding success in it. And I
promise you, no matter what the outcome of what happens, even
though it's heartbreaking, what's watching unfolding. Gaza
Bloomberg, Front Page Two days ago was the fallacy that Israel can
normalize with the Arabs without talking to the Palestinians, has
been blown apart. The Palestinians can no longer be ignored. The
cause is no longer dead. The Palestinians are no longer a dying
breed. Instead, the cause is roaring. Last week, we were
looking at Netanyahu raising a map at the UN in which he erased
Palestine completely, and then telling the people that
normalization with Saudi will be the greatest deal since the end of
the Cold War. Today, if I ask you, last week, you felt despair about
the cause today, everybody around the world, every policymaker in
Europe, they're sitting with each other and saying, We told you. So
there are officials turning around and saying, we follow the
Americans. But here look, the Palestinians are here. The Spanish
Minister has come out and said, Netanyahu should be brought
between an International Criminal Court. And we ask, Are you EU
partners? You can see that it's not just the Muslims denouncing
it. It's non Muslims who have been affected by your push in this war
of narratives, and we are winning it, and that will have sweeping
ramifications for how any peace deal or de escalation comes about.
The.
Reality is this, and I promise to finish on this point, the reality
is this. The reason Netanyahu is bombarding Gaza is not about
bombarding Gaza itself. It's not because he wants to bombard Gaza
itself, but because he's in a hysterical panic. That last week,
he was telling the world the Palestinian cause is dead, and now
the world is saying that it's alive. He's trying to pound the
spirit and eliminate this roaring spirit that people are saying the
Palestinians are alive. And that's why the Gazans are saying we're
not leaving. Because they recognize that they scored a body
blow on Netanyahu. They know Netanyahu is lashing out, and that
no matter how much he lashes out. He can't wipe away the
humiliation. He can't wipe away the damage that the Palestinians
have done, the moral damage that they've done, the idea being that
these Palestinians, who were supposed to be weak, who was
supposed to have been abandoned, who was supposed to no longer have
agency, have delivered the greatest body blow to Israel's
image since 1948 when Netanyahu is attacking Gaza, our hearts are
breaking the death toll and the way the buildings are being
damaged. But I promise you, Netanyahu is not doing it from a
position of strength. He's doing it because this Omar has done
something that has the potential now to change the entire course of
what's taking place. And I'll finish on this example. In 1945
the French were celebrating their liberation from Germany, from
after World War Two, and they were writing a charter, every man is
born free and the like, and the UN Charter and the like. And then the
Algerians took to the streets believing Masha Allah. These guys
are writing a lovely charter. Every man is free. We want
independence as well. According to the French declassified documents,
they said that the number of Algerians coming out, it will
threaten us. We're already struggling in Indochina. So we
need to better these Muslims. We need to better these Algerians. We
need to massacre them. We need to deliver on them a lesson so that
they will never take to the streets again, and they will never
challenge us. In one week, they killed over 30,000 the French said
they killed 12,000 the Algerians say they killed 50,000 I've gone
for the middle number 30,000 let's try to avoid the exaggerations.
And they were convinced that, after they massacred them, in the
same way they talk about Palestine, that the cause is dead.
They will never take to the streets again. They will never
come out again. Their dreams for liberation are finished, brothers
and sisters, 17 years later, 17 years later,
132 years of French occupation, colonization was finished, and the
Algerians took to the streets. And they said, Yeah, Muhammad, Mabrouk
ali ja Muhammad, Prophet. Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi wa
sallam, mabrook, aliq al jazeer, has been returned to you in nama
or city Yu salah. After hardship comes ease. Allah is the One who
knows. I have faith. My relationship with Allah is a
positive one. Allah knows what he's doing. Allah is all aware.
Allah, for those who are sad about the deaths as well. Remember,
there was a lovely picture I saw on Facebook of this show the ghost
of a baby girl put her hand around her her father who's alive, and
she says, Yeah, abi, let us in. I'm happy where I am, Allah,
I'm happy where I am. I'm happy with what Allah has given me.
I'm happy. They
are happy very
Hena, be my home.
They
are telling people like us who haven't met them, yet they're
telling people like us,
they are not feeling any fear or sadness.
So they are saying that the name and barakah Allah has given us is
such that do not be sad for us. We think Allah subhanaw taala has
abandoned the ummah. He's rewarded the Shuhada. He's rewarded them.
Immediately. There's no limbo. He's rewarded them. The question
is, for us, I know Allah subhana wa Taala knows what he's doing in
his hikmah is wisdom. The question yes is the Iman, and everybody
here is, what do we do within the powers Allah has given us? And I
swear to you, La Ilaha, illallah, Muhammad, sallAllahu, I swear by
Allah
that Israel is pleading with social media to take your post
down, that the European Israeli allies and European Union are
pleading to have your post down. And if it didn't have power, they
would never take their time to do that if it didn't have power, they
wouldn't dedicate so much to it. And I think that it's because of
people like you, sister Iman, final sentence, that the Israeli
ground invasion has not happened yet, because they're concerned
that the narrative is not in their favor. Ya, ibad Allah, belly Hu
and Sayyidina Muhammad, walaw ayah, say some.
Thing about the Prophet, even if it's just an area, because we are
changing the global opinion. And I'm telling you, from what I've
seen in my lifetime and even what the elders are telling us, this is
unprecedented. The shift is unprecedented. Human Rights Watch
is now calling the Israeli regime an apartheid regime. It never used
to amnesty. Is calling Israel an apartheid regime. It never used to
apartheid is being used on the Congress floor. It never was used
on the Congress floor before. These are victories that we should
appreciate. These are victories that we should celebrate, because
they're not victories that have come from top down. They're
victories that have come from the Ummah mobilizing, and the Ummah
saying we will never die, that we are ready to mobilize for the sake
of the ummah. And I will finish, and I promises the final sentence,
what I love more than anything else is what this cause has shown
is the Ummah from Malaysia, Australia, all the way to the US.
Because I'm going to say that we in London are in the middle, not
you Americans. We're not going to go east. We'll go west. Will you
come via London inshallah? And I hope to host all of you in London
inshallah. But the point is, from Australia all the way to the
Americans. I remember I had a comment in the thinking Muslim
podcast, and somebody said, we we are upset that you didn't mention
Colombia. Colombia standing with the Palestinians. They've kicked
out the Israeli ambassador. They were telling me, Sammy, don't
forget, there are people in Colombia standing with the
Palestinians as well, Peter Latin America standing as well. Allah is
changing the hearts, and they are terrified that the hearts are
changing, and the reason they're changing is because of our
efforts. May Allah reward us for our efforts, and May He give us
that, May He give us that that's that heart, that that stead
partner, fastness, not only to continue doing it, but also to
appreciate the power Allah has given us, however small you might
think it is. And Allah alim, to Allah, it is great. I'll leave it
there. And BarakAllahu, I know I speak for everybody when I thank
the questioner for enabling us to hear the response Masha Allah. And
I know we have some, we have some footage, actually, from some of
these, this turnout, this unprecedented wave of umatic
solidarity and feeling and thinking and action, if we could
go to go to that and play that.
This is unprecedented. Allah, this is unprecedented. Allah,
only 10,000 was supposed to turn up.
The numbers suggest more than 3040, 50,000 turned up on LBC,
which has been very pro Israel in its narrative, the reporter said
there's at least more than 30,000 here. Allah,
this is an ummah whose hearts are alive. Yes, Malaysia. Masha.
Allah, this is so when people say that it looks bleak or the Ummah
is weak, this is an ummah that believes it's strong. This is the
look at the heart. Allah,
Allah,
this is my home here, Masha, Allah,
Allahu, Akbar, Allahu, Akbar, the energy was, was amazing. All
everyone's focused on one thing, Alhamdulillah.
I'm
so Sammy, we've got to keep you talking, because we benefit so
much. I want to. I want to have everybody feel the inspiration of
the moment and start to think ahead, because we know that the
opposition is strong and cunning. Okay, so we there's, there's two
things that I want to touch on. One of them is, okay, what should
we be doing to further build our capacity? Okay? What should we be
doing to further organize and amplify this moment so that we
don't lose an opportunity, and then after that, we'll get to
obstacles and barriers and things like that that we need to to look
out for. But is there something where we can be amplifying these
things that we're already doing or building capacity even further?
The first thing that's worth noting is, don't, don't underrate
any particular Avenue. If it is pressure on your, on your, on your
elected representatives here in the UK, for example, a lot of the
MPs are under heavy pressure. We're seeing resignations from
some of the established parties because they're terrified they
might lose their seats in the next elections, letting your
representatives know that this is a serious issue. The second thing
is, and one thing that I admire about this Omar on social media,
is how it reacts very quickly. They are shutting down hashtags.
New hashtags are emerging. They are shutting down keywords, and
now they are changing the way the keywords are happening, being
able, being up to date in terms of what's happening. Because it
sounds simple, but it breaks the lock that they're trying to impose
in terms of how they're spreading the message. The third is to keep
yourself aware, to study the history and be aware and.
Terms of how to communicate that one of the things that's worth
noting, there is a tendency sometimes for Muslims to believe
that this is a civilizational struggle, idea of Islam versus the
rest. But it's also worth noting that this is justice versus
oppression, and that, I think that element, that framework, produces
very different consequences when it's presented, when you argue
that it's justice versus oppression, you win over allies,
you win over the neutrals, you win over those who sympathize. You
tell them that Islam is synonymous with justice, that Islam is
synonymous with everything that is against oppression and injustice,
and that allows them to buy into the vision and help to amplify
what we're trying to do in terms of to try to promote the correct
narrative, the correct history of what's taking place in Palestine.
Some people say, What are you talking about? What does that
mean? What I mean is, is that when Allah says woman, Asmaa ill, Allah
Wa, I mean as Ali Han wakala, in an email Muslim, that the best
call is the one who calls to Allah. He calls to Allah via the
justice in other words, this isn't a war on Muslims, as Lindsey
Graham is trying to assert, this is the war on justice. This is
about there was a really interesting tweet that people were
like by something called Muhammad, the Tunisian analyst. He said,
when you look at the statement by US, UK, Italy, Germany and France,
and they're standing by Israel firmly. He said, These are three
of the most brutal colonial empires of the past 100 years, and
two countries with the history, with the greatest history of
fascism. The idea being knowing your history so you can debunk in
that you're aware when you're responding to people, you're
saying, these are not the ones who identify the criteria of what's
right or wrong. We also have a legitimate state to it. In
practical terms, what that means is this, you've seen the pictures
of the protests, the pictures of the rallies on the streets. You've
seen how it moves the hearts. You've seen the Malaysians jumping
up and down. Don't underestimate your presence at these gatherings.
Don't underestimate your presence at these protests. It may well be
that your Government doesn't react. It may well be that your
local constituency or county doesn't react, but everybody else
around the world, like Sam al Hamdi, they see it, they get
inspired by it. It makes them get out of bed and say, You know what,
things are bleak. If Imam Tom and Imam Mikhail are doing it on the
other side of the world, I'm going to get up of my bed at 3am in the
morning. I'm going to join them on a stream, because I want to do my
part as well. When the Malaysians see it, they say subhanallah all
the way in America, born and raised, and they're raising the
flag for Palestinian for Palestine. I'm going to do it as
well. Do not underestimate the power of encouraging one another
with deeds, the power of encouraging one another. And also
don't underestimate who is seeing your action. Allah subhanho wa
Taala sees it, and he has the ability to amplify it. Think about
it this way, Allah in the Quran says women and Layli Fatah had
been in like Abu asmaara, Bucha makam and Mahmoud ah in the night
time do the tahajjud for Allah, may elevate you in status. The
implication here is elevate you in status in this world. So a private
act elevates you in public, a personal act between you and Allah
elevates you in the eyes of the people, which shows that Allah is
capable of elevating a simple act that you believe to be simple. You
may think that going around and talking to people and telling them
about Palestine is a simple act, but in Allah, it's great because
you've seen the videos go viral. All it takes is for one video.
Many of you will have seen that. DeSantis. I think his name is the
rival for Trump, the Republican candidate. He was in a superstore,
and there is an American citizen, yeah, Juan, yeah, brothers and
sisters, non Muslim citizen in the supermarket, saying to him that in
my life, I've always supported Israel, but I've been following Al
Jazeera. I can't do the accent or the like, and I've seen that. I've
seen what they're actually doing, and I can no longer support this.
We're breaking the fourth wall. We're breaking that barrier. And
that video alone, that viral video, there were probably only 20
people present in that supermarket. More than 1 billion
people around the world saw it. And when I saw it, to give you the
impact of it, when I saw 20 people in a supermarket talking like
that, that makes that reinforces the idea that they're losing their
grip on the narrative. And that gives that a raw back, you know,
it gives that morale back into the body. When you started Imam Tom,
and you started with the lovely saying that the Ummah is one body,
the reason why it's one body is because if I'm cold on the left
hand, and my right hand is warm, I feel that warmth, and it starts
coursing through my body. And the warmth of that hand can come from
anywhere. It can come from Dallas, Texas, it can come from London, it
can come from Paris. It can come from Berlin. And also, there is a
video of a Gazan journalist, Maha Hosseini, I think her name is, and
she and her her phone battery is about to die because the Israelis
have cut the electricity, hoping that nobody will be able to see
the potential ethnic cleansing. And she says, when this is my last
message.
Age. Don't stop shouting. Don't stop talking about Palestine.
Shout on our behalf. Talk on about raise our voice. Because they when
they see our voices being raised, they take hope and encouragement.
They say the Ummah is mobilizing on our behalf, and this ummah
mobilizing has tempered the worst of what we've seen. I know that
sounds extraordinary, given what's happened in Gaza, but we have
tempered the worst of what could happen. There are other things
they could be doing, but we're keeping this cause alive. First
the Palestinians are and then us in terms of what we're doing.
Don't underestimate that. Pressure your congressmen and women.
Pressure your local representatives. Bombard them with
letters. Bombard them with emails pressure your Imams, let them use
their photo to raise awareness in terms of what's happening when
there are opportunities to take to the streets peacefully, because we
don't need violence to to spread our message, take to the streets
in numbers so that I in London can see it here. And we Muslims here
say, No, we won't let the Americans outdo us. We will hold
our own protest here. And then the French reply and say, We will defy
macrons ban. We'll take to the streets as well, until the
European Union, as a result, they have a meeting, and they say,
Guys, we are importing the conflict to our countries. We
don't want to import this conflict Israel. Netanyahu, that's enough.
That's enough. The price that we're going to pay is too much.
Stop your ground offensive. De escalate. Exchange the hostages
and get the Palestinians out of this mess that they've done. It
all links. It's like a snowball that it all and that's why I think
that a lot of the issue, and you hit the nail on the head in terms
of what we're doing. The reason why it differs for everybody is
that Allah has given everybody a special set of skills. And I'm not
quoting a taken movie, I'm saying it genuinely every Allah has given
everybody a certain set of skills. There are people like you, Imam
Tom and Imam mikai, who have a member to talk to the people.
There are people who all they can do is retweet and share. That's
significant. There are people who have the ear of the policy makers.
There are people who have the ear of the commercial companies. There
are people who have the ear of armies. Everybody has a certain
set of powers. And the question is not, what can we do collectively?
Because collective raising awareness, it's what you can do
within the powers Allah has given you in the Muslim ecosystem,
Sister Iman is pushing the post in the algorithm by liking and
retweeting. You're raising awareness on your clean Institute.
I'm trying to tell political clients that it's untenable to
continue as they are, and that they have to acknowledge that the
Israelis are on the verge of causing the biggest calamity to
their cause since 1948 everybody is doing what they can, and
collectively, Allah is bringing our efforts together. Imam Tom, if
you told me yesterday that I would be sitting here with you on a
panel discussing this issue, I wouldn't have thought about it. I
thought Wallahi, maybe next year, if I go to the US, I'll go and see
him. Allah has brought our efforts, which were in parallel,
and we found our parts crossing on this particular a neither of us
planned it, but Allah is the One who is piecing it all together.
You don't need to know how you're going to piece it together. Allah
will do that. What you need to do is strive with what you can do.
Everybody has an email, everybody can send a message. Everybody can
go to a protest, everybody can raise awareness. You can do all of
that. What's preventing you from doing it? Not you, specifically
brothers who are with me, but the ones who are listening. What's
preventing you from doing it is your faith in your ability to
bring change. The reason I brought the ayah about tahajjud, how when
you do a private act, Allah elevates you publicly. If that's a
private act, imagine what Allah does with a public act. It's Allah
who can elevate and we're in the age of social media, anything can
go viral, including the video of the Israeli woman for channel 12,
when she says that when they entered my home, they didn't harm
me. They calmed me down, and they said to me, we don't hurt you
because we're Muslim. Now, can have a banana, please as well. She
said, of course, you can have a banana. That video went viral, and
that's why the Israelis got upset. Because the fact it went viral in
a room of just six, seven people, that incident went viral, and
because it went viral, that's why the Israelis started peddling fake
news. Because what they were terrified more than anything else,
is not that we're going to take up arms or do anything? No, they're
not worried about that. They're worried that the world is going to
see the Palestinians in a way that is very dangerous for the
Israelis. And that is that they will see the Palestinians as
human, as magnanimous. They will see Muslims as people who are
humans of claim of akhlaq. That's what they're terrified of. That's
what we're breaking. And I think that to answer the question
directly, do what you can. And I'll quote Martin Luther King to
show how justice can transcend how justice is synonymous with Islam.
Ibn khadu said, and I grew assassin, justice is the essence
of dominion. And Ibn Taymiyyah said that Allah does not allow
Islam to exist with injustice. Allah will allow a just state to
exist without Islam, but will not allow Islam to exist with
injustice, because Allah doesn't tolerate Islam with oppression.
Allah believes Islam is synonymous with justice. But in this context,
I want to quote Martin Luther King for non Muslims who are listening
to this, because I've come to realize that a lot of non Muslims
are listening to the.
Streams. Martin Luther King said that if you can run, run, if you
can't run, walk, if you can't walk, crawl, but by God, keep
moving. Do whatever you can. Don't stop in place, move. And it's
because we're moving that these changes are taking place. And may
Allah subhana wa Taala deliver victory for the Palestinians. May
he reward our striving, but more important than that, may he
instill in every one of us an appreciation of the powers that
He's given us to be able to bring about this change for Allah, He
Muslims, and I warn you, from here on this pulpit, Allah said in
Surat Al Imran Rabban, Allah to the Kuru banner. Bader in had a 10
hour habilina Mila duck in the canter Wahab, do not take a house
away from this. Deen, after you have guided us, don't take your
iman for granted. Don't take your guidance for granted. For Allah,
He Allah gave it to you as a privilege, not all right. And the
Prophet sallallahu, sallam, warned us that a man may be on his
deathbed, and Allah will take him out of this. Deen, before he
reaches him, and then he's condemned to the Hellfire to show
appreciation for this Iman, to show appreciation for this
guidance we have, to show appreciation for the powers Allah
has given us. And when Allah says, In the Quran, we're enter Allah to
Suha, when you, if you were to count the blessings of Allah, He
would never finish counting them. He didn't say, Oh, you who are the
elites were introdu. O you with media platforms were introdu. O
you with power, we're introdu. Nemato lahila, tu Suha, no, he
made it general, which is directed to every single person, because
everyone has the power to do so. And I'll finish on this sentence,
when the Prophet, when? When Abu Sufyan stood in front of
Heraclius, and Heraclius said, Who are those who follow the Prophet?
Who are those who are elevating him, who are those who are
conveying his message? Who are those who are causing this wave
that has made Quraysh go into a hysteria to repress the Muslims?
He said, it's the lowest of the society. It's Bilal Taala and
Mumbai Jannah, who was a slave. It is Abu Allah, Abu Asmaa, masroud,
Ravi Allah and one of the people of Jannah who was a shepherd.
Don't underestimate your ability to make the change for Allah,
Allah in the Quran, in his examples, when you open the Quran,
you find that it is people similar to those who we tend to look at,
or we're not we, but who people tend to look on as lower in
society. It's them who delivered the greatest revolutionary changes
in the Quran and in history, and it's them who Allah celebrates in
the Quran when they say, Maya only, only the the weakest of
society. Follow these prophets. Allah is saying, those are the
people who made those waves in the light? Don't underestimate your
ability. Alhamdulillah, we're making the change. Let's keep
going. Mashallah, we have a question here that came through,
and I'll pose it to both of you. Maybe Sheik. Sheik mikaya, you can
take a crack at it first. It comes from son as dos bienvenido. What
tips do you have for talking about the God of genocide with those
around us, especially in a school setting,
especially in a school setting, I think exactly what Sami said,
subhanAllah, realizing the power of your voice, our Schools are
supposed to be these bastions of open speech and safe spaces.
They've been used by other groups all the time to be places and
platforms to get their voice out, to let their agendas be heard. Now
more than ever, is where we use that stage, use that platform to
get our voice out as well. These places have always championed that
we are the places of free speech. We are the places where you can
say whatever you want. You could have whatever opinion. Now is not
the time for us to cower to side, back and to be shy. Now is the
time to raise your voice louder than ever in the encouragement
that you're going to have to draw from the power and the source that
you're going to get encouragement from is seeing that the rest of
this world, everyone, everyone is putting up what they have,
whatever they have. You know, as Sammy was speaking Subhanallah, I
was reflecting, and I thought about that moment where Tabuk
happens, and the Battle of Tabuk was just this crazy battle where
the prophet needed every resource possible, much like the moment
we're in now, where every voice was needed, every thing was
needed. And one of the things this is the moment where Omar Radi
Allahu Ayan, he had always been trying to to be a little better in
righteousness than Abu Bakr, as we know, and he said, today, I'm
going to beat him. Today is going to be that day. And what's
amazing, what's amazing is when he arrives, the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam. He asked him a question. And I know many of you
have heard this narration, but I want you to look at it
differently. The Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam. He
said, Ya Omar, what did you leave behind? He didn't ask him what you
brought because everyone has a.
Capacity of what we can bring, but what we can all race for each
other is how much we left behind, and so leave no stone unturned, is
what I'm trying to say. It's amazing that the Prophet never
even asked how much did you bring? Because that's not where the
sacrifice is, the sacrifice and the struggle and and the thing
that we prove our sincerity to God with is what we what we left
behind. And so what does he say? He says, I left half of everything
behind. And then when Abu Bakr arrives, he says, How much did you
leave behind till today? We actually don't even know who
brought more. We don't know whose post went more viral. We don't
know whose voice reached more people. We don't know which which
meme that was put together and and crafted by a graphic designer got
more traction, but what we do know from that moment is who sacrificed
the most, who brought left the least behind. And so my advice
here is schools have always championed we are the bastion and
the places of free speech, you can say whatever you want. Here it's
time that we use that for the sake of Allah, Subhanahu wa and justice
and Adel, feel empowered knowing that what you're saying is for the
sake of AAD is for goodness and for for justice and and that alone
inshaAllah should give us the strength to use the schools and in
that platform. And another thing I'm saying about the schools is we
have to understand the impressionability of the people
that are colleagues in school. These are people that we can we
can speak some common sense into right the younger generation,
where the people that follow the Prophet salallahu, alay wa Sangam
and the younger generation was always a generation that were able
to have that cognitive flexibility to accept that truth when it came.
So now's the time. Now's the time, more than ever, to speak to this
younger generation about justice, call this out what it is, and and
I shared something the other day, which is, you know, I used to
study American history and look back at what happened to the
Native Americans and the Trail of Tears, and I used to think to
myself that, you know that maybe the people didn't know, maybe they
didn't know. And now I realize that we have to speak up more than
ever, because the same way that people were going to passively
allow genocide to happen. And now, because we're raising our voices,
they're having to pull back. We have a we have a job to do. We
have a job to do. And so the Hadith that I began with today,
earlier was unshack volume and album of lumen, the Prophet
sallallahu, sallam. He said, In this profound Hadith, he said,
help your brother. Help your brother. Help your brother. Be he
oppressor or be he oppressed. Take that message to the people. Take
that message that that that we are helping humanity by showing
everyone we do not want to repeat history where, where a genocide of
people happen, that won't happen while we're here, while on our
watch, that won't happen. And so I just want to echo everything that
was sad was saying, our saukum is much core our efforts. And there's
one more thing, it seems that sister Iman her question,
and Alhamdulillah, it seems that sister imanikum. It seems that
sister imans question is an important one, which is, it
doesn't seem like I'm doing enough. And I think her question
is minjana Bella that her question came early, because I know every
single one of us feels I want to do more. I want to do more. And
this is what I'm going to say. Same battle, battle of Tabuk, the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa salam. The Quran tells us that
there are some people who were coming with a mud, a mood of
wheat. It just means a handful of wheat. And when they would come
with a handful of wheat, the munafi apin, the hypocrites of
Medina, they would look and say, What will Allah do with this? What
will Allah do with this? You, we got to go fight the Romans. And
what are you bringing? You're bringing a tweet and you don't
even have followers. You're bringing it, you're bringing a
post, and you don't even have anyone following you liking it,
right? And then when wealthy people came and brought
everything, they would go, Oh, look at this show off. He doesn't
have his sincerity. The point I'm trying to make here is that the
Sahaba, they did not let that noise stop them from bringing
whatever they could to be a part of the change. And so to answer
that question straight on, the schools are going to be where we
win popular opinion. This is the place that that popular opinion is
one. And so we have to keep putting pressure on our
universities, these places that are supposed to be the place, call
them out for their hypocrisy. How long are we going to not call
these institutions out for the hypocrisy that we're seeing? So
call them out for the hypocrisy show the double standards and and
that's how we use our influence in our colleges and our university.
Cities Inshallah, excellent. We have another question. I think, I
think to that as well. Yes, I just, I think that as well, arm
yourself with knowledge. Arm yourself with those Human Rights
Watch reports. Arm yourself with those Amnesty International
reports. Arm yourselves with the facts that led them to call the
Israeli regime and apartheid regime. Arm yourself with those
statements of the Israeli social affairs minister, which she gives
her reasons why Netanyahu should come to the International Criminal
Court. She's not Palestinian. She's European. Human Rights Watch
is not a pro Palestinian organization. It's a human rights
organization. Arm yourself with this knowledge. Arm yourself with
your ability that when someone accuses you of supporting things
that might get you in trouble, say no. Here's the Human Rights Watch
report. Here are the checkpoints that they impose. Here's why Human
Rights Watch calls Israel an apartheid regime. Here's why
amnesty does arm yourself with knowledge. We are a people of
knowledge, a people of *. Some people always see that ham is only
within the Islamic framework. But people misunderstand what Islamic
framework means. Islamic framework means that dunya and it means
we're aware of what's happening around us. Imam should be aware of
what's happening around us, so they're able to convey the deen in
a way that or that ordinary people can understand. The point a being
is that for all the colleges or the like, and I know they're doing
it, but sometimes the reason arguments get out of hand is
because sometimes we lack the huja because we don't understand the or
we like it. Build your argument. When Musa I went to Medina, he
went armed with the knowledge. When the Prophet Muhammad,
sallAllahu, sallam, chose him over the other Sahaba to go to Medina,
he didn't choose his name out of a hat. He chose him because he
believed that Musa ibn Umair was well, was eloquent. He knew the
people. He knew how to convey their message or the like. We
Muslims all should arm ourselves with that knowledge. We don't need
to be calling about issues with regards to violence or the like.
That's not the point here. The point is human rights. Watch
condemns the killing of children, condemns the killing of the
elderly, condemns the blockade, condemns the open air prison,
condemns the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians,
condemns the demolition of home of Palestinian tell you Where's the
proof. Say was Shahid, Shahid aliha. Bring, bring the proof from
them. The point that I wanted, and I don't know maybe might not apply
to America, but it applies in Europe, is we need to understand
the hush that is available to us. We know our cause is just, but we
need the hush to defend it. When om was a Khalifa, one of his
governors, sent to him and said to him, yeah, what we need, there are
unruly people over here. Send me more forces to keep them in check.
He responded, and he said, Hassan Habil Adil, fortify it with
justice. You don't need my forces. We don't need arms to fight this
battle. We don't need, oh, what we need is justice and hush to back
up that justice. So I would encourage everybody on this
sentence to answer the question directly, what can we do in the
schools? Arm yourselves with the knowledge. Go and get those
reports, read the memorize. Part of my job is to learn these
reports. Part of my job is to is to memorize the events. Part of my
job is to read the statements, to read blinking statements, to read
and the like, and to see where the gaps are, where the holes are. If
the Europeans are now in open difference or open conflict
between themselves over their stance over Israel, that's because
that there is a difference of opinion over there. Let's push
that difference of opinion because it's legitimate by using the facts
that are available and the reports that are available to us. Let's
get that knowledge. We are not an ummah of jihad. We're ummah of
Elm, and let's use the Elim to really propagate the message so so
get those reports, get that information, arm yourself with it,
and then I'll be honest with you in a practical way. Practice in
the mirror. The arguments sit in the mirror and get through it. Get
that script in your head, ready, understand and preempt those
arguments, because often what you find in the debates, they want to
corner you into something, where they want to show you to be some
sort of lunatic or America. But we don't need to be cornered with it.
We can force the debate on our terms. We can force a debate to be
about a civilian death toll, about the kids who are killed, about
that no law on Earth justifies. We can talk about the international
law. It doesn't matter if the international law is implemented
or not. That's not the point here. The point is international law
still matters enough that everyone's trying to present
themselves as being within international law. Tell the world
they're not within international law. Mobilize the courts. The
former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is on
Twitter or on X publicly saying that there is enough evidence to
prosecute Israel for war crimes. He's not a Muslim, he's not an
Arab, he's not even European. He's gone to it as saying that, based
on factual analysis, there's enough to bring it into war
crimes. Go to the tweets, go and memorize his arguments, and go and
deploy them in the college campus, and you'll find that they are far
more ignorant than us, than us, and you will be the one cornering
them, instead of them cornering us. Allah, Allah, Allah,
I'm going through a question. I think a lot of them are similar,
and there a lot of them that you we already covered. So we have
from Ali and Noor. Have you found? What have you found are the most
impactful points to transform the view?
Of a non Muslim who they've been fed light lies for decades, when
you only have a short time to speak for them. Maybe we can take
this as a final question, if there's any sort of final
reflections, and it's very similar to the previous questions. I had a
bunch of questions, but I know, I know some of us have to, have to
wrap up. Maybe we can use this opportunity to to offer our final
thoughts. Yeah, Bismillah. Alhamdulillah, just final
thoughts. Alhamdulillah, we all benefited from each other's
company. It was an amazing gathering and encouragement for
us, and a moment of hope truly Allah. And then as Allah, the help
of God is close, and his encouragement for us to all move
forward, my last parting advice to myself and to everyone. Is a
narration that's mentioned that Al ibada, filha Raj ka hijra, tuna
Alaya al harraj, mahu al fitna, the Rasulullah Salam, is narrated
to report it to have said that worship in the time of trial and
difficulty is like a migration is like Hijra to me, and the reason I
say that is our power are the battery that pushes us forward,
the battery that pushed the Sahaba forward to be fighting. And the
cause of God, and struggling and striving in the fight of God was
that spiritual connection. And so when they describe, and they,
they, they, they depict what the Sahaba looked like. They said that
they were rahban Bin Laden. If you watch them at night, they look
like monks, the way they worship, the way they pray, right? They
were connected to Allah, but in the daytime, well, how did that
that that the darkness of night time closest with God? How did
that reflect? They became beacons of light in the daytime. They
became beacons of light that could not be silenced in the path of
God. And so we cannot be one sided. And the reason I say that,
the reason I say that till I am NAS if in your days of being the
oppressed, you do not focus on God, when you are given power, you
may become the oppressor. So stay focused on Allah. Subhanho wa
Taala in these moments, use yourself, use your voice. Become a
light, a light to the people and that that guides them. But keep
that connection in our evenings, in our night time, the last verse
I'll quote, wakalaina Kafo la just na Uli ha del Quran well of
fihimada, why? La Allah come to the libom. They understood that if
these Muslims stay connected to this book of Allah, and they read
it with insight and apply it, they'll have victory. The Quran is
teaching us stay connected to the book of Allah in these moments of
difficulty, use your voice, become the light. Inshallah.
Sammy final thoughts,
I think the most impactful point from my analysis of everything
taking place has been social media. I think that they brought
about the unprecedented changes or the like, on terms of the final
thoughts. The reason why I focus so much on perspective is I
believe that if we alter the perspective, we will see so many
more opportunities in order to really advance the cause. One
thing I will say to those who are listening, remember, the world is
moving towards a different trajectory. 80 years ago, the
region was under official colonization. The French were in
Algeria, the British were in Egypt, the Italians were in Libya.
When World War Two finished and the allies were celebrating
freedom and victory, they went back to suppress their colonies
and to brutalize the people in the colonies, because they were
arguing that freedom belongs to them and not to us. And then in
1962 1950s there were independence movements that made official
colonization impossible. Freedom was not given, it was taken. So
the point being is that the global order changed. There could no
longer be official colonization, and we entered a period of semi
colonization, where, politically, we were independent somewhat, but
our economies were still dependent. 2010 you have the Arab
Spring, social media revolution. Boazizi I'm originally from
Tunisia. I'm from Sidi Bouzid, where Arab Spring began. Bo Azizi
is from the village next door. If you had told me that the boazizi
family would spark the Arab Spring. No disrespect, everybody
would have laughed. Allah brought the changes from where you never
knew where it was coming, and the authoritarian regimes fell. And
the like the point is, is that we entered another period. If you
look at the trajectory over the past 8090, years, I promise you,
yeah, Ummah, it's not one of doom and gloom. The chains are
weakening on this ummah, we're progressing. We're moving forward.
It may not be the way that you wanted us to move forward. It may
not be the way that you wished we would move forward, but Wallahi,
we are moving forward. The reason they're calling this situation
unprecedented is because they've never seen anything like it. Since
1948 they've never seen a global opinion turn in this way so
suddenly against the occupier and in favor of the occupied and in
favor of the oppressed. They've never seen this before. It's
unprecedented because of social media, and that's why I think that
in the wonderful tapestry of history, which is dictated by the
wisdom of Allah, the trajectory is not one of a downward spiral, it's
one of moving upwards, and it is the.
Greatest honor as a Muslim, and I speak for myself, first, the
greatest honor of a Muslim to be a vehicle, however small capacity it
might be, to push this and break those chains on the monopoly and
break those chains on our perspective with regards to
freedom or the like Muslims, we need to disown the defeatist
trauma in the subconscious of our mind and recognize what is before
us. We are mobilizing an irresistible wave that has the
colonizers and the occupiers sitting in their war rooms, deeply
concerned about their control of the narrative. We are making an
impact. Let no one tell you otherwise. We are making the
impact. And if you look over 8090, years, and I was honored to sit
with people who lived under colonization and who saw
independence as well, they will tell you it was a huge shift. It
may not be perfect, but it was a huge shift. Don't underestimate
those see yourselves within this wave of history in which this is
our time, our generation to try to set the or do the layup in a
basketball. I don't know what you call it, for the next generation
to come up and slam dunk. We are part of this struggle. We are one
Ummah, but not an ummah in this generation. Ummah of the past
generations as well. So I will finish on the issue of the
perspective. Let's alter the perspective that those who believe
we are weak believe we are strong, and those sorry, those who believe
we are weak, don't appreciate that the other side sees us as strong,
that the other side is now deploying a million dollar PR
industry because we who thought we were weak are forcing a change
that they're deeply uncomfortable with. Let's keep going with that
change, and more importantly, Let's appreciate that we have the
ability to make that change. And I promise you, if we've made 10
times a change, tomorrow will make 100 times, and the day after 1000
times. InshaAllah be ill May Allah order efforts in everybody's
hearts the fab we're doing it, guys, it may it may be harsh and
brutal, and it may be there may be a tragedy unfolding before us. But
I promise you, we can make the impact. And history shows this may
well turn out to be the turning point in the course for
liberation. Inshallah, I want to cheat, because I had questions,
one final question, and I'm, I'm, I'm like Huda, I have to ask about
the bad stuff. Is there any anything we have to look out for?
Are there any traps that we need to avoid?
There are two, two things that I think that people should be aware
of. The first thing is that there are ways, there are narratives
that people are trying to trap Muslims, in which is issues to do
with Iranian support for Palestine, and two with issues
related to stance on Hamas. The first thing about the Iranian
issue is that it's important to note that the Iranians have denied
involvement. The Israelis have denied that the Iranians are
involved, and the Americans have said, we've seen no proof of
Iranian involvement. Don't get dragged into this issue of a
regional conflict or Iran being the villain, and therefore the
Palestinians must be the villains. All of the main actors are trying
to say Iran is not involved, not necessarily because they believe
Iran is not involved, but because they're worried about expansion of
a regional conflict. Don't get dragged on a pointless issue. The
second thing is, when it comes to the issue of Haman, this issue
existed even before Hamas was made, even before Hamas was
formed, even before it came back. Know this, don't get dragged into
this that this conflict began last Saturday. It didn't it started
since 1948 expand the goal post. They're trying to narrow it.
Expand it. Don't get caught into a mud slinging mud bath. You don't
need to get involved in it. Focus on the issue at hand, which is
occupation, apartheid, which is the legitimate rights of the
Palestinians, which is the death of the civilians, the death of the
children, the fact that it's disproportionate by all forms of
international law, the fact that it's not just Islam that condemns
it. Their own laws condemn it. Focus on these things and focus on
the allies as well, in using it as a Hoja to push back. Don't get
caught on these points that the Republicans are trying to push the
idea of terrorism and the like. Don't get caught in it. It's not
something you need to fight. It's not a battle you need to fight.
Move the goalpost, go to a different arena. Go to the arena
of apartheid, go to the arena of occupation, go to the arena of the
civilian deaths, and you will win every single time. Because the
reality is this, our support is not for individuals. Our support
is for the cause. The reality is this, when they tell you Hamas and
Hamas hosseinlot, the Palestinian ambassador, whose videos have gone
viral, is not Hamas. He's Palestinian Authority, Mustafa
baruti, who was on the Farid Zakaria interview, where he gave
that exceptional performance in addressing the issues of anti
semitism or the like. And I urge everybody to watch it, Mustafa
baruti is not Hamas. He's on the other side or with the West Bank
Muhammad Al Qur'an, the activist. He's not Hamas. He's in Jerusalem.
He's the one documenting the demolition of homes or the like.
All the evidence suggests this is not about Hamas, but they will
drag you into this issue of Hamas in order to tie you up and
handcuff you don't get caught in it. That's why we need to empower
ourselves with the issue is much bigger than that, and if we can
push.
To the arena or the stadium or the like, to incorporate the apart and
the occupation we will win every time that what do we need to watch
out for is the way they're trying to alter the narrative. Now I'm
seeing that a lot of Palestinians are having their invitations
revoked to some of the mainstream media because the media is
concerned that the Palestinians have been so effective and that
their videos have gone so viral, they're not sure what to do with
the changing public opinion that is going in favor of the
Palestinians, but the way that we counteract that is amplifying
their voices on social media. Twitter and X haven't imposed the
restrictions when the EU said they want to impose restrictions. Elon
Musk, who whatever misgivings we might have responded with that Jon
Stewart sketch where he mentions Israel, and people jump around and
anti Semite and whatever, and they try to shut him down, essentially
saying, I'm not going to impose those restrictions. We still have
spaces where we can talk and the like. But the point that I'm
saying is I'm focused on the war of narratives, because I know
that's where it's really hurting the Israelis don't get dragged on
points that one, you're not qualified to address. Two, that
don't favor you, and three, that are irrelevant. Hamas and Iran are
irrelevant in the grand scheme of what's unfolding. This is a
liberation war and an apartheid and the victims of apartheid in
South Africa recognize apartheid, which is why they stand with the
Palestinians, which is why they stand against Israel. Focus with
the Human Rights Reports that it's an open air prison. Use that to
your advantage, and you will find that the reaction you get is that
it's not the Muslim who goes red and starts shouting, it's the
other side, the ones helping the oppressors, because they realize
they have no hushy. But more terrifyingly, they realize that
those neutrals watching you are saying, You know what? Wallahi,
that guy has a point. You know, regardless what I think about
Hamas and Iran, Wallahi has a point occupation. And I've seen
this happen before. Don't get dragged in those mud baths. We
have the proof without having to get dragged into it.
Alhamdulillah, Allah has, has the Khadi al Adla, he's, he's
reinforced this just cause. Let's focus on that. Inshallah, thank
you so much for everything. I wish I could keep you talking all
through federal after that, but we will let you go Inshallah, and a
reminder to everyone watching. We're doing this every night, at
least for a week. Okay, so 9:30pm New York time. 8:30pm Dallas time.
Not sure what time did it start for you? Sammy,
3am two 230 Yeah, about 2:33am
but after you make tahajjud in London, you know, of course, Allah
and we're going to be having discussions all week, because this
is really, as you said, unprecedented. You know, we are
charged with the responsibility of being alive at this time, and we
think about, what does Allah want from us? So we thank you so much
for having us kick off the conversation. May Allah accept
from you and from us, subhanAllah, and to all of our viewers, salaam
alaikum. Raft Allah, you.