Suhaib Webb – Information On Demonstrations
AI: Summary ©
The importance of providing appropriate information and actions to stop current wrongdoings is emphasized, along with the use of means and space for sharing information. The speaker also discusses the importance of faith, family, property, honor, and life in Islam, as it affects people's anger and resignation. The speaker provides examples of harms happening in demonstrations and the importance of protecting oneself from the greater harm, as well as the risk of being exposed to things which are forbidden and the importance of not being an oppressor. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not being an oppressor and building for a better world through coalition building.
AI: Summary ©
1st and foremost to those of you who
are organizing
around the issues of Gaza and Palestine,
Those of you who are are busy engaged
in civil disobedience and demonstrations,
and information sharing, I want to extend my
truest love and respect
and honor for each and every one of
you. And I ask Allah, azza wa jal,
to bless you, to sustain you, to keep
you strong,
and to reward you for every step and
every letter and every effort you're making
on behalf of ending this genocide that will
lead to
Palestinian
Liberation.
I was asked about demonstrations
because we know that tomorrow across the globe,
large number of demonstrations are happening. So I
wanted to answer this through a number of
kind of points.
And I want people who are engaged
in organizing,
engaged in in actions to listen carefully because
I pray that this will help you and
assist you. There's a lot of bad information
out there. We need to provide spaces
of balanced, responsible information that preserves the utility
and agency
and choice of the Muslim Ummah. As the
prophet
said, my community never concurs on falsehood. So
I will answer this through a few parts.
Number 1,
is I want to answer it from the
perspective of the objectives of Islam, Islamic law,
which are considered a source of certainty and
certain actions.
Al Maqasat Maqasat al Sharia.
The second I wanna talk about the importance
of means
within Islamic law and
how that plays out in the idea of
engaging in demonstrations.
The third, I want to talk about what
happens when we have
a large number
of impermissible things happening
or harmful things happening, how do we navigate
that,
as Muslims? Because we hear sometimes people say
at demonstrations, there's all kinds of haram things
happening also. So then how do we negotiate
that? And then finally, some of the evidences
that we can use to support the idea
of demonstrations, and I'm going to try to
make this as brief
as I can. BarakAllahu feekum.
The first is the Maqasid al Sharia, as
we talked about in the answer a few
days ago,
as mentioned by Ashal Tabi, an imam,
Asumki, he alludes to this but in a
different way in Jema'i, which is a famous
text that we study,
and Maqaseh
to feed Al Yaqeen.
We understand that to be certain because they
appear so much in the Quran implicitly and
explicitly
and so much in the sunnah of Sayyid
Al Akwun of the Prophet, peace be upon
him, implicitly and explicitly
that we understand them as being a source
of certainty in thought in action, and intentionality.
And what are those, for those of you
who aren't Muslim, those major objectives of Islam?
Number 1 is faith. Number 2 is family.
Number 3 is
property. Number 4 is honor. Number 5 is
life.
These are the maqasid, the goals that Islam
seeks to preserve and enhance and protect in
civil society.
If we look at what's happening now in
Gaza
and in Palestine, we see all 5 of
them are under threat.
Religion, churches, and mosques are being bombed and
destroyed, Christians are being spat on,
People are not allowed to travel freely. They're,
banned from going to mosques.
Number 2,
life.
Many of us are following, and I encourage
you to follow Palestinians. We see them emaciated.
Some of them haven't posted in 4 or
5 days. We don't know if they're alive.
People are being murdered
in front of our very eyes in 2023.
Families have been separated. We see children crying,
hospitals full of parents looking for their children.
Children, imagine how scared you would be if
you lost your child
at a at a grocery store.
Imagine losing them in that situation where there's
drones and bombs
and psychological
warfare happening all the time.
Wealth
is gone, People's personal property, gone. Hard assets
have been destroyed. No one will be paid
back.
And honor.
All 5 of the Maqasat of Sharia are
violated
in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.
So then
what would be the ruling of the means
to fix that?
And means are based on ability, and you
and I are limited in what we can
do,
and how we can express our anger, and
our rage,
and our our refusal to be muted or
to be silent, if we lose our jobs,
if we lose our our social credit rating,
we don't care anymore, because
this takes precedence over ourselves,
because when people die there, a part of
us will die
if we are silent and watch this happen.
So we have a great axiom in Islamic
law that talks about means, and it says,
That means take the rulings
of their objectives.
So we see these major objectives of Sharia
being violated,
so therefore, the means
to preserve and protect
those obligatory
objectives
become obligatory.
So that means it's an obligation
to do whatever we can to restore
the presence of those objectives in the lives
of those people
within our ability and within, of course,
the legal system that we reside in.
So one of the means that we can
inshallah employ in this moment are demonstrations.
So now you want to know the ruling
on demonstrations?
There you go.
There you go for those who can, with
their ability,
obligatory.
Maybe somebody will say, but there's other things
you can do, Yes. But they are not
as effective,
and they do not bring together the critical
mass and the coalition building needed for this
moment,
needed for this litmus test of humanity.
So
means take on the rulings
of their objectives, and here,
The third thing that I wanted to talk
about is what happens when
we have this kind of violation of the
objectives of Sharia, but then trying to change
that involves
potentially
being exposed to things which are forbidden.
Like, people say you go to demonstrations, they'll
be free mixing. What is the anonema free
mixing?
It's very strange concept. You don't find it
in the books of filk, free mixing.
We find irresponsible
behavior.
Right? Irresponsible
behavior,
because there are moments where people naturally are
going to be mixing with one another, men
and women,
who are not mahram. It happens. But there's
responsible behavior. There's being a good human being,
there's being a person of fidelity, and honor,
and dignity in civil society.
But we have a very important axiom
that when there are numerous
harms happening,
right, we have to shepherd,
right, the greater harm. So So that means
we allow the other harm to happen in
order to protect ourselves from the greater harm.
Examples of of this are in the Quran,
where someone who is near death has to
eat pork to survive. Eating pork is haram.
It's a harm, but it's a lesser harm
than death.
So if you're really concerned about free mixing
and music, which is a whole another discussion
and all of those kind of things that
may happen at a
demonstration,
Here's the axiom for your,
to take on the lesser of the two
harms, meaning you you you have to engage
in a way that protects you from the
greater harm, a lesser harm that protects you
from a greater harm. This is the Maqaseh.
So now when we go to demonstrations, we
may have to be patient. We are going
to have to coalition with build with people
that we may not agree with. That makes
it stronger. That makes it stronger.
When people who don't agree can come together
and agree on something, that means that thing
must be the truth.
So you take on the lesser evil to
remove the greater evil.
Finally, some of the evidences, and I have
to keep keep it quick for you.
Number 1 is the prophet said whoever sees
an evil should change it
according to their ability. Number 2, the prophet
mentioned in the sunn
of of Imam, even, Abu Dawood, that a
person will be punished in the grave, be
tortured in the grave.
And he will ask, why are you torturing
me like this?
Say, You you saw oppression, you passed oppression,
and you didn't help the oppressed.
The prophet said, Sur Ahaq, help your brother
where he's an oppressor or the oppressed. How
do you help an oppressor? By stopping them.
This is an order of the prophet.
The second one, the prophet came
from Syria to Medina in the stronger opinion.
All of the people of Medina, male and
female, came out and greeted him.
On Eid, the males and females, we come
together. There may be separation for prayer, but
undoubtedly, we're going to be somehow together.
Saydna Amrul Khattab, when he made a Hijra,
he announced his Hijra.
This is a form of demonstration. Sayna Imam
al Hussein,
who stood up up against oppression.
Jeisel Qur'an in the time of Abdullah Iba
Masood, 300 after him, 300 of his students
went out and opposed
systematic oppression.
So ask Allah
and I hope this assists all of you.
Very short answer for a big subject, but
I hope it will put some of those
things to bed.