Tom Facchine – The People Of Falsehood Will Be Overcome
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss their experiences as new Muslims and their desire to profit from it, as well as struggles with drugs and lack of movement. They emphasize the importance of understanding the purpose behind suffering and finding a way to achieve profit. The segment touches on the importance of fixing society and not letting fear and suffering dominate political environments, as well as the need for people to be engaged in a fight for their right to live in their own future. The speakers also emphasize the importance of patient and trusting Allah to deliver.
AI: Summary ©
When I first accepted Islam in the year
2010, one of the things that was the
most important to me was to try to
have a halal income, was to try to
have halal rizq, to please Allah subhana wa
ta'ala through my job, through my livelihood,
to make sure as best as I could
that whatever job I had, it was going
to be free from anything that would displease
Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
As a new Muslim, I didn't know the
most about Islam, I didn't have all the
information that I have today, but I had,
inshallah, I had the right intention and Allah
subhana wa ta'ala, I believe, helped me
in that.
So Allah subhana wa ta'ala guided me.
I started searching online on the internet, I
was before social media, there was no Facebook,
there was no Instagram, there was no TikTok,
that was just the good old-fashioned internet,
and I looked into what were the halal
restaurants in my area, because that was what
I knew, I knew restaurants, both the back
working on the line and also up front
working the floor, and that was what I
knew.
And so I made a list of halal
restaurants, and I went to those halal restaurants
one at a time to see who was
hiring or if anybody was hiring.
I had no idea who was hiring and
who wasn't.
And most of them, as you know, most
of the restaurants, it's just the family that
runs it, they're not looking to hire anybody.
So I had a lot of polite thank
you, but we can't really help you out.
So the first restaurant that accepted, that said
they were looking for help and they could
use help was a Syrian restaurant.
And so that became my first job after
I became a Muslim, I was working in
a Syrian restaurant.
And if you know anything about these types
of restaurants, there's no separation of tasks, there's
no job descriptions.
If you get hired, you're going to do
everything.
So at one and the same time, I
was cutting the parsley for the tabbouleh, and
I was washing dishes, and I made deliveries,
and I was the waiter, and I would
mop the floor and wash the dishes and
close up at night.
And subhanallah, that was only 14 years ago.
Subhanallah, how time flies.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put blessing
in that time for me, and I benefited
tremendously from it.
And as things continue to unfold, I saw
the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
happen one after another, after another.
Now that family had come to the United
States of America fairly recently, because if you're
aware, that in 2010, things were heating up
in Syria.
And why I'm bringing this up is because
in the last week, they had been heating
up yet again.
A lot of us maybe forgot about it,
or it wasn't on our on our radar.
But now in the last week, in the
last 10 days, we've seen Syria back in
the news.
What seemed like a conflict that was at
a stalemate, after not just years, but decades
and decades of horrible suffering.
And we see Halab, all of a sudden
Assad doesn't control it anymore.
And we see Idlib, and we see Hama.
And now it seems like more and more
areas of the country are being freed from
the hands of the tyrants.
And the reason that I'd like to bring
this up, or why I want to make
it the entry point into today's khutbah, after
we recognize the fact that the people of
Syria have a right to self-determination, just
like the people of Gaza, the people of
Palestine have a right to self-determination, just
like the people of Sudan have a right
to self-determination and everything that they've gone
through.
My point is that we have been through
a lot of suffering.
And this community in Utica, New York, knows
it better than many communities out there.
If you look around the room, and you
see the people who have come here from
Afghanistan, you see the people who have come
here from the Somali Bantu community, you see
the people who come here from Sudan, you
see the people who come here from Yemen,
you see the people who come here from
Palestine, from Iraq, and the people who have
been here as foundational black Americans, who are
Muslims, who have survived the war on drugs,
and survived everything that has happened in this
country.
This is a community of survivors.
This is a community of survivors.
It would have been very easy for the
people in this room right now not to
have made it to December 6, 2024.
But Allah subhana wa ta'ala willed us
all to be here right now as a
community of survivors.
But it was not easy that path.
And it still isn't easy that the path
of survival and eventually the path of triumph
is a very long and difficult road.
Many people in this room, let alone in
this city, have seen atrocities with their own
eyes, have fled from violence, have seen people
murdered in cold blood or tortured right in
front of their eyes, or have lost family
members in these types of situations.
And sometimes it can be difficult, it can
be difficult to sit back and to think,
what does Allah subhana wa ta'ala want
from us with all of this suffering?
Just like if you rewind the clock back
to September 2023, the situation in Gaza, the
situation in Palestine, it seemed like there was
no hope, it seemed like there was no
movement.
If you rewind the clock back a certain
number of years, the same thing with Syria,
the same thing with many places.
What is Allah subhana wa ta'ala testing
us for?
What does He want from us?
What's the meaning behind it all?
What's the purpose?
And that is one of the most important
differences between a Muslim, a believer, and somebody
who doesn't believe in much of anything is
that we know, even if we have to
take time to figure it out, we know
that there is a purpose.
There's a purpose behind what we suffer.
There's a purpose behind what we go through.
Allah has put meaning into it.
And once in a while, we have to
take time to reflect and to sit back
and to think, what is the meaning behind
this?
What is the purpose behind this?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says in the
Qur'an, many, many important ayat to put
things in perspective and to teach us what
we should be looking for when times get
tough.
And these things continue to happen to us.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, وَلَا يَحْسَبَنَّ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ لِأَنفُسِهِمْ Don't
think.
Sometimes we sit here and we worry about
back home or we worry about our families
and our extended families and we see the
tyrants and we see how the tyrants have
been allowed to survive and they seem to
live good lives and they seem to live
in comfort and they seem to be in
security.
And we might feel resentful to that.
Why did Allah subhana wa ta'ala allow
this to happen?
Allah subhana wa ta'ala says, let not
those who disbelieve ever think that because we
extend their time of enjoyment that it's better
for them.
إِنَّمَا نُمْلِي لَهُمْ لِيَزْدَادُوا إِثْمَةٌ We only extend
it for them so that they might increase
in sin.
That they might build their rap sheet.
That the case against them becomes stronger and
stronger and stronger.
وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُحِينٌ And Allah says and they're
in for a very very painful punishment.
But Allah subhana wa ta'ala makes it
very clear that there's even more wisdom and
purpose behind our suffering than that.
مَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى مَا أَنْتُمْ
عَلَيْهِ حَتَّى يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّفِ وَمَا كَانَ
اللَّهُ لِيُطَلِّعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَجْتَبِي مِنْ
رُسُلِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ فَآمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَإِنْ تُؤْمِنُوا
وَتَتَّقُوا فَلَكُمْ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ Allah is not going
to leave the believers in the state that
we are currently in until He separates the
good from the evil, the evil from the
good, the pure from the impure.
Nor would Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveal
to you the unseen.
He's not going to tell you what's going
to happen.
He's not going to tell you the dramatic
change.
Maybe in five years it'll all be over.
Maybe in five years Palestine will be free.
It's possible.
Can Allah do it?
Allah can do it.
We don't know.
Allah does not show us the unseen.
But instead Allah chooses of His messengers whom
He wills.
So believe in Allah and His messengers.
And if you believe and if you fear
Him, then for you is a great reward.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to
know that evil doesn't rest.
Evil doesn't take a break.
Evil's always working, conspiring, trying to see where
it can get in, how it can fortify,
how it can strengthen.
And so He wants us to know that
we shouldn't rest either, that we shouldn't slack,
that we shouldn't sit back on our heels,
that we need to pay attention, we need
to get right, we need to fix our
prayers, we need to fix what we're doing,
and we need to do everything that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said is going to
be beneficial to us in this life and
the next.
Because if the righteous have influence, and that
includes taking the means to influence your society,
it's not just about staying in the four
walls of the masjid either, that means taking
the means to have a positive influence on
your society and make change for the better.
Because if the righteous have influence in any
town, time, or place, if the righteous have
influence, then everybody benefits.
The weak benefit, the poor benefit, the outcasts
benefit, if the righteous have influence.
And if the wicked have influence, it's the
opposite.
If the wicked have influence and are running
things, then you can expect everybody, you can
expect everybody to suffer.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, inna alladhina
kafaru yunfiqoon amwalahum liyasuddu an sabili Allah.
Those who have rejected faith, they spend and
they spend and they spend so that they
can turn people away from the way of
Allah.
And we've seen that.
Fasa yunfiqoonaha thumma takoonu alayhim hasra thumma yughlaboon.
Allah makes us a promise here.
He says, Yeah, they're going to spend.
You see a pack, they're going to spend.
You see the people of falsehood.
Oh, yeah, you better believe they're going to
spend their money.
And then eventually, there's going to time where
it's going to become a source of regret
for them.
And then even after that, they're going to
be overcome.
Allah has promised us that he will deliver
victory to the righteous people.
He promised us that the righteous people will
prevail eventually, not without any costs, not without
any struggle, not without having to be patient,
but he promised us that the righteous people
will prevail in the end.
waladhina kafaru ila jahannama yuhsharooh.
And the people who have denied it, they're
going to be gathered together in *.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says something very
similar.
He says, liyumeezallahu alkhabeetha minatayib, wa yaj'al
khabeetha ba'dahu ala ba'd, fa yarkumahu jamee'an,
fa yaj'aluhu fee jahannam ulaigahumul khasiroon.
This is because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wants to distinguish, again, he wants to separate
the people who are good from the people
who are evil, and he's going to take
the people who are evil, and he's going
to have them all click up.
He's going to have them all join up
together.
He's going to put them all together on
the same team.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, after
making it very clear, is going to deliver
his victory and his help to the believers.
So what's our role in this?
What's our duty?
What's our responsibility?
We know that we live in a nation
that perhaps has the most power in the
world.
We know that the foreign policy of the
United States is one of the most important
forces in the world for good or for
evil.
And we know many of us come from
places where that foreign policy has had negative
harmful effects.
Now, if you're in Jordan, or if you're
in Syria, or if you're in Palestine, or
if you're in Egypt, and you ask them,
what would you do if you were in
America?
Or what would you do if you were
a citizen in the United States?
Imagine, would they sit home and just be
content with Netflix and be content with making
money?
Or would they do whatever they could possibly
do to influence the policy of this country?
Whatever is legal and whatever is appropriate to
influence the direction of this country?
They would.
They would love to have that opportunity.
Because you actually have an influence, you have
a choice, and you have an ability to
have an impact.
Even if you're not a citizen, you have
an ability to have an impact on the
direction of this country.
But guess what?
It's not a spectator sport.
It's not something where you can just sit
on the side or sit at home and
be content with entertainment.
They would love for you to be content
with entertainment.
Because then they can keep on doing what
they're doing.
So you have to, you have to wake
up.
You have to look for opportunities.
You have to get yourself involved.
You have to study the issue and understand
how things operate.
And if the suffering in Palestine and the
suffering in Syria and the suffering all across
the Muslim world isn't enough for you to
wake up, then I don't know what's going
to be enough.
Now, why I'm broaching this topic, and there's
a message here for the youth too, because
some of the youth get hasty.
And we've seen this before, unfortunately.
Some group somewhere in the Muslim world starts
to push back against tyranny.
And some people who are without much patience
get a little hot-headed.
They want to do something dramatic.
They want to go overseas.
They want to join some group.
I'm here to tell you, first of all,
that's not your role and that's illegal.
That's not your role and that's illegal.
That the groups, whether it's in Gaza, Hamas,
whether it's in Sham and Syria, HTS, these
are proscribed terrorist groups.
If you so much as give a bottle
of water and it ends up in one
of their hands, you're going to spend a
long time in jail.
And furthermore, we know that the government, the
United States government, this is around the time
when they try to come and entrap our
young men.
This is why I'm bringing this up.
If someone comes to you and they try
to get you all passionate and all hot
and all wound up about this issue and
they try to say, well why don't you
go and do something about it?
Why don't you go put your money where
your mouth is?
Why don't you?
Young men, you have to be smart.
This is illegal and you're going to spend
decades in jail.
You're not going to help anybody.
You're certainly not going to help your community.
Rather, the opportunity for you and your duty
in front of Allah is to do the
less glamorous but more important work of changing
this society right here.
This is your home now.
Getting involved and trying to change the foreign
policy of this nation so that it is
not deposing the Imran Khans of the world.
So it is not putting pressure on the
Mursis of the world.
So it is not putting pressure on the
other people across the how many more leaders
maybe would have come about without the pressure
of the United States foreign policy, assassinations, regime
change, everything the United States has done for
decades and decades and decades.
This is your work.
To get involved and to pay attention and
to start to plot the course so that
we can change this nation for the better.
And Allah knows best.
Brothers and sisters, it is important to remember
that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has promised
that the righteous will prevail.
He has promised that the righteous will win
eventually.
And so the question is not if, the
question is when and who.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala is giving us
an opportunity to put ourselves on whatever side
that we want.
Are we going to be part of the
problem or part of the solution?
Are we going to be people that help
influence and change the society around us for
the better and make the world a better
place or not?
Having this belief and knowing that Allah subhana
wa ta'ala is going to deliver the
results actually enables us to not be hasty,
to not want to cut corners, to not
look for shortcuts, to not get impatient.
It takes patience.
That's a long road.
But if you have the proper intention and
if you take the legitimate means, then Allah
subhana wa ta'ala can do anything.
Allah can do anything.
There's no opposition too great.
There's no enemy too tough.
There's nothing too big for Allah subhana wa
ta'ala to handle it and handle it
in a spectacular, beautiful fashion.
Whether if you look at Musa alayhi salam
up against Firaun, such that every step that
Firaun took was falling further and further into
Allah's trap.
Or whether it comes to some Italian-American
kid from South Jersey working in a Syrian
restaurant.
Allah can do it.
It's not me doing it.
It's not you doing it.
It's Allah subhana wa ta'ala will do
it.
But you have to be right with Allah
and you have to trust Him to deliver.
As Allah subhana wa ta'ala said, that
those who were certain in faith in surah
al-Baqarah, the story of Falut, Those
who were certain that they should meet Allah,
they said, how many times has a small
group of people overcome a much larger group
of people by the will of Allah?
But Allah is with the patient and there's
a reason why he ended it with patience.