Yasir Qadhi – 7 Lessons from the Syrian Revolution
AI: Summary ©
The importance of practicing Islam in one's private life is discussed, including finding comfort in the Prophet sallua and the holy grail. The negative consequences of the current regime are also discussed, including negative consequences and the need for finding comfort. The conversation also touches on the druthers of the division of people and culture, the rise of terrorist groups, and the importance of peace and safety. The speakers emphasize the need for a mechanism for learning from the segment and finding a safe land for Islam based government. They also acknowledge the need for everyone to practice Islam and make a policy for peace and safety.
AI: Summary ©
Not everybody will be able to practice Islam
the way that you yourself want to practice
in your private life.
You cannot enforce the minutiae when the people
themselves are so far from the faith and
so prioritized.
And the priority is safety.
Whomever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guides cannot
be misguided.
And whoever is misguided cannot be guided except
with Him and through Him.
I bear witness and I testify that there
is no God other than Allah jalla jalaluhu.
And I bear witness and I testify that
the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the
final Prophet and the most perfect worshipper to
have ever walked the face of this earth.
As to what follows, then know that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has reminded us to
be conscious of Him in the Qur'an
when He says, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
Dear Muslims, for as long as I shall
live, one of the most painful images that
I will carry with me is the image
of a young child, two years old.
We all saw it 10 years ago.
A two-year-old Syrian child washed ashore
on some random beach, wearing his beautiful cute
red shirt, his blue jeans, so peaceful, it
looked like he is sleeping.
But of course he wasn't sleeping.
He had been drowned because his family was
fleeing from a war-torn Syria in search
of a more peaceful land, somewhere, anywhere, other
than Bilad al-Sham, where they had lived
for many, many generations.
That innocent child's death collectively displayed the callousness
that the entire world, and I do not
free myself as well of that blame, the
entire world displayed to yet another man-made
humanitarian crisis, caused directly and solely by the
brutality of the most evil dictator, somebody I
have no qualms calling the Firaon of our
times, the dictator, the son of a dictator,
somebody who caused more havoc and more chaos
than anybody the world has seen for the
last 100 years.
This week, the man who caused over 12
million of his own people to become refugees,
himself became a refugee as he fled for
his own life.
And the peoples whom he and his father
had persecuted for more than 60 years, for
the first time, they pray Jumu'ah today
as a free population.
Allahu Akbaru Kabira!
Walhamdulillahi kathira!
Wasubhanallahi bukratan wa asila!
La ilaha illallah wahda!
Sadaqa wahda!
Wa nasara abda!
Wa a'azza junda!
Wa hazama al ahzaba wahda!
Allahu Akbar!
What joyous images we are seeing coming from
the free people of Bilad al-Sham, that
holy land, that land that is Ard al
-Muqaddas, that land that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam ascribed to all of us.
He said, Oh Allah, bless us in our
Bilad al-Sham.
It is our land.
It doesn't belong to any dictator.
It doesn't belong to any ruling family.
It is a land that belongs to the
ummah in its entirety.
And so today, as we see the realities
of what is going on, I want to
reflect and extract seven wisdoms, seven lessons that
I have been reflecting on.
First and foremost, oh brothers and sisters, first
and foremost, one of the most painful realities
that we are seeing is the reality of
how evil this regime was.
The tortures, seeing the prisoners, listening to their
eyewitness account, witnessing people who have been locked
up for 45 years not having seen the
sunlight, understanding the depravity of this regime, 150
,000 people in just one prison, the infamous
prison of Sayyidana, the one prison of 150
,000 people, people who have been locked up
because of rumors.
They don't even know why they have been
locked up.
People who have gone mad because of the
tortures given to them.
And the lesson that I learned from this,
oh Muslims, is that this world is not
the world of happiness.
This world is the world of tests, of
pains, of trials.
And while without a doubt, these brothers and
sisters of ours who have been persecuted, they
are of the worst people who have been
persecuted, of the worst.
We cannot compare our pains and sufferings to
them.
And yet still, the reality is this world
is not the world of peace.
This world is not the abode of Darussalam.
Darussalam, which is the name of Jannah, that
is ahead of us.
This world is the world of trial, the
world of ibtila, the world of ikhtibar, the
world of imtihan.
Nobody will find ultimate happiness in this world.
Nobody will find ultimate bliss in this dunya.
All those who are searching for ultimate happiness,
know that that is in the abode ahead
of you.
As for this world, even the angels asked
Allah, Oh Allah, what is the wisdom of
this dunya when there's so much pain and
suffering?
قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُوا فِيهَا مَن يُفْسِدُوا فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُوا الدِّمَاءِ
Even the angels were trying to understand this
world is gonna be so much misery and
pain.
And Allah had to tell them, you have
to have iman.
There is no other way to make sense
of this.
Because shaitan comes and says, how can we
understand this torture and pain?
What was the divine wisdom and benefit?
And we have no response better than what
is found in the Quran.
قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ We have
to have trust in Allah.
There is no other way to make sense
of this reality.
And so the first benefit is the necessity
to believe in Allah and the divine plan
of Allah, to find comfort in iman bil
ghayb.
I cannot rationalize this level of depravity.
I cannot explain to you how this evil
could be perpetuated for 50-60 years.
I don't have a logical and rational response.
But I have comfort in that even the
angels were wondering, and even the angels had
to be told, you will have to believe
there is a plan bigger and above what
you can understand.
So the first point, O Muslims, no matter
how difficult the world is, we must find
comfort in iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Our solace is not in this world.
Our happiness is not around us.
It is in our connection with our Lord.
It is in our ta'alluq with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And we believe in Allah's plan.
Even if we don't understand Allah's plan.
The second point, clearly O Muslims, this world
is not only the world where we're not
have ultimate happiness.
The second point, this abode is not the
abode of ultimate justice.
You will never obtain ultimate justice in this
dunya.
Wallahi, even if this tyrant had been captured,
even if all of us humanity collectively threw
upon this one man and his family, the
worst levels of torture, the worst levels of
punishment.
First and foremost, how would it help the
millions of people he has killed?
Of what benefit will it be to them?
And secondly, how can one person bear the
torture of millions of people?
It's not gonna be fair.
There's nothing to be done.
So the second point, O Muslims, the Qur
'an reminds us that ultimate justice is only
gonna be found on yawm ad-deen.
And Allah is maliki yawm ad-deen.
That is the day where ultimate justice will
be demonstrated.
That is why we believe in the akhirah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us to
look around.
And Allah reminds us, there are people that
are evil, they're getting away with their crimes.
There are people that are righteous, they're being
punished unjustly.
This world is not the end all.
This world is not the final abode.
Allah says in the Qur'an, أَفَنَجْعَلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ
كَالْمُجْرِمِينَ مَاذَكُمْ كَيْفَ تَحْكُمُونَ Do you think I'm
gonna make the Muslim like the mujrim the
same?
No.
What is the matter with you?
This world is not the end all.
Allah says in the Qur'an, أَمْنَجْعَلُ الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا وَعَمِّنُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ كَالْمُفْسِدَنَةِ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَمْنَجْعَلُ
الْمُتَّقِينَ كَالْفُجَّارِ Do you think that I'm gonna
treat the one who was righteous and pious
the exact same as the one who was
causing fasaad in this earth?
Do you think the muttaqi and the fajir
are just gonna live and die and that's
it?
Belief in the akhirah is the only way
that we find comfort when we see the
zulm of this zalim.
They come and they say, what is the
wisdom of jahannam?
How can jahannam exist?
I say, look at this tyrannical regime.
Look at this evil dictator.
There is no jaza other than jahannam that
he is worthy of.
There is no abod that we will find
our comfort in when he goes to other
than jahannam.
Jahannam has been created for the muttaqabbirin, Allah
says in the Qur'an.
Jahannam has been created for such people.
So we find comfort that there is daarul
jaza.
There is an akhirah.
There is yawm ad-din.
And on that day, everybody who has been
wronged, everybody who has been tortured, everybody who
has suffered pain and injustice will get the
reward of that pain.
And they will insha'Allah ta'ala find
infinite comfort in having gone through a finite
amount of pain.
And as for the ones who inflicted that,
as for the tyrants, as for the muttaqabbir,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bring him
in front of the entire creation.
On that day, the zalim, on that day,
the tyrant is gonna be biting his own
hand out of shame, out of frustration.
And he would wish that he would come
back and live a righteous life.
But it is too late for that.
It is too late for that.
So we thank Allah that belief in Allah
brings comfort.
And then point number two, we thank Allah
that belief in yawm al-qiyamah brings comfort.
Yawm al-qiyamah, the day of jaza, the
day of deen.
يوم يقوم الناس لرب العالمين Everybody will be
judged in front of Allah.
فمن يعمل مثقال ذرة خيرا يرى ومن يعمل
مثقال شرة خيرا يرى Any atom of good,
any atom of good, and any atom of
evil, it will be demonstrated and judged on
that day.
So we find comfort in believing in the
akhira and believing in the day of judgment.
The third benefit that I have been thinking
about, the third wisdom that I've extracted from
these incidents, is the miracle of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam's life.
The miracle of his seerah.
How somebody could accomplish what no other person
could accomplish.
Because every other government that rises, every other
political leadership that rises, it demonstrates tyranny, it
demonstrates injustice, it demonstrates chaos.
And here we have our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam establishing the first Islamic state, establishing Medina,
and then the entire region of the Darul
Islam.
And subhanAllah, there was no tyranny, there was
no injustice.
He did not rule with fear like this
tyrannical ruler.
He ruled with love.
The people genuinely wanted to follow him.
Unparalleled in all of human history.
This is impossible for anybody else to do.
This is a sign that he is rahmatan
lil'alameen.
When he conquers Mecca, look at this tyrannical
tyrant.
When one child stood up against him, he
tortured that child to death.
That was the beginning of the Arab Spring.
He tortured millions of people to death.
When our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam marched into
Mecca, and all of the Quraysh are trembling,
what does he say to them?
اذهبوا فأنتم الطلقاء Go for you are free
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
What amazing magnificence.
What a sign and a miracle of risalah.
Nobody could have done this other than our
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
And so we derive as well the beauty
of the akhlaaq of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam.
The miracle of who he was.
The perfection of why Allah called him rahmatan
lil'alameen.
And so these three points are tawheed and
akhira and risalah we derive from this.
Moving on to the fourth point, and again
as usual all khutbas are condensed and short
or else much more can be said.
Moving on to the fourth point of the
reflections I have been thinking about is the
very very real manifestation of what happens when
you employ dhulm.
When injustice becomes the norm.
Look how evil injustice is.
Look how despised it is.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hates dhulm.
Wallahu la yuhibbul dhalimeen.
Allah hates dhulm.
And Allah azawajal has written and prescribed for
himself, Ya ibadi or servants, I do not
do dhulm.
So none of you should do dhulm as
well.
Allah has made dhulm haram upon himself.
And he has made dhulm haram upon us.
And that is why the one who does
dhulm becomes despised to mankind, despised to the
angels, and despised to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
Dhulm never flourishes.
Learn this point.
Dhulm never flourishes.
When you employ unjust tactics, when you are
tyrannical, when you are persecuting and torturing, you
shall never ever flourish.
And it might take a while.
His father lived so many years, his son
took on.
50, 60 years have gone.
But as our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said
in the authentic hadith, sometimes Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala might allow the dhulm some leeway,
but Allah never turns a blind eye.
Allah might stall the dhulm, but then when
Allah takes him, Allah takes him swiftly, and
Allah takes him fully.
This is the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam.
Sometimes the dhulm will get away for a
while.
Sometimes there's a leeway given, but Allah never
ignores.
And when Allah calls to account, then Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will indeed call to
account.
Look at the reality of the people of
that land.
Everybody, the Muslim of them, the Christian of
them, the other sects amongst them, everybody has
united in their hatred of this one person.
Dhulm is so evil, that no matter what
the group was, they would rather any group
come rather than this one group, rather than
the group that was in charge.
And this shows us how despicable dhulm is.
Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, Beware of
ever doing dhulm.
Ittaqul dhulm.
Fa inna dhulma dhulumatun yawmal qiyama.
Because any dhulm you do, it will turn
to darkness on the Day of Judgment.
Ittaqul dhulm.
Beware of doing injustice.
And indeed, we can criticize the tyrant as
much as we want, but we have to
especially be careful of any dhulm we might
do in our own personal lives as well.
Because in the end of the day, we
have to answer to Allah for our dhulm,
not his dhulm.
So learn from this.
Allah will never bless dhulm.
Allah will never cause dhulm to flourish.
And we learn from this from the tyrants
all the way down to the lowest of
the low.
The fifth point that I want to extract
from this as well.
And this is a sensitive point, but it
needs to be said.
And it is consistent with what I have
been preaching from this very minba for the
last five years as I have been here.
And that is the very real dangers of
evil sectarianism.
Now this is a sensitive topic.
And that is because sectarianism, there are aspects
that are legitimate.
There are aspects that are real.
We don't agree with every interpretation of Islam.
And so theologically, socially, we will disagree with
some interpretations.
And we must do so with dignity.
We must do so with wisdom.
This group that was in charge, it utilized
sectarianism in the most evil of all manners.
They took a theological disagreement and they made
it physical.
They made it a mechanism of violence.
And this is the slippery slope here.
We can agree to disagree.
We can debate different interpretations of Islam.
We can even say some interpretations are wrong.
Yes.
And we can say some interpretations are outside
the fold of Islam.
And I gave a talk right here on
Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, you can look it up.
And there is no question any group that
believes that Allah came down in the form
of a man, this group is outside the
fold of Islam.
But to say they're outside the fold of
Islam doesn't mean we have to be killing
one another.
Doesn't mean we have to be shooting one
another.
Doesn't mean society has to go to civil
war.
And this tyrant, this tyrant, he utilized sectarianism
for physical violence.
We all have to learn a lesson from
this.
We have to figure out a mechanism to
live in a way that we're not harming
one another.
We're not physically violent to one another.
We have to agree to disagree with dignity.
Otherwise, sectarianism is one of the most vicious
tools that can be employed.
And not just sectarianism, any type of division.
Look at the reality of our own country
and the politics taking place where this country
is dividing people based upon background, based upon
origin.
And this is not wise.
Allah Azzawajal mentions, this is a tactic of
Fir'aun.
إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَىٰ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا
Fir'aun was a tyrant in the land.
And he divided his own people up.
Shi'a here means into different factions and
groups.
He divided his own people up.
We have to figure out a mechanism where
even if somebody disagrees with our interpretation of
Islam, we learn to disagree without provoking violence.
We already see what is happening in our
own home countries where different interpretations of Islam
are bombing each other's masajid.
They are planting explosive devices in other marketplaces
of the other group.
This is not how we're going to flourish
as a society.
So, this is another reality we learn that
this is a tyrannical regime.
That yes indeed, we strongly disagree theologically with
this group.
So much so I have given a talk,
you can listen to it, where the beliefs
of this group really are outside the fold
of Islam.
But that doesn't justify violence.
It doesn't justify bombing one another.
And when this group has come along and
utilized it, we have to be the wiser
of the two.
Not everybody who belongs to that sect and
that particular understanding is guilty of the political
crimes of that regime.
We cannot also stereotype and caricature.
And we have to be the wiser of
the two in this regard.
And of course, this is a sensitive topic.
And for the record, I have given multiple
talks and lectures throughout the last few years
about confronting sectarianism and about trying to balance
and navigate different interpretations of Islam.
This is my fifth point.
The sixth point of benefit that I have
been thinking about as I look at the
realities of the last week is the fragility
of these imaginary nation states that we ascribe
ourselves to.
What is Syria versus Lebanon versus Palestine?
Subhanallah, all of the people of that land
are exactly the same.
They speak the same, not even same Arabic,
the same lahjah, the same vocabulary.
Their cuisine is the same.
Their culture is the same.
It is one region.
What happened?
Go study your history.
1916, the British and the French had a
secret agreement.
And this agreement, look it up, I'm not
making this up.
It's called the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
A British and a Frenchman argued over a
map that was in front of them.
And they're trying to have these imaginary lines.
And the French wanted their own land.
The British wanted their own land over a
Muslim land.
This is the Muslim land, the Ottoman Empire.
And the French carved out what is now
called Syria and Lebanon.
And the British carved out what is called
the Palestine Mandate.
And they divided and they conquered us.
But we are supposed to be one people.
We are one ummah.
And in fact, the irony, it's not just
the religion that is the same in that
region.
As I said, the culture, the language, the
lahjah, the thaqafah, even the cuisine, it is
exactly the same.
But the colonizers came and they differentiated, oh,
this guy is Palestinian.
Oh, this guy is Lebanese.
Oh, this guy is Syrian.
This is all Bilad al-Sham.
And Bilad al-Sham is a part of
the greater ummah of the Prophet ﷺ.
And the fact of the matter, it needs
to be said, if the ummah were truly
united, then what is happening over there would
not be happening.
If the ummah united upon the values, it
was supposed to unite.
And this is why, and again I have
given other lectures about this, the divisions in
terms of nation state are completely imaginary, completely
arbitrary.
It's an imaginary line drawn between America and
Canada, drawn between Lebanon and Palestine and Syria.
Subhanallah, one village on this side has direct
cousins and brothers of the village on the
other side.
They're the same peoples, but we have come
and divided this imaginary line.
Now of course it is permissible to have
nation states and citizenship, no problem.
But understand loyalties, understand what it means.
The ultimate loyalty is to our Lord, it
is to our ummah, it is to our
Creator, and everything else is secondary.
So we as Muslims need to be cognizant
of this, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the
impact that is had on the Middle East
and the reality of this division that has
allowed the outsider to come and divide us
and then do as they do.
If we had been united, we would not
be seeing what is happening in Palestine and
Gaza and Israel.
We would not even see the tyranny of
this land of Bilad al-Sham with the
injustice of the leader.
If we had been united, things would be
different, but it is what it is.
So for the time being, let our hearts
be united.
For the time being, do not ever divide
yourself primarily upon an imaginary line that has
been drawn by people that have nothing to
do with us, nothing to do with our
culture, nothing to do with our religion.
Go study the realities of these nation states.
Go study the realities of how they came
about, and you will understand the fragility of
this imagined community.
We are one ummah, and that ummah is
united by the kalima of La ilaha illallah
Muhammadur Rasulullah.
And the seventh and last point, and again
much can be said, but time is always
limited.
The seventh and last point that I have
been reflecting upon.
I cannot help but point out the sheer
hypocrisy of the superpowers that we ourselves belong
to, the western superpowers.
And as I criticize, of course I criticize
as a person who also lives in the
same region and has the same nationality as
passport.
Just because I have the American citizenship, doesn't
mean I have to agree with everything our
country or the western world does.
I can accept the good and criticize the
bad.
And the sheer hypocrisy of the liberal secular
west that is claiming they champion human rights,
claiming they champion freedom, claiming they champion democracy.
And yet they directly and indirectly aided and
abetted this dictator and his family for the
last 60 years.
For the last 30 years, they have been
constantly harping about the rise of quote-unquote
radical Islam.
And by the way for the record there
is no question there are some interpretations of
Islam from that region that we strongly disagree
with.
Some fundamentalist and fanatics we strongly disagree with.
But, and this needs to be said bluntly,
the rise of those groups, the rise of
those terrorist groups, the rise of those radical
fundamentalists, the ultimate cause was that you were
aiding and abetting and supporting the tyranny of
that regime.
If you didn't support the regime, you would
not have had people who are forced to
go to interpretations of the faith because that
is the only interpretation in their minds that's
allowing them to stand up against the tyranny
of the unjust.
Nobody else is helping them.
Nobody else is coming to their aid.
And so in their desperation, and this is
not an excuse, it's a contextualization.
I strongly disagree with those fanatical groups that
are killing people in the name of Islam.
I'm not a part of them at all.
And yet I must point out, the only
reason they exist, the only reason they came
to power when they did, the only reason
they were popular is because it presented for
them the only way out of the tyranny
that you guys were supporting.
If you didn't support the tyranny, if you
actually aided in bringing about the very freedoms
you claim to preach, you claim to want,
if you allowed those freedoms for the people
of that land, wallahi nobody would have chosen
radicalism and ultra-fundamentalism and fanaticism because they
would have seen the reality.
But when there was no choice left, well
then, they did what they did.
And the same goes for the refugee crisis,
subhanallah.
Here you are bemoaning the fleeing of Syrian
refugees.
All of Europe is in a crisis.
Germany is in a crisis.
Scandinavian countries in a crisis.
They're all bemoaning what is happening to the
Syrian refugees.
They're coming in and coming to our land.
Subhanallah.
The only reason they're coming to your lands
is because you're turning a blind eye to
the tyranny and the injustice of the person
in charge of that region.
For 50 years, you were happy to keep
him in office.
Famously, our own president remarked, previous president, that
chemical weapons will be a red line, we
will never allow.
And subhanallah, the very next week, as if
to show that I know you're bluffing, as
if to show we all know we're in
this together.
The very next week after our president said,
we're not gonna allow chemical weapons to be
used, that evil dictator used chemical weapons against
his own civilians.
And the very president that said, I'm never
gonna allow it, just became silent.
And not only allowed it, but welcomed the
leader in international gatherings, welcomed him like a
friend, ignored everything.
So the sheer hypocrisy of the world order
that claims to preach human rights, that claims
to preach freedom, that claims to preach democracy,
we have seen the shallowness, we have seen
the lies, not just in Syria, but in
Gaza and in Palestine and in that apartheid
region that our governments are all supporting.
So never be fooled.
This is a vicious game.
This is a vicious and evil game of
politics.
Never be fooled by the rhetoric of these
politicians.
And understand, if they had only solved the
problems the way they should be, well then,
the crises that they're complaining about, they're worried
about border, they're worried about immigration, they're worried
about refugees, they're the ones that are causing
it.
They're the ones that are aiding and abetting
the very tyrannical regime that because of which,
why would a mother put a two-year
-old on a rubber graft in the middle
of the Mediterranean?
What mother is there that will willingly go
on a rubber dingy that is meant for
eight people there were 20 people on that
raft?
What mother is going to put her two
-year-old child other than she is so
worried about the land, she would rather go
on the unknown ocean because it represents more
hope than what is on the land.
And so, oh Muslims, and especially the youth
here, never ever be deceived by the shallowness
of the rhetoric of the very world rulers
that cause the problems that they themselves then
complain about.
And again, I mentioned for the record, two
particular problems, the rise of immigration and the
refugee crisis completely created by this dictator.
And then as well, and I've spoken about
this for the last 20 years, ever since
I have come back to this land from
my studies, I've been constantly saying the same
thing over and over again.
The rise of radicalism and fundamentalism and terroristic
jihadist groups.
I've said this bluntly.
I disagree with those movements.
I am not a supporter at all of
those jihadist movements that are wreaking havoc.
And yet the cause of their rise is
not because they're reading the Qur'an and
they go wild.
The cause of their rise is because of
politics, is because of what we ourselves have
done, meddling in that region, taking care of
that region, micromanaging the rulers of that region,
aiding and abetting tyranny and injustice.
When we aided tyranny and injustice, many of
the people were so...
They were forced into a corner and they
did what they did.
This is not to justify, but is to
contextualize.
The response to that tyranny was another type
of tyranny.
And we have to avoid the both of
them.
And so, O Muslims, subhanAllah, so much to
learn from these lessons.
But let us at least for the very
moment, at least let us pause for a
moment of joy, a moment of happiness to
see our brothers and sisters of that region
finally free.
And let us genuinely make dua for them.
Indeed, it is a very difficult time.
Indeed, it is a very awkward time.
Let us make dua for them that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala brings them happiness and
peace and security, that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala allows them to live a peaceful and
dignified life.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless me
and you with the truth of the Qur
'an.
And may He make us of those whose
verses they understand and applies halal and haram
throughout our lifespan.
Ask Allah's forgiveness.
You as well ask Him for His the
Ghafoor and the Rahman.
Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
All praise is due to Allah, the One
and the Unique.
He it is whom we worship and it
is His aid that we seek.
He is the Lord of the oppressed and
He hears the prayer of the weak.
O Muslims, one final point.
And once again, these are very awkward points,
but I feel that it is something that
needs to be discussed and especially once again
for the discussions taking place amongst our religious
youth.
The reality is that the last 15 years
have shown us so many ups and downs
with the Arab Spring, with the hope of
freedom and peace in so many lands and
that hope being taken away, that hope being
stripped from the very people that fought for
them, the very people that ran elections for
them.
And it is time that we face a
very very bitter reality.
And that is that ever since the collapse
of the Khilafah almost a hundred years ago
in reality, technically it's been 90, but reality
has been like a hundred, more than a
hundred years of the absence of the Khilafah,
that we haven't really seen a land that
is able to bring about a sense of
Islamic Izzah and a sense of conformity, the
classical laws and also living in modernity.
And the reason, the primary reason for this
is obviously without a doubt that that hasn't
been allowed to happen by the superpowers.
That the superpowers of the globe do not
want to see a thriving Islamic land.
But that also means that the Muslims need
to be a little bit more wiser.
We have seen what happens when clerics, when
clergy, when ulama try to implement classical Islam
in modern times directly from the books.
And I have been a polite critic, not
a harsh critic, that you cannot resurrect the
fatawa of a thousand years and apply them
immediately in the current reality that we live
in.
Islamic siyasa, running a country, is not the
same as reading a book of fiqh.
And any government or any land or any
groups of people in which the scholars have
attempted to just replicate from the past to
the present, look and see the reality, it
has not worked.
And this leads us to the awkward but
must be said that if we want a
new regime or a new, I should say,
government to flourish, the goal really is very
simple.
The goal is we do not want to
criminalize religiosity.
The previous regime, you would go to jail
if you were a young man praying fajr.
I'm not even joking, ask any of the
Syrians here.
If you prayed fajr as a young man,
you would go to jail because the accusation
would be you are a terrorist.
If you got involved with any Islamic halaqa,
if you did anything that was remotely related
to what they thought was a threat, they
would disappear you for 30, 40, 50 years,
kill you, do whatever.
The goal therefore is a land where religiosity
is allowed to thrive, where ulama can give
khutbas without being monitored.
Go read what is happening.
Their khutbas were monitored.
There was a spy sitting in every single
masjid taking notes of who's there, taking notes
of what the khatib said.
And if the khatib dared say anything against
what was there, immediately will be taken away.
So the goal is to have a free
land, a land where religiosity is not criminalized.
But in order for that to happen, the
freedoms we're gonna give to the Muslims must
also be given to other people as well.
Not everybody can live to the very strict
understandings that maybe the very practicing Muslims wanna
live.
And this leads us to the very blunt
but awkward reality of modern Islamic governance.
And I've said for the last few years,
I've been very blunt about this, that the
scholars, the thinkers, the human rights activists, the
mufakkireen, we need to come together and figure
out a mechanism of what does it mean
to be a Muslim-based government in the
modern times.
What does it mean?
What types of laws and freedoms can we
and must we give that perhaps our previous
ulama did not give?
And this is a legitimate conversation.
Anybody who engages in it should not be
dismissed as a reformist, as somebody who's trying
to destroy the sharia.
O Muslims, to have a land where religiosity
thrives, even if there are some munkarat, is
infinitely better than to have a land like
that of Bashar al-Assad.
So this is the conversation we need to
have here.
We see what is happening after the Arab
Spring.
And this talk, I understand the people in
charge of the land over there, they're not
interested in what I have to say.
This message is not primarily for them.
It is for our own youth and the
armchair critics amongst us.
It is for our own overzealous youth who
think about Islamic law in very narrow-minded
ways, who are unwilling to understand that the
sharia allows for change.
The sharia allows for an Islamic governance that
is catered to the people.
And in order to do that, maybe it
will require fresh ijtihad.
Maybe it will require a new mechanism.
Allow it to flourish because nothing has worked
for the last hundred years.
Not a single land has truly demonstrated what
it means to be a modern Muslim democracy,
a thriving GDP.
We haven't seen this.
So in order to expedite this, the goal
then insha'Allah ta'ala is to bring
peace to the entire region.
And that means there must be a live
and let live policy.
There must be a live and let live
policy.
Let people have different understandings.
Let people have different interpretations.
Not everybody will be able to practice Islam
the way that you yourself want to practice
in your private life.
You cannot enforce the minutiae when the people
themselves are so far from the faith and
so prioritized.
And the priority is safety.
The priority is security.
The priority is that people are able to
go to work and eat and drink.
This is the priority.
And ask for the other ahkama sharia.
Ask for morality issues.
Insha'Allah the time will come when we
can work upon them.
So my humble plea to the people here
because the fact of the matter is it's
our own youth that are talking the most.
My talk is not gonna reach the people
in charge.
Or if it does then, you know, may
Allah make it easy for all of us.
But our goal here is to make our
youth understand that these conversations are not astaghfirullah,
a rejection of Islamic law.
On the contrary, the beauty of Islam, the
beauty of the sharia is that it allows
within its beautiful umbrella, it allows for fine
tuning for each culture and time and place.
And my request is that the leaders, the
thinkers, the activists, the ulama, they come together
of that region and they see what is
the best way forward so that the country
thrives.
And of course, they are in our duas
and we can do everything we will from
over here.
Allahumma a'iz al-Islam wa al-Muslimin
Allahumma man aradana aw arad al-Islam wa
al-Muslimin ab-su'in fajghilhu binafsih waj
'al tadmeerahu fi tadbeerihi ya qawiyu ya aziz
Ibadallah inna Allah ta'ala amarakum bi amrin
badabihi binafsih wathanna bimalakadi qudusih wathallatha bikum ayyuhal
mununa min jinnihi wa insih faqala azzamin qaalina
alimah inna Allahumma lakadu yusalluna ala an-nabi
ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu sallu alayhi wasallimu taslima
Allahumma salli wasallim wa barik wa an'im
ala abdika wa rasulika muhammad wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi ajma'in Ibadallah inna Allah ta
'ala ya'nub al-adli wa al-ihsani
wa ita'idhi al-qurba wa yanha al
-fahsha'i wa al-munkari wa al-baghi
ya'idhukum la'allakum tadhakkaroon uzkurullaha al-adheema
yadhkurkum wajkuruhu yazid lakum waladhikrullahi ta'ala akbar
wa aqim al-salah