Yassir Fazaga – Friday Khutbah 29-03-2024
AI: Summary ©
The Arabic community struggles with abuse and cruel behavior, but Speaker 1 emphasizes the importance of speaking out against actions and seeking more evidence. The speakers also discuss the negative impact of racism and the need for a culture of peace and cooperation. The success of the community is highlighted, including a focus on dehumanizing behavior and promoting the truth. The speakers stress the importance of letting people know their love for the truth and bringing their own numbers to vote, as well as the need for participation in social and educational activities to address youth violence. They also provide information on a surprise guest and a program for those interested in donating.
AI: Summary ©
Before we before we start our Khutba, we
do have some good news for our community.
Sister Natasha, Insha'Allah, will be taking her Shahadah.
Sister Natasha, are you
there? Turn on turn on her mic.
So, Natasha, you're doing this by your own
free will?
I am. Nobody's forcing you, deceiving you into
doing this? No.
Okay. So we will say the first in
the Arabic language.
You repeat after me, and then we will
say it in English.
Muhammadan
Rasulullah.
I bear witness
that no one
is worthy of worship
but Allah.
And I bear witness
And as of right now, she is our
sister both in faith as well as in
humanity.
Sisters, please do welcome her back.
May our community be a good addition to
Natasha,
and may Natasha be a good addition to
our community.
In the name of Allah, the compassionate,
the most merciful.
All praise is due to Allah.
We bear witness that no one is worthy
of worship but Allah.
And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam is indeed his final messenger.
The best of speech is a book of
Allah,
the best of guidance
is the guidance of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst
those who listen to the best of speech,
the book of Allah and follow its commandments.
And may Allah
make us amongst those who come to know
the best of ways,
the way of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
and make us amongst His followers.
So before that, if you recite Surah Al
Baqarah,
the 40th verse,
read a 100 verses afterwards
and you will see that it is nothing
but a continuous,
constant,
persistent,
insistent
documentation
of the most failed nation
that was destined to be a good nation,
but they failed and they failed miserably.
We're talking about some of the followers of
Musa alaihis salam
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala constantly speaks about
them.
How Allah has sent them numerous messengers,
numerous chances,
plethora of evidence.
Many things over and over again
for them to be guided, but they refuse
to do so.
But then one of the most interesting attributes
about these people,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said about them, and
we can see this in light of what
is
Allah then says that after all these evidence,
your hearts became like rock. Their heart like
stone.
And their language is very interesting because Allah
is not speaking about them.
Allah is not speaking
to them.
And there is a difference between speaking about
them
and speaking to them.
Now Allah tells them, those who are living
right now,
That your hearts are hard like stone.
They are like rocks.
And then the Quran says,
Nay, it is even harder than stone.
Why stone?
You cannot bring life to a stone.
It won't hold water.
It cannot
similarly there is no spiritual life that can
come out of a hard heart.
You cannot grow life out of it. There
is no vegetation
expected
out of a stone.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, your hearts
are hard like stones.
Man, these people are cruel.
These people are so unbelievably
50%
of the population in Gaza are children. These
are people under 18 years old. Yet they
have dropped the equivalent of 2 nuclear bombs
on them.
They know they're killing children.
They don't mind it.
In fact, many promoted.
60%
of Israeli citizens believe that the IDF is
not using enough force on the Palestinians in
Gaza.
A 60%
man,
who despite seeing all that which is happening,
they believe that is not enough. Give them
more.
Or like that idiot said, give them *.
The Jazeera reporter speaks.
He's looking into Nasirah
hospital and he's interviewing people and one of
the ambulances,
an 11, 12 year old boy comes out
holding a bag.
And as they're attending to him the reporter
goes to him and asks about how he
is doing.
And then she sees that there is blood
dripping out of the bag, And he's holding
the bag onto his chest and she and
he
said, do you know what's in this bag?
What's what's in your bag, babe? What's in
your bag? I said, in this bag
is my little brother.
And he opens the bag,
and they both cannot believe what he just
saw.
Calling the doctor and
the doctor is shocked.
11 year old baby
taking his 5 year old baby
in a
bag.
Reminding people of what happened in Japan in
Nagasaki.
Kid is carrying his brother on his back.
The brother is dead
and somebody said put him down. He is
heavy.
And the young boy looked at him and
he said, he is not heavy.
He is my brother.
He is not heavy.
He is my brother. Man these people are
cruel beyond belief. Wallahi these people have hearts
of stone.
May Allah destroy them You Rabbi Alemi.
These people are cruel.
Despite all they see,
they don't mind it.
Cruelty is
is the most unnatural
abhorrent
quality character for anybody to have. May Allah
save us all, You Rabbil 'alameen.
Their doctors
sign papers to
encouraging their government to bomb the hospitals.
Their children and the young generation are the
ones that are blocking
the aid from entering hazah.
Children are dying of malnutrition.
They're being burnt alive. They're dying of malnutrition
and they say that one of the most
painful ways to die for children is being
malnourished.
A doctor speaks about how she worked in
a ward
with malnourished children, and she said that floor
was the quietest floor. Despite the fact that
it was full of children,
it was the quietest floor
because malnourished
children
don't even have the energy to cry.
They can't cry.
They're too weak to cry.
Allah tells us about them.
You read the Quran,
and Allah tells us something else about them.
There is this sense
of mazkena.
You know when you say,
people understand
the word poor.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, a stamp of
poverty
is being placed on these people.
I said, Wait a minute.
I know I believe the Quran
but these people are not poor.
These people are very rich
And these people are not weak.
They're extremely
influential.
Yet Allah says that there is a chronic
that is stamped upon them.
And that
is not poverty.
It is a constant
state of
victimhood.
They cannot speak about themselves but they are
victims.
And subhanallah, the combination of cruelty
and victimhood
is a weird compilation.
It's a weird combination
because on the one hand you are so
cruel, on the other hand you are a
victim. So eventually what happens to you is
that you become offended by anything and everything
as a victim. Anything offends them. This offends
them.
You wear a kufi, it offends them.
They're offended by anything.
And because of their cruelty,
they're ashamed of nothing.
The worst combination.
Offended by everything,
ashamed of nothing.
On the one hand you're so cruel
and on the other hand you must always
play this victim chord.
Rabbi is asked, Rabbi, can you please define
to us what is anti Semitism so that
we have a working definition to work with?
What does he say? Well, 2000 years ago,
he's taken us back 2000 years ago,
constantly
playing this role of a victim. It is
nauseating.
It is nauseating.
But see, something happens there.
See, occupation
necessitates repression.
Repression
necessitates
violence,
and violence and repression and occupation
can only lead to hate.
Do not blame the Palestinians if they hate
them.
Do not blame decent people of the world
to despise and hate these people.
Some type of hate
is righteous
Because it tells us that your heart is
alive. You're not desynthesized
to the pain of other people.
And you dislike what you see. You hate
what you see.
And it's okay not to have any iota
of mercy or compassion towards these people because
they're not worthy of it.
They have hearts
like stone.
Nay, they're even harder than stone.
And then the Quran tells us,
and this is the most mind boggling thing.
The level of arrogance. None these people are
arrogant.
They're arrogant.
And their arrogance
is
literally mind blowing.
Chosen people of God constantly repeating about themselves,
chosen the people of God. We're chosen people
of God. The Quran documents to us that
these people thought that they were so brilliant
that they can outsmart
Allah
I remember a sister.
She said, she came from a Jewish background,
she said, you know, whenever I was studying
the Torah,
I believed that I was smarter than God.
We had a meeting with a rabbi once,
and please
let's be clear, this is this is by
no means, this is not the best of
Jewish
theology here.
We're meeting with a rabbi, so I said,
you know rabbi, we we, in Islam,
in Muslim tradition,
the Muslim tradition is very critical of the
Jewish community, especially the Jewish theological community,
where people only want to
abide to the letter of the law but
not to the spirit of the law.
Said you know, I was just told that
in the occupied land of Palestine,
some of the non practicing Jews who come
from Poland and and and Russia and these
places, they're not practicing and and they eat
things that are not kosher, and and they
raise pigs in Palestine, and it is illegal
according to the book of Leviticus
to raise pigs in the land of Palestine.
You may not raise pigs in the land
of Palestine.
And as I was to tell him the
story, the rabbi finished my story. He said,
oh, easy. So the rabbi told them to
build a platform so now the pigs are
technically not on the land of Palestine.
Then he said, Imam let me put it
this way so that you understand.
If there is a will, there is a
rabbi.
He said, let me explain it to you.
This is him talking now, quoting the rabbi
directly. He said,
see, God gave us the law
and said you interpret the law.
And here's what we tell God, Wallahi this
is happening in the Masjid. He waves his
finger like this and he said we tell
God to stay out of it, stay out
of it. You gave it to us, stay
out of it.
The level of arrogance is unbelievable.
Which explains
why
genocide is happening right now. See, genocide does
not happen at once.
In order for genocide to take place,
you must dehumanize
the other.
You must dehumanize,
you must trivialize,
you must demonize
so that you can kill the other. And
in the process you must continuously
feel superior about yourself.
So Allah
tells us that this level of arrogance
that these people have is just unmatched.
So do not blame them for hating.
And
again,
the good news that comes out of this,
because see believers,
we acknowledge the atrocities,
we acknowledge the difficulties,
but ultimately
believers we're not downers.
We don't talk about this so that we
suck the energy out of one another.
We do not suck the optimism out of
one another. Say, man,
these people have relentlessly
been bombing the people of Gaza for the
past over 170
days. That's been going on for a long
time.
They've dropped the equivalent of 2 nuclear bombs
on these people. And what happens?
They may have broken their homes,
but they did not break their spirits.
You don't see them running around saying, oh,
please forgive us. Please do this. I say,
look man, we're gonna die, and we're gonna
die here.
Say that now time,
this is the worst time
or to be a parent in Gaza.
This is the worst time to be a
parent in Gaza.
Because unfortunately
what is happening is that, they say that
the easiest thing to happen to you in
Gaza nowadays is to die.
What is difficult is
to stay alive.
And these people don't care.
These people do not care.
But what has happened is that the world
is awakening,
and not only the Palestinians are liberating Gaza,
but they're also liberating
people outside of Gaza.
State department officials
who work on human rights organizations
in the Middle East. What do they do?
They're resigning.
Ned Shell, today she had an
interview.
And in it she said, whenever I told
my colleagues that I am going to resign
and I'm going to go public with my
resignation, please speak up. There are so many
of us here who are not happy with
this. Please speak up. Please speak up for
us.
So what we see, there is that sense
of awakening that is taking place
and we love it
because ultimately
this awareness
is what is going to grant people freedom
ultimately.
So not only the people of Gaza are
fighting for their own freedom
but ultimately
they're also fighting for our freedom as well.
May Allah
grant them that freedom. And may Allah grant
us that freedom.
The month of Ramadan,
one of the aims of it is to
make a spiritual warrior
out of a believer.
You and
I and my sister up there, we as
a result of having gone through this month
of Ramadan, we are supposed to emerge as
spiritual
warriors.
These are people who have a cause
and their cause is to please Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And a spiritual warrior
is morally
upright.
You can't be an activist
be chasing cutie pies.
If you are an activist or whatever it
is that you call yourself, whatever name you
give yourself,
an activist on this path,
on the path of righting the wrong is
a spiritual warrior.
They are morally
upright.
A spiritual warrior,
one of their signs is that they imbibe
the concept
of zud.
Good healthy
asceticism.
Despite the fact that you have access to
comfort,
you choose not to partake in it.
That is how spiritual warriors
win.
Because see
when your enemy is too materialistic
and you choose to play, to play the
game that your enemy does, if you're materialistic
everybody has a price.
But what happens if a person has a
concept of zood? They have no attachment to
things,
they have no attachment to duniya.
You can't buy them because they're not interested.
They have no attachment to duniya, to this
life, They're not afraid of
death.
As one of them put it, he said,
how do you deal with somebody who looks
at your burial, your gun's burial,
and they see paradise through it. How do
you deal with that?
That is a spiritual
warrior.
Spiritual warrior is a person of courage.
With all due respect to my brothers and
sisters, we have been cowards for a long
time.
We say the Quran is a brave book
that is read by a lot of cowards.
That is us.
We're constantly trying to be politically correct. Constantly
trying to pay attention to this and don't
say that way and don't say this and
It is Why?
Why?
If you believe
that this is the truth, then you must
speak it.
You must believe it and you must live
it.
Because truth is not about popularity,
contest.
That is not what you're looking for. With
all due respect to public opinion, the idea
ultimately is to wake people up. But if
truth was so easily seen,
this would not be how we would be
acting
and behaving.
May Allah subhanahu wa'ala make us of those
who love the truth
and propagate the truth, You Rabbal Alameen.
May we emerge as
spiritual warriors out of this month of Ramadan,
You Rabbal Alameen.
People of Gaza
are in need of many things.
Be it our prayers,
be it our help
when
when the borders are open that have been
illegally
and humanely
blocked.
We, depending on where we are, let's do
our part.
Let's do our part.
Part of what we are urging our community
to do is
register to vote, people.
Register to vote.
It is very important. See, remember, if you
don't care about politics,
politicians who don't care about you are going
to be ruling you.
You can say I don't care about policy.
Fine.
But the people in charge will not care
about you.
So
please register to vote.
This is an election year and that becomes
one way of fighting.
Remember a spiritual warrior is in every front.
Trying to do the right thing wherever we
are planted
we blossom.
On your way inshallah, on your way out,
our young brothers and sister from PVS will
be holding this card.
It has a barcode on it. On your
way out, scan the barcode,
register to vote
because numbers
are power.
What good are the numbers if the people
are not registered to vote? Why would a
politician want to come and listen to you
if they know that you're not a registered
voter? Why would they do that?
So what we want to do is that
we want to say, look, man, we're going
to translate our numbers into
votes, But it all begins with
you registering to vote, so inshallah, on your
way out, make sure that you put this
thing,
scan it, and make sure that you and
make sure that you vote insha Allah.
Like we said,
What we are hoping for is,
like we said we want to emerge as
people who love the truth.
The book of Allah, the word haqq is
mentioned in 256
different places.
The reader of the Quran is a lover
of truth,
and that's what we want to see come
out of us. People who love the truth,
promote the truth, and work for the and
work for the truth.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst
those who have been accepted in this month
of Ramadan.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alleviate the sufferings
of the people of Ghazair.
And may the vengeance of Allah be upon
all of those who are bringing destruction upon
them,
If any of us or our loved ones
are going through difficult times, may Allah ease
our pain. If any of us or our
loved ones are not feeling well, may Allah
grant all of us a full and speedy
recovery. If any of us or our loved
ones have lost their way, may Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala bring us back to His way
Injallah, please after the salah, remain seated for
no longer than 3 minutes. We will be
appealing to our community
about, fundraising for the operations of MIC.
A lot of good is coming out of
this place and we want everybody to participate
in it, Insha'Allah.
The community has been very generous and Insha'Allah
like we said for the next 3 minutes,
Sheikh Mohammed will be making an appeal Insha'Allah.
To
Anyone that comes from outside Memphis, even if
they're just visit visiting us briefly. One thing
they find very impressive
besides the beautiful accomplishment in this beautiful campus
that we have is really the people. The
people here in this,
you know, beautiful
community. So inshallah,
just for you to know what we've been
doing and what we intend to do inshallah,
because what makes a center is really the
operations and the activities.
Doctor Adnan Nasir doctor Adnan Nasir, insha Allah
our chairperson is going to go over a
quick presentation. I just want you to pay
attention to that.
I just need a few minutes of your
time and divided attention, please.
Brother Laith, can you have the slides on?
So,
we are sitting in a beautiful
family life center, our Memphis Islamic Center. We
are enjoying the month of Ramadan and the
blessings of Ramadan.
And we are making full use of our
facility.
And you can see the expansive
and
beautiful indoor and outdoor facilities that we have,
the outdoor,
sports, facilities that our youth and adults
both are using soccer field and, so on.
As far as the indoor facilities goes,
this facility
is used by every member of the family,
whether it is an adult
who comes in here and prays and
learns and,
gets benefits,
from our shayuk,
or it's, the sisters who have their own
classes
with the shiur, they have their own halakat.
The youth, they go through
character building
and different educational activities, social activities.
The kids
who also socialize,
play and learn at the same time, they
go to the Manara School.
So all this
is possible,
because of, the facilities that we have here.
So
we are also a regional,
spiritual, spiritual center. So as some of you
know that we've done many conferences,
locally,
for our,
mid south region.
Mifta Circle was here a few months ago.
Then most recently, we had a youth conference
for youth violence, how to tackle youth violence
that was attended by many of the,
the dignitaries and many of the,
the mayor and other,
people from the city.
And we plan to continue to do these
activities,
both, social activities as well as educational activities
for our community.
So what does that mean for us? So
all this
costs money.
There's nothing free in this world.
So same way,
nothing free at MIC. So somebody has to
pay for
the lights to stay on. Somebody has to
pay pay pay for cleaning the facility.
And who has to pay for that? So
we don't have any support from
the government. So who is responsible for that?
It's I am responsible for that and you
are responsible for that. So all of us
are responsible,
to
pay for the services that we use. We
all have
subscriptions to cell phone services. We have cable.
We have TV. We have Netflix and so
on. So we pay for all those services.
So this is a service that if you
use,
then you have to pay for it. This
is the simple message. And what we are
saying and we are asking you all is
that everybody should
participate, everybody should pay whatever you can.
Though no amount is small.
Even if you pay $10, you pay $10
a month on a perpetual basis.
That is beneficial for us. So we know
how much is coming in, and we can
plan our activities and services accordingly.
So there are volunteers that are giving forms.
So I would like everybody to grab a
form and fill it up and give it
back to us, whatever you can. I'm gonna
ask
Sheikh
Mohammed to do the actual
so
See why we need money?
So Alright. Bismillah, hamdulillah, wa sallam alarassullahi wa
sallam. While again as I doctor Adnan said,
please pick up a form, insha Allahu Ta'ala.
Everyone should should all participate, insha Allahu. I
just wanna see if we have anyone here
who can, insha Allahu Ta'ala, be idhnillah for
the next
for for this upcoming year
between now and next Ramadan. May Allah allow
us all to
come upon that Ramadan experience it be in
the light together. If we have any donor
here that would like to start us with
$25,000
Insha'Allah.
Anyone here for the may Allah bless you.
So I have 1 Insha'Allah. Can I have
a second one to match that Insha'Allah? Who
would like to be the second person to
match that?
Yeah. Sheikh, I thought you were going to
start with the bigger number.
Okay. Yeah. Why don't we start with the
80,000 for our utilities?
Is there anybody that can pay 80,000 for
the utilities for the year?
Take care of the utilities for the whole
year. $80,000
Our utilities are going to go up with
the new phase 1b coming up soon, Insha'Allah.
So I need
$80,000 Is any brother or sister that can
give $80,000?
Or 2?
2 forties?
30?
Okay. What about how about 4 people in
sha'a'ala? 4 individuals,
20,000 each. They will take care of our
utilities.
I'll tell you what that means. That means
that every person that reads Quran here using
the light,
every person that makes wudu here using the
water,
every person that is able to access this
place
because of whatever energy that insha'Allah
you're going to sponsor,
may Allah reward you for for that. May
Allah
provide you with a light in this life
and in the hereafter. So can I have
4 individuals? Can I have the first person
for 20,000, inshallah?
The first person for 20,000
to
cover
the utilities? Anyone? Yes? I have one.
No. No. No. We do.
So
takbir. Okay. We got the second one, Allahu
Akbar.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you. Say,
Ameen.
And may Allah accept from you. Just make
sure that these are opportunities that we have
and that that you never know. This could
be, insha'Allah,
the one contribution that Allah accepts from you.
So do I have another person for 20,000?
Another person for 20,000?
From upstairs, from downstairs?
Another person for 20,000?
Anyone else, insha Allah?
For this?
Okay. How about,
how about covering the Ramadan expenses? You know,
anytime the month of Ramadan comes, there are
added expenses. Anyone here interested in Insha'Allah Hu
Ta'ala and sponsoring that?
That's about 50,000
towards the Ramadan expenses.
Okay. Let me just do 10 people. How
about 10 people with 10,000 each?
10 people with 10,000 each. Who would like
to be the first person, insha Allahu Ta'ala,
to start this bayidulillah?
10,000?
Remember that we said part of the promises
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala made in the
Quran is that whatever you give
And I don't think,
you know, that that none of you really
understands this. I think we all understand it
just as a reminder that
whatever you give is going to be given
back to you, inshaAllah, in many folds.
Alright. Let me just say one thing. Whatever
amount you do, please do your best. We're
gonna come back, insha'Allahu Ta'ala, tonight. Tonight, we
have
an amazing
person that came here, was touched by the
akhlaq,
the beauty, the generosity of this community.
So much so that he decided to come
and join us, inshallah, for the next 3
nights. So so far, this Ramadan,
every weekend we had
amazing, masha Allah, experience. So I call you
as we start the last 10 nights inshallah
to join us inshallah for the next 3
nights. We'll have with us a surprise guest
inshallah. It may not be a surprise because
you're gonna get the update, but join us
inshallah. But
I want you to remember
what makes this place
special is not only the fact that it's
America's largest center, but there are people here
who understand, who work hard, who contribute
generously
to make this place worthy of that
status. And they're doing it for for Allah
subhanahu
wa ta'ala. So please
join us tonight, InshaAllah ta'ala, for the program.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept from
you.
Please,
scan that q and r code.
The q r code,
scan it and then that will take you
straight to the donation. Just in case we
have anyone here who would like to do
it electronically,
you can simply scan that, turn your camera
on, scan it. It will take you straight.
We also have the credit card,
device here to take payments on the spot
from you. May Allah
accept from all of us and
forgive us our sins.