Imam Zaid Shakir states God has sanctified life and murder of unarmed innocent human beings is a violation and crime against public order.
Zaid Shakir – Do All Lives Matter
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
You will never stop
an
effort to party to party he went
into swimming. Yeah.
Well, that's
what
he has said. He wants
to know why I cannot even drop the bat. Yeah.
Hold them steady that
will
be man.
Daddy kita wha wha
Mohammedan solo la,
la la la, la la la, la, la
money or phrases, a law, the
law has guided us to this path that we would not have been able to guide ourselves and not a law, in his infinite mercy chose to guidance. Today we like to talk about the situation with Stephon Clark in Sacramento, not just because it's the news of the day, if you will, but because as Muslims and as human beings, we should be interested in those things that have implications for our lives. And we should also see ourselves as a community that's not divorced from the issues that are plaguing or being dealt with by the community that we all belong to. In other words, we can exist as a community and an insular bubble, pretending that what's transpiring in our world doesn't affect us on the one
hand, or perhaps even more importantly, that we have nothing. There's nothing we can do to impact how those issues are both discussed. And or adjudicated. So it's very important for us glad to start First of all, a lot of people asking
was the brother a Muslim?
I heard there was a janaza. Stephon Clark was a Muslim. He was a Muslim who is married not legally.
To a sister his wife Selena
was from a Muslim family or father. Raj Manny is a con convert from Hindu with from his father was a sick and his mother was a Hindu. He converted to Islam. He's a prominent, not prominent, but known an active member of the Muslim community. In Sacramento, he raised his daughter as a Muslim.
And when she got with Stefan, he took his Shahada, He fasted Ramadan.
So that's his background and his family are not Muslims.
Her family is Muslim, he became Muslim and his family though recognizes his his land, and that's why they allow the genetic that's why they allow the body to be taken out of the church into the parking lot where the believers lined up and praise the geneticist for
having said that are interested in me because, oh, my brother's a Muslim. Let me get interested in
our interests up because he's an innocent human being who was brutally killed.
For a law tells us in the end, he that he can can testify that he struck ILA and Luma Mankato and Epson. The lady does have a surgeon who are
putting the nurse and the woman out here in Nevada, now.
So jemena, Allah tells us in the end, what not to do, let's talk to the lesson that he ended he have a long 11. So last is that because of the first murder that occurred, Cain killing his brother Abel, were dying for the children of Israel and everyone after them. Now, whoever kills an innocent life attains to life, for other than spreading murderous murder as retribution for murder, or spreading murderous corruption in the earth, which is brigandage that results in the light and the loss of life
and British crimes against the public order. So all of these crimes against public order that these so called Muslim Jihad groups have committed this brigandage
is murder a couple of crimes against public order, the safety of the highways, the safety of the public spaces.
This is what this verse is talking about.
If for other than retribution for the murder, or retribution for the one who spreads murderous corruption in the earth, our life is killed is as if all of humanity is killed.
And what is that that is determined for us to make us think twice, 345678 910 times before we take the human life,
even if there's some doubt,
because when we take that innocent life, it has so much value, so much work with the loss of Allah tala with Almighty God is as if all humanity were killed.
As one the meaning of the phrase, forget cottolin message. It says if he is killed all of humanity.
And then the law says don't kill the life that ally has sanctified. Without top collapsibility hover above law in love and accept that there's a right and as we said, The retribution for murder or some heinous crime of that nature. Otherwise, that life has attained sanctity. So all of these people, unarmed, innocent people, who are being killed throughout this country, the sanctity that Almighty God has given to their life is being violated
should be amongst those who are proclaiming that fact.
This should be one of our contributions to the public discourse, that we need to hesitate. And we need to establish policies that will encourage hesitation. So practical thing we can do, we can outline policy prescriptions. Not only that, since your strictures when they're violated, if you don't observe this policy that's put in place to make sure that every night that the policeman has a dangerous job, their lives should be safeguarded by so to shape the lives of the innocent people they're supposed to be protecting.
It should be a two way street.
And that's what we should be advocating. And that's consistent with our values as Muslims,
that the human life is so sanctified.
That great, great, great care has to be exercised in dealing with that life.
We as a community
should also understand we're middle nation, okay, then it can
be the who's who had that. And in that way you're pulling
away from shahida. We made you a little nation of balanced nation, that you may be witnesses against the people.
And then the messenger, a witness against maybe a witness against you.
So in many affairs, you'll find the Muslims are in the middle. In terms of economic affairs, the Muslims are between the extremes of capitalism, that commodifies everything. And when we say that one of the root causes of a lot of the tension in our communities is poverty.
Not a lot of that goes back to the very nature of how can we conditioned to see Well, we're conditioned to see wealth is our individual possession.
And being our individual possession, no one can tell us how
to dispose of our wealth, no one should say you can use it out for food stamps. For people who don't have adequate nutrition, no one should be able to say you should have a program for nursing mothers.
I don't want to spend my money for food stamps, I don't want to spend my money for nursing mothers. When it comes to spending money to go bomb innocent people halfway around the world, they're ready to spend their money for that. that's besides the point, the point, no one should tell me how to spend my money. Because it's my money. As a Muslim, we start from an entirely different perspective. Number one, we don't say it's my money. We said to laws money, it's God's money. It's God's wealth. And God created the circumstances to put that wealth in our hands.
And because it's God's will, and it will tell them are in tune in many, let him in the room. Give them from the wealth of Allah, from the wealth of Almighty God that He has given you as a trust. It's not your wealth.
And because it's God's Word of God to establish your writing that well for the poor people. And
that's a key that is that can you refer to as saga is for the poor and the indigent? That's You're right, established by God, no one who violates that right is a criminal.
If the if you have over the shop list, approximately $1,000. And you maintain that for over a year. And once the year Luna year passes over there, and euro pays that cat on it, you're a thief. Because that wealth is no longer yours, it belongs to the poor people. And by withholding it from the poor people, you've stolen it from them, you're a thief.
We have a lab
based on the right established firewall that is,
and that's why the punishment in terms of one denies the second is so severe. It says the punishment isn't the punishment for the thief, or in terms of was taken from them.
So the wealth, we have an entirely different philosophy. So we don't say it's just strictly ours, on the one hand, and then we don't commodify everything, as capitalism does. On the other hand, but unlike communism, we believe in private ownership. Within the limit step by God, we believe in free enterprise. So we're liberal nation.
We're middle nation. And in this particular issue, we should serve as a middle nation.
There are two extremes in the argument, not extremes in terms of the nature of the argument.
surrounding this issue from one perspective.
One is the extreme of the people who say all lives matter.
All lives matter. We're all equally human. Therefore we all have the same rights and everything accrues to us. And another extreme in terms of in juxtaposition to that position,
that black lives matter.
And so this specific historical circumstances surrounding black lives and the use of force and violence against black ties rooted in the realities of slavery, create this condition, as a Muslim we say, because we situate ourselves within the human perspective, or constellation, if you will, that all lives do matter. So Allah subhanho wa Taala. He tells us that we are a unified
we're back
with Ilan when he said, what led to a movie he was in no way can it be back? Oh, you owe humanity fear your Lord, be mindful of your Lord who is created you from a single parent and from that parent symport for a multitude of men and women, so we all have a common parentage, and we'll all united in a single human family, but a lot of spinal attallah also tell so from that perspective, all lives matter. But a lot Tyler also tells us
you're a witness in the follow up now.
There was
a lady calm before
grumble commando,
and no Lucha.
Oh humanity, we made you from a single pair. And then we've made you into nations and tribes that you may recognize each other. Surely the most righteous of you. Almighty God is one most mindful of His commandments and prohibitions barely. Almighty God sees and is well informed, a knows and is well informed about all things. So law says, we made you into nation. So law firms are realities and specificities that are unique to individual nations as a firm by the Messenger of Allah. And then how we are then is for the Ethiopians and the man Yemeni you imagine what his
faith and wisdom or Yemeni when you're in one leg in one window, yes. Yes stepped in.
for malaria, colons and a few turn back along with bring another people they won't be like you for what, for what I come from Chevy Valley kept the same benefits fantasy world odd who have a coma who and he put his shoulder on Sandman, the person he said him and his people. So there are realities associated to nations. And we understand the realities associated with African American people in this country, people of African descent is a reality that's been tied up with slavery that's been tied up with white supremacy by definition that's been tied up with levels of violence and dehumanizing, commodification. We talked about commodification, a slave was a human being. There's a
passage in a book that no one if you haven't read this book, your legs. Dr. Sylvia has been Sylvia deals servants of a lot African Americans is saved in the Americas. She mentioned
a French plantation owner
does the pre Haitian Revolution on the island of Dominica, to current homeowners in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. At one time that was a French Island, then Spanish, Spanish and French alternated. Then it ended up half for the French that became Haiti half with his Spanish that became the Dominican Republic, for the point
of who French nieces visited their uncle's plantation. And they notice the slaves were running around naked. What do you see images of slaves with these loin claws? A lot of that is just
our representation to clean up the situation. Many slave owners did it because it wasn't expensed in and by any slaves, any clothes for their slaves. Some just bought a burlap sack which was referred to as * cloth, a bar like step and cut holes for the arms and drape that down that was closed for many had no clothes. So when the nieces saw the slaves running around the plantation with no clothes,
and commented, the uncle replied, he said, uh, what next? You're going to tell me I should be quoting my cows and my dogs.
That was the reality.
The D humanize me reality,
coupled with the violence, and there are a lot of people sought to perpetuate that reality after slavery,
Jim Crow, or even before Jim Crow, through the violence of the white Legion and the red shirts and the Klan to kick the Negroes speaking euphemism in their place, after the political gains and reconstruction, put them back in their place. And those words perpetuate the realities of slavery without slavery being the system of the land. And so there are unique realities that have to be recognized. But as Muslims, we don't have to get caught between a battle between all lives matter and Black Lives Matter. We can say this is accurate, this is accurate.
And now let's get busy to make sure we don't need the latter.
Because we've done our part to create a society where everyone is judged, as Dr. King said, by the content of their character number, the color of their skin.
That's part of the work we have to do.
So
When we look at these issues,
and we begin to encourage, first and foremost is talking openly about it.
These conversations haven't even been had by our society. People they get, some people just get so defensive and insecure, or they just don't want to hear it. Because it involves so much pain, yes, it involves pain. For us this not the pain of those who don't want to talk about it.
It's not the pain of those who don't want to talk about it. So we have to confront that we have to overcome it. And we have to force those conversations.
And as we said, but focused on a policy outcome.
Over and beyond policy, you can have all the policy in the world
and all of the structural changes. So there are structural issues, structural issues related to police policies, structural issues related to the war on drugs, and the dynamics that has created between the police and certain communities that they police.
We can change this structural reality, we can change the institutional realities. But we also have to change the human hearts,
we have to change the human heart. Because if we have new structures, what we're sending the same old racist mentality into those structures, where we might partially problem solve, the problem will totally solve it, we have the power, we don't have the power immediately to affect the institutional changes, we can be part of that solution. And we should be part of that solution. But we have the power to change people's hearts. And it might be slow, it might be one at a time. And anyone who says otherwise, there's a whole school in this in this country, and intellectual school that says white supremacy is so so who is so deeply rooted in this society can never be changed, I can pack up
and go home, learn how to play ball. And so tiger woods or something,
but work on your game.
But as Muslims, we say no, we can change things, even though it starts one heart at a time. I know Muslims who were in the clan, and they got out of the clan that renounced that,
based on the power of that hello to Long
Island.
Island, Island Island is when there is no virtue for the error of the non error. There's no virtue for the the read literally, which is more accurate, unless you see people walking around like this, who said that
so far is more accurate for the red over the black except that Tableau
stepped in, stepped in righteousness. But color doesn't confer any advantage on anybody.
It doesn't confer any adventure. And we have to read that starting the Muslim community of Muslims running around here.
Hopefully no one here, brotherhood and sisterhood, different colors, backgrounds, races, ethnicities. But there are others
who are seriously challenged. In this regard, we have to get it out of our community so we can get about the work of getting it out of our nation, contributing to the work of getting it out of our nation. So now has come to smash racism.
A lot of us became Muslim because of that, across the spectrum, that is lamb gave us hope. And this how we have to acknowledge that sometimes, as a Muslim, were criminal because of some criminal Muslims, handful of criminal Muslims.
claiming to be Muslims, oh, who think I'm one of them, who's gonna listen to me. Nobody is walking around with your head down. Don't have any confidence in yourself. Don't think you have anything to offer anybody, no one's going to listen to you. But to stand up and pick your head up and acknowledge what Islam has done for you.
And the power it has affecting and Transforming Your Life. And your act like to believe that and you mean that you can affect a lot of people. How many of us became Muslim, who was sick to that nonsense out there? There's tearing the society apart. We're sick to that underlying current in American society that was instrumental in the current president getting elected was sick of it, and tired of it. And when we learn about Islam, and the
teachings of Islam that killed us. And that attracted us.
And yes, some people were let down when they came to the masjid for the first time in their lives, what are you doing here? We already have an agenda. But that's not everyone's reality.
Some people received
a welcome
and felt empowered.
Right, that wrong, you name it. And we have to believe in that power that transform our lives, then it can contribute to the transformation of our society. And then we can humanize each other so that when, if we're on the police side of the ledger, and we have a gun in our head, we don't see a dehumanised
Savage.
In that crosshair, we see our brother, or sister,
and we are always selling or our daughter,
if it was a son or a daughter, every ounce of restraint will be exercised, every ounce of ABS ascertain in terms of absolutely ascertaining that that's a gun and not a cell phone would be exercised would not.
vest your daughter and your son in those crosshairs.
Yes, you won't be.
That's how we have to see each other
as our brothers, our sisters, our son, our daughter,
and that's as as important as their institutionalist structural changes that we need to work tirelessly towards.
Well, while we're working at that level, we have to realize where our strength is. Our strength is at this level, our strength, is that humanizing people Our strength is, is then building bonds of sisterhood and brotherhood between members of various races and ethnicities. That's the historical strength of Islam. And yes, there have been breakdown. There have been breakdowns, but historically, that has been our strength. And we have to reclaim that strength. And we have to own it. We have to make it ours. And then we have the dog that determined that our 1020 3040 years from now, we won't be talking about
Stefan Clark's, and ask for Greg and Gary King three blocks from here
are Sean Bell
Rakhi Oh, boy.
Tanisha Harris.
We'll have that conversation.
We didn't even have a time.
We had what's called
a stop.
He was sending me a
lot
to just return and close on this point, just the gravity of taking life. And again, this is something we shall
not just to the police to whoever is out there
are messengers of the law it will send them all
the love it will send them that
woman that in Canada, I live in London as well.
Behind me and no one who can hold them and send them cotton, then no, life is no innocent life is taken unjustly. Except that share of the state of that murder occurs to the first son of Adam, because he because he's the one who evaded murder in the human family.
murder is a bit. The animal cannot overlap men said that
he was the one who elevated murder he was the one who introduced murder into the human family. So every soul that's killed, every innocent life has taken a portion of the state of that crime accrues to the first.
That's the weightiness of taking an innocent life.
So no loss of
firm the innocence of life. Now, a lot of times that says the VMO, those who commit ourselves to never taken and
to never take an innocent life, if we're in a situation where that might happen, and it might be zoned in our life, to allow our life to be lost.
Because it's better than
rhodiola one
with his house was surrounded.
He told them this garbage to leave. And if you read, read and read the literature, the last bar that is the get out of his house, were on haselwood Hussein.
Then I need
rhodiola.
And he could have given the order and wiped out those but there were at least 10,000 believers in Medina, and they were all standing with us men. And those rebels that number two or 3000, he could have given the order to have them wiped out but he prefer to be killed.
He preferred to be killed.
He prefer to follow the prophetic by advice, good
luck, and not to
be the son that the servant of the Lord was killed as opposed to being the servant of aloha murders.
And when he was asked, he said he didn't want to meet a lot of time with the blood of any Muslims on his hands.
So we have to make a priori advanced commitment to principles that will never put ourselves in a situation
that many
people who call themselves Muslim are in in Yemen worrying.
On the other side, many Muslims on the other side of the divide in Syria call themselves Muslim, murdering innocent. And we're not talking about combatants. Most of the people killed in modern warfare and modern warfare. Muslim countries are not is no exception. The overwhelming majority are innocent civilians.
was dying of cholera in Yemen, Yemen are innocent civilians are the ones dying under the bombardment, our innocent civilians, the ones dying in Syria, and those seizures and bombardment and when those villages are overrun our innocent civilians
what I taught
at Harvard Law
don't take the life a lot of sanctified
women as we can tell
you and know whom else none
of us the lady none of the surgeons that are thinking
NASA Jamia woman, yeah.
NASA Jamia
takes it innocent life is as if they murdered all of humanity, and the one who saves it innocent life is as if they saved all of humanity. melancholic, bless us to be those who are out there trying to save life to preserve life to to uphold the God given sanctity that has been given to human life. May we be amongst those alone no feeling will see me no one was the man when we need one more minute.
robot
body will have learned
and the content will have Rob banner.
One sword now in the open category. Rob bandanna provided a sovereign
water website. Welcome Steve. One one. You're going to know what happened and
organize the Department of Ed all of whom are in the room who became in they will
be came in and it will.
It became an awful whenever we became a demo copper region. Although similar
to Ruby beta or beta lossy women Pocky can lead to a gender attack.
Meaning you have to
have a solid Junior woman to
walk savina went in a manner in which we were determined without stuck on an island on Walla
Walla
de Nina wanted to Janet dounia Amina Amina would love to serve the
homeowner of Morocco in one on one. You're gonna want to hug them and
give him some time cannot be corrupted.
whatsoever and more sunny Welcome to the let me Optimus Sala your company