Zaid Shakir – Uphold Innocent Life

			Mr. Heyman hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala CV mursaleen Sayidina Muhammad Anwar Ali
he was fine to he will sell him to Steven cathedra As Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. This
is Imam Zaid Shakir on coming you coming to you and the aftermath of what has been described as a
failed bomb plot at Times Square in New York City.
		

			These are very tense and challenging times for a lot of Muslims. Unfortunately, some Muslims are
confused and as a small minority of those who are confused, or vacillating, and wondering if indeed,
it is a proper course of action to target innocent civilians in these western lands or here in the
United States, because they look at all of the innocent Muslims that are being killed in Iraq and
Afghanistan and Palestine and Somalia, and other places, and a lot of those directly or indirectly
due to the policies of the United States. In response to that dilemma, if you will, I want to
emphasize to anyone, and there might be a small minority of Muslims, young or old, who are confused
		

			in that regard that we have to be a community that is uncompromising, and upholding the sanctity of
innocent life. We have to be a community that is uncompromising, and respecting the principle of
civilian immunity. This is a duty we have Allah Tala and the Quran mentions men actually dedicate
Khattab Nyla Benny Surat Isla and noble malerkotla knifes and the laziness of a sudden fill ARB
Faker and the malerkotla NASA Jamia women here have and a nurse and me well look at who's gonna
build the unity from NACA serum and some calcium in the castle or the limbs with whom. So Allah Tala
mentions Almighty God mentions that because of the murder committed by the elder son of Adam against
		

			his brother, We ordained for the children of Israel, that anyone who kills an innocent life
		

			for other or takes a life and referring to an innocent life for other than retribution for murder or
spreading a murderous sedition in the earth.
		

			It's as if they've killed all of humanity. And whoever saves an innocent life, it's as if they've
saved all of humanity. And we've sent Our Messengers with clear proofs. Then even after that, you
see many of them going through the land, continuing to transgress by continuing to murder innocent
		

			people.
		

			Brothers and sisters, this is the foundation of our approach. In this regard. Allah Tyler's
reminding us that a single life and the gravity of taking a single innocent life is like massacring
all of humanity. That's the weightiness of that crime. And saving a life is like saving all of
humanity. We have a responsibility to hold on to this principle, because it's a slippery slope. If
you look at Western history, once it was decided that civilian civilian infrastructure could could
be bombed and destroyed, it was a very short path from 1930 to 1945. Then the atomic bomb, a very
short path, we have to be absolutely uncompromising. In this regard, we should understand speaking
		

			of the the atrocities committed by Western powers during the two World Wars and before that, that
this idea of total war is none of our business. Our prophets Allah Lila was setting reminders
reminded us Midhurst in Islam and Marty Turco, whom Allah Yani he from a person's Islam being good
as leaving that which doesn't concern him or her. Anything. Amongst those things that don't concern
us are those things that have no sanctioning, in our in the sources of our religion and this idea of
indiscriminately killing people targeting civilians, removing
		

			the immunity from them, and the protection from them. This has nothing to do with Islam, brothers
and sisters, this idea of total war. If you look at ancient history, the Peloponnesian War that's
been documented by felicities. It was involved total warfare and some of its manifestation whole
populations were wiped out or cast into slavery. Entire societies were mobilized for warfare. This
is not from Islam.
		

			If you look at the Middle Ages, the Mongol hordes when they swept across Asia and left, burn silly
cities and villages and millions of dead people in their wake, this isn't something that we find in
Islamic history. When you study the idea of total war, Islam does not come up as an example. So this
has nothing to do with us. And we should make sure that it continues to have nothing to do with us
that as human beings have began to work and struggle to move beyond the idea of war as a norm, and
have gotten into a situation where war is an anomaly, have begun to struggle to reaffirm the
		

			protective status that's afforded to innocent civilians and non combatants. Muslims should not be
the people whose actions are used as a justification to undo that progress. We should be people that
are working to make further progress. In this regard. This is what our religion is calling us to, as
we mentioned, there are there's a lot of tension, there's a lot of bitterness, there's a lot of
frustration. There's even hatred and some people's heart of hearts for the United States or for
Western powers. The Quran is a book that deals with life and the realities that confront us as we
move down the road of life and it deals with this reality, the reality of actions
		

			affecting us so deeply, that we move to hatred. We're human beings, but what does it counsel us?
Yeah, are you hella Dina Amendola Yeji Reman commission and we're Coleman Allah, Allah Tala de vous
en de Loup, who, aka ruble Taqwa that all you believers don't allow your hatred of a people move you
to be unjust be just that is closer to piety. And we are ordered to be pious people yeah you have
Latina Amma Amma taco hola como Masada clean. Oh you believers be pious, mindful of Allah. And keep
yourself with the with the truth, the true for people. So it's closer to Taqwa to not allow that
hatred not allow that bitterness not allow that frustration, to move on to be unjust. Rather focus
		

			one's energy and work to educate people work to show people through your deeds in your example. The
power of true morality, the power of forgiveness, the power of taking the high road. Well, as Allah
Tala reminds us well, the tester will have Senator Wallacea infallibility here I said, say the lady
Boehner carabiner I doubt we can know who are you and her mean? That not equal good and not equal
are good and evil. So it's evil, what's going on in the Muslim world and a lot of that is not laid
out the steps of the United States there are Muslims who are killing Muslims. There are Muslims who
are placing bombs and messages and marketplaces, and slaughtering innocent, unsuspecting Muslims.
		

			There are Muslims doing these crimes just as the bombs and the Hellfire rockets are destroying
innocent Muslim lives in various places. So our responsibility is not to respond to that evil, the
evil of the Hellfire rockets and the evil of the B 50. twos and the evils of being afflicted from
the F one elevens or the b two stealth bombers, but to respond with goodness to respond with
principle to respond with conviction to respond with educating and guiding people who have been
misguided to have the courage to knock on our neighbor's door and to educate them about our religion
to show them through our example, the good of this religion so that their hearts will be affected in
		

			a positive way as the as the verse reminds us fairy there lady vena cava baignoire del can know who
will you and her mean, the one between whom you and he there was great and then it becomes as it
were, a trusted friend, by the power of Allah, never despair of the power of Allah to affect good to
bring about good as long as we do the thing that's right, just principled and ethical As Salam
aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.