Oaths of the Past, Duty of the Present, Hope for the Future | Jumuah Khutbah | Dr. Farhan Abdul Aziz

Oaths of the Past, Duty of the Present, Hope for the Future

December 25th, 2025 — a day that has been marked on everybody's calendar for our Christian brethren in the community, obviously a day of celebration. But for all of us, though we don't celebrate the day of Christmas, we usually have vacation, the day off, the kids are off from school — Isa, peace be upon him, and his mother, Maryam, peace be upon her.

Those who most closely follow them in our time now — the Muslim world. Our women look like Maryam, peace be upon her. Our men seek to emulate the practice of Isa, peace be upon him. In a place where the Pope himself yesterday said, Isa was born in a stable among the people, and we should reflect on the people of Gaza and how they're living in tents with no protection from the cold and the weather.

But it also marks this particular year — December 25th, 2025 — a momentous moment in my opinion in history, with what happened not far from the birthplace of Isa, peace be upon him. Yesterday, on the grounds of Shifa Hospital, amid the destruction of the main two buildings that house their surgical units, their operating rooms, the ER, the ICUs, the neonatal units and the like — these were bombed, shelled, destroyed, and then burned before the army left. Murdering people in the buildings and outside the buildings, where mass graves were found on the grounds of Shifa Hospital.

170 Graduates in the Shadow of Martyrdom

On those very same grounds, 170 medical residents gathered with medical staff that are still alive to celebrate their graduation. After two years of genocide — an ongoing genocide — where their teachers were captured and tortured, their professors were murdered and assassinated, their very places of work, the hospitals, were turned into graveyards. Where Dr. Haneen, in her early twenties, would walk by the grave of her father outside Ahly Hospital every day when she would go to work, because her father and her family, her uncles, were buried literally yards from the door of the ER.

And there they were — 170, graduating.

They didn't leave the hospital, they didn't leave their patients, and they committed to serve until the last breath, as their teachers did. Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, recorded saying, "I will not leave my patients until the last moment" — he was captured, he was raped, he was tortured, and he was killed in their torture prisons.

And it's incredible because of the honor that they presented, and that they represented, and the oath that they took, and the celebration itself. To the right of the 170 graduates were 13 chairs — simply with a printout of a name and maybe a picture — of the 13 shuhadaa' from the medical residents that were martyred while serving their patients.

There have been 1,700 who've been killed from the healthcare sector, but 13 medical residents who were set to graduate this year. What was given yesterday was incredibly powerful, because what he said was: their lives became the price, and their blood became the ink in which the greatest medical certificates in history were ever written.

SubhanAllah — when the 170 stood there, and they all stood up and raised their hands and made this oath, I thought it was very powerful.

The Oath — Word by Word

There's so much to learn from the oath itself. And I'm in the medical field — and you might be thinking, well, the oath of medical allegiance that we take has nothing to do with me if I'm not in the medical field — but their oath has everything to do with you and I. Because it has everything to do with what it means to be a Muslim. Not just what it means to be a Muslim at any time, but what it means to be a Muslim in the most difficult of circumstances.

Because you and I, when the times are easy — when it's easy to worship Allah, when family is good, and job is good, and the income is good, and life is good — it's easy. But Allah says:

Allah will not leave you in this state — in the state that you're in — until He puts you to the test and He separates الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ — those who are wicked and evil from those who are good.

And so subhanAllah, their oath began. I want to share with you the oath word by word, because of the incredible power it holds — and the incredible lessons every word of it we can take in our life. We're on the doorsteps of a new year. We are anticipating 2026. We may not make it. Dr. Shahzad, rahmatullahi alayhi — we will be praying janazah upon him after salah, inshAllah — passed away yesterday and he did not make it. You and I don't know our time. But what we should take from the coming of the new year is a self-accounting: where are we at?

"I Swear by Allah — أَقْسِمُ بِاللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ"

And so this oath that these 170 heroes took in Gaza — they began by saying:

I swear by Allah, the Almighty.

That I will be mindful of Allah in my profession.

It crosses professional borders. It's not just being mindful of Allah in medicine or in treating patients, but in everything and anything that we do — whatever profession that you have, or whether you don't have a profession — in our life: أَنْ أُرَاقِبَ اللَّهَ فِي مِهْنَتِي — I will be mindful of Allah in all of my affairs of life. That will be my guiding factor.

One brother the other day asked me — he was talking about Gaza and the like — and he said, "Just give me one piece of advice." And I said, "Just make Allah your goal." That's what the people of Gaza do. They make Allah their goal.

Preserving Life, Dignity, and Secrets

And then they went on to say: I will safeguard human life in all its stages, under all circumstances and conditions, and I will strive to save it from destruction, illness, pain, and anxiety.

And then they said — and they were repeating this word by word:

And we will preserve the people's dignity, and we will conceal their private matters, and I will keep their secrets.

And I will always be a means of Allah's mercy to the people.

Isa, Peace Be Upon Him — A Blessing Wherever He Was

In Isa, alayhi salam — when he spoke in the cradle — what did he say? His first words spoken:

His first words refuted what they later ascribed to him — as being the son of God. He said: I am the slave, the servant of Allah. He has given me the Book, and He has made me a prophet — not divine, but rather an honored, noble prophet and messenger. And then he said: And Allah made me a blessing wherever I am.

What did we say about our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him:

A mercy to the worlds. Isa was no different. And so you see that we take this — we will be means of mercy to the creation wherever we are.

Care for All — Friend and Enemy Alike

And then they go on to say that we will offer our care to those who are near and far:

And we will give our care, our tenderness, our love, our compassion to both the righteous and those who are erring, and to the friend and to the enemy.

Perseverance in Knowledge and Brotherhood

And then they go on to say: And that we will persevere in seeking knowledge and devote it to benefiting people, not harming them. That I will honor those who taught me, teach those who strengthen me with patience, and be a brother to every colleague in the medical profession, cooperating in righteousness and piety —

You see how the Qur'an is infused in this oath.

A Life That Reflects Iman

And that my life, for as long as Allah gives me life, will be a true reflection of my iman — in both the private sphere when no one sees me, when only Allah is watching me, and also in public — pure from anything that would dishonor this faith that I have before Allah and His Messenger and the believers.

The Oath's Closing — Allah as Witness

Allah indeed is a witness to what we just said.

An oath that began in the name of Allah and an oath that ended in the name of Allah.

They Had a Choice

You know, they had a choice. I've sat with them. They had a choice to leave when the hospitals were under siege. Dr. Mu'taz, the head of the ER in Shifa Hospital — his daughter was born 11 days before the genocide began, and his wife had gone to visit her in-laws in the south while he was in the north. And for almost a year and a half, he was separated from seeing his daughter again. He never knew if he would see her again. And he had the choice to leave during the first ceasefire — he could have left south and gone to his family when Shifa was under siege and they let them leave — but he refused.

They had a choice to make. See, you and I — every day that we live, we have choices that we make that we will live by. Every day we wake up, we have a choice: will we live for Allah or live for ourselves? It's easy, in a time when the pressure is on and the fear is there, to succumb to our base desires, to succumb to self-preservation. I will do whatever it takes to keep me alive, to keep my family safe. But Allah gave them the strength to give us an example. These are people who sacrificed everything.

And subhanAllah — millennia, centuries and centuries before yesterday's incredible oath, taken on the grounds where massacres took place and medical staff were sniped and bodies were left to rot in the sun — we all took an oath with Allah on the plains of Arafah, when Allah asked all of us:

"Am I not your Lord?" And every one of us said, "Of course, yes."

And every human being — before we were physically born into this world — Allah asked us this question, and every human being said yes. And by definition, by default, the moment that took place, you and I have a covenant between us and Allah. And I couldn't help but think, as I saw that incredibly powerful video — Allah brought tears to my eyes, especially when I saw the 13 chairs of the shuhada' and how they made it a point to honor them — that you and I also have this covenant with Allah. And every word that I just read to you that they made, is something we have to live by.

Is Allah our priority in our day to day — in our workplace and in our home, in the masjid and in the market? Are we committed to being mercy to people around us, to worship Allah till the last breath? Because that was something that they would say again and again and again.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyyah — fakallahu asrah — who is imprisoned still in their torture jails — I worked with him for two weeks. And he would say again and again, as his pediatric hospital was under siege for three months and he kept calling out to the world for help. And he said — even though his 18-year-old son Ibrahim was assassinated on the grounds of the hospital as a means they would use to put pressure upon the physicians to leave, even killing their families — he refused to leave. And he kept saying: until the last breath.

Say: Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are solely for Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

May Allah give us tawfiq.

Second Part of the Khutbah

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wassalamu ala Rasoolillahi wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma'een.

The Mongols, the Scholars, and the Question: "Where Is Your Lord?"

It is said that when the Mongols took over Iraq and the blood of the scholars and the laymen were spilled in the streets, the libraries were destroyed and the like — one of the commanders, or the daughter of one of the commanders, saw a person surrounded by people. So she said, "Who is this person?" They told her: "This is so-and-so — a person of knowledge, one of the scholars." And so she wanted to humiliate him. She wanted to embarrass him. She wanted to put him in his place.

So she goes to him and she says: "Where is your Lord now? Where is Allah? Where is this victory that you so ardently believed in — that you were promised, that you say to your people, 'Allah's victory is coming' — where is it?"

You look at Shifa and they're graduating, and the backdrop is the ruins of the biggest hospital in Gaza. Where is this Lord that you speak of?

And so what he said in response was incredibly powerful. He said: "When a shepherd is guiding his flock and a few sheep run away — what does a shepherd do? He sends his dogs to bring them back. You are the dogs who Allah has sent to bring us back. We strayed."

But it's a reminder — everything that we go through, ultimately Allah is in control. We don't question the wisdom of Allah. We have to question our belief in the wisdom of Allah. Our cultivation of that belief in the wisdom of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى. You were the dogs that were sent to bring us back.

What Have We Learned?

And so what we witnessed yesterday is a reminder that the people of Gaza have come back. They've been back. They've been giving us example after example. And after two-plus years — even though the so-called ceasefire is there, but with over 800 attacks since then, it's not a ceasefire — what lessons have we learned? What have we taken from the people?

Yusuf Abu Rish, the head of the Ministry of Health — as he was talking about the 13 who weren't there, the shuhada', the 13 residents — he said, talking to the graduating class:

To be loyal to your martyrs — the colleagues that you had who are no longer with us — means to continue on the path. Loyalty to their blood means carrying the mission forward with unwavering resolve. Loyalty to our families and our people is to proceed along the very same path and to continue upon it despite all these hardships and despite all these calamities.

A New Year — A New Reckoning

Brothers and sisters, as a new year comes upon us — let us reassess. What path are we on? What path are we taking? And where is that path leading us?

May Allah give us tawfiq.

Translated by Dima Kamal Masri