The Gaza Tragedy: Finding Solace And Fulfilling Our Duty

Opening Praise and Testimony

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And to the righteous, those who are righteous. And there is no aggression except against the wrongdoers.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. There is no partner but Allah, Lord of the worlds. And I bear witness that our master, our prophet, our beloved, our intercessor, Muhammad is His servant and Messenger — the one sent as a mercy to the worlds. May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him and his family and his companions, good and pure. And whoever follows them with goodness, and calls upon their supplication, and follows their Sunnah, and follows their guidance until the Day of Judgment.

The Tragedy Unfolding in Gaza and Masjid al-Aqsa

My dear respected brothers and sisters, respected elders and youngsters — indeed, on the top of everyone's minds and hearts are the tragic incidents that are taking place throughout the world, and in particular, in the area of the third holiest site in Islam, and the Qibla of the Anbiya alayhimu s-salam, the Qibla of the Bani Israel, the first Qibla of this Ummah as well: Masjid al-Aqsa and the surrounding areas. In particular, the tragedy that is unfolding in Gaza.

Our hearts reach out to all of our brothers and sisters who are in a very, very, very difficult time right now — that is beyond our imagination. We cannot ever, even for a moment, truly comprehend what is going on on the ground. And the whole world is watching.

The facts of what is happening and the history of this conflict — this is not the time or the place to review that, as that is what is going on 24 hours on the news cycles. People are watching the correct information and more likely than not the misinformation, the wrong information that is being recycled. But rather, here we come to the house of Allah on this mubarak day of Jumu'ah, to gain some peace and some solace. As at this juncture, most of us — not only our young children, but even adults, grown men — are all feeling this pain. And many people are finding it difficult to continue on with their lives, continue on with their work, continue on fulfilling their responsibilities.

So we want to first of all realize and remind ourselves, as Allah says:

And remind, for the reminder is beneficial for the believers. Not that this reminder is here to make us complacent — just to sit back and relax and say, "It's fine, don't do anything." But rather, if we are reaching that point of despondency, then at that juncture we need to have some consolation.

Two Extremes: Ifraat and Tafrit

There are two particular states a person can go into, two extremes. One is Ifraat and one is Tafrit. One is where a person becomes heartless, insensitive to the pain, and could care less about what is going on. At that juncture, a person needs to be injected with the sense of accountability as an Ummah, the sense of responsibility.

And that is absolutely what is the required treatment for those of our leaders who are in power. The Muslim leaders who have the opportunity, who have the resources, who have the responsibility to come to the aid of the Muslim fellow citizens of the world — they will be responsible in the court of Allah, undoubtedly. There can be no doubt in that.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 893; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829)

That verily — أَلَا is a harf of tanbeeh, to attract our attention, to catch our attention — each one of you is responsible, and each one of you will be asked regarding your flock. رَاعٍ actually means each one of you is a shepherd. Literally it means a shepherd, and each shepherd will be asked about their flock.

And then Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam broke it down. So the imam is ra'in — the king, the ruler, whether he is a president or prime minister, or in the past the khalifa, the Amir al-Mu'minin — is responsible for the entire khilafa. وَهُوَ مَسْؤُولٌ عَنْهُمْ — he will be responsible for them. وَرَجُلٌ رَاعٍ عَلَىٰ أَهْلِ بَيْتِهِ وَمَسْؤُولٌ عَنْهُمْ — a man is responsible for his family, so he will be asked regarding his family.

So those rulers — Muslim rulers and those who have access to some level of political clout in the world, or economic clout, or different resources that they have — and they are remaining silent or not coming to the aid of those who are trapped in this open-air concentration camp, and who are being denied water and medicine, and who are being bombarded from the air, and most recently, as everyone is aware, have been asked to evacuate 1.1 or 1.2 million people in 24 hours, while the bombardment is still happening, and the roads are blocked, and there is barely any way to come out — while these things are happening, those that have economic power, those that have political power, if they remain silent, then we find it absolutely difficult to find any excuse for them on the Day of Judgment.

The Day of Judgment: Justice for the Oppressed

And that is why when we see all of these things happening, we have to remind ourselves that there is a يَوْمُ الدِّينِ and there is a مَالِكُ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ — the Master of the Day of Judgment. He is going to catch the zalimeen.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4686; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2583)

Allah will catch the zalim on the Day of Judgment. When it comes to the rights of Allah, there is one court about the rights of Allah — He will grant forgiveness in His court, and the majority of His creation He will forgive when they are not fulfilling His rights. But when it comes to the rights of each other, then Allah will ask those whose rights have been violated to come and take their justice.

If you look around us in the universe, we see subhanAllah — in the galaxies and all of the planets and all of the stars and constellations and the different solar systems — all of them, mashAllah, are in beautiful harmony. They are existing and all of the planets are orbiting. As Allah says:

All of these planets are swimming — يَسْبَحُونَ means to swim, meaning they are moving smoothly in their orbits. And there is a beautiful system of Allah. The one particular species that is out of sync and is creating all the corruption and fasad on the earth is the human beings.

And this is why the angels, when Allah destined to create Adam alayhis salam and brought him into existence, they asked Allah:

That, O Allah, are You creating such a creation that will spread corruption on the earth and they will be spilling the blood of innocent people? We are glorifying You, we are praising You, O Allah. So why are You creating this human being?

So Allah — He has His infinite wisdom that is beyond what we understand, and we can never reach the depth of His wisdom. He said right here at this juncture as well, as we see in Surah al-Baqarah:

That, verily I have the knowledge of that which you do not know. And I have a reason, a secret, a wisdom behind My actions which may be beyond your appreciation, beyond your understanding.

So this is the human action which is out of sync, in which there is so much dhulm happening, whereas the rest of the creation of Allah is following the tarteeb set by Allah. And now this human being — it is because Allah has given us that freedom. Allah has given us that option and has shown us both ways:

There are two ways open to us. He has shown us both ways. You can follow your nafs, follow the way of ingratitude to Allah, disobedience — or you can follow the way of shukr and being grateful to Allah. So those who are being ungrateful to Allah, those who are in fact beyond being ungrateful — doing dhulm, or being silent on that dhulm and being complicit with it — they are going to be questioned by Allah and there will be no way for them to escape.

Do Not Lose Faith: The Test of the Ummah

So when we see all of the dhalimeen continuing their dhulm unchecked, and we see the mazloom — that their du'as are going up and they are crying, and the help of Allah may not be coming instantly — this may become a faith crisis for individuals. People may end up losing hope.

We end up feeling — okay, where is the help of Allah? Where is Allah? But we have to realize that every single pain that those who are the mazloomeen are going through will become a means of forgiveness of sins, and after all the sins are forgiven, will become a means of elevation of their status. And it is not going unrecorded.

Likewise, those who are doing the dhulm — unless Allah grants them tawfiq to make tawbah — their dhulm is also being recorded, and they will be punished accordingly. There is a Day of Judgment.

This is the testing time. And the Day of Judgment is the time of thawab and iqab — the time of reward for those who are patient, the time of punishment for those who are the oppressors. And that day is coming:

The Day of Judgment is coming — there can be no doubt in it. So every person has a different test. The test of the one who has the power is not to commit the dhulm. For the one who is being mazloom, the test is that they make sabr at that time. Is that an easy test? It's definitely not an easy test. It is a very, very difficult test.

And we are not by any means — again, repeating this myself — we are not saying that we should just sit back, be complacent. "It's okay, hey, that's your test." But rather this is a way for us to cope with the magnitude of the suffering. And for us to not lose our own iman.

Realize that Allah has mentioned this repeatedly in the Qur'an:

Most definitely — with taqeed and emphasis — Allah says: Most definitely We will be testing you. With fear, and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and fruits. But give the glad tidings to those who remain patient — those who, when they are afflicted by these calamities, they say: إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ — to Allah we belong, towards Him we return. Upon them is the special mercy of Allah — they are the rightly guided ones.

In this case, by and large what we see — لَا نُزَكِّي عَلَى اللَّهِ أَحَدًا — we cannot declare anyone to be pure in the eyes of Allah, Allah knows best who is pure. But these people who are under the suffering, their iman is much, much, much higher than ours. And their level of sabr, their level of istiqama, and their level of iman, and their tawakkul on Allah reminds us of the era of the Sahaba and Tabi'un. And the statements that are coming out from them, and their determination — this is an inspiration for us.

And we have these minor little tests — and to say they pale in comparison is an injustice, that is absolutely not even significant. "Negligible" doesn't even exist, has no way can be mentioned in the same breath. We cannot mention our test versus theirs. And look at our pathetic condition — how we lose our faith, and how we lose our trust in Allah, and how we begin to be shaken in our convictions, and we lose all hope. Versus look at how strong these individuals are, how strong their iman is.

Active Responsibility: What We Must Do

This is one aspect that we have to cover, that we have to remind ourselves. And on the flip side, let us not remain silent and just say, "Hey, that's their test, let them deal with it." Na'udhu billah. Rather, we have to take all active means to speak up for justice. And we have to ensure that if we can write letters to the political leaders, if we can — in a legal manner — use whatever means available, if they are verified, approved ways of supporting them financially for those who are in need, making dua for them at the very least, then we must engage in this.

If we are on the opposite spectrum — because we are speaking to different spectrums — one was those who are completely overcome with grief, and that is what I was trying to remind them, and remind myself, that do not lose hope, this is a test from Allah, Allah will reward them. On the other hand, those whose life is continuing on without any feeling of pain, or any pinch of pain — then that is a very, very, very troublesome condition. We have to come out of that.

We have to realize that the Muslim Ummah — Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that we are supposed to be like one body. That if any one part of the body feels the pain, the whole body should be feeling that pain. How can we become so insensitive to the pain? May Allah allow our hard hearts to become soft.

Allah describes the condition of such hearts. He said:

Their hearts have become so hard — they are like rocks. Or even harder than rocks. Because some of the rocks are such from which the springs gush forth. And sometimes the avalanche occurs, and the stones and the boulders fall down from the mountaintops from the fear of Allah. So if there is no pain in our hearts, then we are in big trouble. This is the time for us to make muhasabah and see the condition of our heart. Do we feel the pain of our brothers and sisters or not? May Allah allow us to awaken to this reality.

Speaking with Non-Muslims: The Islamic Position on Civilian Life

And the last thing — as time is coming to an end — is when we interact with our colleagues at work, and with our children when they interact with non-Muslims in school. In this particular instance, it's a very complicated situation given all the different incidents that are happening on both sides. So what is the message that we should give?

We should unequivocally state that our deen of Islam, in a very, very clear, straightforward manner, has at all cost given the protection for civilian life — non-combatants — in any situation. So we can always make these blanket statements: that our deen of Islam, our shari'ah, our way of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — and not only theoretically, but practically implemented by the Sahaba, the Khulafa-e-Rashidun — in the glorious time of the Islamic Ummah, when they were actually following the deen, when they were implementing the deen, when their da'wah used to not be something theoretical but they would say كُونُوا مِثْلَنَا — become like us — because they were living the actual deen. At that time, all civilians were non-combatants, their lives were sacred.

We don't have to mention this side or that side, just give a blanket statement: all civilian non-combatant lives are sacred. And Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in his final Hajjatul Wada', his farewell sermon, reminded the crowd:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 67; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1679)

That your lives, your honor, your property of each other is sacred and must not be violated — just like the sacredness of this day, of the 9th of Dhul Hijjah, of Yawm Arafah, in this place of Arafah.

So the fact that there may be a war crime on one side does not justify a war crime on the other side. One war crime does not justify another war crime. We must always keep ourselves up to the highest moral standards. And Allah when He speaks about justice, He specifically speaks about this as well:

That when people commit dhulm against you, that is an opportunity where you may become so affected by the oppression you're facing that you may end up crossing the limits in response. So Allah says, even in the condition when you are being oppressed: be just. And we see that Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — how he manifested that in his noble seerah.

Warning Against Misinformation and Vigilantism

Likewise, we have to remind our youth: do not be passing around and sharing all the different information and these videos on social media. Many, many clips that are being circulated are completely fabricated. There are people who are using AI and all the latest technology to create fake information — intentionally creating misinformation campaigns on all sides, on all quarters. So we have to avoid this.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has taught us, the deen teaches us, the Qur'an teaches us:

That when somebody comes with news and brings a report to you, فَتَبَيَّنُوا — or فَتَثَبَّتُوا — make sure you research it, make sure you know what it is before you pass it on. In the past, people also — even with the best of intentions — would say, "We want to motivate people to do good deeds, motivate people towards a good ending, a good objective," and so they would fabricate narrations, create fake hadiths. That is absolutely haram. So likewise, people are creating fake videos, all kinds of fake information on Twitter, and WhatsApp, and all the different forms of media. We have to be aware of that and not transmit it.

And when we are speaking out against this, we have to make sure that we realize we are in such a situation right now that statements are being taken out of context. So we have to be very careful about our words. If you are speaking out against injustice, against the death of civilians, we have to speak about the death of civilians on all sides. Any such statement that may seem to go against the government's position on this automatically is being presented as you siding with terrorists.

Na'udhu billahi min al-zahir. We are not siding with any terrorist. We are against terrorism. We are against the unlawful killing of all civilians. This is the statement whenever we are speaking with people at work, with classmates at school. We have to keep on repeating the same thing: our deen is against the killing of civilians.

And lastly — which I do not necessarily need to mention, but just for the record — if some of our youth are so overcome by their feeling of helplessness and losing hope when they see all of these videos, we should not unnecessarily be watching acts of violence that are being committed. And if it is impacting us too much, to the point that someone wants to take the law into their own hands — so if there is someone in the crowd here who is thinking — na'udhu billah — about going and hurting someone, going and hurting some house of worship of different people, then realize: number one, how is that act going to help the victims? And how is that act going to help you? Or how is that act going to help the Muslim Ummah?

And whatever khair is happening here — for example in our madrasa, in Darussalam, in our institution, in our seminary, in the masjid here — there is so much khair that is happening. But if you as a lone wolf, one individual, goes and commits some act which you think, out of your desire of helping those who are in pain — you go and hurt someone, hurt a house of worship, or hurt some business that belongs to a certain religious group — what do you do? You are not just hurting yourself, you are not helping anyone, you are not helping those who are the victims, you are not helping yourself. In fact, you may end up harming the whole deen. You may end up harming the entire Ummah. You may end up harming the madrasa.

All the people who are reading the Qur'an and Sunnah, all the people who are coming and praying here — if that crime is somehow loosely associated, that you attended that mosque, or you listened to that lecture, or you came there one time — we are now living in the age of guilt by association. And then that ends up closing all the madrasas down, even though that is not what we preach. So I implore you on this day of Jumu'ah in the house of Allah, please think before you act in such a manner that will end up harming everyone and will not help anyone.

Channel Your Energy Toward Du'a and Positive Action

Rather, whatever emotional distress you are going through — that is the opportunity to cry in front of Allah. Cry in front of Allah and make tawbah. And say: O Allah, guide us, guide the leaders of the Muslim Ummah. And O Allah, this destruction that is happening is happening because of our own sins.

It is your own actions that bring upon you such rulers. (Attributed in various narrations of the scholars; cf. Ibn Abi Shaybah, Musannaf)

O Allah, please forgive us, forgive the entire Ummah, and make this an opportunity for us to come back on the straight path. So channel that energy towards dua, channel that energy towards protesting in a legal manner, and also towards humanitarian aid in a legal manner.

May Allah give us tawfeeq. May Allah unite the Muslim Ummah. May Allah make it easy for us to get through this crisis and make it a means of all of those who are suffering to enter the highest levels of Jannah. And may Allah never, ever, ever test us in this country in a like manner.

For our brothers in Gaza are so strong and we are so weak. We will never be able to last even a moment under such tests and trials. We are already failing the test of shukr — how will we ever dare to pass the test of sabr? So we ask Allah for His 'afiyah upon us and upon them and the entire Ummah.

Announcements

Those brothers who are in the back, please stand up, come closer, fill in the gaps. Let's perform Sunnah, inshAllah.

There is a request for du'as. Please — first of all, don't pass the donation boxes from the left to right. Please donate generously. Sadaqah wards off calamities, تَدْفَعُ الْبَلَاءَ, and draws the mercy of Allah. The sadaqah given on the day of Jumu'ah is more rewarding than any other day, as mentioned in the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

There is a request to please follow the parking rules. Do not park in the condos parking lot — people are parking there and we are receiving notices.

We have our Team Fajr programs tomorrow, Saturday after Fajr at 6:15 a.m. Tafseer of Surah Furqan on Tuesdays. Weekly Salawat and Khatir every Thursday after Isha. The community center has different sports activities on Tuesdays, Sundays, and throughout the week for men and women.

We also have the brothers and sisters from the Islamic Society of Addison. They are standing by the archway raising funds to purchase a property for a masjid at the crossroads of Lake Street and Route 53. Please donate to this worthy cause for this masjid and educational center, inshAllah.

And there is a request for dua — one of our students' father-in-law went to the hospital for spinal surgery and they are requesting du'as. May Allah bless the sick and the Muslims. May Allah have mercy on our dead and the Muslims.

Lastly, we have our 7th Annual Sira Conference beginning tonight after Isha, and tomorrow from Fajr till Isha. This is a great opportunity — it happens once a year. We should all attend, brothers and sisters, young and old, covering the different aspects of Rasulullah's life. We have two parallel conferences this year — all male speakers and female speakers, a whole lineup in parallel sessions. All our teachers at the madrasa, the alimat, will be addressing the sisters. So it's perfect, inshAllah, for all family members and their youth sessions as well. Please register for free on our website and attend starting from tonight.

Closing Du'a

O Allah, honor Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, grant victory to Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, protect Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, grant victory to our weakened brothers and sisters in Palestine. O Allah, make their feet firm. O Allah, grant them beautiful patience. O Allah, be with them as their Protector and Helper.