What's Your False Sense of Security?

What's Your False Sense of Security?

To unconditionally obeyed except for Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in their blessed path until the Day of Judgment. Allahumma ameen.

The Man Who Lost His House in Zone C

Dear brothers and sisters, there was a brother that was recounting to me a story about a house that was being built in what is known as Zone C in the West Bank of Palestine. May Allah free the entirety of Palestine. Allahumma ameen.

For those of you that are not familiar — obviously our attention has been turned towards Gaza in the wake of this genocide — and one of the most nefarious elements of the propaganda that has perpetuated this genocide is to separate Gaza from the entire cause of Palestine. And of course, it's not just hanging the carrot over the head of some so-called two-state solution while there is a continued settlement expansion into Palestinian territory. But most Muslims, most people, are not actually literate or educated about the way that this expansion of this colonial entity has functioned over the last few decades.

If you look at what's known as the West Bank today, they have Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C — and you can read about it from the human rights organizations. There is not a single zone in which people have their full self-determination or people have their full rights being realized. But Zone C, which makes up 60% of the West Bank today, is where the rights of people are even more restricted relative to those outside of Zone C.

This brother was sharing something truly insightful. He said, you know, you work your entire life to build this house — and just like every single one of us, you work your whole life to be able to put a house up, or to purchase your first car, or to give your kids an education, whatever it may be. But it takes longer obviously when you don't live in an affluent state. You work your whole life to be able to construct this house, and because you're in Zone C, at any moment literally settlers can just walk in, boot you out of it, or it can be demolished because someone in your neighborhood angered the wrong person, or your oppressor just felt like it.

And I want you to think about this conditioning. In his situation, his house was destroyed very quickly. So imagine working decades to build your house — and forget about an insurance plan, you don't even have citizenship. You don't have an identity. There is absolutely no sense of security in that state, and your house is destroyed.

A brother was really in awe of just the contentment that he seemed to have. Can you imagine one of us in that state? You work 60 years to get your first family home for your entire family — generations — the happiness and the joy when you walk in. And then your oppressor just feels like walking into it and demolishes it. And they can spit in your face — figuratively, literally — while doing it, and you have absolutely no legal recourse. How angry, frustrated, and jaded would you be?

But he was so content. And what was his answer? And of course this should not detract from the monstrosity of this political situation — may Allah end it, allahumma ameen — but what was his answer, as a man of faith, with that smile on his face and that contentment? He said, "You know what, in this area, we all have the expectation that while we are building our homes, at any moment they could be destroyed. And so we don't get so attached."

That's the answer of a wali of Allah. That's the answer of a friend of God, of someone who actually understands that — guess what — it's not just that area, that Zone C. The entire dunya is actually Zone C. The entire world is actually Zone C. It's just that we operate under an illusion that our houses are somehow more secure, and that we have an entitlement. And whether we like it or not, we buy into this idea, this framework, this global framework, that if you live in a certain part of the world or you hold a certain document, you're more entitled to safety and security and rights than other people. We benefit from that living in the United States of America. But the whole world is actually Zone C.

And the way that that man approached it is actually incredible, because in reality he is not a slave to his home — whereas so many of us become enslaved to our possessions, to the things that we think we occupy, to the things that we think we own.

The Wedding in the Refugee Camp

I was looking at a couple in Gaza — and you might have seen the weddings in the refugee camp. I was watching it and I couldn't stop watching it. And it was, to be honest with you, a welcome break from the beheaded children, from these bombs. And I'm looking at them forcing a smile on their face, and they still have that buzz of the drone right over them. And you know that at any point that drone could be an airstrike. What is the chance of you even living to see the next day? Forget about living to see the next stage of your wedding, your honeymoon, or having your first child. What do you actually look forward to?

But subhanAllah, they put the camera on the young man and he had the most beautiful smile on his face — the smile of a groom that you would have in any other place in the world. And he said that we in Gaza have always lived in prison. It's just that the prison guards have become more violent. We were never operating under the illusion that we are free. We were never operating under the illusion that we have another day to look forward to, or another moment to look forward to.

That's an indictment of the rest of us. But it shows you that that mindset has given them something — they don't operate with the false sense of security that so many of us do.

The Murder of Aysha Noor and the Illusion of the Passport

We just witnessed the tragedy of the murder of an American Muslim, Aysha Noor — may Allah have mercy on her. By the way, she died coming out of Jumu'ah. She was murdered coming out of Jumu'ah in Palestine last week. May Allah accept her as a shaheed, forgive her for all of her shortcomings, and may Allah elevate her. Allahumma ameen.

Now, her blood is not more precious than every other Palestinian that has been martyred in this genocide. But I want you to think about this: for how long have those of us who have that American passport — and I actually thought about bringing my American passport and holding it up in front of you — for how long have we operated under this illusion that this document gives us any real source of security or protection? Because the reality is that if you're an American, Israel can kill you, and America will fund the murder, then defend the murder, and make sure there are no consequences for the murder.

Maybe that document wasn't what you thought it was. Maybe that citizenship wasn't what you thought it was. The idea of free speech, the securitization under every single administration — especially George Bush onwards — the government has been shutting down organizations, targeting individuals. "I've got my American passport." It means nothing when they actually start to target you. But there is this illusion of freedom, this illusion of security, that we have with that oh-so-treasured document.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't use every single legal instrument to insist on the full rights of being an American citizen if we have that passport, and then use it for the benefit of those who undoubtedly collectively are in a worse situation. But what it does mean is — you know what — a little bit of that security has been shaken. Maybe I'm not as protected as I thought I was. Because this government has directly droned and killed Americans, has directly bombed Americans, and is in an ongoing fashion defending the murder of Americans overseas.

Maybe it doesn't mean what I thought it meant. And you know what? Alhamdulillah — that's good. Let it break the illusion. Let it break that sense of security that we have. It doesn't mean it's not a monstrosity — what happened to our sister — and that we shouldn't continue to insist, once again, on putting them to the test of their own citizenship, this paper when it was granted to us. But at the same time, spiritually, maybe it's a good thing that we start to say: you know what, maybe this passport wasn't worth what I thought it was worth.

American Muslim Exceptionalism

Perhaps, dear brothers and sisters, our American Muslim calculations — our politics over the last two decades — have become a little bit too much about securing the interests of American Muslims only. Maybe even to the detriment of Islam and the Muslim world and humanity. Maybe it's become too much about us securing our cut out here.

You listen to the rhetoric about this election — and no, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for from the minbar, use your own sense and your own fitra and your own moral conscience — but you listen to the calculations and the rhetoric, and you think about what that means and what is embedded in what we are saying. Maybe it's become too much about making sure that my kids can live at home in safety, my kids can go to school in safety — which I want so badly, I want that for them — but maybe our political calculus has become shifted. And maybe it's a little bit of humble pie for us to say: maybe you shouldn't be thinking too much about this and you should be thinking a little bit broader.

Because when we talk about American exceptionalism — which has shown itself in America's foreign policy to the detriment of the rest of the world — maybe there's American Muslim exceptionalism as well, where we've only been thinking about ourselves as an American Muslim community. And perhaps we need to broaden that framework to think about more than ourselves.

Where Should Our True Security Come From?

I want to bring this to something personal and spiritual, though — this wasn't intended to be a political khutbah. What is the sense of security that we're supposed to have?

Allah says:

Do you feel safe — when you look up and the sky seems okay — that the earth will not swallow you? Or do you feel safe when you are on stable ground and you look up to the sky that the sky will not rain down upon you that which will cause you pain?

There is a problem — a spiritual problem — fundamentally behind this: where we put our sense of safety and our security in other than Allah.

Category One: Feeling Safe From Allah's Plan — The Tyrant's Mistake

There are two categories that we have from this. The first one is feeling safe from Allah's plan — if you are an oppressor. Allah mentions to us about the tyrants:

They thought their fortresses would protect them from Allah. You could build every single structure in the world — if you are an oppressor, your day will come to you. You could build every physical structure in the world, every political structure in the world — if you are an oppressor, your day will come from Allah. And Allah says:

And this is powerful — that Allah would let it come to them from a place they never even expected. They didn't even make that calculation when they were thinking about how to fortify themselves. If you are an oppressor, do not feel safe from the plan of Allah.

Category Two: Feeling Safe In Allah's Plan — The Believer's Challenge

If you're not an oppressor — may Allah never let us be oppressors to anybody — then you also need to learn to feel safe in Allah's plan. And this is where Umar رضي الله تعالى عنه mentioned the fitna of the sword of Khalid رضي الله تعالى عنه — that the Muslims, who are righteous people, might have started to assign too much to the sword of Khalid rather than the power of Allah. And Umar رضي الله عنه said: I'm worried about that.

"They might become entrusted to a sword rather than the Lord of the heavens and the earth." Entrusted to a political power, entrusted to some sort of military might, entrusted to a skill set — and that's dangerous. You could be entrusted to what you find your dependency on.

That's not just speaking about military power and force. If your tawakkul is in your job, Allah might relinquish you to your job. If your tawakkul is in your own abilities and your own speech and your own cognizance and whatever it may be, Allah might entrust you to those things. If you seek security from those things, Allah might allow you to actually try to gain your security from those things. If you seek it in your abilities, Allah might entrust you to your abilities. If you have certain standards of beauty and acceptance and maybe you're living up to those standards right now — Allah might entrust you to those things and they'll never be enough for you, and eventually it comes crumbling down.

So it's also about feeling safe in the plan of Allah — that no matter what you do, no matter what means you take, no matter what you possess, your true faith and your true sense of security lies only in Allah.

The Hijrah: Tying Your Camel While Trusting in Allah

When we look at the hijrah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — the migration from Mecca to Medina — it's often used as a primary example to say iqal wa tawakkal: the very famous hadith to tie your camel and then put your trust in Allah. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم indeed tied his camel and he put his trust in Allah. He crafted out a path for himself. He tried to escape his persecutors in every single way. He did his due diligence.

But Ibn Abbas رضي الله تعالى عنه says:

(Reported from Ibn Abbas, referenced in various books of seerah and tafsir)

When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم left from Mecca to Medina, he left fearing no one but his Lord, and he prayed his two rak'ahs, and then he made his way.

Meaning what? It wasn't the plan that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم put his trust in. That's not where he was deriving his sense of confidence and certainty. He was deriving it from his prayer — while still doing his part to properly plan. But his sense of security, his sense of safety, did not come from that.

Meaning: when I leave my home, I take my precautions, I do what I have to do to protect myself. But my real comfort is when I leave my home and I say:

I put my trust in Allah — that's where the confidence actually comes from. It's not looking around to make sure I've got this all covered, looking over my shoulder properly. Where does your confidence and your sense of security actually come from?

And so there is no contradiction between al-'aql and tawakkul. And Allah says:

Whoever puts their trust in Allah, Allah will be enough for them.

Seven Practical Ways to Gain Security Through Allah

So I want to end on a practical note. There are seven ways that I'll just put forward — just for us to think about — because we might think to ourselves: where do we go from here? What does it mean? How do I actually start to spiritually gain a sense of security and safety from Allah rather than these other things? Because we're human beings at the end of the day. We naturally incline towards what feels very material in our hands, the people or the positions that we can cling to when we find ourselves in trouble.

And I want to remind you all:

To Allah belongs the affair before and after. When Allah talks to Nuh عليه السلام and his son — when the son says, "I'll go to the mountain to protect me from the water" — Nuh says to him:

There is no protection from the affair of Allah. It remains the affair of Allah before and after — not just after Allah gives you victory, but before as well. It remains the plan of Allah.

1. Recite the Du'as and Adhkar That Deal with the Removal of Anxiety

Recite the prayers and supplications specifically that deal with the removal of anxiety. On a regular basis:

Oh Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety and from grief. Recite those du'as regularly and do not relinquish them, and think about what you're saying when you make those du'as.

2. Take Your Concerns to Your Prayer

Make your prayer a source of resolve. If you don't bring those insecurities into your salah, then you're not going to develop the resolve from your salah to be able to deal with them. So bring them into your du'as. Ask Allah in your salah, in your sujood, to resolve those for you.

3. Cover Your Bases So You Don't Have Regrets

Cover your bases so that you don't have regrets later on about your own holes. Why? Because if you did your best and it still didn't go according to plan, at least you feel assured in knowing that Allah's plan overtook you for a greater reward.

4. Take Inspiration from Those Who Have Less Yet Find More Security

When you feel like you're losing resolve, look at the people in Gaza and be inspired by their resilience — just as you are motivated and angered by the atrocity that's been committed against them.

5. Have People Around You Who Can Still See Clearly

Have people assure you that can clearly still see without believing that everything is falling apart — that can affirm you in the midst of your tragedy from a clear-headed perspective. That's not the same as someone affirming you in your sin, but instead someone affirming you with Allah's greater plan. You need to have those voices. Keep yourself patient with people that aren't in the midst of your insecurity or your anxiety perhaps, and they can give you words of encouragement and resolve.

6. Be a Source of Safety to Others

Be a source of safety to others that have less than you, because by being a source to others, Allah will increase you in your own, and your focus will remain on things that are greater than yourself. And that's subhanAllah the blessing of constantly thinking about the ummah — because when you're constantly thinking about the ummah, you think less about yourself. It puts your personal issues in perspective constantly, automatically, subconsciously.

7. Remember That the Loss of Safety Is Like the Loss of Every Other Blessing

If a person bears it with patience, they will find its reward in the hereafter. So when Allah says: "I do not combine for My servants two feelings of fear or two feelings of safety" — if you feared Allah here, you will not fear Him there. If you felt secure from His plan here, then you will not feel secure from it over there.

Closing: Allah Provides from Where You Never Expected

May Allah grant us safety and security. And my last reminder, dear brothers and sisters — just like Allah can take away in a way that you would have never expected, He can also provide for you in a way that you would have never expected.

Just as Allah brought the punishment to the tyrants who hide behind their fortresses from places they would have never expected — Allah also says in regards to relief:

Allah will provide for you from places you never expected. Allah will punish them from places they never expected. Allah will provide for you from places that you never expected.

May Allah grant us and our brothers and sisters — the weak ones and the oppressed ones all over the world — safety and security, and make us a means of that for them as well. Allahumma ameen.