The Muslim Ummah: A Single Body Feeling Each Other's Pain

Opening Praise and Supplication

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ، وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

Allah tabarak wa ta'ala says in His noble Book — after seeking refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan, in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

Sadaqallahul Azeem. And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 72)

I often feel that standing in this place is akin to being in a very precarious situation, especially in conditions like these. Different individuals have different thoughts and feelings and emotions, and everybody expects and wants to hear what they have in their mind. And if you don't say what they want to hear, then you have to hear it from them. You get complaints. "This is what you should have said." "Why did you say this?" "This is what needs to be said. Why didn't you say it?" "Why did you say that? That was wrong of you to say." And the mimbar is often looked to for guidance.

So we try our best. This is the goal. This is the idea — that what is spoken here is from Allah and His Rasul. And so I ask Allah ta'ala:

The Unity of the Ummah

I'm not here to give a news report. I'm not a news anchor. Alhamdulillah, everybody I believe knows exactly what's going on. Nor am I here to mention any history. For history also, mashallah, we have various different outlets that we can go to. Yes, certain things we'll mention. And we'll mention exactly what can be done — what can we do.

This kalima, لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ — Allah ta'ala put such barakah in it that anyone who says it, irrespective of color, ethnicity, race, background, country, language, it unites any two people who say it. You go to the Haram, you stand in front of the Baytullah, and you have hundreds and thousands of people passing in front of you. And when you look at them, you think to yourself, these are my brothers, these are my sisters. Why? Because they believe in one Allah. They believe in Rasulullah. They believe in the kalam of Allah. They recite the kalam of Allah.

And any individual who comes to you and sits with you — you may not even know what language he speaks, you can't understand him, and he doesn't understand you — but you say, السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ, and he responds, وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَام. Automatically, immediately, there's a bond.

That person who just accepted Islam and comes and says, لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ، أَشْهَدُ أَن لَّا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ — immediately, what do you do? You give him a hug. You say: you are my brother. I don't care what happened in the past. I don't care what you did in the past. You declared the oneness of Allah. You are now my brother.

The Ummah is One Body

And the Prophet ﷺ taught us that any brother, any sister of ours who is in any difficulty — the ummah, the whole collective ummah, the Muslims — they are like one body. If one part of the body aches, the rest of the body becomes restless. My head hurts. I can't sleep. I have pain in my knee or somewhere in my stomach — how am I going to sleep? How are my eyes going to get rest? The body feels the pain.

And so with the current situation that is there, our heart aches. And it should ache. There may be those — some of us may be so engrossed within our day-to-day lives — that perhaps we just open the news, we just read some information, and then we just continue. No, that's not how a believer is. When he sees that his Muslim brother or sister is in any difficulty, he feels the pain for it. He feels the pain for it.

And then at the same time, he's not rash either. He has full control — full control over his thoughts, his emotions, his actions. He knows exactly what should be done. And if he doesn't, then he consults.

You consult. You ask.

Ask those who know. Ask those of remembrance if you don't know.

The Call to Turn Back to Allah

And during these types of situations and circumstances, as I said, everyone has their own idea. "We should be doing this." "This is what the Muslim Ummah has to be doing." "Or if only the Muslim Ummah had done this, then this situation wouldn't have come." "Why didn't we do this? We need to do this. We need to do that." And seldom do we say: we need to turn back to Allah. Seldom do we say, we need to make du'a. Seldom do we say, we need to pray more salah. Seldom do we say, we need to change ourselves. Seldom do we say, I need to make istighfar. Seldom do we say, I need to make tawbah.

And when someone does say, "Yes, ayyuhal ikhwah, we need to be making du'a, we need to do ruju' ilallah, we need to turn towards Allah, we need to ask Allah, we need to increase our ibadah, we need to change ourselves, we need to stay away from sins, we need to stay away from zina, we need to stay away from shurbul khamar, we need to stay away from such-and-such actions that we are involved in, we need to change our lives" — you say, "What are you talking about? There is no correlation between these two things."

No. There is a correlation. There is a cause and effect. We are servants of Allah. Allah has the power.

To Allah belongs the storehouses of treasures. He could give from whatever He wants, to whoever He wants, whenever He wants. Yet our attention is always everywhere else. We will go first to everyone and everything — every plan and every what-not — and we'll go last to Allah ta'ala.

The believer — his sha'n, his nature, his iman — dictates that the first one I turn to is Allah. And if I need help, if I'm in difficulty, or if anyone is in difficulty, anyone needs help, we say:

To Allah belongs the armies of the heavens and the earth. But seldom do we turn to Allah.

I urge — أيُّهَا الْإِخْوَةُ، أيُّهَا الْمُسْلِمُونَ — that du'a to Allah, ruju' to Allah: do not underestimate it. Do not ever underestimate it.

Call upon Allah. Ask Allah ta'ala. Beg Allah. Whatever we're going through, whatever our community is experiencing — it is heartbreaking, it is painful.

We have to make these clarifications too, just in case someone tries to twist our words: no, we do not support any terrorist organization. No, we do not support anyone who does anything that is unlawful. But we turn towards Allah. What we have is du'a. What we have is salah. And we seldom use it.

In these moments — these are precisely the moments when the ummah, if the whole ummah turns towards Allah and draws the mercy of Allah — you have no idea what Allah can do. The power of Allah:

Do we not believe that? Do we not have faith in that? Do we not have faith in وَلِلَّهِ خَزَائِنُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ? Do we not have faith in وَلِلَّهِ جُنُودُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ?

The Power of Du'a and Waking at Night

So the first thing I mention here is the power of du'a and ibadah. It is time that we turn to Allah. These are situations where it should wake a person up in the middle of the night to beg Allah. It comes in one of the narrations that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that the person who wakes up in the middle of the night and says:

— or he makes wudu and prays salah — his du'a will be answered. His du'a will be answered.

In other ahadith it comes that when that Muslim, when that mu'min makes du'a for his brother, Allah ta'ala accepts that du'a. Now the question that comes: how is that du'a going to be accepted? When is it going to be accepted? That's not for you and me to decide. It comes in one hadith — the Prophet ﷺ says that when a person makes a du'a, اسْتُجِيبَ — it gets accepted. But do not do ta'ajjul — do not hasten. So the Sahaba asked: what does it mean to hasten? So the Nabi ﷺ said: to hasten means that you made du'a and then you say, يَا اللَّهُ لَمْ تَسْتَجِبْ — "You didn't accept my du'a!" — that is hastening. How and when Allah ta'ala wants to accept a du'a, that is up to Allah. You and I — our first and foremost responsibility is to turn to Allah.

That's why whenever anything ever happens — any difficulty, any calamity that befalls — what has been taught to the ummah?

The Story of Umm Salama

Umm Salama radiyallahu anha mentions that when her husband, Abu Salama radiyallahu anhu, passed away — he was among those Sahaba who accepted Islam early on, in the Meccan period, who went through all kinds of difficulty, who had to migrate — when he passed away, she thought to herself: there is no one who could replace Abu Salama. But she remembered that the Prophet ﷺ taught that whenever anybody finds themselves in any difficulty and says إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ, Allah will give them a badal — Allah ta'ala will give them better. And she said: I said this, and soon afterwards the proposal came from the Prophet ﷺ, and I was married to the Prophet ﷺ.

But what is the reminder here? إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ — to Allah we belong, to Allah we return. That should be our motto. That should be our slogan. That's what we need to remind ourselves of.

Compassion for All of Humanity

And in these situations, yes, we don't turn a blind eye. We don't look at this and say, "Inshallah," and downplay it. Nor should we downplay it, nor are we downplaying it. 1.1 million innocent individuals — men, women, children — who say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — displaced, in difficulty, some killed.

In fact, I say — whether it's a Muslim community or even a non-Muslim community — the mu'min has such shafaqah and such rahmah:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4941; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1924)

Those who show compassion, who show mercy to those on the earth — the Rahman, the greatest being who is full of compassion and mercy, will show mercy to them. Those who show mercy to the people of the earth — the One in the heavens will show mercy on them. So whenever we see something like this, whether it's a Muslim or non-Muslim community, our hearts should ache. A human life — is it worth nothing? And for us, yes — it's not just a human life, it is the life of a brother, the life of a sister.

So it pains us. But as I said, these are the moments we have to wake up and we have to do ruju' ilallah. Our a'mal must change. You'll find all kinds of slogans mentioned, but الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ — this one we will leave out. This one we will leave out.

Sincere Repentance and Istighfar

So I urge our community: this is a moment for us to change ourselves and make du'a to Allah. To make sincere du'a, sincere repentance.

In the Quran, Allah ta'ala mentions:

Allah will not punish them so long as you, O Muhammad ﷺ, are among them. And nor will Allah punish them so long as they are involved in istighfar. This is our time to do istighfar.

We don't know — we have no idea — what circumstances, what situations are going to befall the ummah in the upcoming days. We have no idea. We may be thinking that these things are happening over there and we are here — alhamdulillah, this is a ni'mah from Allah for those of us who are here, that we are in aman, we are in a state of security. But we have no idea what can happen.

So we make du'a, we continuously make du'a for those of our brothers wherever they may be in the world, and especially right now in Palestine. We make special du'a to Allah ta'ala:

And we make that du'a from the bottom of our hearts. It should wake us up in the middle of the night. We should stand in prayer to Allah and make this du'a. We should be crying.

Practical Guidance: Consult Before You Act

And I also caution — I caution that we be very careful and that we consult. If we are making any decision, we consult. Many individuals may want to, for example, donate, want to help. But be very careful. Be very careful. We don't know what type of traps could be out there. If a person does want to donate, I would suggest — in fact, I say it is incumbent — that you first consult with a legal counselor. You don't want to put yourself in any difficulty, nor do you want to put the community in any difficulty, nor do you want to put the ummah in any difficulty. So whatever actions a person is thinking of, consult, consult.

Yes, some things that we could do. As I said, first and foremost, ruju' ilallah — I cannot stress this enough. Do not underestimate it. Do not underestimate du'a. Do not underestimate ruju' ilallah. And yes, write. Write to those who are elected officials — they have been elected by us. So we write to them. A written letter is better than an email. If we can't write a written letter, okay, fine — email. But anything else that we want to do: consult, consult, consult.

If you are not sure. But these two things, definitely — number one: there should be pain in our heart. There should be pain in our heart. And number two: ruju' ilallah. Cannot stress that enough, ayyuhal ikhwah. Ruju' ilallah.

Closing: Leave Our Sins, Return to Allah

Our time in this world is already very, very short. But as long as we are on this earth, we are obligated by the ahkam of Allah. And we will try to fulfill the ahkam of Allah ta'ala as He wishes, as best as we can. And as I said, it is time. It is time that we leave our sins — whatever they may be — and turn towards Allah in du'a, in prayer. That's where a person should be striving.

May Allah grant our community, the Muslim community at large, assistance. May Allah grant us 'afiyah. This is another du'a that the Prophet ﷺ taught us:

Announcements

A couple of announcements. I ask if everyone can move ahead — if there is any empty spot, please fill that. Please pass the donation box from left to right. Donate generously. Sadaqah wards off calamity. There is no curb parking. Do not park on the curbs behind the seminary building or the Swift Highway. We have additional parking space in the used lot. Please do not park in the condos parking lot either.

Tonight, we have our 7th Annual Sira Conference beginning. The theme of this conference is the Mu'jizat of the Prophet ﷺ. The community and students — many have been reciting salawat 'ala al-Nabi. In fact, earlier, right before the Jumu'ah prayer, the students gathered together and recited salawat on the Prophet ﷺ as well. The goal was 25 million salawat. Tomorrow, during the program, we will make du'a especially for the brothers and sisters who are desperately in need. This year's theme of the conference will be the Mu'jizat of the Prophet ﷺ — the various miracles, ranging from number one, the Quran, and then many, many other different types of Mu'jizat.

Join us for our weekly programs. We have Team Fajr on Saturday — Fajr Iqama is at 6:15. Tafsir of Surah Furqan will continue on Tuesday after Isha Salat — Iqama is 7:45pm. Weekly Salawat and Khatirah is every Thursday after Isha prayer.

We have Dar ul-Salam Community Center programs: Tuesday — Women's Basketball, 7–9pm. Sunday — Women's Badminton, 8–10pm. Sunday — Women's Volleyball, 6–8pm. Wednesday — Men's Volleyball, 8–10pm. Thursday — Men's Basketball, 8–10pm.

Also, brothers and sisters from the Islamic Society of Addison are standing by the archway entrance, raising funds to purchase a property near the crossroads of Lake Street and Route 53 for a new Masjid and Educational Center in Addison. Please consider contributing to their cause — whatever we are able to do, inshallah.

Jazakumullah Khayral Jaza'. We humbly request and encourage all brothers and sisters to join us tonight and please spread the word amongst your family and friends. On your way out, we have our salawat cards for the 25 million salawat goal that we are trying to reach. Kindly please pick up a few cards and spread the word amongst your family and friends. Jazakum Allahu Khayran.