One of the things that we have heard from our tafsir last night as well is the importance of standing up for the rights of our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters wherever they may be.

It is a dictate of our iman that we have love and care and sympathy for one another. And that when anyone of us is going through pain, the other one feels that pain. And these past months have been a very important time for all of us to express that, to show what we're made of.

And those who are devout materialists, those who are devout worshipers of their own desires and their own beneficial things that benefit them in their dunya, then they do not differentiate between who is being killed, who is being tortured, whether it's a believer or non-believer. As long as their goals in life, their aspirations and their material gains are not dented, they don't have an issue with that. But on the other hand, the believer is the one who stands up for justice regardless of who the oppressed person is.

And most definitely, when the one who is being oppressed is a believer in لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ, then of course his pain is even more. He's like a body that feels the pain. When a portion of the body is in pain, the rest of the body — as Rasulullah ﷺ says — would stay awake, won't fall asleep, will have a fever due to the infection in a portion of the body.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6011; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2586)

The Crisis in Gaza and Our Response

So these past months have passed by with no seemingly end to the atrocities being committed in Gaza. What we have seen interestingly here is that there are people who are non-Muslims, who have repeatedly shown their commitment to justice many times more than we as Muslims have. I wasn't aware until it was happening — it was on Monday — that there were a bunch of protesters who had blocked off large portions of the highway leading up to O'Hare airport. And the entire terminal was blocked. And there was a massive traffic jam for many hours. And of course it made it to the news, international news.

I don't know who organized it. To my knowledge, there's no Islamic organization, no Muslim organization that did that. 50 people I was told have been arrested so far from those who did that protest. The Golden Gate Bridge as well, similarly, protesters went and blocked that in the recent past. Small efforts by even non-Muslims to show solidarity with the oppressed ones — that's all they're looking at.

On the other hand, us as believers — we don't have time to show solidarity with the oppressed ones. Not even, unfortunately, do we have time to show solidarity with oppressed Muslim people. This is where we have to question the strength of our faith and the strength of the commitment of our faith.

Ways to Show Our Commitment

There are so many ways we can show our commitment. One of course is to pray Salatul Hajah every night, giving sadaqa, reading Surah Yasin, begging Allah after every Salat for help, doing Qunut Nazilah after Salat in our Fajr prayer. These are many ways.

But from amongst those other ways beyond that is at least showing the world, and showing ourselves, and showing Allah that at least we tried to use whatever means were at our disposal. That is raising our voice wherever we can. SubhanAllah, as you may have heard in the past many weeks, the city of Chicago was one of the very few cities in the entire United States that called for a ceasefire.

Are people going to listen? Is the world going to listen? Who cares what Chicago says, right? But that's not the point. The point is you are sending a message to the people who live in Chicago that we are people who have a conscience. We are people who are alive and awake and alert. And we cannot simply watch a genocide happening while we stay silent, enjoying our homes, our comforts, our food, etc.

The Lesson of Bani Israel and the Sabbath

It reminds me of the nation of Bani Israel, when sin was being committed and the Israelites were going against the laws of the Sabbath and were fishing when they were not supposed to fish — coming up with a loophole, as you are well aware, that they would create a pool, a pond, where all the fish would come and a dam would be created. And so those fish would come there even on Saturday, would come and get locked up there. And then on Sunday, they'd easily pluck those fish from there.

The reason why Allah tested them is because Allah would make those fish specifically on Saturday float right on top. The rest of the week, you have to go find them. But on Saturday, Allah made them float right on top to test them — which actually happens many times in our own lives, that haram is just right there. You're like, man, I'm looking for halal. You have to go behind, behind, behind to find halal. Haram is right in front.

And you shouldn't say, "Oh, I guess Allah wants me to use haram." No, that is a test from Allah — that haram is much more accessible than halal at times — to see where your willpower is.

So they began to break the laws of the Sabbath. Allah talks about how certain people said, "We're not doing this," and they did their own thing — they were not involved in this treachery and breaking the orders of Allah. There were others who said, "We have to stop the people." But they replied, "They're not going to listen. They don't listen to us." So they were asked, "Well, why should you stop? What's the point of you talking when they're not going to listen?"

And the answer they gave was powerful:

"At least we have an excuse to present to Allah that we tried." I know what you're saying is right — they're probably not going to listen. But we have to at least try so we can share this with Allah that, "Ya Allah, we tried to stop them and yet they didn't take heed."

The Concept of مَعْذِرَةً إِلَىٰ رَبِّكُمْ

This is something we need to also remember — that there is a concept of مَعْذِرَةً إِلَىٰ رَبِّكُمْ where you at least show Allah that you tried, knowing very well that it might not have an effect. But what can you do? You can't just sit and watch as people get slaughtered. You have to stand up and do something.

So from amongst those ways is at least getting our local towns — where we have a massive presence of Muslim population — to hear us. Lombard, Glen Ellyn, Villa Park. Thousands of Muslims are in this district, thousands. Recently, I was told that in one of these districts — not even where we're at today, but next door in the Villa Park area — there are 16,000 Muslims in that district and only 3,000 registered voters.

So anytime the representatives of the Muslim community go and say something to the politicians, it's like, "You're not here." "What do you mean we're not here? We run all the businesses, we have all the professional offices, we're here — what are you talking about?" They say, "Well, let's look at the voter list," and there are only 2,000 or 3,000 registered. But we have 16,000 — that's a massive amount in one area, in one district. It's huge, percentage-wise. But the simple thing of taking 30 seconds to get yourself registered to vote is something we don't have time for. It just really speaks volumes of our level of commitment to the ummah.

The Hadith on Witnessing Sin

Right now, tomorrow — after repeated tries by a few extremely dedicated members of our community to get Glen Heights to vote on the Gaza crisis, to say this is a genocide and we call for a ceasefire — it's again not going to have an effect on the world. But it is simply to clear our conscience, that as a community, a strong Muslim population was able to get their non-Muslim neighbors to understand the extent of the atrocities. And a hadith of Nabi ﷺ just came to my mind:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4345)

Whenever a sin is committed on earth — whoever is present there and dislikes it will be treated as though he was never there. And whoever wasn't there but was pleased with that sin will be like the one who was present there.

Apply it over here. We're not there, we're here. But we are saying, "Ya Allah, we are opposed to what's happening. We hate what's happening." It will be like we are in the midst of that battle, insha'Allah. We'll be treated like that — as if we are in the midst of it, raising our hands saying, "This is wrong." We're not there right now, we're here, in the comfort of our homes, in the comfort of the luxurious lifestyles that Allah has blessed you and I with. But at least voicing our concern.

This, if done with sincerity, it's not going to impress the world — but it will impress Allah. It might not hold any weight in this world, but it will definitely hold weight in your book of deeds.

A Call to Action: Glen Heights Meeting

It took months and weeks of effort simply to get this issue on the agenda of the weekly meeting. It took a lot of effort by a few brothers. At last, tomorrow, this issue has come to the Glen Heights meeting — 7 PM. There's a meeting and this is part of the agenda.

Many Muslim brothers have shown up in the past few weeks. The response of the executive board is, "You guys are bussing in people." When we're not bussing in people — these are locals. But they say, "How come we've never seen you ever before? If you are here, how come we've never seen you present?" That's a legitimate question — against me and against all of us. Why are we not present? And why is it only one issue that we show up for? Why don't you care about sanitation? Why don't you care about the local schools? Why don't you care about taxes? Why don't you care about all the other things? It's true. We live here, we have to take care of our city.

So we should take this cause tomorrow. All those brothers in Glen Heights — we need to be present. Those in the local suburbs as well, those of you listening here — make sure you go, take your sons with you, take your daughters with you, let them see how this stuff works. And they're giving an opportunity for locals from that town to speak. Come prepared, share a few words.

Building a Long-Term Presence

Additionally, let's make this a resolution from our community — that insha'Allah, we will send a group of people every week by rotation. Your turn can come maybe once every six months, even once a year. But if we have at least five, ten Muslims, subhanAllah, in every meeting — you can sit there, you do your dhikr, you do your du'a, do whatever you want to do — but your presence means a lot. The fact that, hey, we are here. We're not just some little random people you can tell to shut up and we stay quiet.

Alhamdulillah, we are a group of very well-educated, well-to-do individuals who have a very good understanding of what is best for our community. And we will voice our opinion for the sake of the betterment of not just the Muslim community, but the general community. I have full faith in our community that, when given the ability, we can honestly lead in the best possible manner. We can have the best opinions, we can have the best foresight. Why? Because we are driven by the nur of iman. We are driven by the teachings of Allah and His Rasul ﷺ.

Nothing matches that. When you have that in place, the people in front of you will have their jaws dropping — "Where did you get this from? This is such an amazing point. Where did you get this point of view from?" Of course, wa la fakhri — we're getting it from Islam. Islam is the thing that has given us this viewpoint.

So I encourage myself and all of you here to please attend the Glen Heights meeting tomorrow at 7 o'clock at the civic center, at the courthouse. And insha'Allah, let's try our best to galvanize. Some of you can take a lead. I'm presenting this fiqh in front of you — some of you take the lead and say, "You know what, why don't we distribute from MSI, from Darussalam, from ICW and the other local masajid — and we have a group of people who will be present in these meetings every six months, every eight months, whatever it may be. A group of three to four people present in these meetings insha'Allah, who can study the agenda and voice our opinion on whatever is relevant."

We can make mashwara with others — "Hey, this is the issue at discussion this week. Have you got any thoughts on that?" Insha'Allah, if we can't change the world, at least we can make this community right around Darussalam and right around the other masajid a very loving, caring, favorable community for our generations.

Most of us are not planning to move, are we? Insha'Allah, we're planning to stay here. Our children are born here. Insha'Allah, our grandchildren will be born here. Why not settle down and really make this place a very beautiful place for our generations?

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ