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Shaykh Omar Suleiman - "Strategy & Support for the Palestinian Struggle"

Opening and Greetings

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. That sounds exactly what I would expect the salam to sound. As-salamu alaykum.

Wa alaykum as-salam. MashaAllah, that sounds like a crowd that just heard Imam Zaid Shakir. Allahu Akbar.

Acknowledgments and Gratitude

I want to say jazakumullahu khayran to Dr. Farah, to Sheikh Yasir, to Imam Zaid. Those beautiful words and everyone that has brought us together today. And reignited in us a spirit.

That connects us to our Creator. And connects us to all that our Creator has made sacred. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless all of the volunteers. Our sign language interpreters over there, mashaAllah. And I ask Allah to make all of the du'as that have been said here. A means by which the people of Palestine find relief.

Allahumma ameen. I want you to think about how many times a du'a for Palestine was made. With all of you here saying ameen. If only 10% of the people were sincere when they said ameen. Then biidhnillahi ta'ala will be a source of relief. And a source of victory for them.

The Teachers and The Taught

Dear brothers and sisters. Often times as we've been speaking in these last few months. About what's been happening. We have reminded ourselves. And reminded those around us. That they are not our teachers.

And when we say they are not our teachers. We are of course speaking about the forces of evil. That Imam Zayd just named and shamed. The forces of evil that have shown exactly. What their lack of a moral compass makes them capable of doing. But we also have to come back to.

The people of Gaza are our teachers. The people of Palestine are our teachers.

Heroes of Resilience

Now earlier today. When we spoke about the evolution of Islamophobia. And the extension that Zionism provides to Islamophobia. We spoke about this idea of the people of Palestine leading with their resilience.

And we've spoken about how they are a people who cannot be bullied into submission. But I want to actually take a step back. And realize that just as our heroes are Alam Khaled. The soul of our soul. Who brought so much to our souls around the world. I want to actually speak about another group of heroes.

That are also in Palestine. That are cut from the same cloth. That share the same hearts. That not only cannot be bullied into submission. But they can't be bought into silence. And how they too are our teachers.

The Story of Khan Abu Khadija

I want to speak about a man who owns a cafe in Al-Quds in Jerusalem. Khan Abu Khadija. Al-Am Abu Khadija. Who owns a bakery in Jerusalem. Where they have sent buyers to him to purchase his bakery in Jerusalem. So that they could dig under it.

First they offered him 10 million dollars. Then they made it 30 million. And eventually they offered a man in Jerusalem. A Palestinian man in Jerusalem. 40 million dollars. To give up that small piece of land. So that they could carry out their nefarious aims.

The people of Palestine cannot be bullied into submission. Nor can they be bought into silence. And that man is just as much a hero. And the people like him are just as much of heroes as all of them. Because they teach us what it means to be connected to Allah. And connected to our principles. In a state of ease and in a state of hardship. And that he who truly has Allah needs no one else.

Personal Connection to Palestine

You know I often honor my mother. May Allah have mercy on her. May Hashim. Who spoke the words,

"That we as a people of Palestine are rooted in Palestine. We have grown all over the land. But our origin is the land of Palestine." Allahu Akbar.

I wanna honor tonight as well my father, Dr. Ahmed Suleiman Al Uda, who will tell you very proudly, I am older than Israel. My father, in fact, can I ask everyone who was born in Palestine to stand up for me? MashaAllah. My father was born five years before Israel.

We still have land there. And subhanAllah, over the last few years, we've noticed the suspicious attempt to purchase that land. I have land in Palestine that I've never actually been able to access. I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow all of us to access our Palestine and our Quds without restriction. Allahumma ameen.

And interestingly enough, every few months he gets a phone call from his family who still lives there, in Tulkarem. And they say that some buyers have come. And they're interestingly from a specific Muslim country that I'm not going to name. But some of you fly their airlines way too much.

The Prophetic Foundation

And some of you go there for vacations way too much. But they show up, and they come to Palestinians on behalf of the Israelis to purchase land. And they keep upping the price.

And I want you to think about the mindset of a person that lives in Palestine. When people come to you and say, I will give you seven, eight million dollars for a dunam. I don't even know what to translate that as a metric. An acre of land. A little bit of land, and I will make your life. And they tell them in no unambiguous terms to go to hell.

Because they know exactly who they are, and who they work for, and who they're trying to purchase on behalf of. Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to think about the words that were then spoken by our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and given to us that represent this reality as a whole. Allah جل وعز gave to us language that speaks to a prophetic reality.

Things that represented the reality of the heart of the beloved Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. Things that we could resort to when we face the cruelty that we are facing today. And the motto of the people of Gaza and the motto of this ummah is

"Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best of protectors."

The Prophet's Example in Mecca

Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to think about the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in Mecca. Where they came to the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم as Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه says, and they said to the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم"Look, we'll make a deal. You worship our gods one year and we will worship your god one year."

They wish you would compromise on your principles because they will happily compromise because they are morally bankrupt people.

And it is then that Allah Azawajal revealed

until the end of the surah, that there is no compromise on something as core as tawheed, on who we are, on what nurtures us.

Dear brothers and sisters, that is

When they go to the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم in desperation and they say to the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلمhere is a sweet deal for you. Here is a sweet deal for you. Everything you want in Mecca and all this vulnerability will go away.

And the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم feared Allah Azawajal. And Allah made a way out for him. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala provided for him from places he never expected. And Allah gave him something far more valuable than what Quraysh offered him.

The Ummah Allah Granted

Allah gave the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and gave us by extension an ummah like Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali, an ummah of Khadijahs and Aishahs, an ummah of Talhahs and Zubayrs, an ummah of people that are built differently, an ummah of Bilals and Khabbabs, an ummah of Ibn Aus, an ummah of people that are connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and do not lose their clarity.

Not due to bribes or due to beatings. That do not lose their moral compass. When people offer them more comfort or when people take everything away from them.

The People of Palestine: Manifest Upon Truth

I want you to go back to the people of Gaza, our teachers. The people of Palestine, our teachers for a moment. And how the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم described them. The very first way he described them. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. I wanna hear you say, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Allahumma salli wa sallam wa baraka wa nabina Muhammad. The very first way he described them.

"They are manifest upon truth." They are upon the truth. And because they are upon the truth, they drive their enemies crazy.

They are not moved or shaken by those who betray them, nor those who wage war on them. Because they have the truth.

حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ The Meaning of

And I want us to stick with this for a moment. What does حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلٌ mean?

"Those who when it is said to them, the people have gathered against you, fear them. It increases them in iman. And they say, Allah is sufficient for us and He's the best of our protectors."

Those words that are said, when they say to them that the odds are stacked against you, fear them. Represents the same reality that they manifest when it is said to them that you can have everything that you want, just follow them.

Because it's a reality of a people that are connected to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that are connected to the truth, and nothing can take that away from them. And when that reality is realized

They return back. With what? With the blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. With His bounty. Unharmed, completely unharmed. And they pursue the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

They are a people who sought the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah azawajal rewards them not just by removing the harm, but rewards them with manifest victory, and rewards them with His pleasure. Because they cannot be bribed, nor can they be beaten. They cannot be bought, nor can they be bullied.

Lessons for the Muslim Community

They are our teachers, now let's turn it back towards us. What have we learned after Palestine? What have we learned from the people of Gaza? What have we learned as Muslims living in Canada and the United States, about what it means to say

? How do we manifest that reality in such a way that you cannot be bribed, and you cannot be bought.

What do we learn about being a people of basira, a people of clarity, no matter what happens? What we learned, dear brothers and sisters, is that so long as we remain upon the truth that they are upon, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give us victory in ways that we may not have planned, from places that we may not have expected, against all of our strategies or in spite of them, so long as our clarity is not ruptured.

Staying Committed to Truth

And when we look at ourselves right now, we debate what our strategies are going to be. What does it mean for us to be Muslims here in Canada? What does it mean for us to be Muslims here in the United States? The very first thing that we have to assess in ourselves, is whether or not we are staying committed to the truth without compromise.

Can you still speak the truth? I don't care if we have differences in political strategy. But if your political strategy silences you, or doesn't allow you to speak the truth about your religion, or the truth about Palestine. If your political strategy causes you to both sides this issue, or turn the Palestinians into the authors of their own destruction.

If your political strategy causes you to use words like conflict, and to be hesitant to say genocide, or end the occupation. If your political strategy causes you to hold your tongue back from calling Zionism what it is, and calling the evil apartheid state of Israel what it is. Your political strategy is a bankrupt one, and it has nothing to do with this deen.

The Masks Falling

And as we're looking at al-Fadhiha, the masks falling. Ahl al-Ghazza,

. They are not deterred by those who have betrayed them.

And subhanallah, indeed they have been betrayed. We would have never thought that we would be seeing such manifest betrayal of a people so manifestly on the truth. As we look at the people of Gaza, where you have little boys named Ibrahim, that are burning in that white phosphorus that Imam Zayed is talking about.

Yet Muslim countries signing on to these shameful Abraham Accords. If you look at the people of Gaza, who hold on to their retained truth in the face of the most vicious enemy in the world, yet those who supposedly have the artillery of power cannot speak what an 8-year-old boy in Gaza can speak. Then know that honor is in being associated with the 8-year-old boy.

Honor is being associated with each and every single one of those people. And the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم tasked you with the people of Gaza. The Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم tasked you with the people of Palestine.

Reconnecting with the Ummah

We now have to move on from this idea that we are separated from our ummah. We were getting too comfortable. We were starting to act like Canadian Muslims, with a little bit too much emphasis on the Canadian part, and a little less emphasis on the ummah.

Like American Muslims with a little too much emphasis on the American part, and a little too little emphasis on the Muslim part. That doesn't mean that we forget our neighbors here. No, we commit ourselves to them, because we know that as we fight for the indigenous people of Palestine, that we are standing on land that is still soaked with the blood of the indigenous people that are here.

We don't forget the people that are tortured and oppressed by the same brutality that the IDF uses. In fact, they are their teachers in many of these situations. We don't forget everything that's around us.

But dear brothers and sisters, this connects us once again to our ummah in a way that we have not been connected for a very long time. I'm not just encouraged by the people that are embracing Islam, I'm encouraged by the people around the Muslim world, all over the Muslim world, even those with the most shameful of governments, all over the Muslim world, whose hearts are burning now for this ummah, whose hearts are burning for Palestine.

So we say thank you to the people of Gaza for reminding us of Allah, for reminding us of Islam, for reminding us of the ummah, for reminding us of our purpose, and for reminding us what it means to live with your principles even in the face of the most brutal enemy in the world.

The Difference Faith Makes

And in these moments, I want to remind you, oh Muslim, and remind myself, that what you have in your toolbox, what you have in your heart, is different.

You know, alhamdulillah, we are witnessing a time where people of conscience are taking to the streets. Some people are on the streets right now on the basis of their fitrah alone, on the basis of their sense of justice.

Brave allies from the Jewish community, from the Christian community, from all over, that are taking to the streets and that are standing side by side with us on the basis of their fitrah, on the basis of the natural disposition of what they recognize of such a manifest and apparent evil.

But I say to you and I say to myself

. You have something different, and you want something different. What's gonna keep you committed to their cause when people move on to what's popular? What's gonna keep you committed to them when others have found someone else to occupy their attention? It's what's going to keep them on their land no matter what faces them of cruelty.

It's faith.

The Time for Spiritual Revival

Dear brothers and sisters, now is not a time for us to disconnect ourselves from our private worship. Now is a time for us to bring our private worship to its most pristine place.

Now is a time for us to all recalibrate, to all come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and to call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the depths of the night for our brothers and sisters. Just as we take to the streets. Now is a time for us all to wake up to the reality that the people of Gaza have already woken up to.

And I want you to think about what it means to wake up every single day and to renew your intention for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Factor of Time and Sincerity

And I'll end with this. Like Imam Zaid, I'm gonna end on time inshaAllah ta'ala.

I want you to remember this very carefully. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the factor of time, He directly connects it to how sincere you were in the first place. Two verses that Allah azawajal gives to us.

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