The Southport Incident | Guidance from the Quran and Sunnah - Shaykh Mustafa Abu Rayyan

Khutbah: The Southport Incident — Guidance from the Quran and Sunnah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ وَخَلِيلُهُ صَلَوَاتُ اللَّهِ وَسَلَامُهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَأَصْحَابِهِ

أَحِبَّتِي فِي اللَّهِ وَفِي الْإِسْلَامِ، أُوصِيكُمْ وَنَفْسِي بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ، فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ مُحْسِنُونَ

My beloved brothers and sisters, I start by praising Allah and sending blessings and salutations upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him.

What happened in Southport — there is a lot to say about this. We had young children, innocent children, killed. This is something that turns our stomachs and saddens our hearts. No doubt many of us have children here, and when you see a heinous crime like that, it reminds you of how much oppression and injustice is out there. That was a tragedy that we all saw, and subsequently many other things happened — including the riots that happened outside the masjid, where worshippers were disturbed, where the peace was disturbed. And you have now heightened tensions between the Muslims and some of the non-Muslims, and you have fear, you have worry, you have anxiety. There are people that benefit from this, and there are people that stir the pot on purpose.

So what we do as Muslims is — alhamdulillah — we thank Allah for the guidance He has given us. Whenever things like this happen, whenever really anything happens, we go back and flee to the statements of our Lord and the guidance of our beloved Messenger Muhammad. How do we view incidents like these? How do we understand them? How do we respond? And what do we do?

The Importance of Peace and Security

I want to start by highlighting the importance of peace and tranquility — in a city, in a town, in a country, in an area, in a home. You will find that Allah, when He was talking about the many blessings He gave to Quraysh, among those blessings He mentions that He saved them from hunger by feeding them and He protected them from fear — because Allah gave them peace.

The same peace that Prophet Ibrahim made du'a for — "O Allah, make Mecca a peaceful, tranquil, safe place, a sanctuary." He mentioned this twice in the Quran.

You find the importance of security and safety — because when that is gone, you cannot live, you cannot worship, you cannot flourish, you cannot thrive. Everything goes out of the window. So it is important that peace is kept, it is important that we strive towards peace.

And when these tensions rise up, you have those that are fanning the flames, and you have those among us that are trying to extinguish those fires. A lot of it comes from a place of ignorance and jahl. The Arabs say: man is an enemy to that which he does not understand. Many people do not understand Islam and Muslims, and it is due to that ignorance that they have a fear and anxiety around it. Now we do have a responsibility to help them out of that ignorance — and this is where the responsibility of da'wah, where the responsibility as a community, comes in.

Being Tested Because of Your Faith Is Nothing New

But before I enter into that, my brothers and sisters — being disliked, being marginalized because of your faith is nothing new. It is part of the package. When you said la ilaha illallah, there will be some people that will hold something against you. You are not better than the Sahabah in Mecca. You are not better than the many prophets. You are not better than the Banu Isra'il under Fir'aun — and Musa, peace be upon him, who all dealt with all sorts of pressures and troubles due to the one thing that is la ilaha illallah.

What did the man say to Musa about Fir'aun? "Do you want to kill a man just because he says my Lord is Allah?" The same thing about the Prophet — who could not pray safely in front of the Ka'bah. "Are you killing a man? Are you hurting a man? Just because he says my Lord is Allah?" Just because we say la ilaha illallah, just because we uphold the values that we have within our beautiful deen.

So it is normal. It is to be expected to have some adversaries, to have some that are against what you stand for. And what you need is to arm yourself with patience and sabr. Like Musa, peace be upon him, said: "We will have patience regarding whatever you do to us."

Allah will test your resolve. Allah will test your patience. Allah will test your iman. And this is in several ways. Some of us right now are sitting in the sun for Jumu'ah, listening to this khutbah — no doubt it is difficult. That is Allah testing your resolve. And similarly, my sisters — when you are wearing the hijab, whether it is in the heat or in an environment where people look at you differently, you have to strengthen yourself here internally. "Yes, I don't mind if you look at me differently. I am different. I am a Muslim — and that's okay."

And let me tell you why Islam is so great. This, my brothers and sisters, can sometimes get really difficult — like in Mecca where the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his companions went through problems and oppression and injustice that we cannot imagine, and they held strong to their deen and to their faith. And whenever things rile up and rise up where we are, we have to remind ourselves: do not waver, stand strong, stay upon the religion as you have been commanded.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Hold on to that burning coal" — the one who is holding fast to his religion, especially during the end times which we are in without doubt, will be like the one holding a burning coal.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2260)

What am I trying to say? Even if it gets a little bit dangerous, even if it gets a little bit scary — your faith and your deen is more important. Have that patience.

Standing Up for Justice — Always

The second point I want to share, my brothers and sisters, is that we as Muslims stand up for justice — always. When we found out recently that the culprit wasn't a Muslim, we know that some people will look at anything to come after the believers, and we know that some people are stirring the pot on purpose. But let's just say he was a Muslim — I would be standing here today condemning that. We would all be condemning that.

There is no such thing as tribalism when it comes to standing up for justice. Stand up for the truth even if it is against your own selves, your children, your parents — it doesn't matter. We stand up for the truth.

This consistency makes us stand out as Muslims. And even though it is now found out that he is Christian — does that mean that we paint everyone with one brush? No, we don't. Because we have that value of justice. We don't see them all the same. We don't paint people with one brush. We have patience, we have knowledge, we understand that one person's crime should not be punished by everybody.

And we also have to understand, my brothers and sisters — as believers, and this is really, really important — as much as we hate, as much as we are angry with those that are willing to disturb the house of Allah for a crime that was not committed by those worshippers, those that are desecrating the houses of Allah — as much as that hurts us and angers us, those that are doing it are not as many as the media might want you to think they are.

So just as we saw that — and that should anger us — we also saw non-Muslims in the heat helping rebuild those gates and those walls. They're not all the same, and that is important to understand. The vast majority of our non-Muslim neighbours and co-workers are decent, honourable, just people — and that is important to emphasise. Why? Because if we assume everyone is an Abu Jahl, it will have an impact on how we address them, how we speak to them, how we give da'wah to them. And we will start building walls up when we are meant to tear these walls down and invite people to the deen of Allah.

And it is important that as much noise as we make about those transgressors, those oppressors, those ignorant people — that we make similar noise when we see those that stand up for truth and 'adl. And that is because of our affinity and love for 'adl and justice, nothing else.

Fortifying the Internal — Salah and Iman as Armour

My brothers and sisters, another point that I must highlight is the importance of working on the internal. Because there will be external threats to your deen — and sometimes they are physical threats, sometimes they are ideological threats, sometimes they are intellectual threats. You must fortify yourself with iman and knowledge and spiritually strengthen yourself.

If you look at the height of oppression during the time of Fir'aun — when Fir'aun dialled up the injustice, the murder, the killing and the harm upon the Banu Isra'il — Allah commanded Musa, peace be upon him, and his brother, Prophet Harun, peace be upon him:

"Turn your homes into places of worship, and establish the salah, and give glad tidings to the believers." Why did Allah command them to especially focus on prayer during those times? Because it is through your salah that you will fortify yourself. It is through your salah and your connection with Allah that you will be able to go out into the world, and regardless of what you face — whether they are Islamophobes, or arrogant and ignorant people, or anything else — you will be able to handle that because you have strengthened your iman. That is our true armour. It is our belief, it is our trust, it is our tawakkul, and it is our deen.

The Responsibility of Da'wah

My beloved brothers and sisters, as believers we have a responsibility to spread the message of Islam — that is a key responsibility. And the beautiful thing about Islam is that it doesn't belong to anyone. It doesn't belong to the Arabs, it doesn't belong to anyone. It belongs to Allah, and anyone can join and anyone can flourish in it. It is a message that we have to spread wide and far. Because even those people that are now looking at Islam with eyes of contempt and anger and hatred — it is nothing for Allah to turn their hearts, because Allah is مُقَلِّبُ الْقُلُوبِ — the Turner of Hearts.

We saw it in the seerah of our Prophet, peace be upon him — the strongest enemies of Islam became the strongest defenders of Islam. This is through da'wah, and da'wah manifests itself in different ways.

Our priority at the end of the day is to make Allah pleased with us, and the pleasure of Allah lies in that which Allah loves — and Allah loves the message of tawhid to be spread everywhere. So when you get an opportunity to strike up a conversation with someone about Islam, do so in the best way possible. Become a person that carries the message of Islam and listens to the statement of the Prophet, peace be upon him:

"Convey from me, even if it is one ayah." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3461)

Understand that all of us are representatives of the deen, and we don't only represent it with what we say but also with what we do. So when people look at us — those that aren't believers, those that aren't Muslims — when they look at us, they should see the akhlaq of the Prophet, peace be upon him. When they look at us, they should see the manners and values that you find in the Quran. When they look at us, they should see the people that have the most akhlaq, the most manners, the most trustworthy, the most truthful. And that is a responsibility that you carry — and you cannot fail on that responsibility.

You all have work that you go to. You all have neighbours that you see on a regular basis. You all drive on the roads. Let's be the type of Muslims that when people look at us, they are attracted to the deen — not repelled from it. That is a responsibility on all of us.

And I know great work is being done — and the reason I know this is because I work here and I regularly see people coming to the masjid, taking their shahadahs — people from this land, people that are not from Muslim backgrounds, willing to accept Islam after they saw someone and his akhlaq. "I am interested in Islam because I saw the character of my co-worker." "The kindness of my neighbour." "I saw how a person treated another." "The charitable nature of Muslims." These are all opportunities for da'wah — even at times like these. Let's continue that, insha'Allah.

Closing Reminder

My brothers and sisters, let's leave this masjid holding our heads up high — upholding justice, understanding that we have no tribalism. If a Muslim does wrong, then a Muslim should be condemned just like anybody else. And if a non-Muslim does something wrong, we don't paint all of them with one brush. That is the justice that Islam commands. That we find sympathy for those that are oppressed and harmed, and we are consistent in that. And that we understand that being tried and tested because of your faith is part of the package.

Allah will test you — will test your resolve and your patience. May we meet Allah having passed those tests. May we meet Allah as people that have stood up for the deen, spread the deen, and represented the deen properly and accurately.

I ask Allah to extinguish the flames of hatred that seem to be rising up. I ask Allah to guide and turn the hearts of those that look at Islam with contempt — to see what it truly is: a message from their Lord, a message of tawhid and values that, if you accept it, your life will turn for the better, and your afterlife as well.

Announcement Following the Khutbah

Just a brief announcement and reinforcement of what the khutbah was about today. We are aware of marches and demonstrations that are going to be taking place around the country, and there are indications that they will be coming here. So the call and request — in line with what we've heard today — is for vigilance and calm. It is really, really important that we lead by example.

If there is any agitation — because there are agitators who are angling and focusing towards us as Muslims, who have nothing to do with what happened in Southport — then restraint, calm, and vigilance are what is needed. We are in the summer holidays now, and this is an appeal to the youth as well: enjoy yourselves, but stay within our communities, and keep our focus on being calm, relaxed, and restrained, yet vigilant — around the masajid, when we're going out at night, and around our sisters.

This is not to stoke fear, but we can see on a national level there have been disturbances in various places. Alhamdulillah, this is a very strong, resilient, and beautiful community. Let's lead by example in how to be calm.