Feeling Helpless While Watching Oppression #Gaza

Feeling Helpless While Watching Oppression

We bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger. And 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 his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma Ameen.

A Painful Episode from the Seerah

Dear brothers and sisters, imagine being in Mecca in the early days of Islam without any place of strength, any place where we could collectively come to worship. But the only open collection of Muslims that exists is a particular location on the outskirts of Mecca where your weakest and most vulnerable are gathered together on a regular basis — where there is a display of torture taking place.

One of the moments that I wanted to take us back to in the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ — as we've been talking about Badr and Uhud and Khandaq and so many of the lessons that we learn after Medina — was a very specific episode in the Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, which might be one of the most painful. And obviously you read about painful episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and they all have their set of lessons. But this one stuck with me for a reason.

The Prophet ﷺ was subjected to all sorts of harm. He was physically harmed. He was emotionally betrayed. They tried to psychologically torture the Prophet ﷺ. He is رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ — he's a mercy to the world.

You imagine as we sit and as we watch the images of the people of Gaza — the innocent children, women and men, elders and people of all backgrounds — and we feel a great sense of helplessness, and maybe we even cry a little bit more than we used to. And that's with the little mercy that Allah has put in our hearts. Imagine رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ — a mercy to the world, the most merciful human being that has ever walked the face of the earth — walking around Makkah and seeing people tortured in front of him because they believe in him, and not being able to do anything about it.

Abu Jahl and the Escalation of Oppression

I wanted to pull from this very particular episode. It's about five years into the revelation of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, where Abu Jahl — who is the pharaoh of this ummah, the fir'aun of this ummah — decided to escalate his aggression against the Muslims. He saw that despite all of the tactics being used to delegitimize the Prophet ﷺ — calling him names, deterring the Muslims, cutting them off from their families — none of that was working. And so he decided to take it to the next level.

And just like every pharaoh in every era, he did so by starting off with the most vulnerable of society:

They always target the children, they target the women, they target the downtrodden, they target those who are defenseless in society, they target those who they don't fear consequence from. And so Abu Jahl decides to put on this display.

It's very interesting as Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما describes the scene that he heard of later on as he grew up — the experiences of the people that lived that moment:

There was an area of Banu Makhzum — which was the tribe of Abu Jahl, the pharaoh of this ummah — where he used to take them to the outskirts of Mecca. And he picked an area that had the hottest surface — no trees, nothing to protect the people from — as he tortured them.

He took a group of the early enslaved Muslims out there and decided to make an example out of them, so that the Muslims in Mecca would walk by that area and they would see their brethren tied up, starved, prohibited from drinking any water — and they were completely unable to physically intervene. So imagine living in Mecca — and we talk about the pain of social media and watching this from afar — you walk by and there's an area where the people are tied up and being tortured regularly. You can hear their shouts. You can see them barely hanging on. And you can't do anything about it.

The Prophet ﷺ Visits the Family of Yasir

Our Prophet ﷺ did not used to ignore that group of Muslims:

He used to actually go to them. And all he had ﷺ was words. He couldn't physically intervene. The Messenger of Allah was restrained. And as he walks by and he sees the family of Yasir — Sumayyah, the husband Yasir, and their son Ammar — he walks by them. And Abu Jahl reserved his worst torture for them, his own slaves.

And the Prophet ﷺ could only say to them:

"Be patient, O family of Yasir. Paradise is promised for you. I promise you paradise is around the corner. Be patient, O family of Yasir. Paradise is promised. You have an appointment with Allah. It's coming."

And he would go by them. And Abu Jahl would increase the torture — take it up a notch — when the Prophet ﷺ was around and inflict a greater sense of torture. At that point, there had not yet been a casualty, there had not yet been a shaheed of Islam — someone who was actually taken to the point of death. But Sumayyah رضي الله عنها would respond to the Prophet ﷺ saying that we will be patient, Ya Rasulullah. We're not going to exchange our religion in the midst of this torture.

And the Prophet ﷺ has to walk by that. And the Muslims have to walk by that. And you're either in it or you're walking by it. And Abu Jahl is gathering a larger group and increasing the torture. And there are many Sumayyahs and many Bilals — people whose names we don't know, and people whose names we get only a glimpse of the torture they faced. And they're all being lined up.

The Trial of Ammar ibn Yasir

There is an ayah in the Qur'an that speaks about this. Sa'id ibn Jubayr رحمه الله asked Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما: those people when they used to torture that group of Muslims — when Abu Jahl was carrying this out on them — did they used to get anything out of them? Would they get them to say anything? And Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما says that what they used to do to them is lay them out, hit them and strike them — and at the same time, starve them and prohibit them from water. So they would inflict on them الجوع والعطش — hunger and thirst.

And Umar ibn al-Hakam says particularly about Ammar ibn Yasir:

Ammar would be tortured until he wouldn't know what he was saying anymore. The torture that was inflicted on them would lead them to a point that they didn't even have words — they didn't even know what they were saying. And in that process, once they got them to a point where they couldn't even sit up straight anymore, Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما says they were unable to even seat themselves. At that point, they would say to them: Say the names of your idols — اللَّاتَ, الْعُزَّى. And one of them would say, as a person was shaking their face, the names of those idols in the midst of that torture.

And Allah revealed about those people:

Those who disbelieve after faith — except for those who spoke words of disbelief while their hearts were filled with faith. They didn't mean it, but in the midst of all of that, they were forced to say things that their hearts did not agree with.

One of them would be Ammar ibn Yasir رضي الله تعالى عنه himself, whose parents would be martyred. And in the midst of that torture — the severity of that torture, where he didn't even know what he was saying anymore — he said something. And he was so embarrassed from the Prophet ﷺ after that. And the Prophet ﷺ goes to him and says, "Ammar, what is it? What's wrong?" And he tells the Prophet ﷺ that he said what he said, and he doesn't know how to reconcile with that.

And the Prophet ﷺ says: "Was your heart at ease with faith?" And Ammar رضي الله تعالى عنه says, yes. And the Prophet ﷺ says:

"So if they do it to you again, it's okay. Do it again. It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong." He has to actually walk him through the guilt of having supposedly crumbled in the midst of that torture that was being inflicted on him just because he was a Muslim.

Connecting This to Gaza Today

Dear brothers and sisters, I can't think of a more fitting time, a more fitting moment for us to revisit this episode of the Seerah — when we're watching what we are seeing, and we feel completely maghloob, completely overcome, and unable to help our brothers and sisters. Imagine what it was like for your Prophet ﷺ. And you know the heart that he has.

Every single time the Prophet ﷺ had to walk by — do you know what it was like on his heart to hear the crying of Sumayyah رضي الله عنها? Can you even imagine for a moment what it was like for him to hear her last shout, knowing that she's the first martyr of Islam? It's not that he has any doubt about that. But hearing that woman as Abu Jahl inflicts the worst type of punishment — and in his frustration, because he can't get her to say anything bad about the Prophet ﷺ, he can't get her to renounce the faith — he takes that spear and puts it through her midsection. And the Prophet ﷺ has to hear her last shout. Imagine what it was like on his heart ﷺ.

And I would say with certainty that it was more difficult on him than it is on us right now. He's seeing it. He's experiencing it. Muslims had to walk around for a whole decade in Mecca — after that — with those that did that to their people. Imagine being Ammar walking around Mecca with the man who killed your parents for six years. Walking around, strutting with a sense of arrogance and a sense of victory, not feeling accountable to anyone, plotting his next victims. What was it like for Ammar ibn Yasir رضي الله عنه? Six years to endure that. And not to be able to physically intervene and do something to the one who did that to his parents.

What was it like for Bilal رضي الله تعالى عنه? To have to walk around and see what he saw, and know what he went through, and not be able to do anything.

And in the midst of all of that, Allah sends down these little things that let you know:

Be patient, O people of Islam. Your place is Jannah.

As we watch our brothers and sisters in Gaza and we see these little clips — sometimes in the midst of the gore, sometimes in the midst of the people being pulled out from the rubble, sometimes in the midst of the horror — you see a scene and you go, Ya Allah. What a miracle.

The Miracle of Zannira

There was a woman being tortured next to Sumayyah. Her name was Zannira رضي الله تعالى عنها. And Abu Jahl was vicious in his torture of her as well — to the point that he beat her to blindness. And when he beat her to blindness, sometimes Abu Jahl went a little too far and even his friends nudged him. You know the way that the United States puts out a statement about Israel every once in a while? They just nudge him. And they'd say, "Hey, you went too far. Calm down. Settle down a bit." When he beat the woman blind, they told him, "Settle down. You went too far."

And he laughed and he said:

"The idols made her blind. I didn't do that to her."

And as she could barely speak while tied up, she responds and she says:

"They have no power. No power."

And Allah gives her back her eyesight in the middle of that. A karama — a miracle — where she could see again. And Abu Jahl said, "That's the sihr of Muhammad ﷺ. That's his magic, his sorcery." Because in the middle of all of these things, Allah sends these signs — that even though it feels like these people are abandoned, they're not abandoned.

Be patient, O people of Gaza. Your place is Paradise.

The Du'a of the Overwhelmed

But then it comes back to us — watching this, feeling a sense of guilt, feeling a sense of helplessness:

Ya Allah, I'm overcome. And I beseech You for help. I don't know what to do at this point. Just know that your Prophet ﷺ has been through that. Know that the prophets of old have been through that. Know that the companions have been through that.

The Pharaoh Always Breaks Himself

But what's the silver lining of this all? What comes out of this? Abu Jahl made the mistake that every single Fir'aun, every single pharaoh ever makes — that they think that with brute force they can break a people down. They can break them down psychologically. And if they increase the force, they can ruin them and completely devastate them.

And what ended up happening is: while Abu Jahl thought that he was breaking the people of Islam, he was actually breaking his own image all along. Everything that he was trying to portray — of himself as a man of generosity who cared about his people, who was doing this because he had to protect people — all of that was going out the window. His own brothers — his half-brother Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'a, his full brother Salama ibn Hisham — became Muslims. They were disgusted by him. The people that he was trying to convince that he was protecting Mecca for saw him for what he really was. And they moved away from him.

And he lost his claim to any sort of morality, any sort of generosity, any sort of ideal that he claimed to stand for. And the other slaves that watched that torture — and weren't Muslim yet — saw the strength of their brothers and sisters and found something inside of them. And the passersby, those that were passing by and watching Abu Jahl do this and the Muslims being tortured — they saw that. And if they weren't convinced as to which group was on truth and which group was on falsehood before that, they certainly were convinced after that.

So while he was trying to break the people of Islam, he only broke his own image. And it would be so decreed that one of those that he tortured would one day stand on his chest in the Battle of Badr. And Abu Jahl would ask him, "To whom does victory belong?" And he would say:

"Victory is to Allah and to His Messenger ﷺ, O enemy of God." It would be poetic that that's what would happen to him.

'Azeemah and Rukhsah: Determination and Permission

Dear brothers and sisters, as we're living in this time, and we connect with our Messenger ﷺ in that moment of pain, and we feel that sense of helplessness — there's something from the fiqh, from the understanding that the ulema mention about the way the Prophet ﷺ was talking to his own people. When he spoke to them in these difficult moments, he spoke to them not with rukhsah — not with the license to do what they had to do to escape that torture — but with a sense of 'azeemah, with determination. There's 'azeemah and there's rukhsah. There's determination, and then there is the license, the excuse to remove yourself from that harm.

And the Prophet ﷺ always spoke to his community with 'azeemah — spoke to them with determination — and instilled in them that courage to move forward. And when there were situations where some people needed to be excused, the Prophet ﷺ excused them and he didn't make them feel bad.

So if you see some old woman being pulled out of her home in the West Bank, and she shouts out a few statements saying "I support Israel" because she's about to go to jail in front of her kids for a year — she has that rukhsah. She's our sister. But we speak with 'azeemah. We speak with determination. The Prophet ﷺ spoke to his community and told them to aim for something higher.

And so when the people of Gaza speak, what are you hearing? You're hearing 'azeemah — determination in the midst of it all. A refusal to be broken. A refusal to be broken psychologically. A refusal to succumb to that type of oppression.

The Shift That Is Coming

Then it comes back to us. What are we witnessing happening right now, dear brothers and sisters? What we're witnessing is that anyone with half a heart and half a brain can see Israel for what it is right now. Can see the genocide for what it is right now. Despite all of the blinders. Despite everything that's been put in the way.

So what does that mean? That just like Abu Jahl made the mistake of thinking that if he increased the brutality, he could suppress the voices that would call him out and challenge him — he could suppress the resistance to his torture — the same thing is happening, insha'Allah, around the world. Where this pharaoh is increasing the brutality, has no shame anymore in bombing hospitals and schools, doesn't even bother to deny it anymore.

And it's up to us — as we're watching that — to first and foremost take comfort that better than us, the Messenger ﷺ once had to walk that path. And he wasn't watching it on his screen. He was watching it right in front of him. And it was hard on his heart ﷺ. It was hard on his heart when Fatima رضي الله عنها had to come and take the guts off of his back when he was tortured. When he himself was persecuted — his own daughter in front of him, crying, cleaning up the filth from his back, and he's shivering ﷺ because of everything that was put on him. He tells his daughter: "Don't cry. Allah is going to support your father." You can imagine how difficult it was for him ﷺ.

What we're in right now is not more difficult than that. But the silver lining in all of this — and there are some that we can see and some that we can't see — is that through this, things will change, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. Through this, things will change. And insha'Allah we're witnessing a shift, even if we can't see it right now. Because when Abu Jahl did what he did to the early Muslims, it was the shift in Islam. It was a shift in Islam. And right now, this is a shift bi'idhnillahi ta'ala.

A Reconnection with Faith

And I want to end with this, because it is something that we have to also take a step back and realize: all of us — all of us — have had our priorities shift over the last month. People's hearts have come towards this faith. People that were already Muslim have found a reconnection. And there are people that are witnessing this and saying, "I cannot understand how much faith these people have, and how they're able to endure what they endure and still say what they say. What is it that they have?" And you have people that are looking into this religion for the very first time.

Today we have at least three people accepting Islam after Salatul Jumu'ah. If you are here and you're thinking about it, be the fourth and the fifth. But around the world we're seeing this — where people are looking at that and saying, "These people are a miracle." Because in the midst of them, we see the Zanniras رضي الله تعالى عنهن — where a little miracle shows. And if anything, the collective miracle is the existence of the people of Gaza.

And we ask Allah that as we feel helpless watching them, that we renew our intentions and that Allah guide us to the ways that we can tangibly help them — while understanding that when we cannot help them, Allah sees them and Allah's help and victory is near. Allahumma Ameen.