Global Bloodshed

Khutbah: Global Bloodshed

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help, we ask His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that there is no partner for Him.

And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and that he is pure of heart, and that he is His friend. He conveyed the message and fulfilled the trust. And he advised the Ummah — to leave them on the white pilgrimage, their night is like their day, and nothing escapes them but destruction.

Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

Quranic Reminders

Ibadallah, Allah says in His noble book, after I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan:

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. Fear Allah with whom you ask for mercy, for Allah is watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say a firm word. He will correct your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.

The Prophecy of Widespread Killing

As for what follows — the Prophet ﷺ says in the hadith reported by Abu Hurairah:

(Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Fitan, Hadith 2908)

By the one in whose hand is my soul — the dunya will not end until a day comes upon the people where the killer does not know فِيمَ قَتَلَ — why he killed. And the one who is killed will not know why they were killed. And he was asked: كَيْفَ يَكُونُ ذَلِكَ — how will that be? And he said: الْهَرْجِ — there will be widespread killing. الْقَاتِلُ وَالْمَقْتُولُ فِي النَّارِ — the killer and the killed are both in the hellfire — when two are fighting each other and both don't know why they are fighting. The killer and the killed are in the hellfire.

And the Prophet ﷺ also said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1036)

The Day of Judgment will not be established until knowledge is taken away, and earthquakes increase, وَتَظْهَرَ الْفِتَنُ — and trials become present and apparent, وَيَكْثُرَ الْهَرْجُ — and killing becomes widespread, وَهُوَ الْقَتْلُ. The Prophet ﷺ is describing a time in which people won't know why they are being killed.

And it is a snapshot of the world that we're living in today — as we're seeing mobilization of war, what's called forever wars. And even domestically in the United States we're seeing school shootings, we're seeing acts of domestic violence. Even in the city of Houston every year or two we become shocked when we find out a murder that happened within a family, in our community.

These acts of senseless violence — key word: senseless. And the sahabah, may Allah be pleased with them, they asked the Prophet ﷺ — when he described in another hadith — he said a person will kill his brother and he'll kill his uncle and he'll kill his cousin. And they would say, "Ya Rasulullah, are our intellects going to be with us? Are we going to have our uqool with us? Are we going to have our minds with us?" And the Prophet ﷺ said no — knowledge will be lifted, and then it will be people who will think that they are upon something but they're upon nothing. They will think that they're upon something and they will be upon nothing.

So we are living in that moment where reason is replaced by rage, and wisdom is drowned out by weaponry, and the guidance of revelation is forgotten in the chase of status and the chase of power. We scroll through our phones and we see people who are killed not by the ones or the twos.

Some of us might remember our parents or grandparents saying that when a murder happened in their community, it would be something that they would remember — the year of the murder. And yet now every day we hear about 80 or 90 or 100 people being killed and we become numb to human blood. We swipe past videos of murder and we might cry over a movie or a TV show more than we cry over the death that we see around us.

The days of innocence are gone, long lost to this insanity — where a movie will evoke a tear, yet none cry over humanity.

The Sanctity of the Believer's Blood

I wanted to spend just a few moments talking about some of the reasons that the scholars mention for this widespread killing, and where is our place in this.

We have to begin by remembering the sanctity of the believer in the sight of Allah. A single Muslim — one, not a thousand, not ten thousand, not a hundred thousand — just one. Their being killed in the sight of Allah is something that is so severe.

And the Rasulullah ﷺ says in a hadith reported by al-Tirmidhi:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1398)

If the inhabitants of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth were to gather to kill one Muslim — just one — Allah would pour all of them into the hellfire. However, 8 billion people — if we all conspired to kill just one of these children of Gaza, just one, not all of them, just one. And not only 8 billion people, but however many billions of angels there are — if they conspired to kill one believer, Allah would pour all of them into the hellfire.

And Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, understood this. There was a case that was brought to him of a young man who was killed in Yemen. He was killed because he was approached by someone who was pretending to give him security or who was entrusted to him. And the man and another person, they both conspired and they killed that boy. And Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, had both of them executed. And he said:

He said: if the people of Sana'a all conspired to kill this boy, I would have had all of them executed — all of them punished — for that one boy.

The sanctity of a believer is something that is incredible. Rasulullah ﷺ says — looking at the Ka'bah — he said: look at how pure you are and how blessed you are and how wonderful your scent is. And yet the sanctity of a believer in the sight of Allah is greater than your sanctity. It is greater than the sanctity of the Ka'bah.

And so the first point is remembering that this bloodshed is not cheap. In fact, in Allah's sight it is the first thing that will be settled on the Day of Judgment.

And the Prophet ﷺ told us that a murderer will be dragged by his victim on the Day of Judgment, and the victim will say to him: ask Allah why I was killed — why this person killed me. "Oh Allah, ask him why he killed me." And that person will say: قَتَلْتُهُ عَلَى مُلْكِ فُلَانٍ — "I killed him for the kingdom of so and so." He's not even going to say, "I killed him for my own benefit." He'll say, "I killed him for this corporation. I killed him for this politician. I killed him so that that person can become wealthier, not me."

This person sells his dunya and his akhira for a miserable price.

Causes of Widespread Killing

1. Envy

One of the causes is envy. And that is the first case of murder that we have. Allah says — remember the two sons of Adam. They both offered offerings to Allah, and one of them was accepted and the other one wasn't. And he became jealous and said, "I'm going to kill you." And so that jealousy — that envy — has caused irreparable harm.

And even before the state of murder, it can cause people to commit all sorts of major sins. They can lie about a person because of envy. They can harm them — harm their business, harm their livelihood, harm their relationships, harm their reputation. They can do all of that because of envy.

So beware of envy, as the Prophet ﷺ said — it burns good deeds. It burns good deeds.

2. Media Influence and Dehumanization

Also among the causes is media influence and the dehumanization that occurs. The movies that we watch, the music that people listen to — all of these things can cause a person to belittle acts of violence because they have become so normalized in their mind.

3. The Blood Merchants

And also incredibly important is to pay attention to the blood merchants in this world. They are those who spend their wealth to defend criminals and they support the oppressor in his oppression.

And Allah says:

And when it is said to them — those who are invested in the military-industrial complex and always warmongering because it benefits them, they profit off of it — "Don't cause corruption on this earth," they say, "We're peacemakers." And Allah says: أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَكِن لَّا يَشْعُرُونَ — they are the corruptors. They're not the peacemakers. They are the corruptors, but they do not know.

And so in this world that we live in, we see that there are not only local enablers — but they are the lobbyists, the war profiteers, the ones who turn conflict into contracts and turn bloodshed into balance sheets. They're corporations that sell weapons to all sides while preaching diplomacy on TV. They're the policymakers and the politicians who send drones abroad while ignoring the cries at home. They inflate military budgets while our schools lack basic resources. They create enemies abroad to justify billion-dollar defense contracts.

We see this again and again and again. They benefit from violence abroad in the name of democracy or freedom, and they silence dissent at home in the name of security.

And when it is said to them, "Do not spread mischief in the land," they say, "No, no — we're peacemakers." And Allah says: no, they are the ones who are the true corruptors. They are the corruptors, but they do not know.

So beware of being among those who support those individuals or those organizations in any capacity. None of us want to be among those who are brought on the Day of Judgment being asked: why did this person assist in my murder?

أَقُولُ مَا سَمِعْتُمْ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah: The 30th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين

Today, July 11th, marks the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in recent history — the genocide in Srebrenica in Bosnia. In July 1995, over 8,000 men and boys — these were families that were told to go to a UN safe zone and that they would be protected there. And when they got there, they found no protection and they were massacred by Bosnian Serbs in what is considered to be the greatest atrocity that happened in Europe after World War II.

It happened in 1995. And 30 years later, there is still no complete healing that comes from an experience like that — where every boy who was considered to be over the age of 13 years old was targeted. And the way that they would determine if a person was over 13 or not was simply their height. That was the only standard. And they would be killed at will. Many of them fled into the forest where they would be killed wherever they were found. The Serbian army basically unleashed on our brothers there.

Until today, they are still finding remnants, and families are still coming to identify the bodies of their loved ones — with many families not having anybody to identify them because of the complete annihilation of those families.

And so it is a reminder of what happens when people are dehumanized and when the international community watches and does not intervene.

Something that I remember hearing from one of our community members who is from Bosnia — talking about what they're watching unfold in Gaza. They said that when what was happening in Bosnia was unfolding to us in the 1990s, we thought that the only thing that was allowing the Serbians to do this to us was that the world was not watching. That was it. That undoubtedly, if there was television, if there was radio, if there was some way for people to know what was happening, they would immediately come and intervene and stop what is happening.

And so part of the trauma of them watching what is happening in Gaza now is recognizing that the world is watching something on a greater scale happening in live stream, 4K on their phones every single day. And in reality, just like they're not stopping it now, they wouldn't have stopped it then. And it makes you realize that a person's hope cannot be attached to any institution — even human efforts — it has to be attached to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

But we also realize that we have to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and exhaust every effort in bringing ease to our brothers and sisters in Gaza now.

Du'a

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to hear the speech and follow the best of it. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to have mercy on our brothers and sisters in Bosnia and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala heal their hearts and fix their brokenness. And that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring relief to our brothers and sisters in Gaza — that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala feed them from their hunger and give them security from their fear.