Media Martyrs and Symbolic Resistance

Media Martyrs and Symbolic Resistance

We begin by praising Allah and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is His final messenger. 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.

Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum: The Banner Carrier

Dear brothers and sisters, many of you are familiar with a companion by the name of Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And as we are trying to connect the moments that we are living right now to the moments around our beloved messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I want to take you to the last episode of this man's life radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. A man who Allah referred to in the Quran and exalted:

A man who was coming to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, who belonged to the downtrodden, who was blind, and who came to the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam seeking to be purified. And Allah on his behalf reminded the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam of the value of a man like Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu.

Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu lived his life feeling a great sense of pain that he could not participate in what his companions were participating in — and he was not feeling the pain that his companions were feeling. And so when the battles of Badr and Uhud took place, he felt a sense of exclusion because he was not injured by what they were injured by, and he was not — in his mind and in his heart — rewarded with what they were rewarded. For many years he asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to have a different type of role, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam sought to protect him, particularly from the battlefield — a man who was blind and who would be a guaranteed casualty.

And after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he sought from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu something similar, and then he sought it from Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And over a decade after the hijrah — soon into the khilafah of Sayyidina Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu — the Battle of Qadisiyyah unfolded. And Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu asked Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu for the permission to just be with his brothers on the battlefield. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu sought to protect him as he always did.

But he came up with a particular role that he wished to play. He said to Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu:

"Don't you need someone to at least carry the banner? I can carry the banner. Go ahead and armor me up, protect me, put me in the middle of the lines — and just put me in there and let me carry the banner."

Because the banner represents a very particular type of symbolism. And there is a reason why one of the ways that you demoralize your opponents is you go after their banner. So he asked Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu: just let me be there and let me hold the banner. Let me be covered in armor and let me hold the banner.

And Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu allowed this man — for whom the Quran was revealed — to stand in the very middle of the army and to carry the banner. And that was the safest position that he could have had. And he couldn't see.

But as the battle unfolded, Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu could feel the presence around him. He could feel what was taking place. And suddenly the enemy went after him, recognizing that he was the one carrying the banner. And they cut off one of his arms — the one he was carrying the banner with. And he took his other arm and picked up the banner with his left arm. And so they took that arm as well.

And this man, subhanAllah, who had nothing to swing, nothing to offer except for carrying a banner, took what was left of his limbs and placed the banner between them and hoisted it up — until he was martyred radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu while he was doing so.

SubhanAllah. You can imagine the sight of this man — for whom Quran was revealed — missing his limbs, but at no point missing his heart. And his function was carrying the banner.

Our Media Martyrs: The Banner Carriers of Today

I want us to think about the people that we are witnessing today for a moment, inshallah ta'ala, and come back to us. The heroes that we are learning about — Wael al-Dahdouh, may Allah give him full shifa.

Last week we talked about the du'a:

O Allah, give shifa — cure Your servant who becomes a thorn in the side of Your enemy and who walks for You to the salah. We make that du'a for Wael al-Dahdouh, who was targeted. May Allah give him full shifa. And of course his cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who was unfortunately martyred. May Allah accept him as a shaheed, and all of those journalists, all of those people who have been killed.

I want you to think about what it means — this targeted war against journalists. You know, there is a term that, of course, when Muslims use it, it becomes associated with a death cult. "How dare you say the word martyr." CNN, of all people, had an article prior to this genocide called Media Martyrs — analyzing the lives of 15 journalists who were killed in war zones. Yet I bet you they would never call the 60-plus journalists who were murdered in Gaza "media martyrs."

But in no time in history have we ever seen a more targeted war against journalists, against people who are wearing press jackets. Press jackets have actually become targets for this genocidal army that does not feel any sense of shame, nor is it held accountable in the international arena of law.

And I want you to think about what it takes to be a journalist in that space. SubhanAllah — may Allah cure him. Wael al-Dahdouh was speaking about his most difficult job: as a journalist you cover the news, and you don't expect to one day be the object of the news. It's your job to tell the story, but it's difficult to be the story. And of course this man, the Al Jazeera Bureau Chief of Gaza, had his entire family — his wife and his children — targeted. Imagine being on air when the airstrike hits your family. And then having the strength — when you think metaphorically of cutting off an arm — having the strength, with all of that emotional wounding, to still be able to stand in front of a camera the very next day because you feel a commitment that is that great. And he still did it.

And as we've been getting to know these people, I want to focus on them for a moment, inshallah ta'ala — who we are to them and who they are to us. These are the people that are carrying the banners right now. These are the people that are armored up yet unarmed in the middle of the most devastating scene that is playing out in front of us — and who are losing their lives in the process, but bi'idhnillahi ta'ala gaining paradise in the process. This is them. Our media martyrs.

The War on Symbolism

But then I want to bring it to us. Why do you think Israel is targeting these journalists? Why do you think they're going after them? Why do you think they're trying to psychologically torture them so that they won't tell the news anymore, so that they won't appear in front of a camera anymore? Because they do not want those crimes that they are committing to be known to the world, and they also — by extension — want to break the Palestinian symbolic resistance around the world.

This is not just a war on the inside, on the people of Palestine. It's a war on the people in Palestine that are telling the story of Palestine — and it is simultaneous to a war against symbolism around the world. One that has exposed the hypocrisy of every so-called democracy in the world, including the one that we live in right now. Where suddenly these symbols are becoming criminalized around the world.

How ironic that in Europe, of all places — where they seemingly at least once a year have to tout their so-called freedom of speech by insulting our Prophet — they will target young people for wearing the kufiya or hoisting up this flag. In the United Kingdom, of all places, people are being arrested for wearing this flag. We see the videos coming out of the streets. One of Germany's main newspapers — yes, the same Germany where Nazism was born and where they continue to have extensions of it — called the kufiya "the problem cloth." The problem cloth. If you search it online, this is described as the cloth of terrorists.

I want you to think about what these flags and what these kufiyas mean in terms of symbolic resistance, and how you carry your own banner.

The Power of Words: A Lesson from the Prophet

SubhanAllah, there is something about words, and there is something about the insisting on the existence of what we know is so sacred — even outside of the war zone. Even the messenger of Allah, when you think about words — the Prophet distinguished the hypocrites by something that you could hear in their mouths, something that would come from their lips. He said:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 5232; also referenced in Musnad Ahmad)

That the hypocrites would continue to insist on calling the city of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam يَثْرِبَ — they would not be able to call it Medina. And that was a symbol of their hypocrisy, though it seemed so innocent. But it wasn't innocent.

Your Existence Is an Act of Resistance

And on the other hand, dear brothers and sisters, in this day and age that we are in right now, I want you to think about yourself — your very existence as the existence of Palestine. You see, the fact that they fear its existence so much, the fact that they fear every symbol, every banner, every flag, every slogan so much, tells you how important it is.

And especially in the wake of September 11th, for many years our sisters who wore hijab wore the brunt in the public space — and they still continue to. But now each and every single one of us has to take a step back and ask ourselves: if I've been using a name that is different from my name because it's easier for people to pronounce; if I've been shying away from this cloth or this flag or what we represent because I don't want to attract attention to myself — maybe I can recalibrate. And I can think to myself: who gets to be the journalist of the journalist when the journalist is wounded? Who is the voice of Wael al-Dahdouh and these journalists that are being targeted? Who is the Palestinian on behalf of the Palestinian that is being suffocated in their own homeland or being expelled to a place that is foreign to them? Who is an extension of them?

And this is a beautiful tradition from our messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam — a beautiful idea of a sanad, of a chain — that everything is connected. The ummah is like one body. Our cause is one beautifully threaded cause. And when they try to pick away, literally thread by thread, and remove the symbols of who we are — that is when we have to actually see a deeper meaning.

Be Like Wael

Dear brothers and sisters, the message, subhanAllah, that I have for this khutbah is: be like Wael. We are reading so much about the Sahaba, and Allah is blessing us with an opportunity to see people that exemplify and manifest the Sahaba today for us. Be like those people. Think about who those people are. Ask Allah to put in your heart what He has put in their hearts, and ask Allah to allow us to be an extension of them — as they are an extension of the people that we used to only read about in books.

And see something deeper in the insistence on the symbols of resistance that we carry in lands far and wide from the land that we hope will one day be free from occupation.

We ask Allah to have mercy on all of those journalists and all of those people that have been martyred. We ask Allah azza wa jal to accept them as shuhada. We ask Allah to cure and heal the wounded. We ask Allah to protect the living. We ask Allah to guide us to the ways that are pleasing to Him and the ways that are helpful to them. Allahumma ameen.

Astaghfirullah li wa lakum wa li sa'ir al-muslimeen, fastaghfiru — innahu huwa al-Ghafur al-Rahim.

Closing Reminder: Sustain Your Du'a

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala.

Brothers and sisters, before I conclude with the du'a, I just want to emphasize to you all: as the protests are waning and as the symbolic support for our brothers and sisters in Palestine is waning, I don't just want this to be a renewal for each and every single one of us, inshallah ta'ala, to remain sustained in that — but also be sustained in your du'a. If you find that your du'a has become robotic as of late, if you find that it is missing the tears that it had in October and November, if you find that your connection is waning — then use this as an opportunity, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, to renew that connection, to renew the depth of your du'a, and to renew, inshallah ta'ala, your commitment to this cause.

All of us, dear brothers and sisters, have a responsibility. And just as Wael and these people, subhanAllah — with everything that they have been through — still found the strength to keep going, we have to keep going for them. We ask Allah azza wa jal to enable us to do so. We ask Allah to put strength in us, and we ask Allah to maintain in us sincerity. Allahumma ameen.