The Difficult Realities Around Us

The Difficult Realities Around Us

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, ask for His help, ask for His forgiveness and ask for His guidance.

We believe in Him and trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none will be misguided, and whosoever He misguides, none will be guided.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. To Him belongs the kingdom and all praise. He gives life and causes death. He is the Ever-Living.

The Visit — Opening with a Personal Account

I had the chance to go to Jena, Louisiana, for the second time, and this time to actually make it through the prison walls and to spend time with him, alhamdulillah rabbi al-'Alamin, in a clergy visit. And I had all sorts of things I wanted to share, and then this news hits, and the khutbah remains for a very particular reason. Because the only time — and I will keep the details of my visit with him largely private as far as the conversation — the only time that he actually became very emotional in our visit was when he asked about details of the sisters that are imprisoned here at the outskirts of Dallas and Alvarado, Texas: Liqaa Kurdiyah and Ward Skaika.

The only time he actually was about to shed multiple tears was when I started to tell him about what was going on in their cases. And some of you are like, we've never even heard their names. And subhanAllah, I start from this place.

Seeing What Others Cannot See

The Prophet ﷺ said to the companions:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 2312)

"I see things that you don't see, and I hear things that you don't hear."

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was speaking about the ghaybiyyāt — the matters of the unseen. He is speaking ﷺ about the angels that Allah has shown to him. He is speaking ﷺ about the things that he is able to hear from the graveyards that other people can't hear, because Allah did not allow us to hear or to see those things.

These are the ghaybiyyāt — the matters of the unseen. We are not accountable to what we can't see, except in what a reliable witness has told us about them, and that is Muhammad ﷺ. We believe as he tells us, as Allah inspired through him to us. But at the end of the day, I haven't seen those things — I believe in them because the all-seeing has told me about them through His Prophet ﷺ.

Ignorance Is Not Always Innocent — Indifference Is Engineered

The premise of this khutbah that I want us to have is that ignorance is not always innocent, and that indifference is engineered. And what do I mean by that?

When you talk about Gaza right now to the American public, the reality is that poll after poll actually shows that most Americans don't actually feel one way or the other about this entire genocide — that most people are actually indifferent. "I don't care what happens to Palestinian babies as long as I can put food on the table for my family." "I don't care what's happening over there on that side of the world." Even the so-called "America First" people who are fighting about involvement in other regions — what is the idea? "What does that have to do with us? We're good over here. We don't need to know about that part of the world. We don't need to get involved in that part of the world. It might harm Americans. It might put us at risk. It might cut into my paycheck."

And the sad thing is that that's the bar now — that we have to stake some of our success in that mindset to try to push back on the expansion of more genocide and corruption and terror in the Muslim world, paid for by our tax dollars. That's the bar — that you would hope that those voices of indifference win over those who are completely set on domination and corruption and more terror and more devastation in the Muslim world, and who do not see that their own greed will eventually lead to their own destruction. We actually have to choose the indifferent people and say that we hope the indifference wins over the more obviously evil so that we can say alhamdulillah. Isn't that a sad bar for us to have?

Most Americans are indifferent. Most people are indifferent to what happens out of their sight. And these are not ghaybiyyāt — they are things that you intentionally choose not to see.

The Quranic Concept of Ghafla — Willful Heedlessness

And in that, by the way, there's something for us to think about as Muslims. The word ghafla that Allah condemns in the Qur'an is often translated as heedlessness — being unaware. On the Day of Judgment, Allah reminds people of the time that He said to each and every single one of us:

"Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we bear witness" — so that you don't come on the Day of Judgment and say, "We were unaware of this. We were heedless about this reality."

The word ghafla is often translated as unawareness and heedlessness. And there's a perception that ghafla is simply that you just don't know any better. But ghafla is not the same as innocent ignorance.

Some ignorance is indeed innocent. The Prophet ﷺ gave us these distinctions. Some people to whom the message has not reached genuinely, in a pure form, and they really didn't have pure access to it — it wasn't a lack of effort, it just wasn't available to them or presented to them.

Ghafla is not innocent ignorance. Ghafla is not simply saying "I didn't know" or being unaware. Ghafla is intentionally neglecting reality because it makes you uncomfortable. That's what ghafla is — and there are various layers of it.

The Three Layers of Ghafla

There is ghafla 'an al-ākhirah — heedlessness about the Hereafter. "I don't want to know about the Hereafter. I don't want to think about the idea of anything after my bones go to the grave because that's an uncomfortable thought. Let me live my life right now and not think about the consequences so that I can enjoy the moment." That's ghafla about the Hereafter.

There is ghafla 'an aḥkāmillāh — heedlessness in regards to the rulings of Allah. Many Muslims fall into this. How many times do you say, "Man, why did you have to tell me that was ḥarām? Why did you have to mess it up for me? I was happy in my ignorance. Ignorance is bliss. I didn't need to know that that was ḥarām. Why did you have to tell me that was ḥarām? I would have much rather thought that was ḥalāl so that I can enjoy myself." That's ghafla 'an aḥkāmillāh. It's intentional, willful, deliberate negligence of reality. The reality is there. You don't want to know the reality. And so that's why you try not to ask questions or put yourself in a situation where you will get answers — even unsolicited — because it will make you uncomfortable.

Then there is ghafla about the horror and the ugliness of the reality that is around you. And that's the one I want to stop with for a moment today, inshaaAllah ta'ala.

The Reality Behind the Prison Walls

I had the opportunity to visit Mahmoud Khalil before he was freed. And this week, Liqaa Kurdiyah and Ward Skaika — a 22-year-old young girl who was attacked by ICE at the airport on the way back from her honeymoon. Completely legal. The only crime is that she's Palestinian. Not Palestinian activism. The only crime that she committed was being Palestinian in origin. She's never lived in Palestine. She's been here since she was 8 years old.

And imagine a 22-year-old girl and her husband going on their honeymoon to the U.S. Virgin Islands. And they check in every year, like good residents should do, to make sure that everything is good, everything is set, we're not violating the law. Because you're taught in this country that as long as you obey the law, you'll be fine. Everything's going to be okay. And then out of nowhere, you suddenly have huge masked men putting chains on your arms and on your legs and disappearing you into a system where you have no rights. You don't even get a lawyer accessible at any time that you want. You don't get phone calls because you're an "alien." You're not human. The agents will tell you specifically: "We don't want to let you call a lawyer because we don't feel like dealing with all that nonsense. We'd rather put you on a plane and get you out of here and then deal with that later. We don't have any rights due upon us towards you."

Wallahi, I'm holding myself because Ward's husband is here. May Allah bless him and may Allah unite him with his wife and allow them to continue their life in happiness with Allah here and an afterlife of even greater happiness.

When you start to talk to your Muslim sisters about the things that they have been subjected to, there is one word that comes to mind with every single person that's been thrown into those prisons — from Mahmoud to Liqaa to Ward to Badr before her. And you know what it is? Disillusionment.

"They tell us this whole thing about America. They talk about freedom. They talk about rights. You get thrown in here and you're less than an animal."

Imagine being a Muslim sister — just walk through this because some of you have daughters, sisters are here — and wallahi, I'm restraining myself with some of the details. Imagine being a Muslim sister with all that we teach about modesty, and you get thrown into an ICE van with eight men in red suits, and the driver, wanting to humiliate you, transferring you from place to place — when someone asks to use the bathroom, throws a bottle to the back and says, "Go ahead and use it, I'm not stopping." That happens. How does that make you feel?

Your Muslim sister asks, "Where are we going?" "Don't worry about it." Spends hours and hours, from vans to buses, with chains on her ankles and chains on her wrists. "Where are you going?" "Don't worry about it." Gets called names. Gets put into processing blocks.

Your Muslim brothers and sisters in Ramadan — while we were breaking our fast across prisons in the United States — you know how many stories there are? Your Muslim sister who is not given her ifṭār, or whatever type of mush was just put inside of her hands, and is told, "Go eat your ifṭār in the bathroom" — a space that is smaller than the carpet that I'm standing on — with someone using the bathroom next to her at 12:30 while she's eating her ifṭār. That's happening right here.

Dr. Afia Siddiqui has been raped. Evidence has been provided. Right there — Stemmons Freeway. There's a building right there. You drive by it. And you're indifferent.

So aren't we then guilty of the same thing that we are upset with the American public about — being indifferent? These things are happening all around you. And wallahi, the first thing every single one of these people says: "I didn't think America was this bad. I knew it was ugly. I knew that when you get thrown into the system and you're disappeared — I didn't think it was that bad. They tell us about all this freedom. They tell us about all of this justice. They tell us about human rights. None of it exists here. This is not even a third-world country when it comes to the trafficking of these people."

And some of you have been engineered — because indifference is engineered — to think, "Well, only if they follow the law." You don't get it yet. Mahmoud followed the law. He came here and was doing a master's at Columbia University. SubhanAllah, his English is better than most people who have spent their whole lives in the United States, born and raised. He's only been here a few years. Master's degree, coming from refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon. He was doing everything right. He played by the book. And look where that got him. Look where he ended up.

Your sister, Liqaa Kurdiyah — what is her crime? She's Ghazawi. She's from Gaza. That's it. Their crime is exactly that.

United in Trauma

Why am I sharing all of this? Because when I spoke to Mahmoud, whenever you try to express sympathy for what he was going through, he says: "Alhamdulillah — what we're going through is nothing like what's happening to our people in Gaza. I'm not complaining, alhamdulillah."

When I sat with Liqaa, and when I sat with Ward, they asked me about Mahmoud. They said, "Please, when you go to see him, give our salām to him." SubhanAllah — none of them have met, by the way. But they've become united in their trauma. "Let him know we're making du'ā for him."

And when I started to share with Mahmoud about Liqaa and Ward, he started to tear up. It was harder for him because he now knows what behind those prison walls looks like. It exposes you to a reality. And there are people in this country who have been through hell for so long and are telling you: "Oh, now you're waking up. Now you're waking up to it all. That this country isn't what it's been made out to be. That there is a lot of garbage that's happening right beneath your nose. All you have to do is look under the belly of the beast — and when you get that exposure, you never come back from that quite normal." It's happening all around you. With your money. In your neighborhoods.

Advocacy Without Victimhood

Now here's the thing. I actually want this to be a practical khutbah. My job is not to just blast myself or to blast everybody else — even though we deserve it, to be honest with you — to wake up and smell what is happening around us. I want it to be practical.

We have a problem: the only advocates for causes tend to be victims of those very causes. It is so anti-everything we have been taught by our Prophet ﷺ. You only become an advocate when you've been a victim. And that's a problem.

And that same mindset of "why did you have to tell me it was ḥarām? I didn't want to know" — you know what that looks like now? "Don't check if this is on the boycott list. Because everything is boycotted these days. Why does everything have to be boycotted? It's so inconvenient for me to not be able to drink my can of soda. Or to buy my favorite clothing brand. Don't tell me this is on the boycott list too. Everything is on the boycott list. Can we not check anymore to see if it's on the boycott list?" Because "I don't want to know about the complicity in occupation and apartheid and genocide with my money. I don't want to know about the Uyghur slave labor that made that shirt. I don't want to know about this stuff. It's really disturbing me. Why does everything have to be on the boycott list?"

Instead of asking: why are so many companies complicit in the oppression of Muslims, with the participation of Muslims, without anybody asking these questions?

At some point, innocence cannot be claimed with ignorance. At some point you can't say "this is really uncomfortable" and just put your hands up and say, "I don't know what to do with this anymore." At some point that's not enough.

Wallahi, I met a sister from Gaza in South Africa. And she told me how strange it was to her — subhanAllah, look at what she's saying. She said: "I've lost over a hundred relatives of my family. And the first time I saw a Muslim woman drinking that can of soda" — she mentioned the company — "I couldn't help myself. I went up to her and said, 'You're drinking my blood and the blood of my relatives. It's the point of that ḥijāb — what are you doing? Why aren't you asking questions about what's going on behind the scenes here?'"

Is ghafla just that much more comfortable? It's the same thing. "Don't tell me it's ḥarām. Don't tell me it's boycotted. I don't want to know. It's too uncomfortable."

Force yourself into that discomfort before you become a victim of somebody else's comfort. Force yourself into that discomfort.

The Question to Ask Yourself

And so there's a question that I'll ask each and every single one of you to wrestle with, inshaaAllah ta'ala, hopefully beyond the rest of the day:

"What are you an advocate for that you've never been a victim of?"

You understand the question? What are you an advocate for that you've never been a victim of?

MashaAllah, we have organizations for pretty much every level of devastation in the human condition. But if you look at Muhsin — the special needs organization — who's involved with Muhsin? I can tell you who's involved with Muhsin: people who have special needs in their family. If you look at human trafficking organizations — who's involved with anti-human trafficking organizations? People that have been trafficked or have someone close to them who has been trafficked. Why? Is that what we learned from the Prophet ﷺ? That you only become an advocate when you become a victim?

And don't come back to me and say, "Well, Sheikh, what are we supposed to do? How am I supposed to get involved?" Because every single cause that exists in the community right now, that exists in the human condition right now — there are organizations, Muslim or otherwise, and efforts that exist. You find your way into it. If you care enough about it, you'll do your homework and you'll get involved and you'll figure out a way to actually act productively within it. And if there isn't a space within an existing infrastructure, you will ideate and obsess over how to create the infrastructure to do something through the Muslim community.

But we can't claim ignorance anymore. Our ummah can't afford our ignorance anymore.

And so I'm telling you, dear brothers and sisters: please ask these questions. Interrogate more. Be more suspicious. Be more active. Be more uncomfortable. Ask about where the next protest is. Ask about who the prisoners are that are nearby. Ask about what's happening with this case and that case. Don't wait for the masjid to announce something for you. Don't wait for somebody else to make a social media post. Look for it. Look for it.

And the question I want you to ask yourself: What am I an advocate for that I have never been a victim of?

Du'ā — Closing Supplication

May Allah allow Mahmoud to find his joy with his family and his family to find their joy with him. May Allah unite our brother Tariq with his wife Ward outside of those miserable prison walls. May Allah allow her to walk free. May Allah unite Liqaa with her family in New Jersey. May Allah unite Imam Jameel with his son. May Allah unite Dr. Afia Siddiqui with her family. May Allah free every prisoner that we know of and that we don't know of that has been wronged and brutalized behind those walls.

May Allah wake us up out of our ignorance. May Allah guide us to be better for them. May Allah activate us for our ummah wherever they are. May Allah be with our brothers and sisters in Palestine and all over the world. May Allah show us the way and then grant us the ability.

May Allah grant us the ability to overcome our lower selves and to aspire to our higher selves, and to be people of benefit. May Allah forgive us for our ghafla. Allāhumma āmīn.

Please follow these cases. Plug in. Teach your children that it's not okay to be complicit and comfortable. That there's something greater in this life. Teach your children that discomfort for something greater is part of their dīn. May Allah be with our brothers and sisters all over the world.