San Bernardino & Paris Attacks (How to Respond)

discussion in the family whether or not our women should be wearing hijab anymore - they look too Muslim, it's too obvious."

Listen, you look Muslim anyway. Sikhs get beat up, Hindus get beat up because people think they're Muslim, so they don't really have the intelligence to know Muslim and non-Muslim.

People are thinking: "Maybe somehow if we just set some kind of PR thing, people might not hate us so much. Or maybe all this time my whole life I forgot about taking care of my neighbors and the Prophet's hadith about 40 neighbors this way and that way, and all of that I never thought about it, but today I realized maybe I should be taking care of my neighbors."

You should be taking care of them because maybe now they'll think I'm a nice guy. "Now I should do it, now you remember, huh? Now you remember what sincerity is?" That we're thinking that protection will come from people.

So people are told: "People are gathering against you, Muslims are told people are gathering against you, be afraid of them." And when they hear this, what's their reaction?

They are even more increased in iman. "Allah is enough for us - what an incredible choice we've made! The one who'll take care of all the things we need to get taken care of, the one who we relied on, the one who'll dispose of everything is Allah." This is the time to turn back to Allah.

Well who gets to turn back to Allah? When we say we've relied on Allah - when you rely on someone, when I rely on someone, when I rely on a lawyer, when I rely on a builder, when I rely on an airlines, whatever instructions they give me I follow. I follow it because I trust them and I trust that what they're telling me to do is in my best interest. This is actually what it means to rely on someone - not just to trust them, but whatever instructions they're giving you, you have complete confidence that that's better for you.

So if you and I want to rely on Allah, then let's follow some instructions. Let's listen to what He has to say and do it because that's in our best interest. People who have no confidence that when Allah tells you to pray that that's actually good for you, people who have no confidence that when He says something is haram that's actually bad for you - you have no confidence, you do it anyway - then when trouble comes you want to rely on Allah? That's not reliance.

So when they say "we rely on Allah," that actually means they've placed their confidence in Allah what is good for them. And when they turn to Allah, they know for a fact that when they follow His guidelines, He will protect them, He will protect them, He'll give them good.

They'll be taken care of if they just establish what He says. This is the promise to previous nations too.

The Promise of Divine Protection

Now they say "Allah is enough for us." By the way, in the ayah before this, these people are not pessimistic, they're optimistic. The situation is very bad - these ayahs have to do with what happened at Uhud after the Muslims - 60 of them were killed, the Prophet was almost killed, several of them are injured, and now the news is coming that the enemy is coming back and attacking you again. Then these ayahs came.

We're already crushed with bad news, and now more bad news came, and then Allah describes: these are the people who said when people are gathering against you, you should be scared - "Allah is enough, that's good enough for us."

And then in the next ayah:

This is the sunnah of Allah - when people truly rely on Allah, when they truly become comfortable that Allah will take care of them, when they hand their matter over to Him, then they came back by the special favor of Allah بِنِعْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ and on top of that وَفَضل - on top of that additional gifts from Allah.

Not only will Allah get you out of this mess, He will give you more than you ever had even before this mess even started.

- no harm ever touched them, no harm ever touched them. This is the promise of Allah to those who put their trust in Him - harm will not touch you.

- and those are the people, the only thing they were after is making Allah happy, that's what they were after. They were not after making people happy. They realized the only real protection is Allah - so long as Allah is on their side, they'll be fine.

- and Allah is the one who possesses the great favor. And by the way, ulama comment that it's "some great favor," suggesting that the way Allah will give you favors you can't even imagine. You don't even know how He's going to give you a favor. You can't see in your situation how this can be good, and Allah will turn something that nobody thought could be good into something good. He'll bring good out of things you cannot imagine. The one who produces life out of death can produce anything out of anything.

Understanding the Source of Fear

Then Allah describes:

Ayah after ayah after ayah - it's like it's our situation. He says all of what you heard, everything that all the propaganda you heard, all of that was just shaitan, that was just shaitan.

- he instills fear, he puts fear into people who make friends with him. Very powerful statement - all it was was shaitan putting fear into his own friends.

Now this is pretty scary because then Allah is teaching us that if you and I are in a constant state of fear, it is the same as making friends with shaitan. يُخَوِّفٌ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ - subhanallah.

If you start losing the fear of Allah - fear is a natural human tendency, and if for a believer the fear of Allah goes away and the reliance on Allah goes away, then the empty space is filled by shaitan. And when you let shaitan into your heart, whether he's scaring you or anything else, you've befriended him, you've handed matters over to him. يُخَوِّفٌ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ - you've handed your heart over to the enemy.

So don't be afraid of them. Allah is saying don't be scared of them, don't be scared of people.

Now I'm not asking you to do stupid things - don't walk into a room and say "I'm Muslim and I'm not scared because Allah says..." Hold on, you don't have to. Sister, you wear hijab mashallah - you are doing jihad في سبيل الله every time you walk out of the house والله العظيم .

The guys, you may not look very Muslim actually - women look Muslim all the time, all the time, every eye on them, and now spiteful eyes, and people say things to them. How many of our sisters and mothers upstairs have heard things in their own neighborhood? They live in this place and they've heard terrible things and we weren't around. They're driving and they hear things, they go shopping and they hear things, they see the way people look at them. They face that all the time.

But that doesn't mean that you have to go out there unnecessarily - you have to take precaution too. There are crazy people out there, they are looking to harm us. We don't say "Allah will protect us no matter what, now let's walk into a gun store or an NRA convention or something." No, don't put yourself in harm's way.

But don't be afraid that if you're taking precautions, so long as you're taking precautions, your alliance is with Allah, that harm will come your way. Have some faith, don't be overrun by fear - that's no way to live.

Don't be afraid of them, be afraid of me if in fact you truly have iman.

The Reality of Our Opponents' Resources

But then Allah describes that this state of fear that the Muslims are in - there's a group of people they seem to have an unlimited amount of resources, and they use all of their resources to instill fear and hatred towards Muslims. That's what they do, and I told you it's an industry.

It seems like they have way more money than we do - we barely have money to keep the water running for the wudu in the masjid, and they have millions and millions of dollars to do advertising campaigns and buy politicians and publish books and blast the media, and they're on all the major news outlets. Oh my god, they have all these crazy resources compared to us - it's like one seed compared to a forest, there's no competition as far as resources is concerned.

So Allah describes this problem of the Muslims feeling helpless because they don't have the resources, and the ones who hate the Muslims they seem to have all the resources. So Allah describes what - because Allah is the one in control, He's the one who handed them the resources, He's the one who gave us whatever we have. So then what's the - how do we understand this equation?

So Allah says in the same book:

People who are making all kinds of efforts to further the cause of disbelief - don't let those people make you sad. Listen to that again - the people who are making these efforts in kufr, don't let them make you sad.

Becoming depressed by those people - "look at what the news is saying, look at what they're doing, look at what they're doing here, look at what they're saying there, look at the policies they're making," etc., etc., etc. - if that stuff gets you depressed, you're going exactly against what Allah told you not to do. Exactly against that Allah told you - don't let that depress you, you're people of iman.

The Prophet ﷺ was told - not getting depressed and pessimistic because of the news is a sunnah, that's fulfilling a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. He wasn't even allowed to get depressed when he was almost killed. He was told no, no, no, don't be sad by that.

He passed out, his tooth was shaheed, the sahaba thought he was killed, and when he woke up he was upset, and then ayat - multiple ayat came commenting on what happened at Uhud. These are the ayat, and now he's being told: even now you cannot be sad, no matter what efforts they've made, no matter what successes they've had, they came this close to killing you, even now you can't be sad. Keep optimistic, you're people of Alhamdulillah, you're people of optimism, you're people that always have a reason to praise Allah, always have a reason to thank Allah.

And Allah says:

Listen, they can't harm Allah. And I never said they can harm Allah - I know Allah. My concern was they can harm me. So why is Allah saying "by the way, don't worry, they can't harm Allah"?

Because you and everything you have is not yours - it comes from a source, and that source is Allah. They cannot touch Allah, they cannot harm Allah, which means the source that provides you and protects you and takes care of you and plans for you is beyond their reach. The resource you have is Allah, the resource they have is money and media and power. They have that, you have Allah, and their resources can never touch your resources - your resource is Allah.

- they can't harm Allah in any way, shape or form.

Allah just wants that they have not even a single bit left in the Akhirah. These people that have become enemies of the truth and they want to spread hate and fear - Allah just wants them to continue to do their evil so they dig their hole even deeper in the Akhirah. Allah doesn't want to give them even a single ounce of mercy, and Allah does not want to punish them in the Akhirah - He wants to have them dig their own hole in this dunya first. Don't you worry.

- they have painful punishment.

The Consequence of Abandoning Faith Under Pressure

Just two more ayat left - those who have exchanged Iman for disbelief. People who are under pressure they say: "I don't want to hold on to my Islam anymore, it's too hard, there's too much pressure on us. I don't want to pray anymore, I don't want to look Muslim anymore, I don't want to obey Allah anymore because Islam is just in way too much trouble. I don't want to stick out like this, I just want to blend in, I want to be normal like everybody else."

Allah says those people who sell their faith, what about them?

- they're not harming Allah either, meaning they've joined the enemy side. You can't rely on those people. The people who are Muslim when times are good and they run away from the deen when times are tough - don't become from those people. You will lose the ultimate resource, you'll lose Allah on your side. You might think you gained some supportive people, but you'll have lost everything else.

I met a guy - I was talking to him, I met him at a mall. "Assalamu alaikum." "Walaikum assalam." We just got to know each other and I see a crucifix. You said "walaikum assalam." "Yeah, I converted." "You converted? Really? To Christianity?" "Well I didn't really convert, but they were offering political asylum

and I had immigration problems, so I went to the church and I converted, and I go there and I married one of them too. But I'm still Muslim."

Wow. These people won't be able to harm Allah - they play with deen, they have painful punishment.

Allah's Extension of Resources to Enemies

This is the last ayah I want to share with you, all of these about ourselves:

"Don't you ever dare imagine or assume that the extension that we have given to those who disbelieve - the resources we keep extending for them, giving them more and more - is good for them. Don't you ever think that the billions they have is good for them. Don't you ever think the resources, the propaganda machinery they have, is good for them. Don't you ever think that, don't you ever complain about that, don't you ever think it.

- We only give them more and more, we extend their resources, so they can increase the sin on themselves. So they can take more responsibility on Judgment Day for themselves.

You see, when someone does good - understand this formula - when someone does good deeds, Allah gives them the strength to do more good deeds. And when they do more good deeds, He gives them more strength and more capability, and they can do even more good deeds. He opens up more opportunities for them.

When someone does bad deeds, Allah says: "That's the door you want to go on? Okay, I'll open the next door for you. Go ahead, go through the second door too." When they go through the second door and do more sins, Allah opens the third door and says: "Your choice, if you want to go deeper, go ahead."

And so when people do evil, then Allah lets the doors open for them, and they keep making the choice, and keep digging themselves deeper and deeper and deeper. (ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ - thulumatun ba'duha fawqa ba'd) (Quran 24:40) - they keep digging their hole deeper.

Allah does not push them in, He simply opens the door. "This is where you wanted to go, right?" He doesn't stop people from going in the direction they want to go. He doesn't force them, but He doesn't stop them either.

So Allah says: "I keep extending, I keep opening up more opportunities for them to do evil, let's see if they do it," and they do it.

- We only do this so they can dig their hole deeper. They can increase their own selves in sin.

- And at the end of it all, such powerful words, they are going to have humiliating punishment. All the efforts they made were to try to humiliate Muslims, and it's only fitting that the response to that crime should be that they should have humiliating punishment.

Our Role as the Best Nation

All the non-Muslims outside are not the enemy. The vast majority of them are good people. The vast majority of them don't know any better. Your neighbor doesn't know any better. If you were non-Muslim and you watch the news, you'd be terrified of yourself too. You'd be horrified. It's not their fault - they're victims of this kind of propaganda.

The only response to that propaganda actually is you. It's me. How we are with these people. How we treat them. Not because we want good PR, because Allah wants us to be:

We're supposed to be the best of all people brought out for humanity.

You know what this ummah was supposed to be? When the Muslims live in India, every Hindu should swear that nobody treats them better than the Muslims (كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ) - when the Muslim lives here in a Christian neighborhood, a Jewish neighborhood, or some other non-Muslim neighborhood, everybody in the building knows, everybody in the complex knows, that if you need help, the one person who can help you, if you need to rely on someone, the one you can rely on is the Muslim in the neighborhood. He takes care of other people.

Everybody here is individualistic - "I just need to get my job, pay my check, pay my bills, take care of my car, my, my, my, my, my" - and the Muslim says: "Hey, let me help you with your groceries. Hey, let me do this." They're constantly looking out for others.

This is what we're supposed to be. Not because times are bad and it's good PR. That's what we're supposed to be all along. This is what we're supposed to be all along. And it's cheap, and it's ingenuine when we only think about being that way when we're in trouble.

This is what this ummah's job is. And when we come back to our job, no harm will come to us. There won't be any harm coming our way.

Practical Guidance and Du'as for Protection

May Allah (عز وجل) protect the Muslims, protect our families. I've asked the masjid to print this for you. There are a few du'as of the Prophet (ﷺ) that he would make when he left the house and when he traveled for protection for himself and the family.

I think this is a time where our reliance on Allah should be increased. So after the Jumu'ah prayer, we're going to pass all of these out. Please take one with you and have your family recite this with you. Keep it on the fridge or something, make a copy, put it in the car. Recite this stuff when you go out.

There's an evil surrounding us and this is a time to get closer to Allah. And one of the best ways to get closer to Allah is to make du'a. So I printed this for you, I translated this for you too, so that you can inshallah benefit from it.

Closing