ICNA-MAS 2012 A Tribute to My Mom
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T21:33:50.443076+00:00 | Topic: Iman
A Tribute to My Mom
By Imam Omar Suleiman
ICNA-MAS 2012
Allah is the Greatest. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Wa la'udwana illa ala al-dhalimeen wa al-aqibatu lil-muttaqeen.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin (صلى الله عليه وسلم) wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman kathira.
Dear brothers and sisters, with everything that our beloved brother Imam Suhaib said about the virtue of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم). I want you for a moment to imagine the scene of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)'s death.
The Scene of the Prophet's Death
When you had Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and these type of people there. And the people were in such trauma that there was a Bedouin Arab who was running around back and forth in the masjid saying
Because I don't want to lay my eyes on anyone after the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And you know, subhanallah, the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) being the greatest tragedy that this ummah has ever faced. It was so great that after the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passed away for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, the way to console a person who had lost someone beloved to them was to say to that person,
Remember the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Remember the tragedy, your disaster, your tragedy and the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). But in essence, al-Imam al-Dhahabi rahimahullah, he said something extremely powerful.
He said, Wallahi, even though he passed away (صلى الله عليه وسلم), he was still alive in the actions and in the character of the people. You could look at people and you could find the exact demonstration of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). They were trying to smile like him (صلى الله عليه وسلم).
They were trying to act like him. They were trying to walk like him (صلى الله عليه وسلم). He was alive in the ummah until eventually people moved on to other things.
The Purpose of This Talk
And you know, subhanallah, this talk would be different from any other talk that I've ever given because I'm not going to do what our beloved Shaykh did and mentioned many sources and mentioned different stories and different tafsirs and things of that sort. Because many times we look at the lives of these great men, the sahabah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). We look at the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).
And there's this idea that we can't be them, so we might as well not try to aspire. But there are people that have lived amongst us that tried to follow their example and that succeeded in becoming tremendous people because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said
And today I wanted to talk about the person that I met, the person that I knew that inspired me more than any other human being ever has. I have a person that was not a Shaykh, that was not a scholar. In fact, if you were to ask this person what madhhab she followed, if you were to ask this person about some of the terms that we see floating around on Facebook today, she would not even know what they were.
She's the most inspirational human being that I've ever met. And it's my mother, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on her. Because many times we look for role models, we look for heroes, and we try to find them in books, or we try to find them as great scholars that live halfway across the world that we would never meet, but we neglect the role models and the heroes that are in our homes.
How many of us would not even be here if our parents did not teach us la ilaha illallah. Yes, alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guides people to Islam. But at the same time, how many of us are here because our parents cared enough about us to teach us the meaning of la ilaha illallah, Muhammadun Rasulullah.
So I wanted to share with you, my dear brothers and sisters, for the purpose of you making dua for her and understanding that wallahi, there are people that live and lived amongst us that are truly extraordinary and amazing people. And I just wanted to talk about her upbringing for a moment. My mother, rahimahullah ta'ala, was the granddaughter of Al-Allama Munib Hassan, rahimahullah, the faqih of Palestine in the Ottoman Empire, the only Arab scholar in Mahkamat al-Tamiz, the court of high scholars in the later period of the Ottoman Empire.
Her Early Life and Background
If you're thinking to yourself, I'm saying that just so everyone can say, mashallah, that's why she's such a great person. Her grandfather was the faqih of Palestine. You're wrong.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested her family and the people, the children. Some of the children of Munib Hassan, rahimahullah ta'ala, actually left Islam in Palestine. They were part of the royal families.
My mother was the first cousin of the mother of Queen Alia of Jordan. And they were from Bani Hassan, the direct descendants of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And I know that doesn't impress you if you're a desi, because every desi thinks that they're from the lineage of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). I know all of you are Sayyids, all that kind of stuff. Doesn't impress me either.
But with all of that, her family were not a people who used to pray, they used to drink. My mother grew up in a totally Catholic school in Jerusalem, next to the church of nativity run by nuns. And when she grew up in that school, she did not understand what it was that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted her to be.
The granddaughter of the faqih of Palestine. She didn't know. She grew up confused.
But at the same time, she always had this inclination to spirituality. So although her family was not extremely religious and upright, she used to sneak out of her house as a 7, 8, 9 year old girl and go pray salatul fajr in the masjid. Just asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for some form of guidance, even as a young baby, even as a child, as a toddler.
She had inclinations. Her fitrah was always calling out. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed her after she finished her schooling, not to take the path of becoming a nun or anything of that sort.
She graduated with a degree in Arabic literature. She became a teacher. She was caring, compassionate.
She loved to teach. So she taught in Ramallah, she taught in Palestine. And then whenever she came to America, the irony of it was that she taught some of the daughters of her students in Palestine.
Loved to teach Arabic. Loved to be compassionate, kind towards her students. Loved to raise people.
Loved to see other people smile. Was always smiling. And subhanallah, we look at the khuluq of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and one of the descriptions of him, (صلى الله عليه وسلم),
I cannot recall a single picture of my mother as a child with her not smiling. And I remember all of the moments where she would smile at every single person that she would see. And it was that khuluq, that character that won people's hearts.
Her Journey to True Guidance
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not send her true guidance until she met my father, not in Palestine, but in Houston, in the University of Houston. And at that time, they got married at the Islamic center on Richmond Avenue, the only masjid that was in Houston which was just a house. And she didn't understand where her life was going.
But at the same time, she trusted Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enough that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would guide her to the straight path. She started wearing hijab later on in her life. She started to draw close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
She started to pray. And then in the 1980s, 1981 to be exact, she developed a disease called Myasthenia Gravis which is Latin for grave muscle disorder. She lost her ability to walk freely.
She started feeling like her muscles were weak. She wasn't as mobile as other people. Then she developed another blood disorder.
Her Trials and Tests
She had to go through 17 blood transfusions in two years. After my older brother Jamal was born, whenever she sat with the doctor, the doctor told her that she would never be able to have kids again. And wallahi, their brothers and sisters, this woman who had just started practicing Islam just a few years, she laughed at the doctor and she said, you're not God.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed her to get pregnant a month later. And she was pregnant with me. And whenever she became pregnant with me, the doctors told her that you're not going to survive or your baby is not going to survive because all of the blood transfusions, at that time there was the AIDS scare.
All of these diseases that probably came in with this blood, it's not going to happen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala proved them wrong once again. With her iman in Allah azza wa jal, that was no obstacle to her.
She never doubted for a moment. She never said, why is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doing this to me? In 1990, she had her first stroke. And it was discovered that it was because she had throat cancer.
She came out of that stroke and she said, alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through this stroke has purified me from the sins that I had before. Then a few years later, another stroke, 1993. And they discovered that the cancer was getting more severe. She had to go through chemotherapy. The doctor said the chance of her survival is 40% or less. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala proved them wrong.
She never complained. She said, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. Wallahi, not once complaining.
Not once saying, why is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doing this to me? I just started wearing hijab. I just started praying. And her family members actually told her that this is God punishing you because you wear hijab.
And she said, no, you're wrong. This is Allah purifying me from my past. She kept going.
In 1996, she had another stroke, a third stroke. And with this stroke, she went into an unresponsive coma for 14 days. The doctors told us she has no chance whatsoever.
She's just a vegetable. She's not going to wake up from this. While the doctor was speaking to my father on the 14th day and telling him she has no chance, she opened her eye and she said, Ahmed, I'm thirsty.
My dad's name, Ahmed. Get me a cup of water. And she drank from that water.
She said, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is purifying me. Can you imagine with all of that? Half of my childhood, she was in the hospital.
She once had a detached retina. We were walking in the mall and her retina fell out and she couldn't see anymore. She had to have her thyroid taken out.
She had osteoporosis. All I remember is my mother going to the hospital time and time and time again and while she would go, she would make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. She would say, O Allah, purify my sins and allow me to see my children grow. All she wanted was to see her children grow up. And every single time she was in the hospital, she would make that dua. And the interesting thing about her is that when people would visit her in the hospital, she would make it a point to host them.
She could barely move, but she would still make it a point to host them. With the 1996 stroke, she lost most of her memory. She forgot our names.
She forgot surah al-Fatiha. And in one year after 1996, within one year she memorized four juz of the Quran back. Now she's not a sahabiya and someone's gonna say, well four juz, that's not much.
For a woman who barely has memory, to be able to sit there and pound four juz into her head over an entire year was something that subhanAllah, I don't think many of us could have achieved. After that, she lost her speech. And she could barely talk.
And when she would talk, it was hard to understand her, but she would still try. And the only people that could understand her were the people that were always around her. She would have to repeat herself two, three, four times.
And she also had bad hearing. All she would say was tasbih and tahleel. And I'm telling you to the point that, wallahi, when I think of my mother, rahimahullah ta'ala, I don't even remember her, or actually I remember her without hijab, but when I have images of her, I remember her walking around in her hijab.
Her Devotion and Poetry
She used to sit there during her cooking and read tafsir the entire day. Memorize the Quran the entire day. And she used to say, Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saved me from hearing the type of things that people talk about in gatherings.
And saved me from speaking because I might backbite with that. Alhamdulillah, no one understands me except for Allah. She used to say that to us when she was angry.
No one understands me except for Allah. But she said, Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, because that stops me from getting the sins of backbiting. Continued forth with her life.
And she was so, subhanAllah, so passionate that even though she wasn't able to speak, she used to write poetry about Palestine, poetry about Bosnia. She used to put her words on paper. And I found one of her old poems, one of the most beautiful poems.
She wrote about the rock, the stone in Palestine. She said, Alhamdulillah. That was from her poetry, rahimahullah ta'ala, where she wrote, Who will carry me? Meaning the stone.
I am a rebel. Inside of my chest, my conscious is alive. The secrets of the young and the old.
The determination of a people that was unable to find other than me to fight for them. They're saying that I'm unable to fight. Wronged me.
They wronged me when they said that I was a silent stone. I feel, I hurt, I beat and I struggle. May Allah bless the living stone.
May Allah bless the homeless child. For I was planted in the land of Palestine, but I was grown in every land. And for the greatness of Allah, I fell in sujood.
Her Character and Compassion
I remember her, dear brothers and sisters, and all I think of was that anything that happened to her, she always said, Alhamdulillah. When there was any gathering, she would always be the person to look for the one sitting in the corner to take them out. There was someone that was unknown to try to talk to them and laugh with them, even though she could barely talk.
And I remember that even as a young boy, she used to actually come and apologize. And this is probably bad parenting, but you know what, it shows you that heart of gold, subhanAllah. She used to come to us and apologize whenever she would yell at us.
She would wake us up at 2-3 AM to say, I'm sorry, do you forgive me? We were children. And it was kind of like, mom, I'm trying to sleep, you know. SubhanAllah, do you forgive me? And then I remember on
one night, and this was August 30th of 2007, she walked into my room at 2 AM, she sat me down, and she said, I just wanted to let you know, I'm pleased with you.
And that if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes me away for some reason, I want you to continue and go ahead with your wedding which was just in a few months. My nikah was right before that. And subhanAllah, she started to give me her wasiya.
I said, mom, what are you talking about? Can you stop? I don't wanna hear all of this. She started to give me her wasiya because she knew the next day I was going to a youth camp in the masjid and I wasn't gonna be home for 3 days. Nothing was wrong with her.
She was fine. And subhanAllah, Ramadan was right around the corner and my mother was a pro at Ramadan. My father-in-law, Sheikh Hussam Mubarak, Sheikh Abul Abid Hafidhullah, he used to make a challenge.
He used to say, let's have a competition. Let's see who can read the Qur'an the most times in Ramadan. And I remember that previous Ramadan, a woman who could barely read and probably didn't have the best tajweed in the world.
Who only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could understand. And she finished reading the Qur'an 14 times in Ramadan. It was her life. It was everything about her. And my father told me that subhanAllah, those 3 days of her life were the happiest days of her life.
She was just smiling uncontrollably, laughing uncontrollably, saying alhamdulillah uncontrollably and nobody understood why. Until Monday morning when I was on my way to pick her up, she had another stroke in the closet. And this time she wouldn't get back up. And subhanAllah, I remember that week being the most unreal week of my life.
Her Final Days and Legacy
I remember at the janazah thinking to myself, how was it when the Prophetsalallahu alayhi wa sallam was buried? How is it that someone that's so amazing in your eyes, and she died on Laylatul Jum'ah, the night of Friday, alhamdulillah, another blessing upon her. And her janazah was after Salatul Jum'ah. And I remembered, how was it that they buried the Prophetsalallahu alayhi wa sallam? And I remembered that alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, she didn't have a single enemy in the world.
Wallahi ya akhwani wa akhawati, she did not know much. She didn't have much knowledge. But it was her character.
It was her character. And if you're wondering how I could put myself through that, I remember when I was sitting there and I was watching her being buried, and I think anyone who lost their parent understands. And I remembered Fatima radiyallahu anha asking Anas ibn Malik radiyallahu anhu, how did
you put dirt on the face of my father salallahu alayhi wa sallam? How could you bring yourself to a point where you could put dirt on the face of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam? And Anas radiyallahu anhu said, (وَاللَّهِ أَنْكَرْنَا قُلُوبَنَا - wallahi ankarna quloobuna.)
We denied our hearts, we pretend our hearts weren't there. We had to eliminate our hearts to be able to do that. And I think about her all the time.
For five years now, I've waited for the moment where I could tell her life story. A woman who had a possibility of becoming a nun or just a secular person who would drink alcohol just like everybody else in her family. But instead she drew close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and she never complained and she understood that whatever came to her was a means of elevation.
And whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you and I is a means of elevation. It's a means of bringing us close to Him. And wallahi there are legends that live amongst us and there are role models and heroes in your house.
Our Heroes at Home
Thank your parents if they brought you up in Islam. You better thank them for bringing you up in Islam. And I always, subhanallah, say that (مَا أَنَا إِلَّا حَسَنَةٌ مِنْ حَسَنَاتِهَا - ma ana illa hasanatun min hasanatiha.)
Anything good that I've ever done is only from her hasanat because I know that at the end of the day Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would not have allowed me to be here. Not everybody can convert to Islam and come back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So dear brothers and sisters, look for those heroes in your home.
Look for those people that you love. Look for the people that have that amazing character, that exalted character, that are always smiling, that have never harmed anyone and try to emulate that. It's easy to emulate the other stuff.
And remember your parents in your dua. Do not ever forget them. And remember the favor that they did for you if they brought you up in Islam.
Closing Dua
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to have mercy upon our parents. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive them. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant them al-firdaws.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to elevate them to the status of the messenger of Allahsallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the highest level of jannat al-firdaws. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to reunite us with our parents. And we ask Allah that if our parents are not Muslim, we ask Allah to guide them.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open their hearts to Islam. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive them as they brought us up. And they went through all of that burden.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not to allow them to suffer in the hereafter. Not even for a single moment. Allahumma ameen.
Jazakum Allah khayran. Aqoolu qawli hadha wa astaghfirullah li lakum. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.