Islamic Duties and Civic Obligations

Islamic Duties and Civic Obligations

Omar Suleiman - American Muslims

15th MAS ICNA Convention

Opening

"[Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and there is no aggression except against the oppressors. And the [best] outcome is for the righteous. O Allah, send blessings and peace upon Your servant and messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, and upon his family and companions, and grant them abundant peace.]"

The Story of the Elderly Nun in Abyssinia

Dear brothers and sisters, I want to start off with a hadith, with a story that is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari that's very powerful. Jabir رضي الله تعالى عنه says that when those who migrated to Abyssinia returned to Medina and they sat with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم asked those that migrated to Abyssinia.

He said, tell me about these strange things that you have seen in the land of Abyssinia. Tell me what rubbed you wrong. Tell me what shocked you.

Tell me what you saw in Abyssinia that was really strange. So they said, Ya Rasulullah, while we were once sitting, there was an elderly nun that was walking. And she was carrying a vessel of water on her head.

And I want you to imagine this sight. This elderly nun carrying this vessel of water on her head that she worked so hard to go and get. And as she fetched her water, she is walking and this large vessel is on her head and she's presumably taking it back to her family, to her tribe.

And as she's walking, a young man stands up and he puts his hand on her chest and he shoves her. And when he shoves her, she falls to her knees and the vessel falls off of her head and it shatters. And she looks up at that young man while she's on her knees.

And the young man is laughing and the people are watching and not doing anything about it. And she says to him, you will come to know, oh young fool, when Allah sets up His footstool and He gathers the first and the last of His creation and the hands and the feet speak of that which they used to do. You will come to know your situation and mine.

The Prophet's Response and Analysis

When the companion said this to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم: said:

"[You have spoken the truth, you have spoken the truth, you have spoken the truth.]"

"She spoke the truth, she spoke the truth, she spoke the truth."

Then he said:

"How can Allah honor a nation that does not protect its weak from its strong?" (Sahih Bukhari 2465, Sunan Abu Dawud 3047)

How can Allah ever put any goodness in a nation that allows the strong of that nation to take advantage of the weak? And when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that, there are so many lessons we can derive from this. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did not say that the problem was the young man.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that the problem is the nation that allowed for a young man like that to feel that he was comfortable enough to do that to that woman with no repercussions. The problem was not the young man. The problem was the society that condoned the young man's behavior by its silence.

That allowed for this young man to carry out that (ظُلْم - zulm) carry out that transgression and not do anything about it. And our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud 4338, Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2168)

"Verily, when people see evil and they don't do anything to change that evil, it is only a matter of time before all of them are consumed by that evil because they were passive and they let it go."

The Need for Self-Reflection, Not Just Image Management

Dear brothers and sisters, when we speak at these conventions, when we speak at these conferences, too often we talk about changing the narrative and not enough about actually changing ourselves. Too often we talk about improving our image and not actually improving who we are as a people. And in the process of that, of trying to construct an image that's acceptable, acceptable to the establishment, acceptable to those who want to see our religion watered down until it's no longer what it stands for.

In the process of trying to construct that image, we're losing ourselves and we're losing our purpose. And we're forgetting to ask ourselves these critical questions. Who are we? What do we stand for? Have we stood on the side of the disenfranchised in this country? Have we stood on the side of the oppressed in this country? Or have we allowed those same stereotypes and the racism that's employed against the oppressed in this country to not only be perpetuated in our communities as well, but to be parroted and to carry out the same (ظُلْم - zulm), the same transgression that we are complaining about today?

Standing with the Marginalized

Have we allowed for racism to not only persist in societies outside of our community, but inside our community as well? What have we done for the marginalized in this country? And there's a great saying that I want us to deeply reflect on.

I'm not interested in whether or not you've stood with the great. I'm interested in whether or not you've sat with the broken. There are people in this country that we have sat idly by and watched targeted.

And we complain about stereotypes against our community. We complain when the Palestinian cause, when people who are simply trying to exist in their homeland are portrayed as terrorists and the media portrays them in a certain light. But we have no problem when the same media portrays African-Americans as thugs so that they can perpetuate their injustice against them.

We have problems when people use the term radical Islam. But we have no problem when people continue to use the false statistics of black-on-black crime to take away from police brutality and mass incarceration and the targeting of African-Americans that is not new. This is historical.

We have problems when it's our community. But what have we done for other communities? And of course we need to remember, dear brothers and sisters, that black and Muslim are not mutually exclusive. It's one-third of our community.

The Erasure of Black Muslim Leadership

And we have continued to erase our leadership, to erase our membership, to neglect inner-city masajid, to neglect the da'wah to the most critical component of our community. And when we stand up and we say we stand in solidarity, what does that even mean? Are we just trying to shift the narrative? Or are we changing our masajid? Are we changing the way we speak about these issues? Are we changing the way we stand with people or against them?

Defining Our Path Forward

And so we have to ask ourselves, who are we? What is the American Muslim community? What is our path to success? Is it being accepted and normalized? Is it taking great pictures? Is it being able to say that we're just as American as you?

And submitting ourselves to a shallow, narrow-minded form of patriotism that does not allow for critical thinking or questioning the actions of this government? If the only way we are acceptable in this country is if we buy into the military industrial complex, and if the only way politicians speak about us is as tools in the war on terror and subjects of national security, then they can find someone else to experiment with. That's not who we are.

The Example of Muhammad Ali

That's not what our community is about. We just finished eulogizing Muhammad Ali and burying the greatest Muslim American that ever walked this land. And if we don't act like Muhammad Ali and raise the convictions that Muhammad Ali raised, then we will continue to be reduced and we will continue to have our Islam defined by other than us.

If we allow fear to drive us to continue to do away with notions of our faith, that others find problematic because of their ignorance and because of their racism and their bigotry, rather than standing boldly and explaining and defining those concepts and showing them in motion and in action, and how they contribute to the betterment of our society, then we will slowly see our identity disappear. It's our Islam.

Confidence in Our Faith

And we are confident today and we are not afraid and we know that time is on our side and more importantly than that, Allah سبحانه وتعالى is on our side.

We know that we don't have to shy away. We don't have to shy away from our faith. We need to explain it.

And more important than explaining it, is demonstrating it. And we will not allow for our Islam to be defined by anyone but us. We will not allow for our Islam to be defined by a select group of people that are deemed safe Muslims.

We will not allow our Islam to be defined by some corrupt, oil-rich dictatorship in the Middle East that supports military coups and human rights abuses. We will not let them shove their Islam down our throat. It's our Islam to define.

It's our religion to define. And if you think that by continuing to take away from this religion and continuing to shy away from what it calls you to, and by continuing to lose our identity, if you think that Michael Flynn, who believes that Islam is a cancer and a political ideology that is masquerading as a religion, if you think that's going to make us more acceptable to him or to the bigots that are taking this White House, you're wrong. It's not going to change anything.

They will see all of us as problematic. Now is the time, dear brothers and sisters, now more than ever, to stand up and to define ourselves. To show our Islam in motion.

Standing with the Oppressed

To stand with the oppressed and with the vulnerable. You know, dear brothers and sisters, Dr. Martin Luther King, when he stood against the Vietnam War, many in the Black community did not want him to take that stance. He wrote about it.

They didn't want him to be a part of that anti-war movement. They wanted him to focus. But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that there is no way that you can stand against one form of injustice to the exclusion of others.

If you're going to condemn one form of injustice, you need to condemn all forms of injustice. If you're going to condemn the government targeting one group of marginalized people, then you need to condemn them targeting another group of people. And be consistent.

Our Islam Calls for Comprehensive Justice

Yes, it is my Islam. It is my Islam that causes me to stand in horror when a Christmas market in Germany is targeted. And it's also my Islam that causes me to stand in horror when a wedding in Yemen is targeted.

It doesn't matter if it's a drone or a truck. Innocent people die. Innocent people have their lives taken away.

So it's my Islam It's my Islam to talk about Gitmo and it's my Islam to talk about mass incarceration in this country. All of that is part of our call. All of that is part of our religion.

Dr. King's Words on Violence and Silence

And Dr. King said, I knew that I could never again raise any voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest perpetrator of violence in the world today. My own government for the sake of those boys for the sake of this government for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under violence I cannot be silent. I cannot be silent.

We cannot afford to be silent today. And if we want an Islam that teaches political maturity that teaches people to take legitimate grievances and to channel them in a productive way, then we cannot shove quietism down anyone's throats. That's not what our call is.

The Hadith on Changing Evil

Our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Sahih Muslim 49)

"Whoever amongst you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand. If he can't do so, then let him change it with his tongue. And if he can't do so, let him hate it in his heart. And that's the weakest of Iman."

Our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, if the only thing that you can do to an unjust oppressor is to speak a word of truth in the face of that oppressor, then you do it. That means something.

Because at least you say that you will not represent me. That I will not stand silently and let this happen. That because I love this country, because I want this country to succeed, then I will not stop calling it out when it takes actions that are destructive to it, that will cause this country to foil.

A Time for Reconstruction

That if this is a time for reconstruction in our nation, when we have a Twitter troll that's taking office, who I refuse to call President Trump. We'll call him Donald. When we have a xenophobe, a misogynist, a racist, a bigot, a Twitter troll taking office, we cannot afford to not capitalize on this moment, to rally with many Americans in this country, the majority of this country, who do not want to see the nation go down this path.

Muhammad Ali's Message to America

And our message to those who don't think we're American enough. And our message to those that tell us we need to neuter our religion more. And our message to those who tell us that our Islam is radical because we speak up against this stuff.

And a message to those who say that unless you renounce this and you renounce that, you will not be accepted in this land. We respond with the words of Muhammad Ali, I am America, I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me.

He said he's black, confident, cocky, my name, not yours, my religion, not yours, my goals, my own, get used to me. We're not going to shy away.

Peace Through Justice

Dear brothers and sisters, with the few minutes that I have, I want us to reflect deeply on this statement.

Peace is not the absence of tension. Peace is the presence of justice. We are going to make noise in these next few years, not for the sake of our community, but for the sake of all oppressed communities and vulnerable communities.

Building Alliances

There are many allies that are out there. Many people that are out there, that if they know you and if you have stood with people and if you are there in the support and in the service of people that will not allow your community to be targeted. There are many people that are ready to embrace the Muslim community and as pathetic of a job as we have done with accommodating African Americans in our own masajid, in our own communities, people that are at the head of that movement of Black Lives Matter have reached out with open hands and open hearts and voiced our concerns.

And we need to reciprocate that. And we need to understand that just as we expect people to stand for us, we need to stand for them. And it starts with getting to know people.

It starts with building relationships. It starts with defining yourself. If we are sick of people that don't truly represent our community, representing us in places that they have no business being.

If we're sick of that, then let's take our seats at the table. Let's take our seats at the table unapologetically. Let's be there and let's say what we need to say.

And let's stand for what we need to stand for. If we are tired of people throwing our community under the bus from within and from without, then let's define ourselves. If we are tired of Islamophobes overwhelming the media with untrue news about us, with false lies about us, targeting our leaders and targeting our organizations, then let's build alliances with people who will stand up and say that's not who they are.

Opening Our Masajid

That's not who they are. If we don't have people that know us, if we don't have people that know that we are there in the service of the vulnerable, then we too will be a forgotten community. Then we too will be left behind.

And we need to, dear brothers and sisters, more than any time in history, open the doors of our masajid. Open up our discussions. Be critical thinkers.

Islam as a Comprehensive Way of Life

Now is not the time to shy away from our Islam. Yes, Islam is not a political ideology, but Islam is a comprehensive ideology that calls you to act ethically with your politics. Islam is wholesome, it's comprehensive, and when Malcolm came back from Mecca, this is very powerful.

When Malcolm returned from Mecca, Malcolm X did not say that I found a religion that removed racism from me. Malcolm did not say that I feel so much better after hajj. Maybe you all should do hajj too.

Malcolm said that Islam has a solution for racism in America. Not only is my religion acceptable, my religion has solutions. My religion inspires me to uphold ethics and values in this society to protect the vulnerable.

Allah's Honor for Nations

And how can Allah honor a nation that allows its predators, that allows its strong ones to feast on its poor and not do anything about it. So we stand here, dear brothers and sisters today, and I am proud of the organizers, and I am proud of the people that have done so much to make these programs happen. But you know who else I'm proud of? I'm proud of the people that will not stand here on stage today, but that have been effective community organizers that have made their masajid more welcoming and accommodating.

I'm proud of those that have fought racism, that have been on the front lines of combating racism and poverty, and combating the military industry, combating all of these injustices that will never share this stage. I am proud of the converts who no matter how much we have failed them over and over and over again as a community, they're still here, and they're still wearing their Islam proud in this society.

The Hadith Against Despair

I end with the hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم because this is important.

He said:

"Whoever says the people are helpless, hopeless, they're done. Whoever says that Canada, no reason to fight anymore, it's only a matter of time, the world hates us, it's all collapsing, the ummah is done, be unproductive, be idle, lay down, accept the situation. Those people that say those comments are the ones that render the ummah helpless, and the ones that render the ummah hopeless." (Sahih Muslim 2623)

Trust in Allah with Action

We are a people, dear brothers and sisters, that do not use (تَوَكُّل - tawakkul) as an excuse for our laziness, do not use trust in Allah سبحانه وتعالى as a deflection from our own obligations and responsibilities to society. We are a people that go out there and engage and stand for that which is right and know that the results and success only belong to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and in him we have put our trust, and we know, we know, that if we suffer in this cause, if we suffer in the cause of that which is good, then it is still success, and we're happy with that, and we're proud of that, as long as we can stand before Allah سبحانه وتعالى and say, we did our part, we did our part, then that's good enough for us, but we have to do our part.

Closing Dua

May Allah سبحانه وتعالى enable us, may Allah سبحانه وتعالى guide our leadership, guide our communities, guide our masajid, guide our imams, guide our born Muslims, guide our reverts, guide all of this community, every single part of it, to do that which is upright, to stand for that which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم stood.

May Allah سبحانه وتعالى allow us to be, to live up to the title of witnesses for justice, for all people. اللهم آمین

جزاكم الله خيراً. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته