“My Master, I appeal to You of my weakness...

"My Master, I appeal to You of my weakness..."

By Sheikh Omar Suleiman

Opening

اللهُ أَكْبَرُ

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

بسم اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى الرَّسُولِ الْكَرِيمِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ

Allah is the Greatest. Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Noble Messenger and upon his family and companions all together.

Imam Siraj has still got it, doesn't he? MashaAllah. You look just as good as you did when we were in Baltimore in 2002, MashaAllah. That was my first Dikna Convention to see you. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you. May Allah reward you. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow anything good that we have achieved to be in your scale of good deeds. As a community and as dua and as students of knowledge.

Because you are everyone's teacher here. May Allah bless you. And subhanAllah, the amount of time that I have isn't really enough to deliver the concept but I know that we still have more inshaAllah ta'ala to go.

And I know that everyone is here to listen to a variety of things. What I wanted to address, and there are common themes that we're constantly hearing throughout this convention. And alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, to see topics that are relevant, to see things that are current, are important.

Allah's Declaration Against Injustice

And when we talk about the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), when we talk about this concept of injustice and dealing with dhulm, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself saying:

(Sahih Muslim)

O my servants, I have made oppression, injustice, forbidden for myself. And I've made it forbidden for you. Do not wrong one another.

Imam Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah ta'ala, he said, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never other than this prohibits something upon himself. For Allah to distance himself from transgression and oppression, to a

point that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I have made it haram for me. The ultimate sole legislator, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala distances himself from dhulm and says, who are you then to wrong one another? Who are you then to carry out an injustice against your brother or sister in humanity or in faith?

Because we wrong one another out of a false illusion of power and authority. The tyrants of the world, both past, present and even future, think that they have the authority to wrong other people. And that's why the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), when he walked by a man once who was beating a servant, he said to him, Allah is more capable of doing that to you than you are to him. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) feared it for himself (عليه صلاة وسلام - alayhi salatu wa salam).

The Prophet's Fear of Injustice

We're talking about our Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and understanding the relevance of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) to our times and to our context. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) as Usaid ibn Hudair radiallahu anhu narrates, that one time the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he poked one of the young Ansar as he was laughing too hard, just to tell him to calm down a little bit. And Usaid says that that young man stood up to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and said, allow me to avenge myself.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) could have easily said, do you know who I am? I don't have time for your games right now. We're going through something. We're kind of in the middle of battle and important things. Can we do this later? Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he says to him, go ahead and poke back. Go ahead and do it.

And you know what he says back to him? He says, ya Rasulullah:

(Hadith)

You have a shirt on you. I don't have a shirt on me. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) lifts his shirt and the young man grabs the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and embraces his stomach and he says, ya Rasulullah, that's all I really wanted from you, ya Rasulullah.

But look at the fear of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and since it's a conference about Muhammad, can we say, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), please? I'm only seeing the imams moving their lips. (صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), peace and blessings be upon him. He feared it that much.

Uthman ibn Affan radiallahu anhu, because this was a culture now of fearing oppressing another being. Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu, at the age of 84 years old, khalifah Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), the khalifah of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he pinched a young man's ear and the young man looked at him and he told him, you hurt me. Uthman is an old man, could have said, shoo, just go along. But instead Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu says, pinch my ear back.

And the young man says, I'm a kid, I'm not gonna pinch your ear. He says, go ahead and pinch. And he insisted until the young man put his hands on his ears and he said, pinch harder.

Because the taking back, the revenge of this world is far less than the revenge of the hereafter. Go ahead and pinch harder. Hurt me so that I feel it, so that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't take me to account for that on the day of judgment.

That was the fear that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) put in the heart of his companions for wronging another human being.

Standing with the Oppressed

However, we go a step further. It's one thing to not wrong. It's another thing to stand with those who are oppressed and those who are wronged. To stand with the weak, to stand with the downtrodden, to stand with people that are oppressed, to stand with people who are not given their rights. And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) profoundly addressed this attitude in the companions as well.

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). He looked around at the companions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And you know a lot of times when we watch those movies, we're guilty of this too by the way, when we portray the companions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Just like Musa (عليه السلام - alayhi wa sallam) does not look like Christian Bale, alright? Sa'd ibn Haritha does not look like he looked like in the movie The Message.

We have changed the image of the companions as well. And the sahaba were not dressed very well when they first accepted Islam. If you were to see the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and his companions in Mecca, they were an abused, downtrodden group of people that supported the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

There were some Abu Bakrs, there were some Abdurrahman ibn Aus, but they were the exception, they were not the norm. People that had been abused their entire lives on the basis of their race, on the basis of their economic status, victims of tribalism, the brutal system of tribalism. Those were the people surrounding the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

You were looking at Abdullah ibn Umm Maktoum radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the blind poor man. You were looking at Bilal radiallahu ta'ala anhu, the muezzin of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), who was tortured in every imaginable way. You were looking at Khabbab ibn al-Arat.

You were looking at Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu, and Ibn Mas'ud was not this huge gallant warrior. Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu was number one from no lineage that we know of. In fact, his mother's name is Ummi Abd.

When you look at the history of Islam, the mother of Abdullah. We don't even know her name even though she was around. And Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu in his physical stature was so short that when Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala anhu saw him, Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala anhu kneeled down and he was eye to eye with him.

He sat on his knees. He got down in the position of tawarruq in salah that you sit down and they were eye to eye. That's who was with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). This was an abused group of people.

This was a people that had suffered before Islam and Islam empowered him. You had former thugs. You had people from the tribe of Ghaffar which was known for robbing people. You had all kinds of people around the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

Victory Through the Weak

And you know what? Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas who's a noble man, he looks around at these people and he's thinking to himself like, Wow! This is our ummah. And Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) looks at Sa'd and he sees that. And he says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

Does Allah give you victory or support except by virtue of your weak ones, of your vulnerable ones?

And the ulama interpret that statement in two ways. Number one, that those same people that you think are weak because weakness is a perception in our eyes. We think they're weak. They're not weak. Society might have tried to render them weak but they're not weak. Those same people that you look at and you belittle are the same people that Allah jalla jalaluh will establish the religion on their backs. And that's exactly what happens.

And you know what? Allah jalla jalaluh told the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) because we as human beings naturally target those of influence. And you know what? I want to underline this. We should not focus our da'wah only on people of influence.

Underline only. There is a place in Islam for doing da'wah to people in authority and people in power and people who hold influential positions. But we should not focus our da'wah only on them.

Why do I say that? Because Allah jalla jalaluh said it to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam):

Keep yourself patient with those people that might be perceived as weak but who call upon Allah jalla jalaluh day and night seeking Allah jalla jalaluh's pleasure, seeking His face, seeking Allah jalla jalaluh's glory and His help.

Those are the people that Allah jalla jalaluh will give victory to this religion through. And you know what's amazing? When the people of status started to enter into the religion, did the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) hold an award ceremony, give Bilal a medal, give Khabab a medal, and say, thank you for your services, but now we're gonna put other people in these positions? Absolutely not.

Bilal was always the mu'adhin of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu was the close friend of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) in Medina to a point that people thought he was from Ahlul Bayt, he was from the family of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) because of how close the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) kept him to him. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) didn't say, thank you guys, but now we have Umar ibn Khattab. Now we have other people that can take the role.

No. Because Allah jalla jalaluh brought greatness to those people through those people. And a lot of times we think that when we do da'wah to only people of influence, that's the only way this religion will be given glory.

And it's never been the case and it will not be the case today. And subhanAllah, if you looked at iqnas projects, one of them was the halfway house. And I've been at many fundraisers as iqn relief when they're going through the halfway house project and people are sitting there thinking themselves like, what are these people gonna do for us? Why should we try to provide an avenue for people that have been incarcerated to get back into society and to be empowered again? What are they going to do for us? SubhanAllah, think about that approach.

Think about that thought. Think about what your Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) would say to you. If you were to say, what are we gonna do with all these poor people?

And you know what? We've bought into this notion and this is part of our misunderstanding, our not understanding the cause of the oppressed and the cause of those who have been wronged for so long in this country that we've actually bought into the narrative that all those who have been incarcerated, all those young black men and women that have been incarcerated deserve to be there.

We bought into it. And that's why we have no compassion. And I would ask any one of you, would you dare do da'wah to a man named Satan? Would you do da'wah to a man named Shaytan? If you were to see Malcolm X, rahimahullah ta'ala, whose nickname at one point in his life became Satan, would you have bothered to give the man da'wah? Would you have bothered to give the man a chance? I'll take one Malcolm X over a hundred celebrities any day.

Would you give him a chance or would you just overlook him?

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

And the second meaning of that hadith, which is the more correct one as Al-Khattab says, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala judges a people by the way they take care of the oppressed amongst them. Allah will judge a people by the way they deal with their own vulnerable.

If the people turn their backs, and yes, it's from the greatest signs of the Day of Judgment. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) asked, who was the one that asked me about when the Day of Judgment is? Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

When trust is lost, then wait for the Day of Judgment. And they said, how is it possible that trust can be lost, Ya Rasulullah? He said, when people that don't deserve to be in leadership are placed in positions of leadership.

It's very convenient for us to think, that one day, everything is going to be okay, that the rulers will be just, the presidents will be just, the kings will be just, that all people who are in religious leadership will be moral and righteous and upright.

As Sufyan al-Thawri rahimahullah ta'ala said:

There are two groups of people. If they are righteous, then the entire Ummah will be righteous. If they are corrupt, then the entire Ummah will be corrupt.

He said الْمُلُوكُ وَالْعُلَمَاءُ - People who are in authority and the scholars. Those who are in a place of moral and religious authority. But that's not likely to happen.

It's happened very little in our Ummah's history in fact, where both of those classes were fully righteous and could be trusted and the Ummah could follow in their footsteps. Meaning we are left to ourselves. And we have to ask ourselves, how do we treat the poor amongst us? Where is our war on poverty? Where is our war on that zulm that's been committed against them? Because that's a transgression as well.

Where is our war on that? Where is our sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) when he used to make du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

O Allah, I ask You for doing good deeds, to abandon sins, and for the love of the poor.

Where is the love of the poor? Where is our looking to Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu anhu the man who felt like the cloth of the Ka'bah didn't need to be changed because poor people were more deserving of

having their clothes given to them. Where is the example of Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu anhu who wouldn't have a meal unless there was an orphan at the table.

Where is the example of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz the grandson who when he was passing away and the royalty of the world came to his door to accompany him, he chose to surround himself with the poor because he said these people are closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. These are the people I want to be around as I depart from this world.

Our Duty to Stand with the Oppressed

That's part of our religion. That's part of our iman to take up the cause of the vulnerable that when we go to any society, when we are within any lands, that whoever is oppressed in that land, whoever is being wronged, that becomes our cause by extension of our humanity and of our iman. As the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), and you know, think about this. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), all of the verses of caring for the poor and fighting transgression and fighting oppression, they didn't come in Medina.

They started in Mecca. They started in Mecca. The verse:

When the young girl who was buried alive is asked, for what reason were you killed? That's a Meccan verse.

That's late Mecca, early Medina. These are early messages, economic oppression, wronging people on the basis of their gender, wronging people on the basis of their race and on their tribes. These are Meccan messages.

And you know what? The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) when he was approached by a people who were being wronged. You know a man comes to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he says to him, Abu Jahl owes me money. And this is in Mecca.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) doesn't say to him, I've got bigger problems with Abu Jahl. You worry about your money. He's trying to kill me.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) takes his cause as his own. Because he knows that the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala comes through helping others that are being wronged and that are being oppressed.

When we are here in this society, when we are part and parcel of the fabric of this country, it is for us, upon us, to ally ourselves to be allies of those who are being wronged and those who are vulnerable no

matter who they are.

Addressing Systemic Injustice

And I know you've heard this multiple times throughout this convention and over the last few months. But dear brothers and sisters, to address what you perceive to be an unjust reaction to a system that is unjust without addressing the system, that is a form of injustice in and of itself. That's a form of dhulm in and of itself.

When you sit there and you talk about the riots without addressing what causes people to take to the streets and not involving yourself as a community or as an individual with those who are being systematically wronged and have been systematically wronged for so many years. That in and of itself is dhulm. That in and of itself is an injustice.

That's a transgression. That's your job. That's my job.

And let's stop with the appropriation nonsense. It's like, you know, subhanAllah, a friend of mine mentioned this today when we sit there and we say but we've got bigger issues to worry about. We've got other people being killed. We've got these people being killed. And we've got these people being wronged over there. And we've got these people being wronged over there.

That's like going to someone's funeral and saying I'm not going to grieve for you or pray janazah because I've got my own janazah to tend to. It makes no sense. It's not from our religion.

It's hypocritical. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) didn't do that. Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) never turned down the need of a person because his own needs, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), was more important at the time.

Every need needs to be addressed by us. Every single one of them. It's our job as a community. It's the sunnah of our Messenger, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), and our Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

The Prophet's Compassion in Times of Need

SubhanAllah, I want to leave you with a very beautiful narration from Anas ibn Malik radiallahu ta'ala anhu. You know, when we become distressed, when we find ourselves vulnerable, when we find ourselves in need of someone, what we usually turn to is we turn first and foremost to our outlets and we vent about how terrible our lives are.

We call the imam maybe. We go find someone that we can talk to, call our friends. Very few of us will call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first and foremost. Anas ibn Malik radiallahu ta'ala anhu, he says about the Messenger, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

He said, I've never seen anyone in my life with a haja, with a need, that he went to the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), with. And the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), turned away from him even if the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), was suffering himself.

When the sahaba would feel any hardship inside of themselves, when the sahaba felt like they needed someone to talk to, they knew they could go to the Messenger, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

When they felt like they needed some money, they needed some help, they knew they could go to the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). When they felt like, you know, things were getting tough on them in this world, they just needed to talk about life. They knew they could go to the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

When they were hungry, they knew they could go to the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), because the Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), though he himself was hungry, Rasulullah, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), would never turn them away. He'd never look away.

It's time for us to not look away.

Standing for Justice as True Patriotism

And you know, subhanAllah, I end with this in my last two minutes. You know, even when we speak about the civil rights champions of this country, when you speak about a Martin Luther King Jr. and the watered down narrative of MLK, the guy that only gave one speech in his life apparently, the I Have a Dream speech. Not the man that was considered too radical in the last year of his life that the NAACP distanced themselves from him.

Not the man that said America suffers from the triple threat of poverty, racism and militarism. Not the man who gave a speech called Breaking the Silence on the war in Vietnam. Not the man who was supposed to give a speech the day after he died called Why America Might Go to Hell.

I didn't say it. Martin Luther King Jr. said it. But you know what? Do we say that out of bitterness towards our country? Do we say that out of bitterness towards our society? Do we say that because we like chaos? No.

Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah ta'ala, he says:

Allah will establish a just nation even if it's a disbelieving nation, and Allah will destroy an oppressive nation even if it's a Muslim nation.

His student Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala, he says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never destroyed a nation because only it's theological disbelief. But Allah azza wa jalla says:

We destroyed nations when they became oppressive.

So when we stand up for those that are being wronged, systematically wronged, we are actually doing a service to our country. We're actually trying to save our country from ruining itself.

That's something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave to us and it's an obligation of iman and it's also what true patriotism is.

Closing Du'a

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us the people that stand for the rights of the oppressed, that stand for the rights of those who are being wronged to not make us ourselves transgressors or oppressors, not even by our silence. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not to make us a people who see wrong being committed in front of them and who abandon those people that are being wronged and who neglect those that are wronged.

We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the ability to do good, to avoid evil and for the love of the poor.

May Allah accept this reminder and guide us all to stand firmly with justice and against oppression. Ameen.