Quran and Islamophobia

If you think about this, dear brothers and sisters, every single time they stood up against the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and stood up against Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه and the Ibn Mas'ud of the world. Every time they tried to kill the message, they ended up giving it more life. They ended up giving the believers more resilience.

They ended up empowering the message. Because their response was a sign of their own defeat. Their response was the response of the weak-minded and the ignorant.

And that was a show that they were scared. And you know why they were scared? Because the Qur'an was coming to transform their society. They couldn't handle that.

They don't want a message that's going to actually change society, that's actually going to affect people. And so they tried the fear-mongering. And every single time, it ended up coming back against them.

And the Qur'an continued to flourish. And today, in that area, can you imagine next to the Kaaba, where a man was almost beaten to death because he recited the Qur'an. Think about that.

At what point in time is there not a person reciting the Qur'an next to the Kaaba today? As much as they tried to stifle that message, look what happened to it. You know why?

(Sahih al-Bukhari 3062)

Sometimes Allah gives victory to the religion through a transgressor, through a wicked man.

They think they're hindering the progress of this deen, and they're actually giving it more life.

They try to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah preserves it. It's still there.

Despite all the banning of Muslims in Mecca, despite banning the recitation of the Qur'an, the message lived on.

Because persecution will not stop this message. Persecution will not stop it. When Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم was covered in guts and filth, and his daughter Fatima had to wipe off the guts from his back.

And he said, don't worry, this message is going to reach each and every single household, and each and every single village, and each and every single tent. It will spread. It will reach.

Nothing will stop that message.

Contemporary Context: Civil Rights Heroes

Now I want to bring this to a current context. How many of you have heard of Martin Luther King Jr.? Raise your hand. If you haven't heard of Martin Luther King Jr., take your other hand and... How many of

you have heard of Malcolm X? Raise your hand. How many of you have heard of Medgar Evers? Raise your hand. Exactly.

I want to tell you about a man by the name of Medgar Evers. I actually did a middle school project on him in Louisiana. Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist in Mississippi.

And he used to fight for desegregation in schools, and he used to bring people to the polls, and bring people to the voter booths, and he fought for social justice, and he fought for desegregation against all odds. He was met with all sorts of violence, all sorts of threats, but that young man would not stop fighting for desegregation and for the rights of his people in Mississippi.

In 1963, at the age of 38 years old, Medgar Evers came home, and he pulled up into his driveway, and he was just coming from an activity, and he was actually wearing a shirt that said, "Jim Crow must be stopped."

And as he's in his driveway in Mississippi, a Ku Klux Klansman walks up to him and assassinates him in his own driveway at the age of 38 years old. Evers staggered for about 30 feet, they say, as he literally was bleeding to death. His family came outside, they took him to a local hospital, and that hospital did not accept people of color even if they were bleeding to death.

So he died. Two years later, Malcolm X, rahimahullah, at the age of 39 years old, he died. Three years later, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr., at the age of 39 years old, was killed.

All three of these men were assassinated before they lived to see the age of 40. And you might think to yourself, what a sad ending. Evers' wife went on to actually become the head of the NAACP, and she actually gave the invocation at President Obama's second inauguration.

The Power of Ideas

Evers has a comment that he made. That lives with me, and should live with each and every single one of us until today. He said that you can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.

You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. You can persecute people, but you can't stop the message. You can persecute Muslims, but you won't stop the Qur'an and the light of the Qur'an from reaching every corner of the earth.

You can assault the character of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. And you know what? It's only until recently that Islamophobes dare to insult the character of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Because never in history did anyone have the audacity to open their mouths about the character of the Prophet صلی الله عليه وسلم. But every time you open your mouth against him, you will only further expose people to his beauty. Those that need to find him, and those that crave the light of guidance will find it, and you can't stop it.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the meaning of:

Allah will give victory to the religion even if it's through a wicked man.

Even those that think they're fighting Islam and fighting against our religion and trying to tarnish the character, the beautiful character of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم all they are doing is they are causing us to historically institutionalize and fight bigotry in ways that we should have been doing a long time ago.

The gathering that you saw here just about an hour ago, the US Council of Muslim Organizations, that should have happened a long time ago. But sometimes adversity is what it takes.

Sometimes the Islamophobes are what we need to get ourselves out of our comfort zone. So you know what (الحمد لله - Alhamdulillah) for Islamophobia. Thank God for Islamophobia that causes us to get our acts together.

(الحمد لله - Alhamdulillah) for the Islamophobia that causes us to organize the way we're supposed to organize. (الحمد لله - Alhamdulillah) for the Islamophobia that causes us to develop a strong American Muslim identity in the face of xenophobia. But we have to send a clear message to these people and to these bigots that we are not fazed.

Standing Against Bigotry

We are not fazed. We have, (ما شاء الله تبارك الله - ma sha'a Allahu tabarak Allah) in Texas, armed white supremacist militia groups who ironically call us terrorists. Protesting in front of our masajid with assault rifles.

And they dip their bullets in bacon grease and a pig's blood so that if they shoot us, we can go straight to hell. And you know what, my six-year-old daughter had to see that. Our children are having to see that bigotry.

Our children are having to see an America that embraces a xenophobe, or at least a man who can effectively pretend like a xenophobe and normalize xenophobia in Donald Trump. Our children are having to see an America that accepts a person like that. But you know what, their bullets that are dipped in pig's blood and bacon grease aren't going to send anyone to hell.

But we have to stare people like that in the eye and say that your racism can go to hell. It's not welcome in our America. And whatever group it is, whether they wear the white robes and whether they're the Ku Klux Klan or whoever they are, we cannot show them that we are afraid.

We cannot show them that we are afraid. We are not aggressors. We are not transgressors. We are not people that want harm for the society. We are people in this mini-reconstruction of America that are pushing for the better vision of this country. A country that accepts and embraces differences.

A country that accepts every community. A country that moves forward. A country that will no longer be doomed by its ugly past. A country that will move away from it.

And even if they don't want to see it happen, it'll happen.

Whether they like it or not, it will happen, dear brothers and sisters, and we can't show fear.

We can't show insecurity. Don't let them see you scared. Don't let them see you afraid. Don't let them see you taking off your hijabs. Don't let them see you afraid to pray in public. Don't let them see you changing your names.

Don't let them see you hiding your Islam. Because if they let you go, then they'll move on to another group. And you will be responsible for that.

Your job is not just to deflect racism and xenophobia from your community, but from every community. So when you back away from your identity, then you're still allowing other people to be targeted for their identity.

A Powerful Example: The Sikh Community

And dear brothers and sisters, I want to leave you with this one saying, or not this one saying, it's actually an incident, subhanAllah, I've spoken about it on social media because it really deeply moved me.

Wallahi, it really moved me. I was up all night that night, and you don't have to believe that, but it really, really moved me to the core because it scared me. When I was at the World Religions Parliament, a Sikh man walked up to me.

And when he introduced himself to me, and I introduced myself to him, he said, I hope, he said that Islamophobia has made us Sikhs better Sikhs. I hope it's making you better Muslims. Islamophobia has made us Sikhs better Sikhs. I hope it's making you better Muslims.

That's a community, that's a community, that's had to struggle and face the ugliness of Islamophobia, and they're not even Muslim. What about you? What about me? What does that say about our community? What does that say about the way we should move forward?

What it tells us is that we need to challenge bigotry. Not with ugliness and hatred, but by reciting the Qur'an, and by showing that the message isn't going anywhere.

How the Message Will Manifest

And you know how the message is going to manifest itself? It's not going to manifest itself with big scary jihadis coming into your home, and shooting you with zabeeha meat, you know, zabeeha meat bullets or something like that. That's not how it's going to manifest itself.

Not with terrorist training camps, and you know, not with any type of slavery coming back, no, none of that stuff. You know how it's going to manifest itself? With feed the homeless programs, with people going out and serving their communities, with Muslims being unafraid and unfazed to contribute to this community, even as they're told they're not really a part of it.

You are a part of it, the bigots will die out, the xenophobia will die out, that's what's not welcome in our country, and we collectively have to stand against that, and realize the Quran has faced bigger challenges than this, our deen has faced bigger challenges than this, Muslims has faced bigger challenges than this in the past, but here we are, 1400 years later, with a conference about the Quran.

Closing Du'a

We ask Allah to make us people of Quran, and to join us with our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم in the highest level of Jannatul Firdaus, and to grant us firmness, and to grant us sincerity, and to grant us the strength to continue, and we ask Allah to rectify us, and to rectify through us, and to guide us, and to guide through us, Allahumma ameen.