Trayvon Martin Solidarity Khutbah

The Danger of Hubris and The Murder of Trayvon Martin

Opening Praise and Testimony

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we seek His help, and we seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him. And whosoever He leads astray, none can find for him a guiding ally.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon him and his family and his companions.

Quranic Reminders to the Believers

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and created from it its mate, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, in Whom you ask for help and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the righteous word. It will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.

We praise Allah. And we beseech Him, invoke Him to send His peace and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad. And upon his community, his companions, and his family until the end of time.

The Command to Establish Justice

Allah says to the believers in the Qur'an, He orders us to be just, to stand for justice. He says in the fourth chapter of the Qur'an:

O you who believe, be those who carry and stand for justice.

Whether against yourself, your close relatives, or your family, your children. And Allah in Surat Al-Hadeed, He says:

Indeed, we sent Prophets, and we equipped them with books, we revealed books to them. And we gave them the scale, so that people could stand for justice.

Imam Ibn Taymiyyah said, that the goal behind sending Books and Prophets was that people could establish justice and live just lives.

The Treasure of the Prophet's Hadith

We've been talking about this beautiful Hadith of the Prophet for a few weeks. And the prize is still there, whoever memorizes it first, is going to get a nice gift from us. And the Prophet referred to this Hadith as a treasure. And this is a beautiful comparison. Because that implies that you have to work for it. And then once you work for it, you have to protect it. Because a treasure is something that requires work.

Everyone here loves Pirates of the Caribbean. And you saw the effort that's put forth to procure a treasure. But greater than that is the Sunnah of the Master of the first and the last. And it's a treasure, wallahi. And it's a treasure for the hearts. And the Prophet also compared it to gold. Because gold is something that Allah has created that will last. Just as his Sunnah, Allah gave us the Sunnah. And the Sunnah is protected. It's protected by Allah and it will last. And either can only be destroyed by human beings. And we ask Allah to protect us from innovation.

Beginning with Ourselves Before Condemning Others

And today is an important day. I'm wearing a hoodie for a reason. I'm sure some people are saying, how on earth can an imam wear something like this? Well actually, there's actually no conditions for the dress of an imam. Except that he's subjected to the general conditions of a Muslim male's dress as found in Islam.

And we're going to talk about the case of this young boy who was killed in Florida. 17-year-old boy who was armed with Skittles and iced tea. And was killed by a person who had been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer. But before we do so, we talk about oppression and wrongdoing. We should always start with ourselves first.

Because we can decry the occupation of Palestine. The occupation of Kashmir. Or the oppression that happened to this young boy and his parents. But first we have to start with the occupation of our souls. Are our souls occupied by something? And are we oppressors of ourselves? Through disobeying Allah or in our homes, how do we treat people? We can denounce Bashar Assad for being an autocrat. But if we're autocrats in our home, then we're the greatest of hypocrites.

Hated to Allah that we say what we don't do.

The Sacred Hadith on Oppression

And we take some time to reflect on the words of the Prophet. And this is one of the most honestly, most beloved hadith to me personally. And this hadith is a hadith that the scholars... You know, Imam Ibn Jawzi said, this hadith disturbs me. Like this hadith shakes me. That's the effect of it. And this is a hadith Qudsi that the Prophet narrates from his Lord:

(Sahih Muslim 2577)

Oh my servants, I have forbidden oppression upon Myself.

And Allah says to the agency of his Prophet. And this is an important note. If Allah wanted, He could be an oppressor. If He wanted, He could oppress us all. But we say that this is from His favor and His generosity. Out of His benevolence and mercy, He made it forbidden for Himself to practice oppression.

In the Quran, Allah says that He will not harm His servants.

Allah will not engage in any type of oppression, even if it's an atom's weight of oppression, meaning none at all.

(Sahih Muslim 2577)

And I have made it forbidden for you to practice amongst yourselves. So do not be practitioners of wrong.

And we'll get to that hadith in the second khutbah.

The Danger of Spiritual Arrogance

But what I've noticed is a scary pattern in this community. And I've only been here three months, seems like it's been a long time, it's been an incredible run, mashallah, may Allah extend it and may Allah keep us all humble and sincere upon the sunnah. But I hear things sometimes and not just in Boston and other communities I've been to where people will say, you know what, I'm not coming back here anymore. Or, you know, I'm upset with this, I'm not coming back.

And this is a symptom of a spiritual illness. As though we think we can somehow harm Allah. Or somehow that the masjid needs us. Where in fact it's the opposite. We are an absolute impoverishment in front of our Lord. All

of our benefits, all of the things that can benefit us, all of the interests, all of these things are coming directly from Allah.

We Are All Lost Without Allah's Guidance

And that's why He continues in the hadith, He says:

(Sahih Muslim 2577)

O My servants, every one of you is astray, except for the one who I guided. So ask Me for guidance, and I will guide you.

And this station is an important station that the heart reaches. And that's the station of complete reliance. That's the station of feeling reliant on Allah for everything. Allah says in surah Fatir:

O mankind, you are impoverished to Allah.

A Personal Lesson in Complete Reliance

And I learned this verse the hard way. 10 years ago, I had a 104 fever. I was rushed to the hospital. They told me, we might have to put you in a coma. Because if your fever gets any stronger, you're gonna start to go into like seizures. And I said to them, what's wrong with me? That time I was a lot slimmer too. I said, what's wrong? I'm in shape. I'm like 6'4", 6'5".

They said, it's a bacteria in your foot that wants to kill you. I said, subhanAllah, a bacteria can do all of this? And they gave me these nuclear antibiotics. My leg turned red, got hot, and all of that infection started coming out of my leg. And I told the brother, man, bring a Quran. That's what happens. When the boat rocks, everyone gets serious. He says, man, bring the Quran. Wallahi, he brought the Quran. I opened it. The verse:

O mankind, you are impoverished to God.

And that verse was there. And Allah, and this is one of the greatest forms of oppression we can engage in on a personal level to ourselves. When we feel that worship needs me. I don't need worship. The masjid needs me. I don't need the masjid. In fact, what we're saying is, Allah needs me. I don't need Allah. And that's disbelief.

The Self-Inflicted Pharaoh

And when it happens to the heart, the person becomes a self-inflicted Pharaoh. They become Pharaoh on

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guidance. This is the general guidance that all of us have been gifted with because the word guidance is from gift. It's a gift from God to the heart. But then we have what's called detailed guidance, which is the circumstantial guidance.

How do we make sense of the world that we live in now? How do I make sense of my job in the financial district or the academy where it's so competitive? Or in the hood where it seems like there's a glass ceiling above my head. I can't get a job, man. I can't even go to school. How do you make sense of that? That's called detailed guidance. And that's why we constantly, continually ask Allah for that. No less than 17 times a day as Muslims, when we say:

Guide us to the straight path. (Quran 1:6)

We're not asking to be guided to Islam. We're already Muslims. But as Ar-Razi said, may Allah have mercy on him, at that moment in time, we are asking for the guidance to help us continue with the challenges of life that we face every day. Help us to interpret our life in a way that will lead us towards You, that will lead us to feel impoverished to You.

And that's why when we sneeze, they say the sunnah is to say:

May Allah have mercy on you.

This is sunnah. But to answer is obligatory:

May Allah guide you and rectify your condition.

Why? Because of the importance of guidance. And the Prophet ﷺ in Qunoot used to say:

O Allah, guide us among those You have guided. (Sunan Abu Dawud 1425)

Even though he was the messenger of Allah and even though his companions, may Allah be pleased with them, they continually ask for guidance in different situations so that they're able to make sense of the life that's around them at that moment in time.

The Masjid Needs No One - We Need It

And for us that becomes more important because we don't have revelation coming to us right now in front of us. So when we ask Allah for guidance after being guided to Islam that's a sign of our ultimate impoverishment to

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Him. We don't need to guide anything from Islam. Islam is what is our source of guidance. So I was shocked when I heard people somebody got upset the other day because we hired someone. They weren't happy with who we hired. It's not your business who we hired. I don't go to your job and ask you, who did you hire? And then they said, I'm never coming back here again.

SubhanAllah. The patient doesn't run out of the emergency room saying I'm never coming back here again. So it is we who need the masjid. It is we who need Allah. But when we confuse that, when the issues in the heart become sick and we feel that it's the other way around, this is one of the greatest forms of oppression of the soul.

And Allah continues and He says, none of you, and this is the beautiful point here, you will never reach a point where you can harm Me. And you will never reach a point where you can benefit Me, Allah. It's you who needs Him and me who needs Allah. So we ask Allah to grant us complete reliance and to bring us closer to Him, the All-Compelling, and to keep us firm upon the truth. I say these words and seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for you, so seek His forgiveness, indeed He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Second Khutbah: Opening Our Hearts

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala sayyidina rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man walah. We ask Allah to give us expansion of the chest. We ask Allah to open up our hearts.

21 years ago, I would walk by a mosque and hope I could go inside. But I didn't think I could because I wasn't Muslim. So I find it saddening when I see people say about any masjid, I'm never going back there again. I can't wait to leave. I can't wait to pack up and bounce. You will not hurt Allah. And you will not hurt this masjid.

SubhanAllah, in almost two and a half months, almost 40 people took shahada here.

Allah says:

We will replace you with other people. (Quran 47:38)

No one is not replaceable except our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Two Types of Oppression

And that takes us to the first part of the hadith, of oppression. And the scholars said there's two types of oppression. We addressed the first one in the first khutbah, which is the oppression done internally:

Say, O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. (Quran 39:53)

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And that type of oppression is mentioned in this verse I just read, can be removed by repenting to Allah.

Repentance is the sign of impoverishment. To flee to Him with our sin. But the second is the oppression that happens amongst ourselves.

The Case of Trayvon Martin

And that takes us to why I'm wearing this and actually I have to do this because I promised I would do this in the second khutbah. We are wearing hoodies today in solidarity with this young brother from Florida, Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed last week. He's only 17 years old. And the reason he was shot and killed, one of the reasons was because he was wearing a hoodie.

Now, this should invoke a certain sentiment in the hearts of Muslims because our community is also oppressed in the society to some degree from a civil rights angle. We're the ones who get stopped in airports. We're the ones who can't travel to Canada simply because of a religious affiliation. And 9-11 has weakened us. Just like this week in France. These are horrible things but I don't have anything to do with it. I know Ben and Jerry's. I don't know Bin Laden. But we became so apologetic that we've allowed ourselves to be pushed around. And all of this falls back into a civil rights message.

That this young boy was shot and killed. His English teacher said about him that he was an A&B student and his specialty was cheerfulness. He weighed 140 pounds and the man who killed him weighed 240 pounds. The man who killed him was armed with a 9mm and this young 17-year-old African-American male was armed with Skittles and iced tea. And until now, this man has not been arrested.

The Injustice of Different Standards

Now, that's interesting because just yesterday, Kim Kardashian, may Allah guide her and protect us from her. I had a sister tell me I want to follow Kardashian. I said, follow Muhammad. No Botox. Yesterday, Kim Kardashian was hit with a bag of flour and powder. So, a woman, she was walking down the red carpet. A woman jumps out with a sack and hits her with a bag of flour. And immediately, the woman's arrested.

Apprehended by the cops. Taken to jail. Still in jail. Hasn't got bail because there's no charge yet. So, she's just being held for 24 hours.

We live in a society where a 17-year-old man can be killed. Who on his cell phone was asking for help. Who witnesses, three witnesses say we heard him asking for help. Calling for help. Who the police on the phone told Zimmerman, leave him alone. Don't follow him. He's killed. Until now, the man is free.

What This Means for Muslims

What does that mean for us as Muslims? Number one, you can't judge a book by its cover. And we have this in our community. We have a sick racism in our community. And it manifests itself in a sick way. We oppress each other when it comes to marriage. Our children love somebody who doesn't look like we look. Is not from the

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same village that we're from. Doesn't speak the same language that we speak. Or eats a little different type of food than we eat. And we say no.

Not because of the deen. We say no, not because of the deen. We say no, because of the worldly matters. And then the worldly matters come back and whoops our tail. Because we wonder why our kids get lost. We wonder why our kids go astray. I don't understand why little Fatima got a girlfriend. Well, Muhammad from Syria wanted to marry her, but since she wasn't from Syria, you said no. And now she's hanging out with Usher. And Usher ain't worried about talking to daddy. He's not worried about talking to you or me. And that's a form of racism in our community. A sense of racial pride. Where pride should be with our obedience to Allah.

The Multi-Ethnic Character of Boston Masjids

Number two. That this masjid and other masajid like Masjid Noor, Masjid Al-Quran, Masjid Al-Hamdulillah, Imam Farooq. A young brother came to me and said something powerful. Understanding the racial history of Boston is important. That these are the only centers of worship in the city of Boston that's multi-ethnic. Where you see whites, blacks, light-skinned folks, Arabs, Somalis, Sudanese, Malaysians and Turks under one roof. And that shows you the power of Allah. That we can transcend that when it comes to Him.

So this young boy was shot and killed in cold blood. And we wear the hoodie today in solidarity with him and his family. And we say a special prayer for him and his family. He lost a 17-year-old child, man. 17-year-old boy is killed. It takes one man to change the world by the will of Allah. And the authorities dragged their feet initially. Today, President Obama said, if I had a son, it would look like this young boy. Allahu akbar.

Engaging America on Its Own Terms

But on a civil rights front, and I've said this a lot as I finish. We have to begin to engage America on America's situations and realities. We cannot just simply live in a world that doesn't exist. The Prophet went to the fairs, man. The Prophet knew the people that he was around and he spoke to the challenges that faced him. He did not only change the theology of the Arabs. He benefited them sociologically. He benefited the cause of marriage, the cause of inheritance. He answered questions that they had. He had a swamp drained in Medina because it was a health crisis for the people,.

Don't Judge by Appearance

So what does Islam say about judging a book by a cover? We have a young group of brothers who come in the mosque dressed like this all the time. Just don't wear Miami Heat and the Los Angeles team, please. Because I know what that means. Leave that in the street. And some of those young brothers came to me. The first week I was here, beautiful young men came to me and said, Suhaib, man, we don't come to the masjid anymore. I said, why? I said, I went dressed like this and one of the uncles got on to me. He says, Suhaib, I'm not a gang member. I don't belong to a gang. I don't smoke weed. I don't have a little 25 in my pocket. This is just how I dress. Can I come to the mosque? I said:

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The masjid belongs to Allah. (Quran 72:18)

The Story of the Sister Without Hijab

And some people might come to the mosque without hijab. Without proper dress code. There was a sister one day outside of our masjid crying, man. Because she saw the sign about dress code. She said, I'm born Muslim all my life but no one ever taught me any of these things. And my mother died today. I've come here to cry for my mother. To pray but I don't have a scarf. Can I go in? Am I allowed in the mosque without this?

And Alhamdulillah, brother Abrar, our office assistant from Harvard Divinity School, came to her and said, you know, this is the mosque of God. It's not the mosque of Suhaib. You can come and grieve all you want. And then she came, put on the scarf, started praying and supplicating to her Lord. So we have to also exercise. We don't like to be racially or religiously profiled. But we can also not racially or religiously profile others. So we ask Allah to grant us a sense of balance.

Prayers for Those in Need

We have a brother who was in a car crash this weekend who is in a very serious condition. We ask Allah to cure him and to help him. Also our brother Mahmood, his daughter Jawahir. We grieve the loss of Trayvon Martin but closer to home we grieve the loss of Jawahir, his young daughter who died this weekend, this week from asthma. We ask Allah to make her a protection for him from the fire as well as his wife.

We ask Allah to bless this community to realize that our greatest success is to be impoverished to Allah. That the greatest richness, the greatest accomplishment we can ever achieve is to feel a need of Allah. The only reason that people commit sins is for that split moment they feel they don't need Allah. There's a split moment where the brother says, you know what, this spliff right here is going to benefit me more than Allah. We seek refuge in Allah. Or this man right here, this woman right here is going to benefit me more than Allah. Or this haram transaction is going to benefit me more than Allah. Or being mean and oppressive to other people is going to benefit me more than Allah.

Why would Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, say: whoever fears Allah, his anger will never become apparent to the people.

The Story of Imam Al-Maturidi

And we should realize that oppression left unabated will create havoc. And we have a beautiful example of this from Imam al-Maturidi, may Allah have mercy upon him, one of the imams of Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama'ah. Who in Samarqand, Ibn Saman came to conquer Samarqand. And he sent a letter to Imam al-Maturidi who was very old at that time. And he said to him, we have come to take it from you. Because they were under the leadership of the Khalifa at that time.

So Imam al-Maturidi, Abu Mansur was very old. Listen to his answer. He said, increase us in oppression.

Continue to oppress us and we will increase our prayers in the night. Then the man, he laughed at him and he left. And a few days later, Ibn Saman was found dead. And in his body was an arrow and written on the arrow was this poem:

He oppressed. And for the oppressor is a spear waiting for him.

That will come to him from the Qadr of Allah and the death that's been written for him.

An arrow that came, or a spear that came from the hands of the old women who prayed in the night that was sent to him from their dua.

And the Prophet said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 2448)

I warn you of the supplication of the oppressed.

Because there's no curtain, there's no barrier between that and Allah.

Oppression is Oppression Wherever It Is Found

So we see Trayvon Martin, we see Syria, we see Egypt, we see Libya, we see our own situation here where our civil liberties, we see the New York Police Department out of control with the Muslims. And we have to be able to loop all that together and realize that oppression is oppression wherever it is found. So we ask Allah to establish us in His obedience and His worship.

Closing Supplications

We ask Allah to make us enriched by feeling impoverished to Him. We ask our Lord to display our sins before Your mercy. And we seek Your forgiveness. We ask Allah to bless the people of Syria. We ask Him to put them under His divine protection. We ask Him to help them with His great strength. As we ask Him to bless the oppressed all over the world no matter where they are, no matter what religion they follow, to remove oppression from the people and replace it with justice.

We ask Allah to strengthen the family of Trayvon Martin, to guide them to the right vision of what has happened and to give them a sense of God's greatness, Allah's existence and to take them to the truth and to remove the

pain of losing their son because this is a very, very difficult situation.

We ask Allah to bless our brother Mahmoud and his wife and to forgive them and to strengthen them and to make Jawahir waiting for them inshaAllah in the hereafter and she will be a witness for them in front of Allah. We ask Allah to bless those who have become Muslim. We ask Him to grant their parents and their friends and their family guidance and to give them a good understanding of Islam so that they can be reservoirs of prophetic guidance in this life.

We ask Allah to strengthen our sisters because sisters are under constant pressure from people from every angle, from the internal to the external. So we ask Allah to give them the iman that says if the sun is put in my right hand and the moon is in my left hand I will not leave this deen for anything. We ask Allah to bless our young brothers and the struggles that they go through every day in the streets, grinding that deen. We ask Allah to protect them and help them and strengthen them inshaAllah.

We ask Allah to forgive our parents who have passed away and we ask Allah to bless the people of Somalia and to unite the hearts of the people there and to grant them a clear victory soon inshaAllah. We ask Allah to bless our single mothers and single fathers and those who are divorced to unite them inshaAllah with someone that they love soon and to help those who are single be married to the righteous. Those will be the pleasure of their eyes. May Allah give us a good life in this world and a good life in the hereafter. May Allah protect us from the torment of hellfire.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Glory, above what they attribute to Him. And peace be upon the Messengers. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ

And peace be upon the Prophet.