For the People of Gaza And remind them of the Days of Allah... Shaykh
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-07T22:40:04.378382+00:00 | Topic: Allah
For the People of Gaza: "And remind them of the Days of Allah..."
Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi
Opening Du'a
"[All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and ask for His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the wickedness of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomever Allah misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without any partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.]"
"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him]."
Introduction: The Concept of Ayyam Allah
Dear Muslims, twice in the Quran Allah mentions a concept that translates as the days of Allah, the Arabic is ayyamillah and in both of these verses, both times the context of these verses is the context of punishment and pain and suffering, the concept of worldly, dunyawi pain and suffering where Allah tells the believers something about ayyamillah the days of Allah. So in today's khutbah, in light of the political circumstances of the globe let us go back to the Quran and let us see what are these things that Allah calls the days of Allah the ayyam of Allah.
First Mention: Surah Ibrahim - The Story of Moses and Pharaoh
Twice in the Quran the first of them, surah Ibrahim in the sixth verse Allah says:
"We sent Moses with our miracles, we sent the prophet Moses to the great, to the evil pharaoh, we sent him to the Bani Israel, the children of Israel and we gave him miracles and signs and we said to him your job oh Moses, is to take your people from darkness into light and remind your people about the days of Godayyamillah remind your people about the days of Allah. In the days of Allah, in these ayyam are many signs many motifs many points of wisdom to those who are extremely patient and to those who are extremely grateful.
What Are the Days of Allah?
This is the first time that Allah mentions this concept known as ayyamullah what is the ayyam of Allah? what are the days of Allah? Because clearly the days of Allah are not our days, clearly as Allah says:
"A day in the eyes of Allah is like a thousand of your years so Allah's time that Allah conceives of time is different than how we conceive of time, so when Allah says my days, ayyamillah it is not like our days what does it mean the days of Allah? Our scholars, Ibn Abbas and others, they mention the days of Allah are the positive and the negative lessons we learn from history the days of Allah, ayyamillah are the blessings Allah gives to the righteous and the punishments Allah gives to the wicked the ayyamullah are literally we can say in modern English, lessons from history.
The Context of Moses' Mission
Allah is saying, oh Moses, go teach your people two things number one, teach them spirituality teach them the purpose of life teach them what it means to be a believer and number two remind them of the lessons of history and remember when did Moses go to his people when did Moses go to the
children of Israel, he went when the children of Israel were being persecuted, the most severe persecution. Allah mentions that the pharaoh would persecute you أَشَدَّ الْعَذَابِ he would be the most severe against you. Allah mentions that يُقَتِلُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ he would slaughter your sons in front of your eyes.
Imagine oh Muslims, the terrible scene where the army of the pharaoh comes you've just delivered a newborn baby infant and you can do nothing, the army snatches this child and the army slaughters this child, the people of pharaoh innocently kill these innocent children not in the tens, not in the hundreds, in the thousands imagine the pain, imagine the humiliation, imagine the powerlessness that the children of Israel would have felt.
Allah's Promise of Salvation
Allah reminds the children of Israel we saved you oh children of Israel, from the humiliating lives you used to live Allah reminds the children of Israel you lived عَذَابًا مُهِينًا you were persecuted and you were humiliated, so you were both physically tortured and you were mentally tortured and Allah says we saved you from that مِنْ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَالِيًّا مِنَ الْمُسْرِفِينَ we saved you from fir'aun who was the worst of all tyrants.
Allah mentions that the pharaoh فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا وَكَانُوا قَوْمًا عَالِينَ the pharaoh was so arrogant he had no humanity and he would transgress against all bounds of decency he would do what nobody had done before him. Allah says to Musa:
"Go to fir'aun, he has transgressed beyond anyone else he has done the inhumanity that nobody before him has done.
Allah says, the arrogance of pharaoh was known to everybody he would say وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ we are above the children of Israel, we can do anything we want to them and nobody can stop us from doing what we want to them.
The Promise to the Oppressed
This is when Allah sent Moses to the children of Israel, when the children of Israel had no hope, when they had no army, when they had no power, they were ethnically different from the oppressors and occupiers they were humiliated and tortured, not a single government on earth cared about the children of Israel, they were persecuted and abandoned, they were left to themselves and Allah said, remember I saved you when nobody could save you.
Allah says in the Quran:
"We wanted to favor those who were persecuted we wanted to bless those who were persecuted, notice Allah is saying bless those who were in the lower camp we wanted to make them higher. We would make them the leaders and we would make them inheritors.
Pharaoh's Media Tactics
Allah describes the pharaoh as being, employing the greatest armies, and employing the worst media tactics he would send his warners, he would send his media experts, the PR spinners, and they would go to the cities and towns, and they would say to the people of the cities and towns that, oh people of Egypt I am scared that these evil people, meaning the children of Israel are going to corrupt your pure minds I am scared pharaoh, the evil pharaoh actually flipped the script.
Rather than showing himself as the oppressor, rather than showing himself as the source of evil he accused the children of Israel of being the source of evil and the pharaoh, as the Quran tells us he
sent criers he sent the PR experts, the media the news, all of them were around and they said, these people these are despised and abandoned people, they are wanting to change your lifestyle they are against our beautiful ways and our beautiful source of life and they are going to corrupt you.
Allah says pharaoh sent forth all of these criers:
"These are outcasts these are renegades they're a small number of people, they have done things that anger us notice pharaoh is the one killing, pharaoh is the one pillaging pharaoh is the one surrounding and pharaoh has the audacity to say you guys provoked us.
The Irony of History
So Allah describes the children of Israel, in a way that we see the reality the irony, how the oppressed has now become the oppressor how Allah describes the pharaoh and every single description of the pharaoh it applies to the very biological descendants of those whom the pharaoh persecuted.
In our times the script has been flipped in our times, the people who once upon a time were persecuted by the pharaoh, are now enacting the exact same persecutions of the pharaoh from the oppressed, they have become the oppressor, and that is why oh Muslims, the Quran has no story in more detail and in more quantity than the story of Moses and pharaoh.
Think about it, ask yourselves, why in the whole Quran, the most oft frequented story the story that is mentioned more than 40 times in the Quran and no other story has been mentioned even close to this number is the story of pharaoh and Musa why? Because the benefits from this story are eternal because there is no other ummah before us, that we can benefit from as much, the good and the bad the positive and the negative, as we can from the story of pharaoh and Musa.
Allah says:
"O children of Israel, just wait when pharaoh will leave, we will take care of you, and we will give you what you once aspired to have however, once they have gotten what they wanted, Allah has shown the reality of what is in their hearts, rather than being thankful rather than being grateful they have flipped the script and they have taken the path of pharaoh.
Second Mention: Surah Al-Jathiyah
This is the first time that Allah mentions ayyamullah the second time that Allah mentions ayyamullah is surah al-jathiyah and this surah was revealed when the muslims were being persecuted in Mecca, when the Quraysh were killing muslims for no reason other than they said la ilaha illallah, and Allah revealed in that very difficult circumstance:
"Believers, they should overlook what these people who do not believe in the days of Allah are doing, overlook it, because a time will come that Allah will give them what they deserve, in other words in this verse, Allah is saying O believers, you believe in the ayaam of Allah, and the ones who persecute you, don't believe in the ayaam of Allah, so Allah is saying, don't worry, those who don't believe in the days of Allah I shall take care of them and I will give them what they deserve.
Now, in this context ayaamullah takes on a slightly different meaning, and it means yawm al-deen, yawm al-qiyamah it means the hereafter, so ayaamullah becomes the days of Allah in the hereafter.
Application to Current Situation
Allah is saying, O Muslims who are persecuted O Muslims who do not have any defense, O Muslims who are literally being killed without any legitimate cause, my comfort to you is just wait, a time will come when Allah will take care of the very people who do not look forward to His days now, this ayah, it only applies to those Muslims who do not have any mechanism to fight back, and for those the consolation can be given this is not a defeatist verse no ayah in the Quran just says go ahead and let people attack you and die that's not what the Quran is saying.
What the Quran is saying, O Muslims who don't have the strength to fight, O Muslims who don't have the wherewithal to defend yourselves, don't worry you believe in the days of Allah and those people don't believe in the days of Allah and I will bless those who believe in my days, meaning the day of judgment, the akhirah jannah and now, and those who reject my days, they will see the reality of what they have done.
The Situation in Gaza
So this is simply an uplifting, this is simply a spiritual means of making a sense of optimism when there is no more optimism that people can have, and so O Muslims, these are the two times that Allah mentions ayamullah, the first of them, it means lessons from history we go back to the past and we see never does oppression flourish, Allah does not bless any oppressor Allah does not bless any zalim وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ and Allah never gives success to those that are evil in the long run, this is ayamullah in the first verse and in the second verse, ayamullah means there is always something to look forward to.
Even if in this world sahaba die, the mushrikun kill the Muslims of Quraysh, the Quraysh kill the Muslims, still there is something to look forward to and that is the day of judgment.
O Muslims, as we see what is happening, and the situation of our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Palestine, when the situation has gone from bad to worse, wallahi we thought we had seen the worst of it, and yet subhanallah yesterday as you're aware, over 110 women and children primarily were shot as they're waiting for food, they're already starving, people are literally starving to death.
O Muslims it is shocking, we thought we had seen the worst, and yet what is happening now, even words do not describe, how can a child die of lack of food and malnutrition in the modern world, how can video footage and pictures be shown that literally evoke what happened to World War 2 and how those prisoners were like bones, we saw those pictures in World War 2 and we said never again what Hitler did to people including the descendants of the children of Israel, he starved them, he put them in concentration camps, literally we saw the pictures in black and white, and we thought that's never gonna happen again, we're never gonna see skeletons like this, and now we see images coming from Gaza, children women like skeletons, children are dying because they don't have food to eat, and the whole world is watching.
The Du'a from Ta'if
Brothers and sisters wallahi I can do nothing except remind ourselves of that duaa that our Prophet(صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in the incident of Ta'if, it is a duaa that comes from the heart, it is a duaa that is the epitome of accepting Allah's decree complaining to Allah, asking Allah for a change, and remember when did Ta'if happen, Ta'if happened when the Prophet(صلى الله عليه وسلم), in many ways it was really the lowest part of his difficult journey.
When our mother Aisha asked him, what was the most difficult day of your life, what was the day that was the most difficult day, he himself said, it was the day of Ta'if that was the most difficult day of my life, that day he had no army, he had no supporters in this world, he had lost his wife Khadija five weeks ago, he had lost his uncle Abu Talib a week ago he had lost the two people who he loved the most, and who loved him the most he had no support in this dunya and he goes to the people of
Ta'if and what happens to him happens the humiliation, the physical pain the mental pain, the anguish the torture, never in the seerah has it been so difficult as it was on the day of Ta'if.
And as he exits Ta'if, his whole body is bleeding, the blood is coming and seeping into his shoes, he doesn't have a single protector after Allah, and he raises his hands, and he makes this dua and this is the dua that has come to mind when I see what is happening in Gaza:
"Oh Allah to you I complain of my weakness, and of my lack of support, and of my humiliation amongst the people wallahi, what humiliation is there what humiliation is there greater than this humiliation, an ummah of one and a half billion and we can't even help innocent children and women starving in front of our eyes, what greater humiliation is there.
And our Prophet(صلى الله عليه وسلم) cried out to Allah أَنْتَ رَبُّ الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ notice, you are the lord of those who are weak and oppressed at that time of loneliness at that time of pain, he said Ya Rabb, I am mustad'af, and you are my Rabb, I have no one else to help me other than you, I am hurt, I have been persecuted أَنْتَ رَبُّ الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ and you are the Rabb of those who are in tragedyوَأَنْتَ رَبِّي and you are my Rabb.
Oh Allah and he cries out to Allah, he does what is called shakwa, or complaining to Allah, and complaining to Allah is a sign of iman, because you should only complain to Allah and not to the creation, and so our Prophet(صلى الله عليه وسلم) says إِلَى مَنْ تَكِلْنِي who are you handing me over to who is there to protect meإِلَى مَنْ تَكِلُنِي who is there that is gonna help me إِلَى عَدْةٍ يَتَجَهَّمُنِي are you giving me to my enemy, who is going to give me hostility أَمْ إِلَى عَدُقٍ مَلَّكْتَهُ أَمْرِي or to an enemy that is going to have power over me, who am I gonna go to oh Allah, I don't have anybody and this is exactly what we see in our brothers and sisters in Gaza, who can they go to, not a single Muslim country, not a single of our leaders even has the spine to speak out.
Our Current Reality
The fact of the matter is in the majority of our Muslim lands you cannot even make dua for the people of Gaza how much humiliation in Muslim lands, you cannot protest in Muslim lands the people have said, no support for the people of Palestine, could we ever have imagined, could we ever have imagined a time and a place where Muslim leaders are telling their own populations, you cannot support the people of Gaza what utter humiliation what a bunch of incompetent losers that we have in charge of us, and to Allah we complain.
And if it shows anything, it shows us, we cannot rely on any power we cannot rely on any entity other than Allah and the worst of them all and we have to say this bluntly, is our own government of a supposed superpower, the very least of words that come from their mouths to condemn these killings, yesterday at least one government of the Muslim lands said to the UN, condemn the killing of children who are lining up for food, just issue a condemnation that you shouldn't be killing people as you starve them to death and our country, the only country that did this, vetoed the bill to simply condemn can you believe, and here we are sitting, not knowing what to do.
So we go back to this dua what can we do O Allah, what can we do:
"O Allah to you we complain of our weakness to you we complain of our incompetence to you we complain of our humiliation, who can we turn to O Allah, there is no one to turn to except you, and so O Allah we turn to you, because only you can help us, only you can give us aid.