Inspiration from Women who Struggle for Justice

Imam Zaid Shakir - DC Women Conference

Opening and Introduction

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Messengers, the Master Muhammad, and upon his family and companions, and peace and blessings be upon you. It's a great, great honor to be here at the Women's Conference. So many wonderful, accomplished scholars, activists, just amazing women—to have the opportunity to speak at such a program is indeed a great honor.

I had a humorous thought when I was coming from the airport. I noticed that I was in Connecticut most of the fall until last week. I went back out to California. They put this stuff on the roads that make the roads turn white. You notice that? You guys notice that? I finally figured out what's going on because I never saw this before. Trump was upset that so many roads were black, and so he said, we use this stuff to make the roads white, and that's part of making America great again, his estimation.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that funny. Maybe it's too serious to be funny. Anyway, we're not here to talk about Trump.

The Struggles of Women in Our Community

We're here to talk about the wonderful women in our community. Women, like all Muslims, we are people of struggle, but women, it seems, are faced primarily due to the negligence, the dereliction of duty on the part of many of us men. Women are faced with some extraordinary struggles that they shouldn't be faced with, but still they struggle on.

The struggle, as was just said, if I could borrow from Ustada Aisha, from the grassroots to the highest levels of power in this country, the struggles of women generally and of Muslim women particularly inspires us. One of my greatest heroes is Ida B. Wells. Some of you know about Ida B. Wells.

The Story of Ida B. Wells

Ida B. Wells very quickly was a young lady in the Delta in Mississippi, one of the most racist parts of this country. Her parents died when she was 12 years old. The relatives wanted to divide the children up. She had younger siblings amongst the various relatives who could take care of one or two. She said, no. She said, I want to keep our family together.

She assumed the responsibilities of her mother and her father at the age of 12. She was inspired to become a teacher. She was certified as a teacher. She noticed the disparity between not only the facilities but also the pay of the African American teachers and the white teachers. It was one thing, of course, the facilities were separate and not equal, but the pay was even more grossly disparate than the facilities themselves. She started to take up that cause, the cause of getting equal pay for equal work for women.

A lot of people didn't like that. She had to eventually move to Memphis, Tennessee. In Memphis, Tennessee, she became very active in the local community. Three of her friends were lynched by a white mob because their store was doing better than the white store. The proprietors of the white store organized a mob that lynched three of her friends. After that, she dedicated her life to ending the practice of lynching.

Upwards to 10,000 innocent, unsuspecting African Americans, primarily males but not exclusively, were murdered by mobs and in many cases strung up on trees. Some of you are familiar with Nina Simone, Strange Fruit, or Billie Holiday before her. Strange Fruit on southern trees, dangling in the southern breeze, talking about the bodies that were strung up, in many instances castrated and burned, mutilated.

Ida B. Wells courageously took up that cause and as a result, her life was threatened. She had to move on to Chicago where she continued her work until her death. She was also instrumental in helping to co-found the NAACP.

But that woman has inspired me as much as Malcolm or any other man has inspired me. And our women, Muslim women, are doing incredible things, amazing things, and we should honor them. And it's wonderful that Darul Hijra is taking the opportunity to honor our women and provide a platform for us to learn about what they're doing.

The Prophet's Advice: Focus on One Concern

But as I said, the struggles can be overwhelming. And my advice, not only to my sisters, but to all of us, including myself, is the advice of the Messenger of Allah:

"Whoever makes all his concerns one concern—the concern of the Hereafter—Allah will take care of his worldly concerns."

There's so much wrong to right. There's so many causes to advocate and to support. We can literally be absorbed in that and seeking justice here and justice there and addressing inequalities here and addressing issues there. We can become overwhelmed.

And so our Prophet ﷺ is reminding us, no matter how many concerns are concerning us, ultimately we have to subordinate them to one concern, and that's the concern of our salvation. That's the concern to meet Allah in the akhirah. That's the concern to enter amongst the righteous servants of Allah into paradise.

Finding Strength Through Reliance on Allah

And every other concern, when it's subordinate to that concern, we'll find the strength to keep going. We won't experience burnout because we would have plugged into the ultimate source of all strength and power. (وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ - Wala hawla wala quwata illa billah) (Quran 18:39) "There is no power and no strength except with Allah." And we'll be moved away from relying on ourselves.

This is one of the greatest dangers confronting us, and especially those who are active in society, is over-reliance on oneself and therefore subject to hardship, frustration, despair, disappointment when we fail. Why is

that? Because we forget that Allah is testing us with whatever situation we're in, and the outcome of that test lies with Allah, not with us. We own two things.

We own the intention, our niyyah, and we own our actions, our efforts. But the outcome is owned by Allah. For this reason, Ibn Ata'illah in his Hikam, where he provides a blueprint for our journey to Allah, the first thing he mentions in that collection, he says:

مِنْ عَلَامَاتِ الاعْتِمَادِ عَلَى الْعَمَلِ نُقْصَانُ الرَّجَاءِ عِنْدَ وُجُودِ الزَّلَلِ

"Among the signs of relying on one's actions is the lessening of hope when one experiences a setback."

So when one slips or is set back, one is frustrated and starts to lose hope. But if one understands Allah controls the outcome, then one can easily forge on and understand this time what I thought my actions would lead to, it didn't turn out that way. By wisdom Allah knows best, but I can keep going and I can hope for next time. And this motivates us and keeps us going and keeps us working.

This World: The Abode of Work and Struggle

And that's what we're in this world to do, we're in this world to work. This world is the abode of work. This world is the abode of struggle. The akhirah is the abode of rest. Some people won't be a pleasant rest. It will be torturous. Hopefully for us it will be a joyous rest. But we're here to struggle. Allah Ta'ala tells us, it's a very beautiful verse, the last verse of Surah Al-Hajj:

"And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty. [It is] the religion of your father, Abraham."

وَجَاهِدُوا فِي اللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ "Struggle in the way of Allah with everything you have"—the right that Allah has over us.

So we're essentially told, just give everything you have in this worldly struggle. وَجَاهِدُوا فِي اللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ And so as people struggle, if we lose sight of the fact that our struggle is for Allah, and our struggle is from Allah, He decreed it, He put the heart, the motivation in our hearts to undertake the struggle in the first place. And it's to Allah.

Everything is for Allah

And it only will succeed if we rely on Allah. As Imam Nawawi says:

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ وَبِاللَّهِ وَمِنَ اللَّهِ وَإِلَى اللهِ وَعَلَى اللهِ وَفِي اللهِ وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ

"In the name of Allah, with Allah, from Allah, to Allah, upon Allah, in Allah, and there is no power and no strength except with Allah."

And he's right. It's all for Allah. It's all about Allah. It's not about us. This world wants us to believe it's about us. And then we start focusing on ourselves and how we're oppressed and how this or that or the other. It's about Allah. It's about Allah.

Chosen for This Struggle

And so Allah says, He's chosen you. وَجَاهِدُوا فِي اللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ ۚ هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ It's as if Allah is telling us, He's chosen you for this struggle. He's chosen you for this struggle. We didn't choose ourselves. We didn't wake up one day and we're living our life and going through our normal. You know what, I'm gonna take up the cause of A, B, C or D. Allah Ta'ala put that in our hearts because Allah wants good for us.

There's no struggle we're engaging in this world if we accept it and recognize it as a gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we'll find difficult. And so therefore He says, وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ "He's made no difficulty for you in your religion." So if we see the struggle just as a function of being a Muslim, as a function of being a Muslim in this world, as being a gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and not a source of torment from our society.

Struggle as a Gift from Allah

There's a huge difference. It's the same thing on the surface. On the surface it's something society through its negligence, through its institutional structures, through whatever you want to name it has imposed and burdened us with. But that same reality if we look at it from a different perspective is a gift from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because we're told by our scholars:

الْأَجْرُ بِقَدْرِ الْمَشَقَّةِ

"The reward for any action is commensurate to the magnitude of the struggle."

And so by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposing us to various struggles, He's only giving us an opportunity to heighten our reward with Him. And to heighten our status and standing in the akhirah. And this world passes soon enough. And when we accept that, it is easy.

وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ

If someone looks at their prayer as just something I have to do because I'm Muslim. I've actually met people when I say I converted to Islam. They literally say, why? Like, I'm Muslim, I'm stuck. You had a choice. Why'd you do that? You had everything I want. Literally.

But when we recognize that we've been gifted with Islam. We've been blessed with Islam. And by being blessed we've been given an opportunity for immense good for our soul. Both in this world and the next. Then it becomes easy for us to forge on.

Following the Way of Prophet Ibrahim

This is the way of your forefather Abraham. Who struggled as a muwahid, as a person upholding the oneness of Allah in a polytheistic world. And so this is what we're doing.

This idol of false masculine pride that motivates some men to behave in just disgusting ways towards women—it's an idol. And that idol has to be smashed, just as Abraham, Ibrahim, smashed the idols he was confronted

with.

The racism—it's an idol. And it's an idol to be smashed. And if we don't smash it as Muslims, who's going to do it? Some people they have no hope. Say just these institutional racism and just the racist psyche of the white American is so deep that it can't be smashed.

Then what's the point? As Muslims we believe yes there are racist institutions in this country and in other countries. It's not just an American phenomenon. But institutions are nothing but a collectivity of human beings.

The Reality of Institutions and Change

If you say the American military industrial complex is an institution, and it's getting ready for another war. Seriously you know how I know? I have my phone here. Phones have camera. I know they didn't tweet it yet. But that's an educated guess. This is how I know.

I was in Oakland yesterday. And I never in my life saw this. This is a train carrying a mile of military equipment to western ports. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, medevacs, jet fuels. And they weren't painted like for the last 20 years American military equipment has been painted desert yellow. That yucky color. These are all painted green. Think they're going to the Middle East?

So we say look at this institution. When is it going to change? From the time when Dwight D. Eisenhower first named it until today. Some people say it never changed. No. What you are doing. So we have women.

Alhamdulillah Muslim women in the halls of power. There might be some left that they didn't sweep out yet. To amazing things in commerce, in business, engineering, medicine. How many Muslim women doctors in here right now? Raise your hands. How many Muslim engineers, software engineers. Okay my time is up. Software engineers, engineering teachers. Raise your hand. Raise your hand high so we can see you and clap.

Okay. Right back there. We have amazing women.

The Most Important Job: Raising the Next Generation

But you know what? We also have a lot of amazing housewives. And those are the ones who are going to smash the institutions. Because it might be the racist police or the racist military industrial complex or the racist this that or the other. But they are manned by human beings. And if we raise a generation of men and women whose hearts have been insulated from racism, insulated from militarism, insulated from nationalistic chauvinism, and insulated from hatred of the others just because they are not like us. And then they go out in this world and they do the same thing.

And then that begins to spread exponentially. We can change these institutions. We can change this country. We can change this world. But it's going to take legions of dedicated women and men working together to create an atmosphere. To create a social psychology. To create a political culture that is amenable to the eradication of these institutions. And I think that is the most important job amongst the many many important jobs that our sisters are doing. So may Allah give them Tawfiq.

Closing

I had little cards. I had a lot to say. But I'm sure my time is up. Especially it took three minutes showing you a choo choo train. May Allah bless this effort. Bless the initiative. Bless Darul Hijra and all of the leaders. Bless our sister Aisha. You knew she was special when she started spelling Aisha with an I. Something is special.