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- But in a lot of these other situations,
and these other countries where kids are just.
I mean, you continue to destabilize them
and they don't have any way of recourse
other than
you know,
they pray to Allah,
and you can see the sincerity of their prayers.
Their prayer is just, that's what they have.
That's what they're relying on.
(calm music)
(lamp switch clicks)
Allahumma innee as'alukal-'afwa wal-'afiyah
fid-dunya wal-akhira.
Allahumma innee as'alukal-'afwa wal-'afiyah
fee deenee wa dunyaya wa ahlee wa malee.
Allahumma-stur 'awratee
wa amin raw'atee.
Allahumma-hfadhnee min bayni yadayya wa min khalfee
wa 'an-yameenee wa 'an shimalee
wa min fawqee
wa a'oodhu bi'adhamatika an ughtala min tahtee
- So if you look at the story of Ibrahim 'Alayhi Salaam,
it's tyrants, to tyrants, to tyrants.
He's never really safe, right.
He deals with his father, a tyrant, right.
And his father says,
la-illam tantahi la-arjumannak
wa-h'jur'nī maliyya
Like,
If you don't get out of my face, I'm going to stone you.
His father's the one who suggests the punishment, right.
and SubhanAllah
I mean, imagine how hurtful that was to him, right.
But again, it's a tyrant. He has to deal with Nimrod, right.
Another tyrant.
An 'ilaaq who says, you know, that
I give life and I give death.
How? just, I mean, with absolutely no hesitation
brings forth a man who was sentenced to death
and frees him and brings forth a completely innocent man
and kills him and says, "See, I give life and I give death."
He has to deal with that guy, right.
And he has to stand in front of him and give da'wah.
He has to deal with the king of Egypt, right.
Who's known to take the husbands of beautiful women
and dispose of them and then take the women for himself.
And this is coming out of an experience,
a traumatic experience and he's with Sarah.
And this seems to be the fate
and Subhanallah,
He's saved from that.
There's something very interesting here
because it almost becomes counterintuitive.
Allah is protecting Ibrahim 'Alayhi salaam because of
his da'wah.
And a lot of times we might think that
if I'm too visibly muslim, if I pray in public,
if I act too muslim, if I am too muslim,
then I'm compromising my safety
and so we relinquish those things.
And Allah says in the Qur'an.
Yāayyuha-rasūl
balligh mā unzila ilayka min rabbik
Oh messenger of Allah,
convey what your Lord has given to you.
wa-illam taf'al famā ballaghta risālatah
If you don't do so,
then you have not conveyed the message.
wal-lahu ya'ṣimuka mina-nās
And Allah will actually protect you from the people.
So Allah connects the prophet
SallAllahu 'Alaihi Wasallam
Doing Da'wah with protection, right.
That this actually becomes a means of protection for you.
Can any of you recall a time where you felt unsafe,
and then you summoned that courage and that
tawakkul
the trust in Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
and you felt that mercy, the sakinah
come down upon you?
- Just thinking back to like my school days,
like as a teenager, and you know being in an environment
where you know,
you, practicing your values is very difficult.
And I, in that moment, you just have to trust
that your values are gonna guide you
through whatever it is you, that you don't even know.
You know, when I had certain of my friends that come
to me at the end and be like,
Zainab, like your values, the way you held onto them,
that was,
that made us not wanna be bad around you.
And to know that, like, when I think back
thinking about all the things that I was around
and thinking that
SubhanAllah, Allah subh'anah
protected me from those things, it only makes sense
for it to come back to those values, if that makes sense.
So I think for me, it was always like
how does it make sense that I came out of this clean.
It's like a really bad accident.
You're like, how did I come out of this clean.
And so, I just see that,
and not only did I come out of this clean,
but somehow it had an impact on other people.
So for me, it was just like holding on to those values
through, you know, school
and those teenage days around different friends and whatnot.
- That's very profound.
And I mean, I imagine obviously
our sisters
usually bear the brunt of this more so than anyone else.
Right.
Subhanallah.
Any of the brothers,
any of you have a moment where like, you felt fear
and then suddenly a moment of calmness
you know, when it came to your Islam or you were in a place.
Any moment where you felt fear
and just safety came into you, a sense of tranquility?
- I know I have, I mean, I grew up in DC.
So every time you get pulled over
by a police officer and then you're the triple
like you're black male and muslim and so.
You know there's,
as you grew up,
you know
you're accustomed to how to interact with the police
but you still never feels, you know
you never feel safe.
You always feel, know they can,
you know, pull the gun on you
and there'll be no recourse.
They'll just walk away.
So it's really sad, but you're
you always have your guard and your safety up.
You know, and after I accepted Islam
then you just start making dua
or like you, dhikr in the car when they pull you over.
And you you really focus cause you just
you just really never know.
I mean, so it was either that, or sometimes
just even random shootings now, you know.
We seem to be in that space of time where, you know
random gunfire drug shootings, whatever the case may be,
where you have to just be very cognizant
of what you're going on.
And I won't even get into the school shootings
and safeties and those kind of things where now you're,
you know you're fearing the safety of your kids
and just you know any, any moment.
So it just shows you the shortness of
you know, what life has and you're making dua
hoping that Allah is putting you in good places.
And that sometimes when you,
you know I would have a habit of
you know, when you're starting to come into Islam
and you'll go to an event with other muslims.
You'll move, remove yourself away from people
who have presented
or put themselves in a in a difficult situation
or maybe they're the ones who are being targeted.
And now that you've removed yourself from those elements
or from those individuals,
you put yourself around people who are speaking about
you know Allah
and Islam and now you've protected yourself
by just, by just doing, just, just doing that.
And so that's where your safety comes
and you feel a relief of, let me
you know Islam is easy like he said earlier.
And let me go that path of
staying around people who are comfortable
being around people who are remembering Allah
and that's helping to protect you.
- I wanna stay with that thought for a moment.
You touched on an experience, right.
Being a black man in America, period.
And then being a black muslim man in America
and the fear that maybe others will not have, right.
When, when they're pulled over by a cop.
Which actually to me, I think
you know allows us to maybe touch on another element of this
which is,
do we feel entitled to a sense of safety
because of where we live
and who we are in one, in one dimension?
So for example you know
mosques get bombed.
Drones, right by US Presidents, Democrat and Republican.
Safety is not an option in places like Palestine, right.
But when it happens in a Western country,
in a relatively wealthy place,
maybe it hurts a little bit more, because it's like
wait a minute, I could see myself being that person.
How do we reckon with that?
Like how do you, how do you deal with that?
Because I think those moments, where it's almost like a
you know, I don't want to call it a hypocrisy.
I think it's natural.
Right, where like, wait a minute, I can relate to that.
And so it, it's, it's, it hits closer to home.
That's what they say, right.
It hits closer to home.
Has your safety being compromised
at any point ever made you think
I need to be activated towards the safety
of other people that deserve it just as much as I do.
Can any of you like think of an incident
something that happened where like, wait a minute
people in Syria, people in Yemen, people in Somalia, people.
- Yeah. I mean, I think about it all the time.
I mean, I took government and politics in college
and I took defense policy courses
and worked for government agencies a lot.
And you can see the footprint of
US hegemony going into other countries using environmental
or other organizations to kind of gain that footprint
into a different country.
But you can see the effects
of either globalization, militarization,
or these other industrial complexes
and how the of course they affect them.
So the bombs
and, you know whether it's going
to other countries, but they're bombing Yemen and kids.
And you know, you're blessed.
I mean, just to grow up in the US, you're blessed
as you have the ability to, for the most part
wake up with food, food, water, shelter
and you're not getting shelled and bombed.
You know, my fear is still pretty much in my control.
You know, even if I do get pulled over
or someone randomly shoots.
You know, you still have a sense
or feeling of a little bit of control in that situation.
Like you can defend yourself, you can arm yourself.
But in a lot of these other situations
and these other countries where kids are just,
I mean you continue to destabilize them
and they don't have any way of recourse other than
you know they, they pray to Allah
and you can see the sincerity of their prayers.
That's what they're relying on.
On Allah to really help them.
And you always feel,
you know not that you wanna be in that situation,
but you feel
man, like their prayer is just, that's what they have.
That's what they're relying on.
They don't know if they're gonna live to the next day,
or the next day, or if they're gonna eat the next day.
And so when Allah says he feeds a bird
and wakes up in the morning and comes back
and makes sure that it's fed,
that you pray and you give du'a for those persons
especially during Ramadan and you're giving your zakat.
And you're thinking, man, I, I just hope this
this is feeding someone that it's serving its purpose
and that they, they feel a sense of security
and safety and love, and that Allah
you know brought that connection
to us between us as muslims.
- Masha-Allah, So I'm gonna
sort of summarize this.
There's something very interesting
about the Quranic terminology in this regard.
khawf
fear
and Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la says,
walanabluwannakum bishayin mina-l-khawfi wal-jū'i
That we will test you with something of fear and hunger.
And then Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la says
of the greatest favors
to Quraysh.
Falya'budū rabba hādhā-l-bayt.
Alladhī at'amahum-min jū'i-waāmanahum-min khawf.
The one who fed them when they were hungry
and gave them security from fear
ironically through the dua of Ibrahim 'Alayhi Salaam,
Allah gave them sustenance and Allah gave them safety.
And here they were rejecting the descendant
of Ibrahim 'Alayhi Salaam and running him out
and denying him sustenance through the boycott
and safety by trying to kill him.
And eventually running him out, forcing him to migrate.
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
but Allah says that he will test you with fear and hunger.
And Allah says of the greatest favors
that he can bestow upon you is safety and sustenance.
And what you come away with
is this idea that the only real safety net then
is the one who provides safety.
It's not, it's not the people, it's not anything else.
And so why would I do what displeases the one
who provides actual safety in search of it?
It doesn't make sense.
So instead I do what is pleasing to him
knowing that ultimate safety comes from him.
And one of the things that we take from the prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam
It is when he's making du'a,
when he's supplicating the night before Badr
and you see him crying and you see his desperation
if you don't know any better
you might think he's losing it.
You know, we don't know if he,
if he's getting desperate now.
Is there a lack of trust in Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
The way his hands are going up, the way his tears are,
but the moment he puts those hands down
from that du'a,
he's a rock SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, right.
He can't be moved.
And that's the perfect balance of the believer
and what we take from these prophets of Allah.
That in their moments of fear,
they turn to Allah in du'a
And then as soon as they said ameen
they felt amn, they felt safety.
And that's where the next chapter always reveals itself
from the Quran with each one of these prophets.
- So Sister Sarah, fear is a natural human emotion.
How important is it
for people to manage their fears properly?
And how does that affect their relationship with Allah
Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la?
- Absolutely.
Fear is functional.
Masha-Allah.
Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la created it within us
for a reason.
But it can get in the way if it becomes amplified,
or if it takes us down a path that's displeasing
to Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la.
And when we choose to follow the standards
of other people out of fear of what their reactions
or their perceptions will be like
that's when fear can really get in the way of our faith
our relationship with Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la,
our identity, all of these different things.
And so being able to combat that is, is really important.
If we were to ask, you know all of us, you know who,
who do you, who do you worship.
Who do you prioritize.
Is it, do you care more about what this person thinks of you
or do you care more about what Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
thinks of you?
Everybody will likely answer
I care more about what Allah
Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la thinks of me.
But a lot of times our actions don't align with that.
And Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la reminds us of this,
where he, he tells us that,
you know do you fear them?
But I am truly, I am the one who's truly to
to be feared if you're truly believers, right.
And, and Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam rebukes his people when he,
he destroys the idols
and he tells them are you taking to worship
other than Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la?
something that can't benefit or harm you.
And how often do we tend to do that
with the choices that we make,
where we choose to please the people in our lives.
And we're inadvertently almost worshiping them
in that situation where, where we are,
we are prioritizing a standard other
than the standard of Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la.
So being able to ask ourselves who
you know, who is going to be able to benefit me?
And that is truly Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la like,
I remember Sheikh Abdullah Oduro once mentioned
there's a difference between believing
in Allah and believing Allah.
Believing, we believe Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
to be our Lord
and our creator.
But do we believe Allah Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
when he tells us
that he's the best of planners, that when we worship Him
you know, there's going to be tremendous reward for it.
That with hardship comes ease.
Do we believe that Allah's Subh'anahu wa Ta-A'la
is truly al-Muhaymin, our protector.
And if we truly believe that
then we're going to be able to overcome our fears
and choose His standards
and following Him rather than following people.
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