Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl marks the last Friday jumu'a of Ramadan 2019 as the demarcation of another Ramadan passed in the historical legacy of Muslims in the world. It is also the Day of Jerusalem. He recalls that the state of Jerusalem is a window into the health of Muslims. He reminds Muslims that Islam is intended to be a liberation theology for human beings, and that so much Muslim suffering taking place today around the world is because there are those who do not wish for this version to exist. Instead, there are those who wish for a dead Islam, devoid of ethics, justice or values. This leaves Muslims at a crossroads to choose between the Islam of dignity, liberation and ethics; or the Islam of blind ritual, obedience to unjust rulers, and effectively death. He surveys the state of suffering of Muslims around the world. He shares several important hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, which attest to the centrality of justice and dignity to the Islamic message, and the imperative of answering only to God rather than other human beings. The Prophet Muhammad emphasizes that those who believe the lies of unjust rulers or support unjust rulers have no place with Prophet Muhammad and will never make it to jannah (paradise). Such hadith have been buried by modern rulers. Muslims must choose which of the two versions of Islam is of the divine. Delivered 31 May 2019.
