A poet once said, "I stayed up late at night when people had fallen asleep, and I supplicated to my Lord, complaining about what my Lord already knows." In our day and age, it so often feels like all Muslims have fallen into a long, deep sleep, a sleep like death. I like to present pictures in my khutbahs (sermons) because pictures tend to increase our awareness, and, as I have repeatedly said, awareness is the beginning of everything. If we are not aware, there is no hope. Awareness plants the seeds for future generations, and maybe, if God wills, things can change overnight in a single generation. But God is just, and God will not grant change to those who are oblivious. If you are asleep, God will let you sleep. It is not God’s job to wake you up. If you are awake and aware, however, then at least the possibilities open up.
Recently, after The Usuli Institute’s inaugural conference, I was having a conversation with a friend that turned to all the historical sites that have been destroyed in Mecca and Medina. My friend told me about a ten-volume work published in London by the al-Furqan Foundation, founded by the late Zaki Yamani. The al-Furqan Foundation meticulously documents the historical sites that are no more.
Of course, I did what I know very few Muslims, to my great shame and agony, will do. I immediately bought the set, at any price. God knows that my family has suffered for 30 years because of the burden of my buying books. When I say I bought it at any price, then, it is not because I am a wealthy man, nor does it mean that my family does not sacrifice. It is not because my family has not been traumatized and continues to be traumatized by my unrelenting pursuit of knowledge. This is not a virtue; it is an obligation. And if my Ummah carried that burden, it would be spread around much more evenly.
I then proceeded to read the ten volumes, and I want to give you a little taste of what I read, because it relates to everything. It relates to our past, our present, and our future. Do not kid yourself. Do not think you can continue with your life and think that this is only for academics. I am telling you, as God is my witness, that the slaughter we are witnessing in Palestine and Lebanon, just like the slaughters that happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia, just like the ongoing plight of Muslims in India, China, and Kashmir, is all part of a package of a people who are fast asleep, in deep slumber. But let me put it all in
perspective, and please bear with me.
There is an additional book that I bought on the topic of the house of Khadija, the Prophet's wife. You discover in this book that well into the Wahhabi-Saudi era, this house existed unscathed. You discover that this house had the room where Fatima was born and the room where Khadija used to conduct business. You discover that in this house there was the instrument that Fatima used to ground wheat to make bread for the Prophet. You discover that in this house was the room where the Prophet used to spend hours in prayer, before and after his prophecy. And you then discover that all of that is gone, and that a public toilet is now built upon it.
Let that sink in.
This was the house where the Angel Gabriel visited the Prophet. This is the house where the Prophet supplicated and started his da‘wah (public call). This is the house where Khadija died and the Prophet cried. This is the house where Fatima was born and the prophet celebrated. This is the house where they all prayed together.
And what is there today is toilets.
Could you imagine this in any respectable country, with any respectable people who honored their history, their identity, and their faith? I will not depress you any further, so I will not tell you what I am finding in every page of the ten-volume encyclopedia, because every page is a thousand knives in the heart and soul. My appetite has gone. I cannot sleep. But here is the thing: I cannot separate what we did to the Prophet's heritage to what we are doing to Palestine at this very minute. I follow Saudi media, and I follow that obscenity of a channel called “al-‘Arabiyya.” Everyone knows that this channel, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia, is basically a mouthpiece for Israel. Well, on this channel, the same attitude toward the
historical legacy of the Prophet is repeated verbatim toward Jerusalem. Every day, I hear on this channel how Jerusalem is not important. I how hear it is a fallacy: Muslims have no interest in Jerusalem. Let the Israelis take it.
I am not joking. Night and day, they blame the Palestinians for their own deaths. It’s not about Hamas. They hardly distinguish between Palestinians who are being slaughtered in the West Bank and Palestinians slaughtered in Gaza. It’s all the Palestinians who are to blame. The same people who destroyed the house and legacy of the Prophet, Fatima, and Khadija are saying they deserve it. Israel has recently destroyed an entire building, ten floors full of civilians in Lebanon, and no one knows why. But
what is the response of al-‘Arabiyya? “They asked for it so they deserve it.” And what is the interest of al-‘Arabiyya? Let's dance. Let's sing. Let's put women on television showing the most cleavage and the shortest dresses. These are the same people who destroyed your Prophet's home, and yet we are in slumber.
People keep asking me, how could God allow this to happen? I ask you: what type of God would not allow this to happen? If people want to destroy themselves, what type of fair and just God would say, "It does not matter if you are in slumber, I am going to reward you." That is the logic of the chosen people, which is racism and unacceptable. It is the very thing that Islam came to eradicate. There are no chosen people. Muslims are treated like all human beings. If you put in the work, God rewards you. If you cleanse yourself, God rewards you. If you work on yourself, God rewards you. But if not, then God is not going to say, “It does not matter how foul your deeds are, how much injustice you make, or how flawed and unclean your vessel is, because I will carry you. I will prevent the evil deed.”
God is going to reward those killed unjustly, but that is not our business. We cannot use it as an excuse to say, "Well, their reward is with God." Because you know what? Here is the thing, and this is why I feel God's anger viscerally: in direct proportion to God rewarding victims who suffered unjustly, is God's anger at those who let them suffer. Yes, I believe God is going to punish the Israelis in the Hereafter, but God is going to punish even more those who stood by, watching a genocide, and who allowed even the house of their Prophet to be turned into a public toilet. It is not just this house. These are the same people who tell us today that Jerusalem is not important, and that Palestinians are to blame for their own plight. And so many Muslims will simply not have the guts to refuse to go on Hajj or ‘Umrah so long as this family are in control.
Thirteen hundred Muslims died, and the videos are on YouTube. What videos? This is the thing about Muslims. It is their unbelievable ability to self-deceive. Thirteen hundred Muslims died at the most recent hajj, and on YouTube one can clearly see elderly people dying from thirst and heat stroke. Muslims call for the Saudi police cars and ambulances, but the police first ask, "Do you have a visa to be here?" If they did not, the police would refuse to give them help or water. Watch it yourself. Look it up. No water. No help. Elderly Muslims are left to die from thirst. Do you know how painful it is to die from thirst? The
Israelis and the Americans, as seen throughout the history of colonialism, will use this to say, "So what if we are killing Palestinians? These people are cruel to their own kind. We wouldn't let them die from thirst." Of course, that's what they tell themselves. But like all racists, they live in lies and delusion. They are letting plenty of Muslims die from thirst and hunger in Palestinians right now. But that is part of the delusions of racism. And the age-old excuse of colonialism has always been to subjugate the indigenous and eradicate the indigenous by saying, "Well, they are cruel." If only we read history. What was the excuse of the Spaniards for slaughtering the Aztecs? “They are barbarians who engage in human sacrifices.” This was, in fact, more myth than reality, but it did not matter because the point was to justify the eradication of the Aztecs. We all grew up with Cowboy and Indian movies. When the White man arrived in the US, what did he say? “The Indians are barbarians. They burn victims alive and do other horrible things. So, because they are so horrible to each other, it is not so bad if we are horrible to them.” But you then read history and learn that the White man's narrative is mostly myth. The White man was far crueler toward the fellow White man than the Indian was toward the Indian.
All of this is to say that the White man looks at what happened in Saudi Arabia and says, "So what? Sure, Muslim countries may go to the UN and pretend to protest the genocide but look what they do to their own kind.” And look what fellow Muslims did afterward: they ignored it. It is on YouTube, and they do not care.
Before you blame God and say, "Where is God?" you should ask yourself: where are you? Have you looked inward? Have you checked if your vessel is clean? Have you checked if you have lived up to your obligations? I say this to you and to myself because God knows I am no better than anyone and do not hold myself free of blame.
If this were the Israelis, could you imagine? If Muhammad was their Prophet, can you imagine the amount of money they would have poured into taking care of their history? When they do not have history, they invent history. They make it up, they believe the lie, and they then murder the world on the basis of this lie. We have a history, and we then destroy it. We go on buying nice homes, expensive furniture, and living comfortable lives. These are out problems. What, then, are our solutions?
Number one, cleanse yourself. Look around you. Where are you being unjust? End the injustice. Put a stop to your own injustice immediately, because otherwise you are a hypocrite, and God has reminded us a million times in the Qur'an that God does not love hypocrites.
The next step, step two, is a very small step. You will splurge to buy tickets to a concert or to go to Disneyland. Make sure, then, that you also “splurge” by buying the book. Just buy it. I do not care what you do with it, but support scholarship. Awareness is the very first act of resistance. Don’t leave it for the library to buy it. Scholars need to be supported. When scholars put in a tremendous, unbelievable effort, they need a message from their people: "We have got your back.” Recently, the regents of the University of Michigan were unhappy that the state prosecutor is not prosecuting students who were protesting genocide. What, then, did the regents do next? They donated thousands of dollars to support and elect a new state prosecutor who is now prosecuting the students.
In the news, I have just read of a tenured professor, Maura Finkelstein, an anthropologist, who has lost her job for speaking the truth about Palestine. Look her up. Type “tenured professor loses job over Palestine.” It will pop up immediately. To me, this is a test to the entire Muslim Ummah, just like what happened to the house of the Prophet. It is as if God sends these tests and asks, "Let Me see how you're going to do." You are worried about your job? Here is a non-Muslim who stood up and spoke the truth and, for doing so, lost her job. You do not know what the solution is? Donate money to hire the best lawyers to take the University of Michigan to court. They have to be sued, and they cannot be sued by young Muslim lawyers with little experience. You have to pay for the very best lawyers, lawyers who cost $1,500 an hour, because these are the lawyers who can take cases all the way to the Supreme Court, litigate it, and win. Make sure that the regents of the University of Michigan get punished for what they are doing. Donate money to the University of Michigan, and then withdraw the donation, saying, "We are withdrawing it because of what your regents did." Be like the guy who gave Harvard $100 million and said, "I am going to change my mind unless you punish pro-Palestinian students." I know there are plenty of Muslims out there who have that type of money.
You want solutions, but the problem is you want solutions that do not actually cost or inconvenience you. Every real cause needs real sacrifices. I have said it in the past and I will say it again: our age is not an age of sacrifices of blood. The exception, of course, is when Israel is bombing you and you are defending yourself. Our age is an age of sacrifice of intelligence, information, knowledge, resources, technology, and science. A warrior lawyer, in our age, is far more important because the warrior carrying a gun can be killed in an instant by a drone or by airpower. But a truly talented lawyer is priceless. A truly good and moral politician or lobbyist is priceless. A really good marketer is priceless. A really good information analyst is priceless. This is what “waking up” means.
The poet says, "I stayed up late at night, supplicating my Lord, while people were asleep." It really does not matter if they are asleep in their beds snoring or rather epistemologically asleep, historically asleep, oblivious to the world in which we live in. If you believe in a cause, prove it with money and effort. Prove it by telling your children, "You have to be the best marketer, information analyst, politician, and lawyer."
Let me give you even a simpler solution. How about just awareness? Just read. I could probably count on one hand how many Muslims are even aware of what this ten-volume encyclopedia documents by way of the destruction of the heritage of the Prophet. It is something, especially for an academic, that makes the heart bleed. How are a people like this going to protect Kashmir or Jersualem or Gaza? Are you surprised that a people like this failed to protect Bosnia? People do not realize what the Muslim world lost by the failure to do something about Bosnia. Bosnia could have been at a historical and civilizational gateway that opened all kinds of knowledge, learning, and awareness, but that is another topic for another day. All this is part of self-cleansing, because when you invest in this intellect, this greatest of gifts, the opportunities start opening up. God looks at you and says, "You are actually using what I gave you. I am impressed. And you are doing it humility and justice and fairness. You're not going around acting like a peacock. So, I am going to help you. I will stand by you.”
God, forgive our sins and our slumber, for we have been asleep for far too long. Forgive our betrayals of our Prophet. No matter how many times we may utter “peace and blessings be upon him,” we have collectively betrayed the Prophet Muhammad and the ahl al-Bayt. Imagine, in the Hereafter, our Prophet saying, "I loved this house. I loved this room. This is where Fatima was born. This is where I kissed her. This is where Khadijah passed. This is where I prayed. And what have you done to all of that? You have built toilets on it, and you then want me to do what for you?" Exactly.
May God guide us. Perhaps our children will be better than us. If not, perhaps the children of their children will be better than them. Perhaps there will come a generation that will finally wake up and say that enough is enough. I really do pray, with all my heart, that the coming generations will do much, much better than what my generation and I have done.