So I'm going to go straight to a conversation that I had last week with a
brother who I hadn't seen in two decades. And this was a brother that was falsely imprisoned in the United States of America for the crime of feeding
Palestinian children. Those of you that are familiar with the HLF-5, the Holy Land Foundation-5, it's one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States, where five innocent men who operated a charity that fed
Palestinian children were thrown into prison with various sentences. Three of them are now out, two of them remain. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala free them.
And may Allah restore the dignity of our brothers who got out. I sat with
one of them who had just gotten out. And if you see someone going into prison or
if you visit people in prison, right now in the United States we have this dilemma of these ICE detention centers filling up with Palestinian students or advocates for Palestine that are students and otherwise that are being
thrown into them. It's not a pretty place. It's a very difficult place. And there's a difference between when you first go in and when you come out. You're not the
same person. And I prepare myself always for the possibility of seeing someone who is broken or devastated, understandably so, after having gone
through that trial. And wallahi, I met him and in two decades his smile has not
changed. He gave me the biggest hug in the world. We sat down and I just asked him, I said, you know, how are you? He said, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
And he immediately said, I served this punishment because I served my people for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he said, even if they put on me a prison sentence, a lifetime prison sentence, he said I would have done it again and again and again and again. And I do not regret anything that I did and I do not regret
anything that I went through for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now I'm only asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept. Two decades, some of it in
solitary confinement. Prison is meant to break you. It's meant to break your spirit. It's meant to take away your heart. It's meant to make you hopeless. It's meant to make you cruel. It's meant to make you so broken that even when you
get out of prison, you forever remain imprisoned. And you know what else he said? He said, alhamdulillah. He said, it's enough that I now can recite [Al-Baqarah 2]
and [Ali 'Imran 3] as easily as I recite [Al-Fatihah 1]. Allah gifted me with these two shades. Bi'idhnillah on the Day of Judgment, [Al-Baqarah 2] and [Ali 'Imran 3] are to
me like [Al-Fatihah 1] is now that wouldn't have happened perhaps had I not gone through that trial in my life. Why do I start off with this case?
Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala tells us about his teacher Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah ta'ala, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah
and the imprisonment of Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah ta'ala as he was being imprisoned, he has a famous statement that he said. Many of
you know this statement. You've heard it multiple times. What can my enemies do to me? My Jannah is in my heart. Qatli shahada, if they kill me it is martyrdom. If they imprison me it is a chance to be alone with my Lord. It is khalwa, it's
seclusion with my Lord and if they deport me then it is a chance to contemplate on the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all around. They can't
do anything to me because my paradise is here. It's inaccessible to them. They can't reach it. They can't get it and the more that they try the more frustrated
they will become, the more extreme they will become in their mechanisms, the more resolute I will become on my faith. And a lot of times you hear a statement like
that and you think it's... not you think, I'll just say it could be perceived that sometimes this is like the initial stand. But then see the man a few years later
and let's see if he has the same spirit. Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimahullah he says that when we the students of Ibn Taymiyyah would start to lose heart, when we
would be sad and we needed our iman to be refreshed, when we needed our ambition, our energy to come back, we went we visited him in prison. Think about that.
We visited the man in prison to gain more steam and energy for our lives outside of the prison. Who's supposed to be encouraging who? Who's supposed to be
energizing who? Who's supposed to be the one that's encouraging the other saying we would go to him when he was in prison. And amongst the things that he
said was that the prisoner, the true prisoner is the one whose heart man hubisa qalbuhu 'anillah, the one whose heart has been imprisoned from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and the true captive is the one who has been taken captive by his desires. Imagine the prison door is shut on him and he recites the ayah with
a smile on his face. ba'thuhu feehi ar-rahma wa zahiruhu min qibalihi al-'adhab On the inside is mercy and on the outside is punishment. He's a free soul,
a free heart, a free mind and it's frustrating to the enemies. Our people in
Gaza are free. Our people in Palestine are free. In fact our people in Gaza could make the argument that they're the only truly free people in the Ummah of
Muhammad (ﷺ) right now. They're free from expectations. They are free from the delusions of this world. They are free from the captivity
of their desires. They are truly liberated free spirits. That doesn't mean for a moment that we should look at the cruelty that is being inflicted upon
them and say well alhamdulillah they're doing okay. Absolutely not. That doesn't mean that we should be less outraged over the daily stream of scenes of their
punishment and torture. That's not what I'm saying. But they're free in a different sense. Their hearts are free. They are liberated in a different way.
There are others wallahi that are imprisoned in their palaces. Captured minds, captured hearts, captured thoughts, captured bodies, even as they wear the
finest clothes and they have too much money to count. They are slaves to those very things that they think are tools to their happiness. I started off with a
real-life case because a lot of times you look back and you think these were unreal human beings. In many ways they were unreal human beings but they were
still human beings. And the potential that they set out for us is very real
and accessible to every beating heart, to every mind that thinks for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to every person who strives. It's accessible to you as
well. And there's a difference between the beginning and after it drags on for some time. You see the Prophet (ﷺ) said in an authentic hadith
inna li kulli shay'in shirra wa li kulli shirratin fatra. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that everything has a peak and then everything runs its course. fa man kanat fatratuhu ila sunnati fa qad ihtada wa man kanat ila ghayri dhalika fa qad halak.
Whoever runs their course in accordance with my sunnah then they are guided. And whoever runs their course, their low point is in accordance with other than that,
they have failed. We usually cite this hadith or cite this idea when we're talking about Ramadan, your performance of good deeds has to have a
level of consistency. Ila sunnati here means in accordance with what he brought (ﷺ), meaning you don't violate what he brought in your
low points. Even if you're not performing as high as you do at your peak moments. I'm going to say that again in a different way. In Ramadan you were praying tarawih.
You were reading Qur'an more so than you do the entire year. You were giving more charity. Alhamdulillah. After Ramadan you can't go from praying tarawih to not
praying 'isha. Right? You can't go from doing extra good deeds to not even doing
the fard. You can't go from abstaining from minor sins to indulging major sins outside of Ramadan or else you know if you're looking at someone's heart, their
spiritual heart, it's just too much. Too much variance. It'll kill you spiritually. We usually cite this in regards to spirituality. I want us to bring it to a
broader spectrum of how we approach the concept of sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The concept of sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
It's one thing to say in the very beginning I can handle this. It's another thing to stay the course. It's one thing to get excited in the very
beginning and to say this is what we need to be doing. It's another thing to convert that moment into momentum and then to collectively turn that into a
movement. It's one thing to cry once and to say this is terrible. It's another thing to include a people and a cause in your du'a every single day and to think
what you can be doing for them every single day. The initial moment is only as
good as how long it lasts after whether in your acts of worship or elsewise. You understand that concept? The initial moment is only as good as it lasts after.
So just because you told someone you love them in the beginning doesn't absolve you from everything you do a year later. The point of departure is meant to take
you to another place in regards to what you put forward for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so here's what I want us to sit with for a moment inshallah ta'ala for the moments that we have here today as we are fasting. May Allah
'azza wa jal accept our fast and many of you intended to fast. May Allah accept your fast as well. Allahumma ameen. Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه) has a beautiful statement. He says
lawla thama'ul hawajir. Had it not been for the long days of fasting. I'm not
going to lie when I got on the flight to come here. I left Dallas at 11 p.m. Fajr hit like less than four hours in. I looked at the time of maghrib in London
and I went whoa. I'm being honest here. Pulled out some of those electrolytes and got myself ready. I was like all right this is going to be a tough
one. Abu Darda (رضي الله عنه) said lawla thama'ul hawajir. Had it not been for
the long days of thirst and the long nights of qiyam al-layl. Ma ahbabtu al baqa' fi dunya. I actually wouldn't want to be here anymore. I wouldn't want to live
anymore if I didn't have the sweetness of long days of fasting and long nights of praying. Meaning he fell in love with the process of sacrifice itself for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not that you enjoy the pain but you love the one that you are enduring for and that gives you joy. I can tell you I know
people I know people not sahaba. I know people who in their elderly age when they could no longer come to the masjid or they could no longer fast or they
could no longer do sujud would say I really don't want to live anymore. Like this is my sweetness in life is doing this and I know people that have cried
because they were told that they can't fast anymore medically. I've seen it with my own two eyes. What's the difference between that person and the other person
who's fully healthy but makes all these excuses in the world to break their fast and to bend the rules of Ramadan. Why is it that that old man is crying
over the inability to fast Ramadan and that young man is making every excuse in the book to not have to fast at all. And if you were to question if you were to
do a happiness test like a measure on those two people which one do you think was actually happier? Who's more fulfilled in life? That paradox exists
even at the time of the Prophet (ﷺ). There's a juxtaposition in Tabuk where the hypocrites are exposed. Where the hypocrites didn't want to go out with the Prophet (ﷺ) and they made all these excuses. It's hot
outside. It's comfortable here. We're going to be in unknown territory. There's going to be this difficulty and that difficulty. They made their excuses and
they prepared their excuses and they weren't even worth entertaining in their excuses. Just go. Allah doesn't need you. Allah doesn't need you. If you read the
whole trial of Ka'b ibn Malik (رضي الله عنه), that is actually a sign of Allah's love for him that he went through that when he did not make his
excuse like the hypocrites made their excuses. There's a juxtaposition of the hypocrites that made their excuses that didn't want to go out with the Prophet (ﷺ) because it was hot outside,
because it was exhausting, because it was tiring, because of this and because of that, and
these two men that Allah mentions in the Qur'an. Same episode. Who are devastated that they can't go out with the Prophet (ﷺ) because they don't have the means to go out with the Prophet (ﷺ)
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions their tears. Their eyes are filled with tears as they are walking away from
the Prophet (ﷺ) because they don't have the means to go out and be with the Prophet (ﷺ) in his difficult moments. It's the same episode. It's the same circumstances. What differs is the quality of
the people involved. I want you to fall in love with sacrifice. I want you to actually feel like
when you do for Allah, that is the greatest joy that you can have. Not to endure unnecessary pain
but to pursue purpose and endure the pain that comes with the pursuit of purpose with joy and pleasure. There's a big difference between those two things. You don't throw yourself in harm's
way in Islam. You don't unnecessarily put yourself under mashaqqa, under hardship, under duress for no reason but you pursue purpose and truth and you recognize that that's a painful pursuit
and sacrifices will be made and at some point you start to actually treasure the sacrifices.
You know what I think about? SubhanAllah when the Prophet (ﷺ) mentions to us that those that enter Jannah, they wouldn't want to come back. Like who would want to come back from Jannah? Go from dunya
to Jannah. They wouldn't want to come back except for who? The shaheed. The shaheed who had the most gruesome experience of this world compared to the others of the people of Jannah. The shaheed would
want to come back and to go through that trial over and over and over again for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because of what they have seen of the generosity and the honor of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Not because they enjoyed the pain but because they truly understood that the pain was worth it. I think of Khalid Nabhan (رحمه الله).
We got to see a broadcast of Khalid Nabhan (رحمه الله), the soul of our soul, in his most devastating moment and by the way you know what's amazing about the people of Gaza? They're never rehearsing.
The bombs are always falling, the bullets are always shooting and the cameras are always rolling. Like you're getting caught in your worst moment here.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for them. I mean subhanAllah and I think about this and yes there's an element of like someone's collecting the flesh of their children
and there's a camera on them. Like it's not even like let me process this for a few moments. In real time you are witnessing their sadmat al-ula that the Prophet (ﷺ) talked about, their first
strike. We witnessed Khalid Nabhan (رحمه الله) in his first strike. The pain of holding his granddaughter
Reem for the first time after she had been martyred and kissing her eyes and showing exemplary sabr and then smiling for months and months and months after that and carrying that
pain and converting it into purpose and saying alhamdulillah alhamdulillah alhamdulillah and
channeling that kindness to an empty and cruel and cold world that could not understand the image of the man that they had seen for all of these years that would be portrayed as your typical
terrorist. Turban, beard, is he going to blow something up? No, you blew him up with your bombs.
You terrorized him. You terrorized his family and the average western mind couldn't grapple
with what they were watching here. Then he was martyred and the smile was still on his face.
If you were to ask Khalid Nabhan would you do it all over again? Would you come back to this dunya and live through the pain that you lived through
all over again or would you rather that you just never existed?
Every single shaheed from Sayyid al-Shuhada Hamza (رضي الله عنه) to Hamza al-Dahdouh, the son of Wael al-Dahdouh. May Allah have mercy on Hamza and the family of Wael and make it easy for him.
To every single journalist, every single doctor, every single child that has endured that pain would say I would do it again for Allah.
That doesn't make us a people who crave blood. That makes us a people who can't actually bleed in the full spiritual sense.
There's something very different about that. Something very different about that quality of people. You look at that sacrifice and if you were to speak to the people that endured the most pain
in this world and say to them would you come back and do it again for Allah and they say yes. And then you come back to yourself and you ask yourself what about me?
And that's what I want to spend the rest of this talk on. Dear brothers and sisters, falling in love with the process of sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a process in and of itself.
It starts off with you enjoying the smile on the face of somebody else's child. As much as you enjoying the smile on the face of your child.
It starts with enjoying giving that money for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and spending it on an orphanage, spending it on a widow, spending it on a family.
Only between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, nobody else knows. It's just between you and Allah 'azza wa jal and perhaps the carrier of that charity.
It starts with you feeling just as good in fact even better when you see that deduction coming out of your account as you do when you just purchased your new house, your new car, your new
whatever it is that you would enjoy for some time in this world. Where a click happens, where I feel better about doing this than I feel about doing that.
It starts dear brothers and sisters with you going from, man Ramadan is so long and these days of fasting are so long and can't wait for Eid to come, to weeping when Ramadan leaves you.
Because you know that there's a spiritual version of yourself that will wither away along with it. It starts with you going from enjoying being in places like this and in the masajid and the
places where Allah is remembered and going to sleep at night and saying I enjoyed that more than I would have enjoyed a vacation or hanging out with my friends wherever it is and talking
for hours and hours. I enjoyed that more. The change happens when the Prophet (ﷺ)
mentions to us that when Allah 'azza wa jal loves someone that there is a weaning off process from this dunya. There's a weaning off process from this world
to where you start to enjoy sacrifices and then comes the hits.
You sacrifice for your principles. You lose your job for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm going to be very real here now and I will admit with full vulnerability
and full transparency that yes I don't have to take the risks in corporate for speaking my mind
about my religion and about Palestine or whatever it may be. I don't think Yaqeen is firing me for talking about Allah and talking about the issues of the day. So let me actually acknowledge
to the brothers and sisters here I get it. You come into a clash with your career, your job, and you have a choice to make between your principles and your pay and you take that stand.
I admire you. You are my hero. I look up to you because you're doing something honorable and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewards you. But I can tell you
that I have sat with people that have been chief surgeons at their hospital, that have been at the height of their tech companies, and that took that stand for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And wallahi they smile and they say alhamdulillah I would do it all over again. I don't regret a minute of it. I don't regret a single dock of my paycheck. Alhamdulillah. Allah
Allah 'azza wa jal gives and Allah takes but Allah never forgets his people. Alhamdulillah. I'm good. I've seen that rida, that contentment. In fact I'll go a step further. Not a single one of the
people, and I know I'm speaking to an American context, not a single one of those students who have been detained for speaking for Palestine said to me that they wish they hadn't protested.
That they wish they hadn't gone through that. Every single one of them came out of those prisons after three months or five months or six months or I don't know how familiar you are with these
cases. The Mahmoud Khalil's of the world or whatever it may be and went right back to doing what they were doing. And said all this did was it instigated a further resolve.
Allah 'azza wa jal grants that. That is from Al-Qawiy Al-Mateen. Allah 'azza wa jal grants that stability and that strength. You might not even know that you will have it before that time comes.
And I tell you what. A lot of these people in Gaza, if you were to tell them what they were if you were to tell them what they were about to endure.
The people that you see showing strength that you don't think that you could have. If you were to tell them they were about to endure what they were about to endure two years ago, they might not have told you that they could handle it.
They might have said we don't know. This seems like too much. And it's too much for the rest of us to watch. But Allah 'azza wa jal unlocks something inside of them.
Those who strive in our way, we will guide them to our paths. Sometimes those pathways are not just new trajectories and new lanes that you could work for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Sometimes they're new lifelines, new blood vessels that cause your heart to flow in a way that you did not think was possible before the moment came to you.
And don't ask Allah for bala. The Prophet (ﷺ) said don't ask Allah for tragedy. Don't ask Allah for tests. Allah tests you. You don't test Allah. Don't ask Allah for the test.
Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for well-being. But the first type of well-being that you want to have is in your iman. That your spiritual health does not decline
when you face that moment. And that that repeated regimen of sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and tasting the sweetness of that sacrifice, that repeated regimen,
gives you something to lean on when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala really puts you to the test. And it's not always waiting for this train to hit you.
How many people have come up to me, to others and said, Shaykh, what more can we do for Gaza? What more can we do for Palestine? We're feeling helpless. We're feeling hopeless.
What more can we do? And yes, there is du'a as an agent for change. Yes, there is this lane and that lane.
But I want you to know that the way that you get the answers is by obsessing over the question.
You understand me? Not waiting for a Shaykh to tell you what to do. By obsessing over the question. By laying down at night and by looking at the set of cards that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
given to you. The unique circumstances, the unique qualities, the unique position that you're in. And obsessing over the question of what more you could be doing. And then you will think of things.
And if nine of ten of them fail and one of them succeeds in the worldly sense, it paves the way. And if ten of ten of them fail in the worldly sense,
you have a Lord who is Ash-Shakir Ash-Shakur, who will reward you for the intention behind all ten of them. And you are not in control of the outcome. You are charged with the effort and the intentionality.
Don't wait for somebody else to tell you what you should be doing. Don't wait for somebody else to give you ideas. Obsess over the question until you come up with ideas.
And then work to bring those ideas to life. Alhamdulillah not all is lost. Alhamdulillah Rabbul Alameen.
Two years into this thing, the tide is turning. Alhamdulillah Rabbul Alameen. Certain things
have been set into motion that will come into fruition. And we will live to see Palestine free.
I say it and I mean it. I believe it. Things are happening and you don't know where Allah will
cause it to sprout from. But you have to fall in love with the process of sacrifice, you have to obsess with the question instead of
waiting for someone to give you the answer. And you have to be willing to face the consequences
when your principles come up against convenience, against comfort. And at that moment, seamlessly,
you say, absolutely not. I will never give up my deen or my principles for anything that
this dunya has to offer. Allah 'azza wa jal controls the dunya. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the provider of all provision. Allah is the withholder when he withholds. Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala knows best. Allah will enable. I will continue forward with a smile on my face.
And keep moving. Never look back. You know, subhanAllah, I was actually just telling some of the brothers about, some of you might have heard about this basketball player,
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Go back and look up Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in the 1990s. He was an NBA star. How many of you have heard of Steph Curry? They called him the Steph Curry before the Steph Curry.
They actually mirror Steph's game against his and Steph, you know, actually says like,
took a lot of his stuff from him. Mahmoud was a star in the NBA. And he lost everything from a
worldly perspective for taking a stance. And before social media and before Colin Kaepernick and before Black Lives Matter and before the protest movement in the United States, he was this lone
Muslim that refused to stand for the national anthem because his faith had made him too principled and he had become aware of the crimes that were committed under that flag.
Lost everything. I mean, it started, he even says it, subhanAllah, he schooled Michael Jordan in a game. The Bulls were like, on the 18 game winning streak, the longest in their franchise history. And Mahmoud just took Michael Jordan to the hoop,
schooled him and then everything went downhill. Someone noticed that he wasn't standing for the national anthem. Lost it all. Lost his NBA career. The Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists burned his
house down. After September 11, they cornered him into an interview. He thought he was going to have the justice of explaining his thoughts. And they did what they always do. They took a three-hour
interview and they condensed it to three, four minutes and made it look like he was justifying
9/11. Turned him into a pariah. And you know what? He's in his 50s now.
SubhanAllah, I am telling you, you will not meet this man without a smile on his face. I've met other NBA players that made it. They put their heads down. They did what they were
supposed to do. They maxed out and they're overdosing. Miserable. This man smiles and he says, the only thing I want, the only thing I want is that when I meet Allah, subhanAllah,
on the Day of Judgment, there was actually a documentary that they pulled. You should look it up. It's called Stands. You should watch it with your families. I watched it with my family and it was like a halaqa. Seriously, my kids had reflection after reflection after reflection.
And at the end of the documentary, he says, all I want, with a big smile on his face and some tears in his eyes, is that when Allah asks me on the Day of Judgment what I gave for him,
I could say, ya Allah, I gave it my all. Alhamdulillah. He's at peace. He's at peace. Allah 'azza wa jal says that on the Day of Judgment,
every single person on the Day of Judgment, as they are standing there before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, will know what they put forth and what they left behind. As Qatada rahimahullah says,
qaddamat means the sins that you put forth. Akharat means the opportunities that you left back in this dunya. The things that you wish you would have done, you know that you could have done,
but you didn't do. Every single person will know what they put forth and what they left behind.
And when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, the groups are being split, [Al-Hadid 57]. One group is calling out to the others that are going ahead with their light.
And they'd say, anziroona naqtabis min noorikum, wait up for us, let us benefit from your light. qila rji'u wara'akum fal tamisu noora. They will say, go back and find a light. The meaning here
is go back to the dunya if you can and kindle this light the way we kindled it. We kindled it the hard way. Your whole life here, all you're doing is lighting a torch to benefit you on the Day of
Judgment. No, no, you don't get to be around us. irji'u wara'akum, go back. qila rji'u wara'akum fal tamisu noora. faduriba baynahum bisurin lahu batinuhu fee ar-rahma wa zahiruhu min qibalihi
al-'adhab. yunadoonahum alam nakun ma'akum. And Allah 'azza wa jal gives us this painful conversation, wait, we were with you, we were amongst you. But you weren't as dedicated.
As those that kindled that light. You asked those people that struggled, would you do it all over
again? Absolutely. On the flip side, you got that person who got the house, who got the car, who got the money, who got everything that they wanted in this life.
And they're standing in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they know they did not prepare themselves or make the necessary sacrifices for that moment. And what does that person say?
Not just irji'oon, take me back. law anna li karra fa akoona minal muhsinin. If you sent me back, I'm not just going to be an ordinary Muslim. I will be from the good doers. I will be from
the people of ihsan. I will excel. I'll do what they did. But it won't matter at that point. You left it out on the table. Dear brothers and sisters, especially the young people in here.
Start now. Every day that goes by, there's a group of opportunities that you're leaving on the table.
Collect those opportunities. Your muhasabah every single night, you're holding yourself accountable every single night, is not just on the sins that you committed that day, but the good
deeds that you should have done that day. Not just the moments that you disobeyed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but the moments that you could have pleased Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I've got to give you one more inshallah, then I've got the red here and
I'm not going to like in this exercise of sacrifice make you miss your iftar. How many of you saw Ibtihal Abu Sa'ad? Anyone know who Ibtihal is? Do you all see the young
Moroccan girl that stood up in Microsoft at the 50-year anniversary dinner? I'm going to tell you the irony of this situation. She was standing in front of one of the execs at Microsoft.
Young girl in her 20s standing in front of an exec at Microsoft, right? High up there. What was his name? Anybody know? Mustafa.
Mustafa. A guy who, at least from what I read, doesn't identify. May Allah 'azza wa jal guide him to Islam, guide him back to his religion, to his principles.
You have a young hijabi Muslim girl saying, Mustafa, you're killing your own people. You are complicit in genocide. Bill Gates is sitting right there too, right? But it's
not here. Like he's not here. Somebody looked over there. Bill Gates is sitting on the side. But like your company, you are complicit in this genocide. What are you doing? Shame on you.
You are complicit in the murder of your own people. Shame on you. SubhanAllah.
20-something-year-old young Muslim woman, mashallah, comes from out of town, isn't an American citizen. Parents sent her from Morocco. She went to Harvard University. I mean,
you build the story, right? This is exactly what you want. A practicing Muslim woman that makes it through the legions of Harvard and then into Microsoft. You build the story.
And then into Microsoft and in that prestigious position, and she's going to throw it all away in that moment. There are people that see that and say she's throwing it away.
She's throwing away her opportunity. She threw her keffiyeh right at the stage. There goes her career. There goes everything her and her parents worked for.
Had to leave the U.S. right away, whatever, and that story carries on. Do you think her parents will be proud of her on the Day of Judgment?
Bi'idhnillah, yes. What she gained was far more than what she lost. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept it from her. And the final plot twist is that she now works at Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept your fast, accept those of you that intended to fast. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala use us in his cause. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be a people
that find gain in giving and in losing for his sake, whether we are punished or whether we are penalized or whether we intentionally remove some of the comforts of this world for the noble
causes. May Allah accept it. May Allah accept it from our people in Gaza. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala liberate Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala liberate Palestine. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our people to eat. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our people to live
without bombs in the sky, to live without the crime of occupation. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unite them with their families. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala restore their health in this life and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala maximize the reward in the next. Allahumma ameen.
