Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa la ilaha illa a'la al-dhalimeen, wa al-aqiba tul al-muttaqeem. Allahumma salli wa sallam wa barak al abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathira.
So just a reminder inshallah ta'ala tonight will be the last of the weekly nightly reminders this week inshallah ta'ala. We're going to be doing them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
Tomorrow being Friday I'll have my reflections inshallah ta'ala at 2pm Eastern. So you can join in for the virtual khutbah inshallah ta'ala.
And then next week again we'll have our nightly reminders Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday inshallah. And Tuesday night I'm going to be starting a series on the life of Ibrahim A.S.
The actual life story of the Prophet Ibrahim A.S. to help prepare us for the hijjah to really connect at a deeper level with his story. So tonight inshallah ta'ala I actually wanted to talk about something that I find just very profound.
And again, you know, this isn't meant to be a tafsir per se, just more of some reflections as we go along. The surah sometimes multiple reflections in one ayah.
When Allah sends al-Aziz al-Hameed, Sirat al-Aziz al-Hameed, the path of al-Aziz, the Almighty, al-Hameed, the innately praiseworthy.
If you think about where those two names come together and we talked about this idea that a person derives their strength from the Almighty. And so they become Aziz by connecting themselves to al-Aziz.
They become Mahmood, they become praiseworthy by connecting themselves to the one who needs no praise but deserves all praise, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when you think about al-Aziz al-Hameed, it's a powerful connotation.
We talked about how a person develops a sense of integrity, a sense of independence, a sense of honor and a station that otherwise they would not be able to attain, otherwise they would not be able to achieve.
But if you think about where those two names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala come together, they come together in a very particular part when we're talking about Ashab ul-Ukhdud,
we're talking about the people of the ditch that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions to us in Surah al-Buruj as they are being rounded up, these people that believed in Allah,
that decided to rebel in the sense that they decided to reject the dominant religion, the dominant state religion, the dominant forces,
and they instead chose to be amongst those that believed in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the scene that they are all being gathered in front of this pit of fire. Now, what's the connection to Ibrahim alayhi salam?
Ibrahim alayhi salam was of course thrown into a fire, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protected Ibrahim alayhi salam and he was able to leave that fire without being harmed because the mission of Ibrahim alayhi salam was not yet complete
and that was one of the miracles that Allah had given to Ibrahim alayhi salam. And so Ibrahim alayhi salam had Izzah, he had power and he's praised, he's elevated because of the way that he reacted to that devastating situation.
Here go to Surat Al-Buruj, you have a group of people gathered in front of a ditch of fire about to be thrown into that fire and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
وَمَا نَقَمُوا مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ The only reason why they have been gathered in this fashion, they have been tortured in this fashion,
they have been oppressed in this fashion is because they believe in one God, is because they believe in one God, Al-Aziz Al-Hamid. They believe in the Almighty, they believe in the innately praiseworthy.
And subhanAllah, if you were to see the scene of these people, you were to listen to the context, you would say, what they do, men, women and children to be gathered in this fashion,
to be thrown into this ditch of fire, what horrific and horrendous thing did these people do? And the reality is all they did was they believed in Al-Aziz Al-Hamid.
And the same thing with the Prophet ﷺ, when Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu repeated what was repeated, when Moses, when Musa Alayhi Salam, أَتَقَتُلُونَ رَجْلًا يَقُولُ رَبِّيَ اللَّهِ Do you kill a man just because he says that his Lord is Allah?
Just because he says he believes in one God, would you really kill a man for that reason? And that's the thing, it's ridiculous. But why? What makes these people so threatening? And I want you to think of the scene of Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
Again, if you were watching the oppression of Bilal, you're watching a man being whipped and starved and dehydrated and placed in the middle of the desert in this humiliating way with a big stone placed on him,
one that takes multiple men and he's screaming in pain and there is an arrogant man standing over him. And Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu is under the stone, but Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu is insisting on Ahad and Ahad,
one, one, one God, one God. Who's the more honored of these people? And this is really powerful because if you think about that moment,
it is Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu who is in the most humiliating situation, in the most difficult situation, but despite all of the harm that's being inflicted on his physical person,
he is being elevated in stature. We look to Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu and we say, what a man. We say, what a believer. We say, what an example of courage, what an example of bravery, what an example of sincerity, what an example of resilience.
And that's what made Islam so threatening. That's what made faith so threatening to the polytheists of Mecca that this man would be willing to be subjected to all of this
and he says Ahad and Ahad, one, one for his faith. Now here's what I want us to talk about. When you think about oppressors, when you think about narcissists,
oppressors are almost always narcissists and there is a sense of how dare you find your strength in anything but me.
How dare you find your validation, how dare you find your meaning and your purpose in anything but me. Because the oppressor crushes people and crushes the self-esteem, Fastakhfqalna, right?
Lowers and belittles, belittles the intelligence of a people, belittles the worth of a people and puts them down to a point that they think that the only way that they can succeed is through validation through them.
And so there is nothing more threatening to an oppressor than a person who cannot be broken or a person who cannot be bought. There is nothing more, you know, frightening to that person
or to that system than a person who is liberated even if they are chained, than a person who is free even if they are enslaved. SubhanAllah, that finds that much and that's why when Rabi'i Ibn Amir stands in front of Rustam in Persia
and has absolutely no fear of the person that's sitting in front of him, right, on a throne and looking down at him and says Allah has sent us, لِنُخْرِجَ الْعِبَادِ مِنْ عِبَادَةِ الْعِبَادِ
إِلَىٰ عِبَادَةِ رَبِّ الْعِبَادِ that God has sent us to take people out from being enslaved to other slaves, to being enslaved only to the Lord of all slaves. وَمَنْ ضِيقِ الدُّنْيَا إِلَىٰ سَعَدْ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَانِ
from the constriction of this world to the expanse of this world, this life and the next. وَمَنْ جَوْرِ الْأَذِيَانِ إِلَىٰ عَدْلِ الْإِسْلَامِ and from the constriction, from the oppression of other systems to the justice of Islam. That's so threatening,
the fact that this man had this much Izzah, this much honor, that was not an honor that was demonstrated through the clothes of Rabi'i, it wasn't through him being vulgar or vile in his speech,
rather it was the dignity of this man. And so, if you're thinking about Mecca, why would these oppressors increase in their oppression
as they saw the Prophet ﷺ and his followers increasing only in their good character? Why was it that they went from insults to physical injury to murder to banishment of entire tribes?
Was it because the Muslims were responding with aggression? Was it because the Muslims were falling into their trap? Was it because the Muslims were so self-suffice
that these believers had so much self-actualization? That they took their power from a power source that these people did not control, and they derived their dignity from a source of power
that was accessible to these people. That's what's so threatening, and that's the power of faith. That it honors a man like Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu despite all of the worldly shackles,
and it humiliates a man like Abu Lahab despite all of the worldly embellishments. Because when a person cannot be bought, and when a person cannot be broken, then they are a threat to systems that depend,
and narcissists and oppressors that depend on breaking people down. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us a Izzah through our faith, to give us a sense of strength and dignity,
to never allow us to be afraid of those that taunt the believers, to never allow us to relinquish what Allah has given us of this beautiful faith, to keep us firm and steadfast and sincere,
to never allow us to be broken or shackled by anything that is other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those that run back to Him, that flee back to Him in every situation, in every scenario.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us amongst those that have those beautiful qualities and that achieve what He mentions of those people of the day, Al-Fawz Al-Kabir, that great success,
that great success which cannot be taken away by anything that happens in this world. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for our brothers and sisters that are oppressed all over the world. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep our brothers and sisters oppressed all over the world,
sincere and steadfast in the face of their oppression. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow them to see victory in this life and success in the hereafter, wherever they may be. Allahuma Ameen. JazakumAllahu Khayran,
Wasalamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakato.
