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Khutbahs
Surround Yourself With Truth | Lecture by Dr. Omar Suleiman
A word of affirmation that anchors you in truth. Not the kind that comforts you when you are doing wrong, but the kind that corrects you, strengthens you, and helps you remain on the right path. These are the friendships that truly matter.
Watch this lecture by Dr. Omar Suleiman on the power of authentic friendship and surrounding yourself with people who genuinely care about your faith and your future.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Dear brothers and sisters, last night I tried to put the audience in a very specific situation
with the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) and I want to do something similar tonight.
You saw our brother Ahmed walk you through being next to a dead body and being a dead body yourself.
I want you to imagine with me the following narration. Imagine standing over the dead body of Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه).
Umar (رضي الله عنه) has been stabbed. Umar (رضي الله عنه) has now passed away. His body has been washed.
He is wrapped in his kafan and you are standing over his body. Put yourself in that situation. The man who liberated Jerusalem, the man who spread justice to the world,
a man who embodied greatness in so many different ways. And as you're standing over his body, someone comes next to you and puts his elbow on your
shoulder while you're leaned over his body. The person who is leaned over his body is Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما).
And he says that someone put their elbow on my shoulder and spoke to Umar (رضي الله عنه) on his deathbed and said,
In kuntu la'arju an yaj'alaka Allahu ma'a sahibayk. How badly I wanted for Allah to gather you with your two companions.
How often I used to hear the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) say, Fa'altu wa Abu Bakr wa Umar. I did this and so did Abu Bakr and Umar.
Kuntu wa Abu Bakr wa Umar. I was here, I was there and Abu Bakr and Umar. Intalaqtu, I went there wa Abu Bakr wa Umar and Abu Bakr and Umar.
So often the Prophet (ﷺ) would say, I Abu Bakr and Umar believe this. I Abu Bakr and Umar saw this. I Abu Bakr and Umar think this way. This is the opinion of I Abu Bakr and Umar.
The two inseparable companions of the Prophet (ﷺ). Always by his side.
And the man is saying, I'm so happy that Allah is joining you with your two companions, the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه).
As Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) is about to be buried next to his two companions. And as you walk next to the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in Medina and you say, As-salamu alayka ya Rasulullah.
You give your salam and then you look at the way that he's situated. Abu Bakr is buried. The Prophet (ﷺ) is facing towards the Qibla.
Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) is buried also facing towards the Qibla at the shoulder of the Prophet (ﷺ). Umar is buried facing the Qibla also at the shoulder of Abu Bakr.
So when you're walking and you see those three holes, they're all facing the Qibla. Abu Bakr to the shoulder of Muhammad (ﷺ). Umar to the shoulder of Abu Bakr.
And this man is saying as he's leaning over Abdullah ibn Abbas, as Abdullah ibn Abbas is leaning over the body of Umar, I'm so happy that Allah gathered you with your two companions.
Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنه) said, I looked up and the man that was leaning on me was Ali ibn Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه). I take you to an incident with Ali (رضي الله عنه) himself
that almost all of you probably know. That in that moment when the Prophet (ﷺ) stood up on Safa and he called
the people to Islam for the first time, people that he had shown nothing but beauty for 40 years. They knew him as a Sadiq al-Amin, the honest, truthful, trustworthy one who spoke the truth
and acted with integrity, who had the best of manners towards them. They knew that he could be believed, he could be trusted in everything. And they turned their backs on him.
The one young man that stood up with him was Ali ibn Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه). When the Prophet (ﷺ) says, who will believe me? Who will support me? Ali (رضي الله عنه) says, I will, Ya Rasulullah. I'm with you, O Messenger of Allah.
He was a child at the time, but he said, I'm with you, Ya Rasulullah. In that difficult moment where everyone turned their backs, Allah put one young man to say, no, I'm with you, Ya Rasulullah.
In the most difficult moment of Ta'if, when the Prophet (ﷺ) was stoned and when he was covered in blood, running away from these people that were beating him
and abusing him verbally and physically, there was one young man that Allah put in the company of the Prophet (ﷺ) Zayd ibn Haritha (رضي الله عنه).
When the Prophet (ﷺ) came down from Hira, there was one woman who put her arms around him (ﷺ)
and assured him and comforted him in Khadijah (رضي الله عنها). And notice by the way, that of the favors, when he mentioned Khadijah
and he mentioned her favors, before he mentioned her spending upon him,
before he mentioned her being the mother of his children, before he mentioned any other favor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bestowed upon him through Khadijah,
he said about her, Aamanat bi ith kafara bi an-nas. She believed in me when other people disbelieved in me. She believed in me when other people disbelieved in me. Then he mentioned the other favors.
When the Prophet (ﷺ) was returning from the journey of al-Isra' wa-l-Mi'raj, that glorious journey, who will believe me? Yasduquka as-Siddiq. Abu Bakr will believe you. (رضي الله عنه).
You can always count on as-Siddiq to be there by your side. You have your companion. Where am I going with this?
Last night, I talked about New Age spirituality and affirmations and wanting people to confirm your feelings and not wanting friends that hold you accountable.
Wanting friends that merely tell you that you're right even when you're wrong. Wanting friends that validate you, even if that means validating your falsehood.
Wanting friends that inflate your ego, even when you need to be humbled. And today I'm going to talk about the opposite of that, which are friends that affirm you upon the truth.
Because there are good affirmations. There are people that are necessary to confirm you and to anchor you and to help fill your resolve and reassure you upon the truth as you go along the journey.
That could be as simple as when you're standing in Ramadan. Allahumma ballighna Ramadan. May Allah Azawajal allow us to reach it. Allahumma ameen. And it's the night of the nights of Ramadan and you're praying Taraweeh and you look around.
You can stand longer in prayer when you're surrounded by a congregation and listening to the Quran in that environment. Naturally, you can stand longer in that prayer.
You're more motivated when you look around and you see other people upon the truth. To remain on that truth, you gain strength by looking at other people that are holding on.
There is something beautiful, powerful. I don't want to use the word magical, but you know what I'm saying. When the believers are in each other's company, when good people are together,
when people that believe in something great, when visionaries are in the same room, when people who are mission-oriented lend to each other's resolve,
there's something so incredible about that room, about that feeling. When you look around and you see people like that. You know, Imam Malik rahimahullah ta'ala mentions, right, going to see Laith ibn Sa'd.
And your iman rises, your faith rises when you're in the company of certain people. They inspire you, even without saying a word, by the state that they are actually in. You want to be like them. You want to work like them.
You find thabat. You find firmness in them. You know, when I was going through a really hard time in my life, there was a teacher. And he wasn't a personal teacher of mine. A teacher in that he's an elder, a mentor.
He's not someone that would usually call me. But he called me and I was concerned because he'd never called me like this before. So I picked up the phone and I thought, you know, there must be something wrong. It's not like he calls many times.
And he said, I just wanted to check in on you. And he said something so powerful. He said, even the Prophet (ﷺ) had sahaba. Even the Prophet (ﷺ) had companions. So I want to be your companion right now. And I thought, what a beautiful thing to say.
And I thought, what a beautiful thing to say. Even the Prophet (ﷺ) had sahaba. So I wanted to be one of your sahaba right now. I wanted to let you know that I'm with you in your hard time and that I support you.
Affirm you upon that truth, not upon falsehood. Keep going. Don't be deflated. Keep it moving. And I pulled back a bit to the Quran.
And how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala frames this discussion of finding people that are like-minded to anchor you in truth, to move you. We know,
Wal-'asr, inna al-insana lafi khusr, illa allatheena aamanu wa 'amilu as-salihat wa tawasaw bil-haqq wa tawasaw bis-sabr. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, man is at loss.
Except for those who believe and work righteousness. And they support one another. Tawasaw bil-haqq. They support one another upon truth.
And they support one another upon patience and steadfastness. Notice that the first filter is haqq. Are they supporting each other on haqq in the first place?
Because to keep someone patient upon falsehood is not praiseworthy. To tell someone, don't worry, keep going. If what they're going into is not actually good for them, is not praiseworthy friendship.
But if it's truth, if it's good, if it's virtue, then there's something deeply poetic and powerful about people working together and saying, go, keep going, keep going forward.
One of the most memorable moments of this genocide. When Anas al-Sharif, rahimahullah ta'ala, Sout Ghazza, the voice of Gaza,
the journalist that was offered time and time again to leave. When Anas, one day as he was reporting, and we saw this a few times from some of the journalists, started to get emotional.
And you could hear someone in the background say, someone in the background say what? Does anyone remember? Anybody in here? Usmud, ya Anas, keep going, oh Anas.
It actually became a hashtag on social media. Usmud, ya Anas, keep going, oh Anas. Because as he was reporting, he was starting to get emotional. This young man was in his 20s.
And he had seen what would turn any of our hair gray. He'd lived through this genocide. He was martyred in this genocide. He was born and raised in a refugee camp in Gaza, grew up in that open air prison,
lived through the genocide, reported on the genocide, was martyred in the genocide. Usmud, ya Anas. And you could see him garnering strength. My last voice exchange with Anas, may Allah have mercy on him.
I was sitting with my father-in-law, and my father-in-law wanted to send him a message of tathbit, keeping him firm, making du'a for him. So I just handed my father-in-law the phone and sent him a message.
And he thanked me for that message and thanked my father-in-law. The next time I saw the news, I saw him on my screen, covered in blood and dirt, just like so many of our beloved ones.
Usmud, ya Anas, keep going, oh Anas. There was another group of journalists, by the way, subhanAllah. I was, Dr. Farhan Abdulaziz, who's a dear friend of mine, had went to Gaza.
And I told some of these brothers about Farhan. Farhan, this was his fifth or sixth time going to Gaza to help the people there. And these brothers were on a hunger strike.
This was in the time of the most severe starvation of Gaza. They were on a hunger strike. Some of the prominent journalists of Gaza, one of them, Abu Yahya, the spokesperson for civil defense.
I sent them Farhan's picture. I said, look for this brother, he's going to look for you. I was in Singapore, coming out of a restaurant with my family. SubhanAllah, I can't make this up.
I felt like garbage. And I get a FaceTime call from that journalist. I pick it up. And these brothers have Farhan between them.
And they're all laughing and like partying with Farhan, like, look who we found. These brothers had not eaten at that point for 14 days, specifically two weeks.
Do you know how you get when you don't put food in your stomach for a day? Two weeks, they had no food in their stomach. But looking at them, they were smiling and laughing.
And you could tell that they were feeding off of each other's energy. That iman, that faith. It's not some unnamed spiritual force. It's iman, it's faith, it's yaqeen, it's certainty.
That they were feeding off of each other, even as they couldn't feed their stomachs. And I looked at that and I felt so rotten. Like I just got out of a restaurant, ate with my family. And here they are.
Usmud, ya Anas, keep going, keep going. And as one of the ulema was commenting, one of the scholars was commenting on the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ) that a person says a word,
la yulqilaha bala and they don't really think much of that word. And because of that one word that they say, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala enters them into paradise. There's an opposite to that too, that you say a word that dips you into the depths of punishment
because you don't weigh your words. But there's someone else that says a word that's pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and that one word lands them in a high place in paradise. And he commented on that hadith and he says,
and I can't think of a word that is more beloved and pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that we don't give much weight to than karimatu tathbeet, a word of firmness, a word that helps someone keep going
when they're about to crumble, when they feel the weight of the mission and you encourage them to keep going, keep striving, keep fighting. You remember those things in your deep moments. You remember those things in your hardship. Imam Ahmad Rahimahullah Ta'ala
as he was being put through the tribulation, the inquisition, dragged through the streets and tortured and punished by tyrant after tyrant.
He remembered a man who called out to him and said, Ya Imam, O Imam, innaka 'ala al-haqq, you are upon the truth. Stay the course. You are upon the truth.
In lam tuqtal, fatamoot. If you're not killed, you'll die anyway. Stay the course. If you're not killed for what you believe in, you'll die anyway.
You might as well die for something you believe in. You might as well stay the course. And Imam Ahmad rahimahullah remembered that. It landed, kept him going. Karimatu tathbeet, a word of affirmation,
not a word of affirmation that inflates the ego, a word of affirmation that anchors you in the truth, not a word of affirmation that reassures you when you're doing wrong. A word of affirmation that reaffirms you,
so that reassures you so that you stay upon the right. These are the special. Types of friendships, the special types of relationships, the special types of words that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commands from us.
Because one of the most miserable feelings in the world is to feel abandoned.
Such a feeling that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even reminded the Prophet (ﷺ)
There's so much to talk about the tafsir here. Your Lord has not forsaken you. Your Lord has not forgotten you. Your Lord has not repulsed you.
Your Lord still loves you. Do not mistake the pause in revelation for the abandonment of the Prophet. It's not there. Don't misinterpret this. Your Lord is still with you.
He's consistently with you. And what did the Prophet (ﷺ) say to Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه)? When Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) needed kalimatul tathbit, he needed that word of reassurance.
La tahzan inna Allaha ma'ana. Don't grieve. God is with us. Allah is with us.
And that's when sakinah, that's when tranquility descended upon the heart of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه). But I want to bring it back to something really interesting in the Quranic discourse. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Wasbir wa ma sabruka illa billah.
Be patient and your patience is not to be found except in Allah. Your patience is not to be found except in Allah. And what that means is that your true steadfastness,
your true ability to be able to stand in the face of tyranny, to be able to stand upon something that's meaningful, in the face of cruelty, or in the face of a crushing force,
that's not going to be found except through the divine, except through Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, except through God himself. Wasbir wa ma sabruka illa billah. But look at the other ayah. Allah says,
Wasbir nafsaka ma'allatheena yad'oona rabbahum bilghadati wal'ashi yureeduna wajhah. Same word. Wasbir nafsaka.
Keep yourself patient, steadfast, firm with those who worship their Lord day and night, seeking his face, seeking his pleasure, seeking his reward, seeking his reassurance.
Keep yourself firm and you will not find firmness except in Allah, but keep yourself firm with other people that are seeking firmness from Allah.
Surround yourself with people with lofty aspirations. Surround yourself with people that seek something greater in this world,
and be that affirmation to people that feel abandoned while they are upon the truth.
I want you to sit with this for a moment because it is so important. There are political prisoners around the world,
and that word of affirmation, that word of confirmation, anchoring them upon the truth, which might come through you signing a petition, which might come through you sharing something on your social media,
which might come through you recording a video or starting a campaign in your community, which might come through you sharing a fundraiser, there are people that wait for your letter,
that are so moved by your advocacy, because their captors have told them that they are forgotten, that they don't matter anymore, that society has moved on from them.
Let me share with you something specific that I heard from one of the HLF-5, one of the Holy Land Foundation prisoners in America. These men who were punished for feeding Palestinian children
at the behest of the then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, came to the White House and in a sham trial, these five men were captured and locked up and their families' lives ruined.
Shukri Abu Bakr, may Allah free him, one of the two that remains, said that I was just waiting to see a letter from someone in the community that just said,
Inna ma'al usri yusra, with hardship comes ease. Someone just to remember to write a letter. Inna ma'al usri yusra. Like he's reading the Quran in prison,
but it hurts, it stings. Where is my community? Was it really so hard for you to write that letter? Was it really so hard for you to join that campaign to support them?
Were they not worth a few minutes? Do you know what those letters mean? I'll tell you in the United States right now. There is an app called Getting Out. Getting Out.
It's ironic, cruel. For the ICE detainees. And they have like a few iPads for the floor for a hundred people at a time. And just like the old, I don't know what the equivalent is in the UK of collect calls.
When someone calls you from prison, I still have Imam Jamil, may Allah have mercy on him. When Imam Jamil would call, I still have him in my favorites. His call from prison, because some prisons have that. You can only call like a collect call.
You have to accept the call, pay the charges, and then you can talk to that person. They now have an app called Getting Out. And the Getting Out app, you have to load up the app and some facilities allow them to send you a message.
You can message them on the iPad. Of course, it's capitalism, right? There's a dollar a message, this much money if you can get a phone call through. So cruel. So cruel.
But subhanAllah, yesterday on the way to London, in fact, I was talking to Sister Lika, who's in Lika Kurdia, who's one of the prisoners right now. One of the longest prisoners in this recent ICE detention spree that we have.
Sister from Gaza. I could hear all the commotion in the background. These people light up with one phone call. They light up when they get a letter. She responds to every letter. They respond to the letters.
You have in the UK the Filton 24. It's your community, your brothers and sisters. They took a stand for something meaningful.
Don't let them be alone in that stance. Don't let their families feel like you forgot them. You have your sister, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
She is in a hole, just a few miles away from me in Texas. And we've been denied the ability to be able to visit Dr. Aafia. May Allah make it easy for her.
You know what those letters mean to Dr. Aafia? She knows that she's not forgotten. In fact, I'm going to call someone up to the stage, inshallah. Clive Smith, who's her attorney.
I want him to actually come to the stage, inshallah. This man has been flying around the world relentlessly advocating on behalf of Aafia.
In the UK, in the US, he's gone to Afghanistan to collect facts on her behalf. I know that he's dealt with a shoestring budget to be able to do this. Think about that.
Do you know what it means for someone to feel like they're not forgotten? And I actually want him to come on. If I can have him come on.
I want him to talk about Dr. Aafia's case because this is a global case, a landmark case. But when you see Aafia, I want you to see those that are like Aafia, whose names you don't even know, and look for them.
And I want you to ask yourself, especially about the Filton 24 and about those brothers and sisters that are being targeted here in the United Kingdom. Have you sent a letter? Have you put forth advocacy?
And I want you to think about people in your community that are doing great things. Have you reassured them? Have you given them a shoulder? Have you given them a hand? You see people that are making sacrifices.
You know, I always tell people that it's not just those that were in the trench, in the khandaq. It's those that bring the water to them. It's those that bring them the food. It's those that find any way that they can support them that lets them know.
Your charity sometimes to places around the world is a word of solidarity manifested in food. We have not forgotten you. We're still here with you. Surround yourself with people that do noble things.
And commit yourself to those who may feel abandoned because they're being punished for being upon the truth. Clive, I want you all to give this man a round of applause.
Thank you on behalf of our community for all that you've done. Well, my goodness. Wow, this is loud. I know that you didn't come to listen to me. You didn't come to listen to me.
You came to listen to Shaykh Omar. And I just want to do some affirmation. This guy I met in Texas when I'd gone all the way to see Aafia.
And I found the person who I have to look up to both physically and metaphorically. And he's what I would call him a real saint.
And when we're talking about that, I do want to do a little affirmation with you guys. Because we've now got 25 years of the absurd war of terror as Borat calls it.
And it's been, I've represented a lot of people in Guantanamo. It's been my privilege to represent them. And through that, really, I've met you lot.
And I just want to say what a wonderful group of people you are. That I've watched a lot of Islamophobia over many years. And your response has been fabulous.
And I love you all. And I think you've been fabulous support for so many of the people I've represented. But I'm afraid I've got to call on you another time. Because I'm sure many of you know who Aafia Siddiqui is.
I, my mother told me it was my job as an old privileged white male to go look out for people in prison and people who are being trampled on.
And I have represented 87 people in Guantanamo. And I didn't think there was anything worse that could happen to a human being than that. But Aafia Siddiqui and what we've done to this poor woman
has shocked me to the core. And there's many of you are the sisters, will have children. And if you can imagine driving to the airport and being stopped by the CIA
and having your children snatched from you and having a six-year-old son taken and put in prison in Afghanistan. Have a four-year-old daughter, Maryam, taken to Afghanistan
and forcibly adopted into a white Christian American family on the principle that apparently they believe that the only way to get to heaven is to be a white Christian American. I mean, it's just shocking.
But even that's not as shocking as the third child that apparently they dropped the six-month-old Sulayman and killed him. And then they took this poor woman to Bagram
where I've been with my old friend and Guantanamo client, Moazzam Begg. I hope many of you know and admire Moazzam. He's someone I look up to metaphorically, but look down to otherwise. He's very short. He's not like this chap here.
But Moazzam is a wonderful human being and we've been to Afghanistan five times together to get the evidence for Aafia. But this brings you to exactly what Shaykh Omar was saying. The things you can do. I think it's every religion.
That says you should look out for the people in prison because they're so downtrodden. And I've got a, can I just make a few requests of the Assemble Group?
We filed, it's going to be this week, the challenge to her conviction has taken a lot of work and we need your help. And there's not a person in this monstrous audience,
including you young man, little kid down here. There's no one who doesn't have a talent that would help her. And first, they won't let Shaykh Omar in to give her religious solace.
How many people here are Muslim? Put your hand up. I think there's quite a lot of you. We are going to file a brief in court supporting Shaykh Omar
and telling the judge that she's not even allowed a religious minister to help her out. And all of you can support that. How many of you are doctors or medical professionals? Put your hand up.
She hasn't been allowed a doctor for the last 21 years. And again, we need the support of doctors. There's no one here who can't support her. And the thing that Shaykh Omar said that's actually true,
more than anyone I've ever represented before, is you can send her a letter. I'm just going to say this email address, but I'm sure we can get it to you. Letters for Aafia. That's letters and then the number for Aafia,
A-A-F-I-A at gmail.com. That comes to me and you've got to send her letters, not saying we pity you, saying you inspire us because of what you've stood up for, for all those years.
And I will personally deliver those letters to her. And I beg you to do that. And what she told me as she's being abused, she's been raped in this prison that she's in right now.
And she told me that when they're abusing her in this prison, she takes your letters and reads them out to her abusers and says, Hey, I got people out there who care about me.
This is a huge, huge thing. And it's one of the things I'm proudest of, of all of you who have helped her in these things. So enough from me, but you want to hear from this guy. I know, but I just want to thank you for letting me come up and be here with you.
And this guy's a great guy, right? Everyone give him a round of applause. On behalf of our community, thank you for fighting for our sister. It's my privilege.
My mom would strike me dead from heaven if I didn't do it. Thank you very much.
Letters for Aafia, letters the number 4, Aafia, A-A-F-I-A, gmail.com. In one minute,
You read an incident from the Sira. And if you're honest with yourself, you wonder, If I was there in Safa and I was an ordinary Meccan and the
Prophet (ﷺ) stood up and said, who will follow me? Would I have turned my back? If I was there in Uhud, Would I have fled?
If I was there in Ta'if, would I have just joined the chorus of those that were stoning him? And there's no way to answer that question. I don't know.
I know that I've been tested with not living at the same time as the Prophet (ﷺ), and it feels, feels depriving. To not have had the ability to touch him (ﷺ),
to not have had the ability to be with him, Aleyhis Salatu Wasallam, the most beloved person in the world to me, and I never got to see him. But I also know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala deprived me from that physical companionship for a reason.
And all of us ask Allah that as we've been forbidden from his physical companionship that he doesn't forbid us from his eternal companionship in Jannatul Firdaus, Allahumma Ameen.
But dear brothers and sisters, throwing my arms around the Prophet (ﷺ) in Uhud, which I can't do. What that looks like now is throwing our arms around Aafia
Siddiqui, around the HLF-5, around the Filton-24, around anyone from our community that is being targeted, around the people of Gaza, around the forgotten people of Sudan, around the
people of Yemen, around our Ummah, around the oppressed of the Ummah of Muhammad (ﷺ) and beyond. JazakumAllahu Khayran. Thank you all so much. Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu.


































































































































































































































































































