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The One Child Pharoah Didn't Kill | Khutbah
The Prophet ﷺ taught us how to affirm victory in the wake of a surprise attack, how to pray for victory when all of it’s pathways have closed, and how to trust the plan of Allah to give life to the cause even in the face of death and destruction.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him,
the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen. Ha Mim la yunsaroon.
Ha Mim la yunsaroon. Ha Mim la yunsaroon. Ha Mim la yunsaroon. These are not verses from the Quran that you have heard recited, and you may have never recited these words yourself.
But I want to actually start with the most practical thing that I can give you from this khutbah before I tell a single story. And that is what is authentically narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ).
That the companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said that he said to us, alayhi salatu was salam, that if you go out on an expedition and you are taken by a surprise attack,
say "Ha Mim la yunsaroon." Ha Mim, they will not be victorious. Ha Mim, they will not be victorious. And subhanallah, it's a profound statement
that the Prophet (ﷺ) is giving that clearly has a material manifestation in real time when a people are suffering a scary situation. And
there is an equivalent to this on a personal level that the Prophet (ﷺ) taught us, that when we experience a moment of doubt, that when the Shaytan comes to us and he takes us from a
journey of admiring the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to then questioning whether or not there is a Creator in the first place, he said at that moment say "Amantu billah," I believe in Allah.
I believe in Allah, and it will repel the Shaytan. Affirm your belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the moment that doubt hits, and then you will not allow it to settle in your heart. And in this situation,
the Prophet (ﷺ) gives us another affirmation. Ha Mim la yunsaroon. And I want you to think about it every single time you turn on the news and every single time you
follow the cycle and you feel like another devastating twist has happened and it feels like there is no path to victory. La yunsaroon, they will not be victorious.
It emanates from the same spirit that the Prophet (ﷺ) acted upon in the Quran, that when they see the opposing army and it appears to be very large, and when the numbers seem not to be in their favor,
they say "Hasbuna Allahu wa ni'ma al-wakeel," Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best protector—the same words that Ibrahim alayhi salam, that Abraham, peace be upon him, said as he was being thrown into the fire.
But I want to stick with this one for a moment. Ha Mim la yunsaroon. They will not be victorious. How will we be victorious? They will not be victorious.
When will we be victorious? They will not be victorious. And it's one thing to say it from here. It's another thing to say it from here. La yunsaroon. They will not be victorious.
Now I take you to a story. We are 300 days into a genocide in Gaza. The death toll is enormous.
There have been more children killed in Gaza in the last 10 months than there have been in all combat zones put together over the last five years around the entire world.
There are more child amputees in Gaza than child amputees in any place in the world.
And there is a Pharaoh that gloats and that laughs in front of a TV screen, and you see it. And like every human being and any person who has an ounce of empathy in their heart,
it hurts for a moment, and then that moment carries on and it becomes a day. And you can choose at that point to either become indifferent or deflated and despondent, or to renew your trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I want to take you back to the story of the original Fir'awn—not the Fir'awn in Benjamin Netanyahu—the original Fir'awn, and
how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala foiled his plan in the wake of his own genocide, his child genocide.
When we look in the story of Fir'awn, we find that there are two moments in which he carries out this massacre of children. The first one he does so as a precaution. As
mufassirun mentioned, that Fir'awn saw a dream. One narration of that dream: he saw a fire that came from Bayt al-Maqdis, that came from Jerusalem, and
that overtook every single home in Egypt except for Bani Israel. In another narration, he saw a child from Bani Israel rising to take his throne. On
top of that, some of the mufassirun mentioned that Ibrahim alayhi salam had prophesied that a child from his descendants would overthrow a Fir'awn. And
Fir'awn gathers at his time, as we all know, the saharah, the sorcerers, the fortune-tellers, the magicians, and he tells them about this dream. And to a tyrant, all children are
disposable. There is no regard for human life. And he says to his advisors from the soothsayers and the fortune-tellers and the magicians, "What am I to do with this dream?" And
they say to him that the safest way to deal with this is to murder each and every single child from Bani Israel.
"Yudhabbihu abna'ahum wa yastahyi nisa'ahum." Kill all the boys that were born this year, and spare only the girls. And so I want you to think about the operation as it takes place.
Imagine the horror of every mother who already went through the pain of childbirth when the soldiers of Fir'awn show up at her house and
are completely stone-cold to any type of plea from the mom to please spare this child of mine. And one by one, they murdered each and every single boy that they could find.
Some mothers tried to hide their children, but these soldiers were ruthless. And subhanallah, some of the narrations say 20, 30, 40,000 boys were killed.
And as they go through, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the inspiration that He gives to the mother of Musa alayhi salam to take her son and to put him in the Nile River.
But that's not all that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says happens. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "Wa alqaytu 'alayka mahabbatan minni," and I placed upon you a special love from Me.
"Wa litusna'a 'ala 'ayni," and kept you under My watchful eye. Now subhanallah, in this situation, let's take a step back. As the mother puts the one child that survives this genocide into the Nile River,
what are the chances of the survival of that child going into the Nile River? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says two things other than the promise to bring him back,
other than the promise to let that child be the source of victory and that child actually be the nightmare that Fir'awn had. Other than that, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, "Wa alqaytu 'alayka mahabbatan minni." I
dressed you with My love. And there's something very beautiful about this expression in particular, and I want you to think about the children of Gaza, and I want you to think about the people of Gaza. With all of the propaganda, with all of the Islamophobia,
with all the anti-Arab racism and xenophobia that we've seen fester over decades in movies and in press,
with all of that, a decent human being looks at these people in Gaza and says, "That doesn't look like a terrorist to me." A
decent human being looks at the people that are being martyred and says, "That's not the type of person
that I can find justified, even with all of your propaganda, to dismember into pieces the way that you have." They look at the children of Gaza, and
some people's hearts have been brought back to life, and some people are starting to find a connection to a cause that they either had no idea about all these years or that they used to stand on the opposite side of.
"Wa alqaytu 'alayka mahabbatan minni," I placed upon you love. Ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) says, meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah loved him,
and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made him beloved to the creation. Meaning what? As-Suddi rahimahullah ta'ala says, and 'Ikrimah
(رضي الله عنه) says, no one would look at Musa alayhi salam, not knowing anything about where he was from, not knowing anything about the propaganda of the children that would be born, that no one looked at Musa alayhi salam
except that they immediately fell in love with him. Everyone looked at Musa alayhi salam because Allah dressed him with the love, and immediately loved him. Meaning, you could say everything you wanted about Musa alayhi salam,
but even when the magicians of Fir'awn saw him the first time, something was already in their hearts because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala addressed him in a certain way, and that's nothing that a tyrant could interfere with. And
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, "And I kept you under My watchful eye this entire time." He remained under the protection and the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even when no one else could watch him. I see some of these children from Gaza
that walk through the ruins of their camps and have had every single member of their family taken away from them, and I remind myself when I look at that, as much as I want to pick that child up, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
watching that child and that Allah 'azza wa jall has a plan for that child. What about all the other children that Fir'awn killed? That one or this one? All of them were sent to their Jannah. They were sent to their Paradise. And
that's what makes the believer different. We can see the ugliness of murder and the beauty of martyrdom in the exact same scene. We can see how nasty it is on this side and we have certainty in how beautiful it is on the other side,
without in any way diminishing our outrage over what has happened here, nor losing trust about what is happening there. Allah had a plan for them, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had a plan for Musa alayhi salam. And of the makr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
the plotting of Allah against the Fir'awn, is that not only would one child survive his genocide, but that that child would grow up in his palace, under his eye, on his watch, and
overthrow him and drown him in the sea by the permission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Fir'awn actually tried this again, and this is what the scholars mentioned, that there's a second incident where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
speaks about it in Surah Al-A'raf, where Fir'awn mentions, "Sanuqattilu abna'ahum wa nastahyi nisa'ahum wa inna fawqahum qahirun," that we're going to kill all of their boys and we're going to spare their girls, and we will
usher in an era of complete dominance over them. And this was after Musa alayhi salam had believers with him. Fir'awn said, "I know how to deal with this.
I'll just kill all of their children. I know exactly how to deal with this. I have the playbook: murder their children." But the one child he couldn't murder, the one child he missed,
became the reason for his complete downfall, because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not miss. La yunsaroon. They will not be victorious.
Say it from the heart, the same heart that's heartbroken over the murder and that has faith in what comes after martyrdom. Ha Mim la yunsaroon. They will not be victorious because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not miss.
Is it one of the amputees that has been thrown away into a bordering country where he or she is not wanted?
Is it one of the children who's growing up in the refugee camp and who now has a sense of purpose when their childhood was stolen away from them as to what they want to live the rest of their life doing and what they want to meet after death?
What is it? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has a plan. And the tyrant always misses someone. The tyrant always misses a detail.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never misses, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never loses sight of the details. Dear brothers and sisters, it's hot outside, so I'm going to wrap this khutbah up inshallah ta'ala
to spare the people that are sitting outside. There are times where we're going to get hit hard. We're going to cry a lot. We're going to feel a lot of pain. And we're going to wonder, "Now what?"
And those are the times that it becomes that much more important for you to lean back on the promise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and to remember that it was not your victory to start with,
and also that true victory is found in the willingness to sacrifice for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the willingness to stand up. And that idea of sacrifice, that idea of freedom,
that idea of standing up, is resonating now around the world, not just in the Gaza Strip, in ways that it never has before. Al-Bara' (رضي الله عنه) says,
he said that you people consider the victory, the conquest, to be the conquest of Mecca. And indeed the conquest of Mecca was a victory.
"Wa nahnu na'uddu al-fath bay'at ar-ridwan yawm al-Hudaybiyah." As for us, we see the true victory having come under the tree when we pledged with the Prophet (ﷺ) in the midst of negotiations
that some people saw as a humiliation for the Muslims and a sign of weakness. It was in that that there was a willingness to sacrifice that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewarded, and that doors were opened that they could not see,
even if it wasn't the ultimate door that they wanted to be opened. There is something I want to remind you of. With the death and destruction, subhanallah, the man who said this quote, a man by the name of Medgar Evers,
famous civil rights icon in the 1960s, he has a famous quote that says, "You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea." It's actually a quote that was on the funeral program of Al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz, who was murdered at the age of 39,
who we're still talking about today. He would have been 100 years old next year. You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. If you go to the driveway of Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi,
the blood from when he was shot still stains the driveway. You actually stand in the blood of a man. You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. And that is the mistake and the miscalculation
of every single tyrant, of every single Pharaoh. You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea. Alhamdulillah for an idea that is so potent, that is so pervasive,
that it has spread throughout the world, and that we are, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, nurturing in the hearts of our next generations. Alhamdulillah for that. And when we see the pain, I leave you with this du'a of the Prophet (ﷺ).
As Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنهما) mentioned, he said that we went out on the day of Badr, that the Prophet (ﷺ), "Kharaja yawma Badrin," he went out on the day of Badr and he had 315 people with him,
and he made the following du'a: "Allahumma innahum hufatun," O Allah, they are barefoot. "Fahmilhum." "Allahumma innahum 'uratun," O Allah, they are naked.
"Faksuhum." So clothe them. "Allahumma innahum jiya'un," "Fashbi'hum." O Allah, they are hungry. So feed them. "Allahumma innahum hufatun," "Fahmilhum." O Allah, they are barefoot. So give them something to ride upon.
"Allahumma innahum 'uratun," "Faksuhum." O Allah, they are naked. So clothe them. "Allahumma innahum jiya'un," "Fashbi'hum." O Allah, they are hungry. So feed them. And he says, (رضي الله عنهما), "Fa-fatahAllahu lahu yawma Badrin,"
"Fankalabu heena ankalabu," "Wama minhum rajlun illa waqad raja'a bi jamalin," "Aw jamalayni," "Waktasaw wa shabi'u." He said that the Prophet (ﷺ) left the battle of Badr,
and not a single person that was with him came out of that battle except that he had a camel or two camels, and that he was fully clothed and had extra accessories,
and that they had something to fill their stomachs with. And so we complain to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala: O Allah, our people are hungry, so feed them. O Allah, our people are naked, so clothe them.
O Allah, our people do not have clean water, so provide them clean water. O Allah, our people are under the most mischievous and evil tyrant that we have known in our lifetime. O Allah, so grant them victory.
O Allah, our people are desperate, so give them hope. O Allah, our people are feeling neglected, so O Allah, be with them. O Allah, our people are sad, O Allah, grant them happiness.
O Allah, our people have been betrayed, so O Allah, be their guardian. O Allah, our people have been cut off, O Allah, place us in solidarity with them. O Allah, grant our people in Gaza
and the oppressed all over the world victory. Allahumma ameen. I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan.
[Arabic du'a continues]
Allahumma ansur ikhwanana al-mustad'afeen fi Ghazza. Allahumma alayka bi-a'da'ika a'da' al-deen. Allahumma arina fihim 'aja'iba qudratik. Allahumma kun ma'a ikhwanina fi Falastin wa fi al-Sudan wa fi kulli makan. Rabbana la tu'akhidhna in nasina aw akhta'na. Rabbana wa la tahmil 'alayna isran kama hamaltahu 'ala alladhina min qablina. Rabbana wa la tuhammilna ma la taqata lana bih. Wa'fu 'anna wa ghfir lana wa arhamna. Anta mawlana, fansurna 'ala al-qawm al-kafirin. Wa aqim al-salah.


































































































































































































































































































