
Jump to:
Khutbahs
The Qur’an They Can’t Bomb: Stories from Gaza | Dr. Omar Suleiman
How can we hold onto the Qur’an, like the 12-year-old girl in Gaza, paralyzed and unable to move, who still lets the words of Allah guide her in her toughest moments? Dr. Omar Suleiman delivers a powerful message on anchoring our hearts to the Qur’an, even as hope begins to fade.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Imam Al-Dhahabi mentions this narration that I want to start with tonight and it will make
sense in a few moments. He mentions this man and unlike the majority of the stories that Imam Al-Dhahabi recounts,
many of those that we cover in the first when we talk about the companions and the illustrious pious predecessors, this was a man who actually serves as a cautionary tale.
Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi talks about him in Talbis Iblis, the deception of the devil. So I want you to have the image in your mind. His name was Ibn Al-Saqqa.
Ibn Al-Saqqa was a reciter of the Qur'an. He was a hafiz. He was someone who was distinguished in the recitation and the teaching of the Qur'an.
And he was someone that used to go out in battle into the Roman territories, fi sabilillah and he was distinguished in everything that he did.
And then one day, he fell in love with someone that wasn't Muslim. And the condition of her accepting him was that he would relinquish his faith.
So he left his Islam after being a hafiz, after being a mujahid, after being a teacher.
Years later, as he's on his deathbed in Constantinople, which is modern day Istanbul in Turkey, some of his companions come up to him and they ask him,
you know, we know that you used to be a hafiz of the Qur'an. Do you remember anything from the Qur'an?
And he responds and he says, I forgot the entire Qur'an except for one ayah. The ayah in Surah Al-Hijr, رُبَمَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ كَانُوا مُسْلِمِينَ
It may be that those who disbelieved would wish that they were believers. He said, the rest of the Qur'an has disappeared from me except for this ayah.
A verse that Allah SWT etched into his soul as a result of his loss of faith.
Many of you are familiar with the story of Sayyiduna Umar, where when the messenger of Allah SWT passes away,
he stands up in the masjid and he has an emotional reaction. He wasn't prepared to accept in his heart that the messenger of Allah SWT had passed away.
His entire life revolved around, قَالَ اللَّهُ وَقَالَ رَسُولُ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ Allah said and the messenger said. Every morning the concern of Umar bin Al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه),
was how he could manifest the Qur'an best, how he could follow the Prophet (ﷺ) closest. And his intuition was so sincere,
that not only was he not forgetting ayahs of the Qur'an, Allah SWT was sending down revelation that agreed with his intuition.
And that was from his sincerity. When he believed something deeply, a verse would come down and confirm what he felt like was the next direction for the Muslims. Not at the behest of Umar,
but confirming the sincerity of Umar because the revelation comes down when Allah SWT decides and unchanged as Allah SWT spoke it. But on that day he stood up,
when the Prophet (ﷺ) passed away. And he started to threaten those who said that the Prophet (ﷺ) had passed away, swearing that the messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would come back to this world,
and that the Prophet (ﷺ) would deal with the hypocrites that said he was dead, and that he had gone just like Moses had gone, Musa (ﷺ) had gone for 40 days, and he would come back, and Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) stands up and he says,
Umar, sit down, stop. And you can imagine the scene when you try to comfort someone who's in denial of the death of a loved one.
Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) pleads with Umar, sit down, stop. And Umar can't hear Abu Bakr over his hurt
until Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (رضي الله عنه) starts to speak. And the community knows its leader after the Prophet (ﷺ).
And they surround Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) whose voice was lower in volume, but whose speech was as truthful as any human being
that has ever walked the face of the earth that was not a Prophet of Allah. And he recites the ayah, وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلُ
That Muhammad (ﷺ) was but a messenger of Allah. Other messengers have come and gone before him. أَفَإِن مَاتَ أَوْ قُتِلَ If he dies or if he is killed,
will you turn back on your heels? The verses in Surah Ali Imran, it was revealed in an Uhud reality, a Badr to Uhud reality
to prepare the Muslims for the reality that after the victory and jubilation of Badr, there was the grief of Uhud around the corner. And that there would be a moment
where they would think that even the Prophet (ﷺ) was killed. And that they would lose so much steam that some of them would sit in the battlefield and put their weapons down and just cry and wait for death to come to them
because they no longer felt like fighting anymore. And Umar (رضي الله عنه) who was there in Badr, who was there in Uhud, he was with the Prophet (ﷺ) when the Prophet (ﷺ) could not stand
because of the severity of his wounds. He saw the Prophet (ﷺ) as close to death as they come. He was the one who responded back to Abu Sufyan from the battlefield of Uhud.
قَدْ أَبْقَ اللَّهُ مَا يُخْزِيكِ يَا عَدُوَ اللَّهِ Allah has caused to remain that which is the source of your disgrace, O enemy of Allah. But he says when Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) recited that verse,
فَكَأَنِّي It was as if I never heard it إِلَّا يَوْمَ إِذْ until that date. It was as if it was the first time I ever heard that verse being recited.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala etched it into his soul. Not out of a loss of faith, but because of the presence of faith. The opposite of Ibn Saqqa.
Why do I start with this? Yesterday, I went to visit a young girl from Gaza, 12 years old.
One of the refugees that we have here in the United States. Her legs are not functioning because her spinal cord is riddled with bullets.
She's missing one arm. And the only thing that somewhat functions is her left arm. Laying in a bed, I walked into the room.
She has a beautiful smile on her face that she does not deprive anyone of. As-salamu alaykum, Ammu. How are you? Wa alaykum as-salam, Ammu. Alhamdulillah. I'm fine. We praise Allah and thank Him. Speaking like a grown believer,
how are you? Alhamdulillah. We're doing well. We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for everything. The nurse comes in and the nurse asks her what it was like for her to be able to eat food for the first time in a long time due to her illness
because what has been done to her has left her in such a complex medical condition. And she smiles and she laughs when she talks about getting her first bite of a burger after a long time
and how good it felt. The nurse starts to play, because she thinks this is good, some songs, Arabic songs, to make her happy. She doesn't speak Arabic.
So she just puts on some Palestinian songs. I'm standing on the side. I make a joke with her. I say to her, Ammu, if you want, I can sing.
You don't have to listen to the iPad. And she responds and she says, Ammu, I don't want you to sing. I want you to recite some Quran to me. 12 years old. I told her, what should I recite?
She said, whatever you want. So I read Surah Ar-Rahman to her. I finished Surah Ar-Rahman or a part of it.
And then I asked her to recite something back to me. If you speak to any 12 year old in the world,
and you ask a young child to recite Quran to you, usually they're going to recite something from Juz'amm. Or if there's someone with hifz,
they'll recite maybe Surah Ya-Sin. Or if they really want to flex their recitation muscles, they'll recite Surah Al-Baqarah, some of Al-Baqarah, Ali Imran, to show you what they know.
I told her, recite anything to me. This 12 year old girl said, I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. Surah Al-Qasas.
Verily the Pharaoh has exalted himself on this earth. And he cut up his people into segmentations. He grouped them.
Persecuting one group of them. He slaughters some of their sons.
And keeps some of their women. And indeed, he was of the evil doers. And we, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
and we wish to bestow our favor upon those who are oppressed on this earth. And make them leaders.
And make them the inheritors of this earth. Make them models of faith. And make them inheritors of this earth. Wallahi, that's where she started from.
Verily Pharaoh exalted himself on this earth. Made himself the tyrant Pharaoh. And she continued to recite in Surah Al-Qasas.
What 12 year old in the world starts from that place of the Quran when you ask them to recite from it? Think about it.
What was etched in her soul? Inna Fir'aun an'a'la fil ardi. That verily Fir'aun exalted himself. Who is Fir'aun in her conception? Who do you think she's thinking about when she thinks about Fir'aun?
And who do you think she's thinking about when she thinks about allatheena astu'ifu fil ardi? Those who are persecuted on this earth. And who do you think she thinks about? Yudabihu abna'ahum. That their boys are slaughtered except for her siblings, her brothers,
who were killed, all killed in a single strike. Yastahi nisa'ahum. Except for her own mother. Her own sister. And Allah azawajal wants to make some of us
models of faith. And wishes to make us inheritors of this land. Who do you think that young girl is thinking about? There's something deep in the soul that comes out
when you think about the identity of a community. When you think about what is deep in the heart. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, bal huwa ayaatun bayyinat. That rather these are clear verses
that we have put fi suduril ladheena ootu il'ilm. That we have put deeply etched into the chests of those who possess knowledge. When you think about the identity of a community.
When you think about the foundation of this community. When you think about what is under that flesh of the people of Gaza as they are being torn in the way that they are being torn. When you think about what is in their hearts when their ribcages start to show.
It is the Qur'an that is etched deeply into their hearts. It is the Qur'an that naturally comes to their minds. It's the Qur'an that they see the world with their eyes through. It's the Qur'an that comes to their tongues.
It's the Qur'an that gives them inspiration. And that girl, wallahi, when I asked her if she wants anything, she said, can you bring me a mushaf? I want to go back to my memorization because I was memorizing in the masjid before we were bombed.
And I forgot much of what I was memorizing. She's already a hafidha in many ways. When we say that there were 55,000 or so huffadh in Gaza,
there are many more that are huffadh in a deeper sense, preservers of the Qur'an in a deeper sense. Maybe they don't memorize the entire Qur'an here, but they have it here. They have it deep in their bones.
They have it in their flesh and in their blood. They are the chosen people facing devils who call themselves the chosen people. They are the people of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
because they have the Qur'an inside of them. They do not claim any type of superiority on the basis of being Palestinian.
They do not claim any superiority on the basis of nationality.
They do not claim to be chosen people of God or children of light because of anything but the Qur'an.
And I want you to walk back with me for a moment. There is a moment in the grave where all of us will be shaken to our core.
And it's like a bomb falling on you. It's a moment that shakes you. And when those angels ask you, man rabbuk, who is your Lord?
Only someone who has it deep inside of them will be able to say Allah through it all. Through the shaking, through the trembling, through the difficulty.
These are a people who have rehearsed this so many times now that it comes out that naturally, whether they're 12 or whether they are 82.
And I do want you to have something practical here. If you were to ask me what it feels like right now in the moment that we are in, And I think some of you could relate.
It feels like there is a knife inside here and here that keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper. And it keeps exposing more flesh. The wound keeps going deeper.
As deep as the wound goes in the chest and in the back, the Qur'an should be etched into the flesh the deeper the wound goes.
You read the Qur'an from the perspective of the moment that you are in. And perhaps Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will allow you to recall a verse of the Qur'an
that he refused to let your soul forget in the most devastating moments of your life. It'll come out. But that takes your introspection.
That doesn't take a lesson in tafsir. That doesn't take you being a hafidh from cover to cover. That takes you being someone who is refusing to close their eyes in the moment that you are in.
Eyes wide open in the face of this genocide, in the face of this cruelty. Heart open to whatever Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to put inside of there.
Deeds vulnerable to wherever Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala directs them. No matter what that's going to mean for me. But you have to open your heart to the Qur'an
so that it gets written deeper and deeper as the wound becomes deeper and deeper. So that just like that 12-year-old girl, the first verses that you think about with any situation that you see
are the words of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Dear brothers and sisters, I will mention one name right now.
And it's because it would be a disservice to her not to mention her. This morning a woman by the name of Dr. Alaa Najjar woke up in Gaza, a pediatric doctor,
and went to the hospital. She has 10 children. You think about the labor and the pain of giving birth 10 times in Gaza.
You think about the ayats and the Qur'an in that household. You think about the words of consolation and solace and the words of affirmation that were shared in that household.
You think about her bidding farewell every morning to her children. It's not mom going to work, it's mom going to worship. And potentially not coming back to a home and not coming back to her children.
Dr. Alaa Najjar received in the hospital 7 of her 10 children. 7 of her 10 children.
And then had the confirmation that 2 more were killed. 9 of 10 children martyred today.
And the 10th one, who symbolically is named Adam, which is supposed to be the basis of all humanity, the father of humanity, reminding us of a time in which there is none,
lays in a hospital bed today fighting for his life. We used to read about Ayyub (عليه السلام). And we used to think how is it possible that a human being could be subjected
to the type of pain that Ayyub (عليه السلام) is being subjected to when he lost 10 of his children collapsing under a roof or a roof collapsing on top of them in one strike.
Never did we imagine that we would live to witness a genocide in which a home is bombed, falling on top of 10 children, 9 of them dead and 1 of them fighting for his life.
And the difference is that there is a Firaun that is behind it. There is a Firaun that we see. There is a Firaunic system that we see at play here. I don't want to give you a pep talk.
I don't want to give you a motivational speech. I want you to feel the depth of this wound. I want you to feel every single part of it. But I don't want you to go numb. I want you to write the Quran into that wound.
Into that wound. So that every single time you feel that pain, you come back to a verse from the book of Allah. You come back to a story from the prophets of Allah that was told to us in the Quran.
And you remind yourself that we are people of Quran. And that this Quran that has told us of the Pharaohs of the past has given us what we need to overcome the Pharaohs of the present.
This Quran that has given us the stories of the Musas of the past has given us the directive of what to do with the Musas of today. This Quran is ever-present.
This Quran is what we lean back into. This Quran is what ensures that we don't forget the people of Quran. This Quran is what gives us words and clarity and guidance
when we don't know what to say and when we don't know what to do. It's the Quran. Allahumma ja'alna min ahl al-Quran. May Allah make us from the people of Quran.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala heal and cure and give victory to all of our brothers and sisters that are still alive in the face of this Pharaoh. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us
to be by their side at every moment. To comfort them, to console them, to speak for them. To make sure that the world doesn't forget about them. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala etch into our wounds His words.
May Allah azza wa jal embed it in our hearts and our souls. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow it to intercede for us in our most difficult moments in the hereafter.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow it to affirm us in our most difficult moments in this life. Allahumma ameen. Barakallahu feekum, wasalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.


































































































































































































































































































