| THE STREET MIMBAR JUM'AH KHUTBAH (10 September 2010) webpage: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182501078290&ref=ts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_street_mimbar/ PLEASE e-mail Suggestions & Criticisms to khutbahs@yahoo.com It is in such a manner that We make plain Our signs so that the course of the Criminals may become clear. | Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Ayyuha Al Muslimoon, Ayyuha Al mu'minoon, Committed Muslims… Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/khutbassermons.htm (12-03-1999) BANI ISRA'EEL AND THE PROPHET (S) PART 10 As a continuation of our understanding/guidance that comes from Allah- a guidance that has its value/meaning; never to be irrelevant/outdated. As we continue to uncover the practical/germane meaning of Allah's and the Prophet's word we will follow up with the instructions/lessons/thoughts/ideas/conclusions of what the role of the Israeli/Jewish political presence in the Arabian Peninsula meant at that time and by extension what they mean today as they occupy the Holy Land. Their adversity to the Prophet is well stated in the history that unfolded in Al Madinah and in Arabia. Even at the young age when the Prophet accompanied his uncle on a commercial journey North towards Syria and he was met by the Monk Bahira. This Christian Monk recognised in the Prophet the features/character/future. He advised the Prophet's uncle Aba Talib and told him, (in the language of our days), take care of him. Be cautious in bringing him up and be guarded against the Jews/Yahud because if they can detect in him his potential they will not withhold harm coming his way from their quarters. This Monk continued and said to the Prophet's uncle he will have a distinguished future/remarkable advent. From the early time, (9hroughout the details that we tried to delve into in the previous khutbahs), to the dismantling of the Jewish/Yahudi political and autonomous presence in Al Madinah even though they had signed an agreement with the Prophet and we saw how faction by faction of Yahud- the three factions/sectors of Yahud in Al Madinah betrayed their agreement/signature. Let us take a look into the Yahudi mind as it was working in its final stance in Al Madinah. In the Muslim hour of duress when the Muslims were under siege in Al Madinah- 10,000, (and on other accounts more than that), of the Mushriks had encircled Al Madinah militarily and inside Al Madinah there was one Yahudi/Jewish faction that was left i.e. Banu Qurayda. In that hour of recognition when they finally realised that they could not deliver on their position in Al Madinah to help those who are on the outside of Al Madinah so as to create a military routing of the Muslims by the Mushriks from the outside and by these Yahud and Munafiqs inside of Al Madinah the remaining Jewish faction in Al Madinah recognised that now they had to face justice (and) that soon, in a day or two, Muhammad and the Islamic reality/government/State/authority in Al Madinah is going to catch up with them, what were their internal thoughts? Here they are in the middle of an Islamic State. Their cohorts/co-religionists had betrayed the Prophet twice in the previous couple of years or so and now they also potentially saw themselves standing in a court of law answering to why they betrayed the Prophet. Before that happened, how were they discussing this affair amongst themselves? Their leader Ka'ab ibn Asad called a meeting with this left over Jewish community and he said you are aware of the position that we are in now, (meaning), we betrayed Muhammad and the Islamic authority in Al Madinah. What do we do? Here are the options he told them. Ka'ab ibn Asad, (their leader) told Bani Qurayda, (his congregation/community), we have three choices. Our first choice is we by now have come to recognise/realise that this Prophet is for real, so why don't we just believe in him? Why don't we declare our Islam and verbalise Ash Shahadah- that's one option? What do you think about that? They told him we will never part with the Torah, (meaning), we don't want that option. We don't want to become Muslims/endorse Muhammad. So he says well- our second option is… Listen to the Yahudi mind and how they think. He said our second option is we kill our women and our children. We meaning the men of Bani Qurayda who were about 700 or so will kill our families- the young ones and our women- and then we'll take a final military stand against the Muslims against Muhammad and his military force. This is the Masada complex. This is how deep down inside of them they cannot see themselves living a life of equality/justice with those around them- in this case with the Muslims. So this was one of their options. They wanted to kill their own children and women and then go on a mass suicide of a military encounter against the growing Islamic force in Al Madinah which they felt through day-to-day/year-to-year experience. They felt/knew that this was the growing force of Islam and the Prophet was not there to diminish but to grow/spread/flourish. So what was the response? These hundreds of Yahudis that were listening said no. Life is no good without our young ones/women/families. It's not worth, (it in other words). So this Yahudi leader in Al Madinah- Ka'ab ibn Asad- told Bani Qurayda of the third option. He said we are meeting here on the night of the Sabbath- that's Friday evening when sun goes down and Saturday begins. He was conducting this discussion at that time. He said to them we have just entered the Sabbath. Listen to this Yahudi mind speaking to his co-religionists. He said we know how the Muslims respect our religion/rituals/rites. Being that this is the Sabbath, they know we don't conduct any activity on the Sabbath- much less they're almost sure that we will not launch any war against them at this time; so why don't we take advantage of this and launch a surprise attack against the Muslims on the Sabbath. They said no. We are not going to set ourselves up for being condemned by God for violating the Sabbath and then probably facing the wrath of the Muslims as they have been growing militarily throughout this time and the odds are against us so if we're going to lose, we're not going to lose by defiling/violating the Sabbath. These were their internal thoughts: either they become Muslims- which they didn't want to- to avoid the justice of what they had done because these were war criminals. Bani Qurayda in Al Madinah in those hours of warfare and a declared war by all of Arabia against the nascent Islamic State in Al Madinah was grand warfare. Al Yahud had agreed with the Prophet that they would not betray him and they did. So they knew they were war criminals and the only way out of the punishment that is due to war criminals, (is their mind as their discussion had it), is either they become Muslims- which they didn't want to do; or they kill their women and children and have another Masada in Al Madinah- which they didn't want to have to do; or their final option was to take advantage of the Sabbath and launch a surprise military attack in Al Madinah against the Muslims hoping that the Mushriks on the outside will come to their rescue and finally collapse this whole affair of Islam in Al Madinah which they were not able to do anyway. So they agreed to arbitrate this affair. They turned down their choices. So what was left to them is to seek the mercy of the Prophet i.e. to ask him for clemency/amnesty/pardon. Whatever may come from him they were willing to accept. And the Prophet of Allah consulted with, (those who were familiar for many years in their lives because of their residency in Al Madinah), Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh and Sa'ad ibn Ubada (radi Allahu anhuma). What should we do with these traitors/war criminals? He did that quickly. He didn't cause time to elapse. He took on Bani Qurayda in the heat of the moment. This sentence that the Prophet said is quoted many times by ritualistic/detached Muslims. In this hadith the Prophet says whoever hears and whoever obeys should not pray his Asr except at Bani Qurayda's. They use this as a fiqhi rule for the legitimacy of differences of opinion- either you literally take what the Prophet said and you pray Al Asr when you arrive in the neighbourhood of Bani Qurayda which was in the Southern part of Al Madinah or you understand the Prophet post-literally which means that was a indication you should hurry up/hasten to go to Bani Qurayda and you can pray Al Asr on your way there not necessarily when you arrive there. This is how the fiqhi mind dwells on this sentence of the Prophet; but there is no Islamic political mind to dwell on seeking justice in the heat of the moment! Before Bani Qurayda are able to instigate other plots against the Muslims go to them. Immediately the Prophet summoned the two Salads- Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh and Sa'ad ibn Ubada- and he consulted with them because they were familiar with these Yahud of Al Madinah. What should we do with them? Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh was suffering. He was, (in a sense), on his deathbed because of the injuries he had sustained and because he was closest to them in days/years previous to Islam he went to them and he told them do you know that you are war criminals/traitors? You have committed high treason? They said yes but we ask the Prophet to pardon us. He said , (and this is in context- remember what the other two Jewish factions of Al Madinah did?) the only justice that can be done to you/it is only right that your warriors be put to the sword or in today's language be executed. Seven-hundred Jewish men in Al Madinah were killed by the Islamic State as a matter of justice. We don't have any Yahudis coming around and saying "there was a miniature holocaust in Al Madinah" because they know that's justice. We're not bringing up the issue of race i.e. the Arabian race is better than the Hebrew race or the Arabs are chosen and the Hebrews are un-chosen. That wasn't the matter of discussion/mentality/values/standards of Islam and the Prophet. You would ask "why don't the Jews bring this issue up?" Why are they going to bring it up? There's nothing to be proud of! What are they going to say? "We were traitors at the time of war? We were going to stab the Muslims in the back?" So they want to bury this part of history down the memory hole. We can understand why they want to get rid of it. Because it's a blot in their history! But why have we got rid of it? Why isn't there current information in every Muslims mind? Why don't you know these details? Why is it that when a Muslim presents these details it only takes a short time and then they are once again erased away? Because there's no Mimbar in the Masjid to sustain this type of information! There's no mainstreaming of khutbahs/sermons/teachings/public presentations that will sustain this type of information, so it becomes easy/convenient to forget. This is where the average Muslim is. The Prophet of Allah, after ending, told the Jewish women and children you may leave. And they did. Most of them joined the other Yahudis who already left Al Madinah and most of them concentrated their presence in Khaybar. That was a Jewish city in the Northern parts of Arabia. They went there, but not the men. The men faced divine justice and divine justice was the death sentence and included among those who were executed was the head of this Yahudi clan- Ka'ab ibn Asad- and the head of Banu An Nadhir who had come to coordinate this grand alliance against the Islamic State- Huyayy ibn Akhtab. There were trenches that were dug up to be the graves of these Yahudi traitors. This is a part of Islamic history that should be clear as sunlight to every Muslim mind; which brings us to another area that has not been clear in the Muslim mind even after more than 1,400 years. Anyone here is challenged to go to the Islamic references and try to point out for us what the nature of relationship was between the Jews of Al Madinah and the Mushriks of Makkah before the Prophet was forced to leave Makkah. It seems like there was an official/historical silence on this relationship that defies logic/common sense/the nature of things. If there is a hostility of Mushriks against the Prophet in Makkkah and the Jews were aware of the potential of Islam growing out of Makkah they would find common purpose with these Mushriks in Makkah, especially when we know that every year Makkah was a commercial attraction for all of Arabia. Suoq Aw Kaab is very well known in the history of those times. What is also very well known is that heading the commercialism of Arabia were the Yahud in Al Madinah. So, at least, their main merchants in those thirteen years of the Prophet's presence in Makkah trying to promote Islam came into contact with his message and what he was all about. To try to come and tell/convince any Muslim that the Mushriks in Makkah were "on Mars" and Yahud in Al Madinah were "on Venus" smacks of foolishness/ignorance. There must have been some type of communication going on during that period and what is startling is that that type of information is not available to you/me now- which is a comment on the type of history that we have inherited. Now the Yahud/these Jews no longer had a community/autonomous presence in Al Madinah. Individuals? Yes. From time to time there were Yahudis in-and-out of Al Madinah and there was nothing wrong with that as long as they weren't traitors and as long they didn't want a political presence there which they knew by now that they no longer had a chance to acquire. What was left was the Yahudi presence in Khaybar. The Muslims with the Prophet's leadership Remember, (in context), after those three to four weeks of this military campaign of Al Khandaq/the siege in Al Madinah to try to boycott/embargo/place Al Madinah under this military siege were not successful the Prophet signed what is known as the ceasefire of Al Hudaybiyah. There were no longer live hostilities between Al Madinah the Islamic State and Makkah the kafir State. With all the reservations that we have presented about this, after this was done the Muslims were not sitting back counting their laurels! The Muslims were once again on a military front. This time this military front was against the Jewish concentration in Khaybar. The Prophet began to try to loosen the alliances that these Jews had in Khaybar with the other power centres in Arabia i.e. Ghatafaan which is in Najd and the other roaming tribes in the area. He put together a force of dedicated Muslims- 1,400. At this time they had around two-hundred mounts; unlike before when they were lacking any substantial amount of transportation. They go to Khaybar and they lay siege on Khaybar, Khaybar had, (according to some reports in our history), about ten thousand inhabitants. It wasn't a small place. In the terms of those days ten thousand was a significant presence in the Arabian Peninsula and most of them were these Jews that no longer lived in Al Madinah who had agitated in a grand war against the Muslims in Al Madinah. Now it was their time. After the Prophet laid siege… (Can't) you see- this is the Yahudi-Mushrik tactic. In Makkah after thirteen years the Mushriks realised that they could not destabilize Muhammad as long as they were working at cross purposes with him. There was tribal factionalism/internal feuding and all of this gave an air of expression to the Prophet's message. So finally they realised we have to all agree to shed this person's blood. That was the Mushrik's scheme in Makkah to get rid of Muhammad. That same scheme was applied on a larger scale in Al Madinah. The tribes of Arabia finally understood that the only way to get rid of Muhammad was to close ranks and come to Al Madinah to defeat him in his newly found State. But just like Allah rescued him from the Mushriks closing ranks in Makkah to assassinate him personally He rescued him also from the tribes of Arabia coalescing around Al Madinah to defeat/liquidate him militarily. After that Allah's Prophet was not distracted. He knew who these Yahud were. When there was a reversal of fortune for the Muslims, (or as some historians would say a defeat for the Muslims), at Uhud some of the Ansaar asked the Prophet why don't we seek the help of Yahud? The Prophet said we have no need for Yahud. Even though we know the nature of what war (does), especially when you feel like you're defeated. Practically speaking you may say "it is strategic/tactical/pragmatic/for survival purposes that we enter into this alliance with Yahud to militarily defeat those who came from Makkah and defeated us at Uhud" but do these types of Prophetic quotes/statements reverberate in the mature minds of the Muslims today? Regrettably the answer is no! Who is the Muslim leader of today who stands out and says we have no need of Yahud? To the contrary all of them are saying we are in need of Israel/Zionists/Jews. If they don't say this verbally then they are saying this by their policies and decisions. Finally when the Prophet put together this force and arrived at Khaybar and he began a new form of warfare by distracting the defences of Khaybar on the different outskirts and concentrating on the military offensive on one area so that there will be a breakthrough and the Muslims may enter triumphantly into Khaybar and they did. The Prophet of Allah said Allah is Greater/Superior. Today there is another Allah, (so to speak). They have superpowers; even though they say Allahu-Akbar they don't mean it. Their god is the superpower. Ask these rulers in our lands who in Ramadhan/at Eid time in their daily prayers say Allahu-Akbar and they are lying because in their hearts they don't believe Allah is Akbar/Superior/Super. There's another power that is super. It is called the superpower! This wasn't the attitude/mentality of the Prophet and the Muslims when they arrived at Khaybar. Allahu Akbar Khaybar is destroyed/ruined. If we enter into the domain of a people then woe is the beginning of their day. Finally Khaybar surrendered. Remember, Hudaybiyah was is the background- a ten year conditional itemized ceasefire. Not a peace agreement! Now we don't have enough courage to think about ceasefire. They want to jump into the Yahudi end and they want peace agreements. Where in the Qur'an or Sunnah are there any foundations for such a peace agreement? How dare a Muslim think about a peace agreement when Muslim blood flows from Central Asia to Southern Africa; from Northern Africa to Eastern Asia, especially when it is on Yahudi terms?! It is the lack of being assimilated into the Qur'an and Sunnah that renders Muslims directionless and khutbahs in the Masjid meaningless that has made it possible for people who are armed to spill Muslim blood and for Muslims to react to that in the ways they do. Back to the Qur'an and the Prophet away from reaction! Take the lead and march to the destiny that is outlined by Allah. Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims… We thank Allah for having extended to us out of His love/mercy/grace the guidance/instructions that we are at fault for not understanding. We thank Him for the condition we find ourselves in for we have brought it to ourselves to be where we are today. It is not because there is any fault in Allah's words or any discrepancies in His scripture or any ambiguity about His Prophet that we have failed to understand and to mould the type of behaviour that is standardised by the Qur'an and by the Prophet. No Muslim has an excuse to shed any military determination in the type of world that we are living in. It's not going to be up to air-conditioned/Hollywood/Americanised/materialistic Muslims to carry the responsibility of the day. If graduating with degrees is capable of bringing about the desired state of Islamic affairs that you/I know of then the Prophet would have been interested in establishing educational institutions and acquiring the technologies of the civilised/modernised world of that time. It takes a reliance upon Allah. A month of dedication/observance in which we are conscientized of Allah (comes) and we want to gain the reward/blessings of this month of Ramadhan with an open mind that hasn't been misappropriated by Allah's enemies. We want to live this month with a free spirit that has not been damaged/crippled by Allah's enemies. We see that Muslims bodies are very attractive/impressive in presence but when it comes to these facts of life they run away from their responsibilities. They're not even man enough to relate to their brothers thousand of miles away in Chechnya/Balkans/the Indian sub-continent/South East Asia/the Middle East/throughout all of Africa. They can't relate to the word of truth in the streets here in Washington DC! They prefer to be within a comfortable setting where the weather doesn't bother their bodies and the word of truth doesn't bother their conscience! That is where they prefer to be in and that is why as a sample/example we have what is coming our way. It will take more of the same to have us become the new generation that we are supposed to be. This khutbah was presented by Imam Mohamed Asi on the occasion of Jum'ah on 3 December 1999 on the sidewalk of Embassy Road in Washington D.C. The Imam previously led the daily and Jum'ah prayers inside the Masjid. His speeches were revolutionary and thought provoking, and eventually irritated and threatened the Middle-East Ambassadors who control the Masjid. Finally, the Imam, his family, and other Muslims faithful to the course of Islam were forced out, into the streets. This khutbah originates from the sidewalk across the street from the Islamic Center, currently under seige. |
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