Change

bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

all praises and thanks belong to Allah, Most Loving, Most Merciful. 

salutations and greetings upon our beloved prophet, Muhammad SAW, the best of mankind. 

i came across this the other day...

People say to you, 'you've changed', or something like that, well, I hope for the sake of God you have changed, because I don't want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing, I want to be expanding. I want to be changing. Because animate things change, inanimate things don't change. Dead things don't change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving, it should be growing, its knowledge should be expanding. - Sheikh Hamza Yusuf 

I have heard the phrase before that goes something along the lines of 'everyone wants to change the world but the world ends up changing them'. 

I know it is supposed to bring a different meaning but then on second thought, why shouldn't the world change us? 

Looking at the world now, can we really afford to stay the same?

Every day, we wake up to increasingly unacceptable crimes committed by the Zionists against our brothers and sisters in Palestine.

It's heartbreaking enough to witness the atrocities that our brothers and sisters are going through. These children, either they have died , injured or they have lost their parents and loved ones through the attacks... it's painful.  Parents... whether they have had difficult times trying to conceive or otherwise.. and then just like that, being handed a lifeless body. That's... immeasurably painful. We are somewhat only 'watching' as these things happen... and we already feel broken. Imagine what they are going through themselves, we can't. SubhanAllah.

And then some more, the tragedy, above all these things above and beyond, is the silence that we hear from our Muslim leaders.  It keeps getting worse - the illegitimate government of Egypt, is blatantly COOPERATING with the Israeli government. Come on, man, open the Rafah border, would solve so much of the crisis and rescue so many. Yet no, only just adding "success" to the military operations of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in their ground invasion. 

There is also of course the champion of human rights, who is at the same time championing Israel's violations of human rights and call it "self-defence", Israel's best friend. You know that kind of friendship that is based on fear of losing self-interests and defined by lobbying and threat... The position of those who have taken the side of Netanyahu's government is despicable, to say the least. 

Given so, I am pretty sure that we have nothing but contempt for these people. But they aren't worth it. 

It's much better to be telling Allah about these people and trust that Allah will deal with them Himself. SubhanAllah, what is more powerful than that? 

Does he think that never will anyone overcome him?He says, "I have spent wealth in abundance."Does he think that no one has seen him?(Surah Al-Balad:5-7)

Anyway the question is what would be the productive thing for us to do? What are we going to do about all of these? Where do we stand in all of it? 

Firstly, talk to Allah, make lots of doas, and ask Allah for help. That is, without debate, the most top priority.  

Ask Him to guide us. to guide us to do what we can, inspire us to play the role in this conflict although we are so far away from the fight, spiritually we must be near to the conflict. if we feel so helpless and don't know what to do, don't understand what needs to be done... ask Allah. 

Then, we have to get ourselves educated about this issue. Was this conflict derived from the 3 Israeli teenagers who were said to be kidnapped and then killed ergo everything up til today has been the Israeli's government's retaliation? No... 

This is an old story, that we must attempt to understand and embrace. It is not wise to be following this issue without understanding the cause we are standing up for. Only through greater and better understanding of this issue, our stand will be enhanced, will be able to generate much more productive action against the oppression of our brothers and sisters e.g. financial contributions and boycott. 

N.B: Personally, I don't wish to dwell too much about boycott. If you are doing it, that's incredibly fantastic, hats off to ya. If you aren't, then okay, I don't condemn you, but at the same time please don't speak against it. The issue of boycott has to do with us actually adjusting to new habits and a change in lifestyle (depends on the extent of boycott one is going for). Therefore, it can't be done with compulsion. When we truly understand why we need to take part in boycott will we be able to boycott. Until then, we will have a million reasons why it wouldn't work. 

There are many other ways, I have seen some different things that people across the world are doing, alhamdulillah. whatever it may be, within our capacity, there must be something that we can do. 

So, again, ask ourselves... should we remain? should we stay the same? do we have a reason to change? 

Look again at our own lives. Is it really true that it is only the Palestinians that are in this fight? Is it only an issue of the Middle East? We need to figure out how we are related to this issue, in a wider way than explaining that we are all Muslims - that much is true, but there remains a bigger story that we must uncover within ourselves.  

Don't insult our intellect by letting the media dictate the narrative of the global situation. Think for ourselves with the gifts Allah has given us. 

I don't claim to have answers for you, but I just hope that this can be a means for us to get there. 

this is Palestine. there are many other issues that also need our urgent attention i.e. Syria, Egypt, Rohingya, Iraq, Thailand, China, Kashmir, more than we know... may Allah guide us to remember the struggles of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, who remain underrepresented and whose voices are muted by those who oppress them. may Allah grant all of you strength to overcome and keep firmness and steadfastness in His deen aameen. 

The other important thing that we must realise is, despite all the chaos, it does not diminish the fact that Allah's blessings and mercy are immense. It is easy to lose hope and think pessimistic, and suddenly forget about the beauty of life as these atrocities happen. But, know that Allah carries out His plans in the most flawless of ways in which we do not necessarily have understanding of. The fact that maybe we don't see His wisdom, doesn't mean that there is no wisdom. 

I find it to be amazing that despite the majority of the world i.e. media, governments and others show bias in the conflict YET Allah has chosen for us to see the truth no matter what. Considering the amount of effort that the wrongdoers have spent on concealing truth and generating false propaganda, we still find truth. subhanAllah indeed truth cannot be drowned, no matter what happens, because it is owned by the Most Truthful, Most Powerful. 

Thank you to each and everyone who has reported and stated the truth, may Allah guide them through these events to Him aameen.

To our beautiful brothers and sisters in Palestine, Allah has shown us each and every one of you going through this immense difficulty is a hero. may Allah protect all of you, may He grant you all extraordinary strength and patience, may victory be granted to all of you, all the other oppressed ones across the world as well as ourselves who may be going through different tests and difficulties (according to what Allah wills). may Allah guide us to be building blocks in the victory of the ummah aameen. may we all be reunited in jannatul firdaus allahumma aameen. 

forgive me for my errors, may Allah protect me from evil intentions and may Allah accept every effort from us. may Allah grant us more opportunities to meet Ramadan and may we exit the month with treasures beyond expectation aameen.  

Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
Surah al-Isra: 1