Tag: Donald Trump

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Scholars and Activists – Can We Get A Team Huddle?

In this episode, Imam Marc discusses some challenges facing American Muslims in a Trump presidency. He also addresses the need for Muslim activists and scholars to work with one another, not against, and how can American Muslims work to restore their sense of dignity and respect in the eyes of society, and most importantly, God?

Extra

1. An Open Letter to CAIR – A Critical Re-centering of ‘Race’ as the Premier Civil Rights Issue for American Muslims, by Dr. Muhammad Khalifa.

2. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue.

3. Mark Crain and the DREAM of Detroit, from Sapelo Square.

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Anxiety Is Love’s Greatest Killer – A Khutbah By Imam Marc Manley

“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer” — Anaïs Nin

There is a distinction between anxiety, which preoccupies and cripples, and concern, which spurs to action and advances the cause of change.

There are no assurances/guarantees in this life, not even for the Prophets.

قل ما كُنتُ بِدعًا مِنَ الرُّسُلِ وَما أَدري ما يُفعَلُ بي وَلا بِكُم ۖ إِن أَتَّبِعُ إِلّا ما يوحىٰ إِلَيَّ وَما أَنا إِلّا نَذيرٌ مُبينٌ

إِنَّ الَّذينَ قالوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ استَقاموا فَلا خَوفٌ عَلَيهِم وَلا هُم يَحزَنونَ

الم – أَحَسِبَ النّاسُ أَن يُترَكوا أَن يَقولوا آمَنّا وَهُم لا يُفتَنونَ

وَلَقَد فَتَنَّا الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم ۖ فَلَيَعلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ الَّذينَ صَدَقوا وَلَيَعلَمَنَّ الكاذِبينَ

أَم حَسِبَ الَّذينَ يَعمَلونَ السَّيِّئَاتِ أَن يَسبِقونا ۚ ساءَ ما يَحكُمونَ

“Say: ‘I am nothing new among the Messengers. I have no idea what will be done with me or you. I only follow what has been revealed to me. I am only a clear warner’.” Qur’an, 46: 9

“Those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah,’ and then go straight will feel no fear and will know no sorrow.” Qur’an, 46: 13

“Do people imagine that they will be left to say, ‘We have iman,’ and will not be tested?” “We tested those before them so that Allah would know the truthful and would know the liars.” “Or do those who do bad actions imagine they can outstrip Us? How bad their judgement is!” Qur’an, 29: 1-4

Do we think that these people who are perpetrating oppression and chaos, do we believe that Allah will victorious or them?

The importance of remembering Allah and trusting Him:

The Jews instructed the Meccans Prophet about certain issues concerning Revelation. At first the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said that he would have the answer right away, but he forgot to say, “As God wills.” To teach him a lesson-that he could not order God to reveal things-no new revelation came for fifteen days. The Prophet realized his mistake and repented. Then verses 18:23-24 were revealed to explain the reason for the delay, and then finally the answers came.

وَلا تَقولَنَّ لِشَيءٍ إِنّي فاعِلٌ ذٰلِكَ غَدًا
إِلّا أَن يَشاءَ اللَّهُ ۚ وَاذكُر رَبَّكَ إِذا نَسيتَ وَقُل عَسىٰ أَن يَهدِيَنِ رَبّي لِأَقرَبَ مِن هٰذا رَشَدًا

“Never say about anything, ‘I will do that tomorrow,’ without adding ‘If Allah wills.’ Remember your Lord when you forget, and say, ‘Hopefully my Lord will guide me to something closer to right guidance than this’.” Qur’an, 18: 23-24

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The State of Our Minds – A Khutbah By Imam Marc Manley

أَوَلَمّا أَصابَتكُم مُصيبَةٌ قَد أَصَبتُم مِثلَيها قُلتُم أَنّىٰ هٰذا ۖ قُل هُوَ مِن عِندِ أَنفُسِكُم ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلىٰ كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَديرٌ

“Why is it that when a calamity happens to you, when you have already inflicted twice as much, you say, ‘How could this possibly happen?’ Say, ‘It has come from your own selves.’ Allah has power over all things.” Qur’an, 3: 165

ودخلت ألف التوبيخ على واو العطف

“The alif is indicative of a reprimand.” Ibn Juzayy

قَدْ أَصَبْتُمْ مِّثْلَيْهَا قتل يوم أحد من المسلمين سبعون

As if bad things have never happened to you before. It’s as if

  1. Good/reward come from Allah (because we somehow deserve it or are entitled to it) but…
  2. Evil/punishment comes from some random, unknowable place because we’re entitled to only being happy or undeserving of adversity or even punishment.

وَما أَصابَكُم يَومَ التَقَى الجَمعانِ فَبِإِذنِ اللَّهِ وَلِيَعلَمَ المُؤمِنينَ

“What assailed you on the day the two armies met was by Allah’s permission, so that He would know the Believers.” Qur’an, 3: 166

What is the meaning behind challenge, adversity?

أَم حَسِبتُم أَن تَدخُلُوا الجَنَّةَ وَلَمّا يَأتِكُم مَثَلُ الَّذينَ خَلَوا مِن قَبلِكُم ۖ مَسَّتهُمُ البَأساءُ وَالضَّرّاءُ وَزُلزِلوا حَتّىٰ يَقولَ الرَّسولُ وَالَّذينَ آمَنوا مَعَهُ مَتىٰ نَصرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلا إِنَّ نَصرَ اللَّهِ قَريبٌ

“Or did you suppose that you would enter the Garden without facing the same as those who came before you? Poverty and illness afflicted them and they were shaken to the point that the Messenger and those who had iman with him said, ‘When is Allah’s help coming?’ Be assured that Allah’s help is very near.” Qur’an, 2: 214

كُتِبَ عَلَيكُمُ القِتالُ وَهُوَ كُرهٌ لَكُم ۖ وَعَسىٰ أَن تَكرَهوا شَيئًا وَهُوَ خَيرٌ لَكُم ۖ وَعَسىٰ أَن تُحِبّوا شَيئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَكُم ۗ وَاللَّهُ يَعلَمُ وَأَنتُم لا تَعلَمونَ

“Fighting is prescribed for you even if it is hateful to you. It may be that you hate something when it is good for you and it may be that you love something when it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.” Qur’an, 2: 216

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The State of Our Unity: Bridging The Credibility Gap

American History

Some things to consider about American history:

    1. Civil War: (1861 – 1865).
      1. Union victory in 1865 gives some 4 million slaves “freedom”.
    2. Reconstruction: (1865 – 1877).
      1. Institution of the black codes: a reassertion of white control by enforcing the pass system, which “required blacks to carry a pass and present it on demand” if they wish to travel or work.

 

  • Black codes were created to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans.
  • Black codes were a means of criminalizing free blacks.

 

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” –  Amendment XIII to the United States Constitution

      1. Muslims as exception to the law.
      2. Reconstruction (1867): newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.

 

  • Reconstruction: drafted by President Andrew Johnson. States’ rights to “govern themselves”, meaning the federal government had no right to interfere on the state level: land that had been confiscated by the Union Army and distributed to the freed slaves by the army or the Freedmen’s Bureau reverted to its prewar owners (whites).

 

    1. 1868: “whites across the South strained to accept the apparently inevitable ignominies (shame/disgrace) descending from the [Civil] war”.
  1. Why were whites upset?
    1. Loss of fortune/economics;
    2. Humiliation;
    3. Fear that former slaves would “vote and rule governments and perhaps take their [former] masters land.

“Stereotyping was the basis for winning political campaigns during the Jim Crow era.” – Khalil Gibran Muhammad

On Liberalism

Malcolm X said, “being friendly and being a friend I think are two different things”.

We must discern and know there are those who

  1. oppose us due to blind hatred,
  2. those who oppose us on principled critique of Islam and Muslims,
  3. and those who are just leery because the only articulation of who we are that they know is what “exotic” cuisine we have to offer.

Dealing With Adversity

Finding out that God isn’t Santa Claus can be one of the most traumatic events an adult can go through.

  • White liberals were willing to put aside their so-called values and vote for a candidate who mocked the disabled, spewed racist rhetoric towards Mexicans and exhibited violence towards women. Think about that.

We must admit, like an addict who has come to the terrible conclusion that he has a life threatening problem, our condition must change. We have become addicted to dysfunction.

Behind the Mask of Chivalry by Nancy K. MacLean.