Srebrenica, 7/7 and the Night of Power

by Arshad Gamiet

Royal Holloway University of London 10^th July 2015.

To listen to the audio version of this khutbah, please click here:

“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem

Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”

All Praise is due to Alláh, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Alláh, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Alláh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, peace and blessings on him, is His servant, and His messenger.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.”

O You who believe, – Be aware of Allah, with correct awareness, an awe-inspired awareness, and die not except as Muslims.

Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a’maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.”

O You who believe, – Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His Prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory.

In the opening verse of Sura An-Nisaa’, Allah says:

“O mankind! Show reverence towards your Guardian-Lord Who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate and from the two of them scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;― Be conscious of Allah, through Whom ye demand your mutual (rights) and (show reverence towards) the wombs (that bore you): for surely, Allah ever watches over you.”

My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

This week the world remembered two atrocities, two crimes against humanity: The genocide of Srebrenica and the 7/7 London bombings. One atrocity was inflicted on Muslims and the other was inflicted by Muslims. In Srebrenica more than 8,000 people died, and in the London bombings, 58 people died, all victims of cold blooded murder.

It is exactly 20 years ago when the world watched horrified as Bosnian boys and men were slaughtered by Serbian nationalists. The town of Srebrenica will forever be remembered for that appalling crime, right here in the heart of Europe. It was the biggest mass killing since the Second World War. Yugoslavia broke up into three parts, Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, and the map of Europe was redrawn in blood. Muslim Bosnians were disarmed and were promised UN protection. But this promise wasn’t kept. The town of Srebrenica was supposed to be a UN safe haven. It proved to be anything but safe. When the killing started, Dutch soldiers stood by and did nothing to protect them. Western nations fumbled around making excuses and allowed the slaughter to continue.

And what was the role of religion in all this? The Serbian Orthodox Church gave its blessing to soldiers who killed unarmed Muslims. Even Britain’s Anglican Church could only offer a deafening silence, more concerned about keeping good relations within the World Council of Churches. This was a shameful abdication of the church’s moral duty. Individual churchmen were the honourable exceptions: Roger Sainsbury, the evangelical Anglican Bishop of Barking, and Professor Adrian Hastings, a Catholic theologian from Leeds. Both stood by the Muslim Bosnians in their hour of need, and openly condemned the killings. (Please note: for more factual background on this topic, check this link: http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/the_churches_and_the_bosnian_war.htm )

This week we’ll hear many fine words from politicians and others, but where were they when they could have stopped the carnage? Allah knows the truth about who did what and who did nothing and who was complicit in their silence. Allah knows best. Every crime will be punished, if not in this life, then surely in the next life. Every soul will be brought to account.

Islam teaches us that every human life is sacred. Every human life has a Ruuh, a ‘breath of God’ inspired into it. Muslim lives are every bit as valuable as Jewish, Christian, Hindu or Sikh lives. We should never value one life over another. We are all Bani Adam, children of Adam and Eve. Whenever we show kindness to other people, we also show courtesy to Allah, Who created us all.

Another horrific crime was remembered this week, this one was committed by Muslims, indiscriminately killing 58 people and maiming many others. The London bombings of 7^th July 2005 shook this country to the core. This was a senseless act. In 1,400 years of Muslim history, this has no precedent. Nothing in Islam justifies this behaviour. Allah warns us that to take one life unlawfully, it is as if you have killed all of mankind. And if you save one life, it is as if you have saved the whole of mankind. We human beings have within us the full spectrum of moral choices: from the angelic to the demonic. Allah has given us the potential to rise above the angels, or to sink below the wildest of beasts: Read in Sura Al Teen:

“Laqad Khalaqnal insaana fee ahsani taqweem. Thumma radad’na hu asfala saafileen, il-lal latheena aamanu wa ‘amilus saalihaati falahum ajrun ghairu mumnoon…”

“We have created Man in the best of moulds; then we reduce him to the lowest of the low, except for those who have faith, for they will have an unfailing reward….”

My dear sisters and brothers, as we remember the horrific events of Srebrenica and the London bombings, let us keep the faith, work good deeds, persevere patiently, and Allah will give us an unfailing reward from His limitless Bounty.

Let us also remember the ever-present possibility of unleashing the satanic forces within us. Some people have only enough religion within them to hate. They do not have enough religion to love. Too little religion is a dangerous thing. Alexander Pope wrote that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing / Drink deep, or drink not from the Pyerian spring / where a little will intoxicate your brain, / and only drinking largely will sober it again.”

The same goes for religion. People get intoxicated with too little of it, and the only way to get sober is to drink deeply from the water of divine knowledge. That’s how we can avoid Man’s inhumanity to man, man’s insanity towards fellow human beings. We should be constantly aware of the satanic forces that lurk in the darkest corners of the human heart. When a man degrades his fellow man, he also dehumanises himself…. In the same way, whenever we honour and respect other human beings, Allah raises our status, in dunya and akhirah, in this life and the afterlife.

“Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen. Was-salaatu was-salaamu alaa Khairil mursaleen. Muhammadin-nabeey-yil Ummiy-yee, wa-‘alaa aalihee, wasah-bihee, aj-ma’een. Ammaa ba’ad:

“Innalláha wa malaaikata yusallúna alan nabi. Yá ay yuhal latheena ámanu sallú alayhi wasalli mú tas leema. Allahumma salli alá Muhammad, wa ala áli Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil ála meen, innaka hameedun majeed.”

— Second Khutbah: —

“Soob’ hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata illah billah yu althi yual theem”

Glory to Allah! Praise to Allah! There is no power and no strength except from Allah!

My dear sisters and brothers,

As we enter the last 10 nights of Ramadan, we eagerly search out for the Night of Power, Lailatul Qadr. This was the most glorious night in human history, when the first verses of the Holy Quran were revealed to our beloved Prophet Muhammad sws. Sura Al-Qadr describes this night in these words:

“Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Inna anzalna hu fee lailatil Qadr. Wamaa adraaka maa lailatul qadr. Lailatul qadri khairun minal fee shahr. Tanaz zalul malaa ikatu war ruuhu fee haa bi-ithni Rabbihim min kulli amr. Salaamun hiya hattaa matt la’il fajr.”

“In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate! Indeed, We sent down the Qur’an on the Night of Power. And what can make you know what is the Night of Power? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend in it, by the permission of their Lord, on every matter. Peace it is, until the emergence of dawn.”

My dear sisters and brothers, you and I will be joined by six billion other Muslims seeking out the unique blessings of Lailatul qadr. We will be reading Quran, doing our prayers, giving up our sleep and begging Allah for His mercy and blessings. We’ll be pleading for Allah’s help, and especially for those who have been made homeless in the war zones and poverty-stricken parts of the world.

That blessed night, that first lailatul qadr began 1,436 years ago when a man, troubled by the sins of his people, entered a cave in Makka, and emerged as Allah’s last Prophet, khaataman nabiyyeen, a few hours later. Imagine, if there was no Lailatul Qadr, if there was no final message or final messenger. If the Kaaba had remained with 360 idols around it; if the message of monotheism, Tauheed, One God, had been lost through human error and human tampering with the books of Nabi Musa, Moses, and Nabi Isa, Jesus. Imagine that! The world would have been in an even bigger mess than it is today.

That lailatul qadr, that Night of Power, was Allah’s vehicle of divine mercy to mankind. Allah loves His creation, and so Allah sent His final Book through His final Messenger on that first Lailatul Qadr. This was to save human beings from themselves, to save us from our own stupidity. This is why we are so grateful to Allah that we seek to thank Him on Lailatul Qadr. We eagerly seek out this blessed night so that we can thank Allah for His mercy, guidance and protection.

Brothers and sisters, our next khutbah is probably going to be on Eidul Fitr. Let us therefore make a heartfelt plea to Allah, to shower on us, His believing servants, His special mercy, forgiveness and freedom from hell fire. We ask Allah to make us the kind of Muslims that attract others to Islam. Let us not be like those whose behaviour repels others from Islam. Let us not be like those whose actions invite fear, contempt and hatred for Islam.

We ask Allah to help us improve our ways. We ask Allah to help us become a blessing to our families, our neighbours near and far. We ask Allah to help us become better Muslims, to refine our character with imaan, to beautify our conduct with ihsaan. O Allah, make us like beacons, guiding lights for others, through our good living example.

O Allah, please accept our fasting, our prayers, our Zakaat and our good works. Please forgive us and have mercy on us, on our families and our departed ones.

Brothers and sisters, to conclude our khutbah:

InnaAllaha, Yamuru bil adel, wal ihsaan, wa eetaa-i zil qurba; wa yanha anil fuhshaa-i, wal munkari walbaghi; ya-idzukhum lallakum tathak-karoon. (Sura 16:90), Fadth kuroonee adth kurkum, wash kuroolee walaa tak furoon [2:152]. wala thikrul-Laahi akbar, Wal-Laahu ya’lamu maa tasna’oon.” [29:45].

“Surely Allah commands justice, good deeds and generosity to others and to relatives; and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, so that you may be reminded.” “and remember Me: I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and do not reject faith.” “and without doubt, Remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Thing in life, and Allah knows the deeds that you do.”

Ameen! Aqeemus salaah!

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