@MuslimMatters Not sure who manages this account but I don’t think it’s fitting for a Muslim platform to RT something using the phrase “disaster porn” while asking people to make du’a - there’s no need to normalize casual use of that word.
My grandmother Na’ilah, the last of my grandparents and one of the final members of my immediate family born before 1948, passed away today in Amman, just six months after my grandfather passed last Ramadan.
I could never capture who she was in a single post, so I will not try. What I will say is this: I did not realize it until I was older, but she was the quiet force behind women’s Islamic education in Jordan during the 80s and 90s. I have lost count of the times I have met women from my mother’s generation who light up when they hear my family name and tell me, “I studied under your grandmother,” or “I used to attend her lectures.”
She was the one who planted in us a love for Masjid Al-Aqsa and made sure our Palestinian activism stayed rooted in faith. The last time I spoke with her, just a couple of weeks ago, I told her that when I came to visit I would take her to pray at Masjid Al-Aqsa. She laughed and said, “That would be nice, you and I going to pray in Al-Aqsa.”
Today, as the world debates our statehood and recognition, I think of her and of her entire generation and I am reminded that we have never waited for permission to know who we are. We are the children of Palestine. We inherit the keys, the memories, and the wounds of our people, and we carry them as both burden and banner. Our identity was never theirs to give or take away, and our struggle will continue until our people are truly free.
She was part of a generation that was born in time to witness 1948, to witness 1967, and who are now leaving this world as Gaza bleeds, the heartbroken generation. And yet they never faltered, never gave up. They kept working, toiling, and struggling with full certainty in Allah’s promise, the same promise Rab’i ibn ‘Amir reminded Rustam of when he said: “Paradise for those who die in the struggle, and victory for those who survive.”
May Allah shower her with endless mercy, forgive her shortcomings, expand her grave, and grant her the highest place in Jannah. May He reunite us with her under His mercy, in the company of those we love. She was a faithful woman, steadfast, patient, and resilient.
To Allah we belong, and to Him we return.
Shaun, I understand that racist bigots like you can't allow simple truths and obvious realities to be absorbed into your limited minds, but I actually encourage those of your followers who are sincerely searching for the truth to follow your words, and 'listen to this man' directly.
Firstly, here's the full talk, which was an academic lecture at Georgetown University in which I was describing other preachers, and which you falsely assumed was me talking about my own views:
https://t.co/YEQiEreLJD
Secondly, I am one of the most well-known and widely followed clerics in the English speaking world. My lectures, sermons, and speeches number in the thousands, and you'll find almost all of them online. None of my actual listeners and followers understands me to be some radical terrorist. For you to 'magically' discover that I'm some sort of crypto-jihadist and have an evil, sinister agenda is literally announcing to the world your own anti-Muslim racism. For you, every Muslim is an evil, terrorist prone, pseudo-jihadist.
Listen to my talks in context, have your followers listen to my interviews and even interview me on difficult subjects, and you'll hear me say harsh truths, politically incorrect realities, and a whole host of views that some will agree with and some won't. But wht you won't find - except in your perverted imagination that is based on doctored snippets - is some hidden sinister agenda to enact some evil terrorist plot, because that's not who I am or what I've ever preached.
Yes, I wish to change many aspects of my country, but so do you. I want to make America a better place to live. I want to change its foreign policy to be more ethical and noble. If the language I employ as I appeal to people of my background and faith, terrifies you, that betrays more about your own ignorance and cowardice that about my methodology and goals.
I doubt you really believe in God; if you do, pray that He guides you before it is too late, and if not, I look forward to the Day He will Judge all who supported genocide and aided and abetted killing tens of thousands of innocent people.
PS. May I ask those who support this message to retweet it in order that this Zionist bigot be drowned out in his slanderous accusation.
PPS. Zionism is evil; Judaism is a faith and should not be equated with the Zionist project. I am anti-Zionist, and being anti-Zionist is not anti-Semitic.