Patience & Courage
| Khatib : | Sadullah Khan |
| Khutbah No: | 276 |
| Khutbah Date: | 05/16/08 |
In the face of the Chinese Quake, the Myanmar Cyclone and the Palestinian Nakba
Sayedna Imam ‘Ali said; الجُبن منقصة و الصبر شَجاعة cowardice is a defect in character and patience requires courage.
Patience: an obligatory virtue
Our lives are not simply our own, because our very personality is greatly shaped by the words and deeds of others; and as social beings so much of our actions are responsive. Patience in such a world is absolutely essential. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) advised that a Believer who interacts with people and patiently endures the trials and tribulations of social life is better than one who abstains from social life in which he does not have to exercise such patience.
Patience is an obligatory virtue and is intimately tied to the practice of our faith . Allah commands:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اصْبِرُواْ وَصَابِرُواْ وَرَابِطُواْ وَاتَّقُواْ اللّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
"O you who believe! Be patient, mutually manifest patience and strengthen yourselves by your mutual bond…" (Qur'an 3:200). The Prophet reportedly said: "Patience is half of Faith"
We have to integrate the virtue of patience into our daily lives. For many of us patience is often a quality more admired than desired.
China: Quake in Sichuan Province
More than 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that devastated parts of China this week. Chinese authorities said 60,000 quake victims had been rescued and that all affected areas had now been reached, but confirmed the death toll had risen to over 23,000, as rescue efforts continue to search for thousands still trapped. About 10 million people across Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake.
People are still being found alive – images such as the one of an 11-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of a school in Yingxiu 68 hours after it was destroyed still gives hope to some. Many lost children in a part of the world where in most cases, only one child per family is allowed.
Myanamar : Cyclone Nargis
This follows a week after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Burma), sending winds of up to 190 km per hour crashing through the country and leaving an estimated 43,000 people dead and around 28,000 missing and over a million displaced. We as pat of the family of humanity are touched by this and learn from this that …
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The world is anything but serene, all too vulnerable to natural threats; Each disaster serves the purpose of reminding humankind of its inherent weaknesses, reminds us of our enduring vulnerability in the face of nature
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We realize the frailty of our place in the universe, just like millions of people all over the world for whom frailty is all-too-familiar.
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Witnessing the devastation caused by earthquakes and cyclones does not imply that nature is primarily destructive; the fact that God allows nature to take its course does not imply a lack of compassion. Rather, all this is a challenge to us; the greatest of which is, how we respond in the face of such challenges.
It was the Jewish Rabbi Hillel, the renowned Jewish sage of the century before ‘Isa/Jesus (pbuh) and one of the most important figures associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud once told a student of law; “that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human beings. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.”
Defining Sabr
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The endurance to persevere through trials and tribulations
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Sometimes we mistakenly think that the patient person will show a passionless serenity, a bland indifference to the vicissitudes of life. Patience is not passive. Being patient does not imply simply accepting or inviting mistreatment. Patience means wisdom, strength, and the readiness to shoulder responsibilities.
The Nakbah / Catastrophe Remembered
This week, people of conscience commemorate the 60 years of dispossession of the Palestinian people. This week (15th May), Palestinians commemorate their forced displacement and dispossession resulting from the establishment of the state of Israel (1948) and people of conscience all over the world recall the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. More than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages. The land is still occupied and the atrocities continue leading to the deaths of many innocent people
Following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century, colonial powers plotted to divide the spoils. When Britain and France signed the secretive Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916, which divided the spheres of influence in west Asia, there were hardly any "nation-states" in the region which would fit contemporary definitions of the term. All borders were colonial concoctions that served the interests of the powerful countries seeking strategic control, political influence, and raw material. Most of Africa and much of Asia were victims of the colonial scrambles, which disfigured their geo-political and subsequently socio-economic compositions.
To justify its own existence, Israel has long subjugated its citizens to a kind of collective amnesia. Do Israelis realize they live on the rubble of hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns, each destroyed during a most tragic history of blood, pain, and tears, resulting in an ethnic cleansing of nearly 800,000 Palestinians?
Living in so many disconnected areas, removed from their land, detached from one another, fought with at every corner, Palestinians have not just been oppressed physically by Israel, but physiologically as well. There are attempts from all angles to force them to simply concede, forget, and move on. It is the Palestinian people's rejection of such notions that makes Israel's victory and "independence" superficial and unconvincing.
The land was taken, occupied, depopulated of its inhabitants and replaced with foreigners.
Moshe Dayan’s statement that: Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the sArab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu’a in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population. [Moshe Dayan, Ha’aretz, 4 April 1969]
Those who took part in the colonization of Palestine — were fully aware of what they did. David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, warned in 1948, "We must do everything to insure they [the Palestinians] never do return." By ensuring that Palestinians were cut off from their land, Ben Gurion has hoped that time will take care of the rest. "The old will die and the young will forget," he said. Well they haven’t and they won’t.
In an address to the Israeli Knesset on Thursday, the US president (the first to do so) vowed America "stands with" Israel in its fight against "terror"."Israel's population may be just over seven million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you." Question is, Who stands for the Palestinian people?
MANDELA'S FIRST MEMO TO
THOMAS FRIEDMAN
March 28, 200
To: Thomas L. Friedman
(columnist New York Times)
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and
Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened
to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a
"state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were
struggling for freedom in South Africa. Apartheid is a crime against
humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and
property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and
inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of
Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in
particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children. The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the
removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what
Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a just and
lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies.
Peace & Justice
Any crime, any killing of the defenseless, any maiming of the unprotected … any harming of any innocent ones; whether by Muslim, Christian or Jewish; or to Muslim, Christian or Jewish deserves the unreserved condemnation of people of conscience. Peace is the aim, patience is the mode, but Justice is the demand. Indifference to the demands of justice is nothing but cowardice.
Courage & Patience
Allah promises in the Qur'an:
"Glad tidings to those who patiently persevere", while Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) elaborated on that glad
tiding by saying: "Patience is the key to Paradise." Courage
is the anti-dote to cowardice.
Sayedna ‘Ali said; الجُبن منقصة و الصبر شَجاعة cowardice is a defect in character and patience requires courage. Courage is the capacity to face challenges. The ultimate measure of a person is not where he/she stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he/she stands at times of challenge and controversy. [Martin Luther King Jr.]
The Prophet said …
ُخلُقان يُحبُهُمَا الله ،
السخاء و الشَجاعة
Allah loves two human qualities;
generosity and courage:
Genuine courage is the moral virtue which prompts a person to undergo hardships, face dangers, be patient, and support the efforts of human struggle according to the demands of justice and reason