What After Gaza's Anger?

We have witnessed many massacres by the disbelievers against Muslims, from Indonesia to Bosnia, Chechnya, Turkestan, Afghanistan, Burma, Ahvaz, Iraq, Syria, South Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria, Central Africa, Mali, and others. Now Gaza's wound is bleeding again. Every time, we Muslims are robbed of our emotional gifts and express ourselves through cathartic reactions: we share images with comments of sorrow, we curse the disbelievers and those who support them, we write poems... Our feelings mix between sadness and joy, despair and hope, anger, fear, hypocrisy, and sometimes trading in the miseries of Muslims for fame! None of this brings back a single soul to the bodies that have become dust, nor does it compensate a single child among hundreds of orphans for the affection of their fathers and mothers, nor does it restore a severed leg or an eye torn out by bombardment, nor does it cause the enemy a scratch. Every time there is empathy and outrage, then the tragedy continues, and we grow indifferent while nothing changes in us... Our sins and negligence remain as they are! And everyone returns to what they were: - The girl returns to being infatuated with Muslim youth, disgusted by the proper hijab, she who cried yesterday for Gaza. - Some return to electing representatives whose council passes laws criminalizing those who think of aiding Muslims! Why do they elect them? For a job or to "elevate" their family's name by electing a relative! - The fruit seller returns to buying Jewish goods and says to you: (What do you want to do?) - The engineer returns to ask about the ruling of working in construction for an American base or a training center for their agents and says to you: If I don't do this job, someone else will! - Business owners return to flatter and fawn over their rulers, the guardians of the Jews, knowing that the criminal would not be free to rape the chaste if the guards were not at the door! - The shop owners in the malls return to hanging up indecent pictures that tempt Muslim youth under the pretext of displaying merchandise and that it's a "brand"! - The youth return to watching soap operas and lewd scenes, knowing that their enemies take the youth's desires as a bridle to lead them! - They return to wasting days and years of their lives in vain, neither in benefit nor in knowledge, which is the only thing that can establish the nation. All of these were affected, became emotional, cursed the Jews and those who supported them (and some of them may be included in this by the way!!) and sighed repeatedly and said, "Allah is sufficient for me and the best disposer of affairs!" It is true that the state of outrage and media activation of the issue may help in slightly reducing the severity of the crime. I am not saying this to diminish the importance of empathizing with the issues of Muslims, but so that we know that our empathy alone does not absolve us nor help our brothers. Our condition is like that of someone who sees his brothers in prison being tortured, empathizes with them, and wants to save them, but is bound by shackles: the shackle of ignorance, the shackle of desire, the shackle of heart diseases... Our souls are occupied just as the lands we weep for are occupied. These are the shackles we coexist with, so Allah has imposed upon us those who do not fear Him in us nor have mercy on us. These rulers, in appearance, are the ones who prevent us from aiding our brothers, but in reality, they are a manifestation of our sins! This oppressor holds one end of the shackle. You scream and cry for the condition of your brothers and circle around their prison. The executioner lets you scream and circle as long as he holds one end of the shackle. He knows you will tire in the end and stop after having vented. In our miserable condition, when someone comes to us and says: Come, let us break the shackles. We become emotional and say to him: (What breaking are you talking about?! There must be an urgent action! Our brothers are being slaughtered). How many times has this been our response?! Did we save our brothers from their tragedies, or did they remain in them while our legs remained in shackles?! Whether we like it or not... breaking this shackle will not happen overnight. In the Arab revolutions, Muslims became angry without knowledge and without real change in hearts, without treating heart diseases and ridding themselves of desires. What was the result? The disbelievers contained some of these revolutions, and in some arenas, they succeeded in making Muslims fight each other. So what is required? Is it to focus on seeking knowledge and engaging in self-reform instead of following the issues of the nation? Where will we be then in the words of the Prophet (peace be upon him): (The example of believers in their mutual love, mercy, and empathy is like the example of a single body: if one part of it suffers, the rest of the body responds with fever and sleeplessness)? Let us remember, brothers: every new tragedy for Muslims is an argument against us, and Allah will question us about what we did in it: ((That is so. And if Allah willed, He could have given them victory over them, but [He ordered the fighting] to try some of you by means of others)). What is required is to turn the outrage into a positive driving force. The car runs on fuel. If the fuel goes out of its path, the car burns. How many people have turned their sorrow and anger about the conditions of Muslims into doubt about wisdom and destiny, or into melancholy and resentment towards themselves and those around them and contempt for them, becoming a new worry added to the worries of the nation! While if we succeed in utilizing our anger to push us forward towards breaking the shackles. Of course, someone will come and say: This is a distraction from the real duty, there is no solution except through jihad. My brother, if you strive with yourself, then you have reached the pinnacle of aspirations. But if you do not, is the alternative: zero, nothing?! How many times have you said something like this and then did not change anything in your life?! Let us turn our anger and sorrow into a driving force: 1. How many sisters will say: In support of Gaza, I will commit to the legal hijab? 2. How many young men will say: In support of Gaza, I will commit to prayer? 3. How many shop owners will say: In support of Gaza, I will remove the bad pictures from my shop's facade? 4. How many Muslims will say: In support of Gaza, I will withdraw my money from the interest-bearing account? 5. How many Muslims will say: In support of Gaza, I will start reading a book with my children like (Thus Appeared the Generation of Salahuddin)? 6. How many Muslims will say: In support of Gaza, I will organize activities for the neighborhood's children during the summer vacation instead of leaving them idle in the streets among drugs, idleness, and sometimes even uttering blasphemy! In a tragedy that is worse than Gaza's tragedy! 7. How many will say: In support of Gaza, I will quit smoking and give its price to needy families, hoping that Allah will have mercy on us, for the merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful? 8. How many will say: In support of Gaza, I will remove the pictures of tyrants that I hung in my shop or office out of desire or fear! I cannot stand to flatter them while they are partners in the crime. Will we do something from this? Or will we remain emotional, then retreat, while our brothers are buried in the ground and we return to our negligence as we were?