.

It is upon hearing news such as this that we are commanded to say:

To Allah do we belong, and to Him shall we return.

The teachings of our din constantly remind us that we are to be in this world as strangers or
travelers on a path; they remind us that although this world was created for us, we were created for
the hereafter.
Our brother Deah, and sisters Yusor and Razan, like all of us, came to this world for a short time,
and like shall happen to all of us they left it after a short time. We are reminded of the prophetic
invocation for visiting the dead at their graves:
Peace be upon you, O abode of believing folk! May Allh have mercy upon you. You are those who were sent forth,
and verily we shall quickly catch up to you!
In this sense, we are all proud of them; they lived in this world in faith, honor and service, and they
left it in such a state, that the world bears witness to their having all the hallmarks of having passed
providences test, by which every soul is examined. We pray that Allh make their reality so, and
validate their lives and sacrifices with His acceptance and pleasure. Who in existance could ask for
anything more?
Yet at the same time we as a community would be right to feel unease and discomfort around the
circumstances of their death. We are an upright people and an honorable people, who love our
home, and strive to daily give back to it more than what we have taken and to leave it a better place
than we found it. Despite that fact, there are those who would vilify us and target us for our faith,
at home and around the world. There are those who would be unfair in their characterization of
every incident of crime, sin and impropriety committed by literally one in a billion, and visit it upon
us all, while unabashedly asserting that all of this was over a parking spot. Three beautiful young
people shot in the head, execution style, in the sanctity of their own homes, over a parking spot?
Was American Sniper, a movie glorifying the murder of Muslims, including women in hijab, similarly
about a parking spot? Why is it that one of the most important stories of the year, which causes
Facebook posts to go viral, and twitter to trend worldwide, initially receive no media coverage,
while eventually only begrudgingly reporting parking spats? We all need to be honest with
ourselves, and if the media and authorities dont want to deal with reality, we as a fearful minority,
dont have the luxury to join them.

My message to my fellow Muslims is to take heart. Never has truth and goodness been opposed in
a place with ever increasing harshness, except that it grew in strength and intensity. This is because
the truth, aqq, is an attribute of the Divine, and the Divine has no partner, equal, or rival.
Therefore, I urge myself and my brothers and sisters to return to the aqq, Mighty and Exalted is
He, in word, deed, and intention, and let the hearts transcend the evil context in which we find
ourselves stuck, and seemingly powerless to change for the time being. We shall achieve this by
returning to our remembrance of Allh, the transience of our stay in this abode, and the
permanence in the next. We will achieve this by reducing our focus on wealth, material gain, and
personal pleasure, in order to sharpen our focus on charity, spiritual progress, and the general
welfare of all alike, as was shown to us in the personal examples of our martyred brother and
sisters. Ironically, it is only by taking up personal concern in spiritual matters and common concern
in worldly ones, that everyone can achieve some modicum of peace, security and happiness in both
their spiritual and worldly existence.
Our martyred brother and sisters completed their time in this world and went forward to that
which they prepared for themselves. May Allh increase their reward for having helped us
remember that we all must now do the same.
May Allh forgive them all their sins, magnify their good deeds, and enter them into His mercy
without taking them to account. May Allh give patience to their family, all who loved them, and
this ummah upon their loss, and trade for them in place of fear and sorrow, security and happiness
in this world and the hereafter.
O Allh forgive our living and our dead. May he forgive our present and our absent, our small and
our large, our male and our female.
O Allh, whoever you give life to amongst us, give them life in submission to You, and whoever
you take back from amongst us, take them back in a state of faith.
O Allh, forgive Deah, Yusor, and Razan, and have mercy on them. Give them a good state, and
pardon them. Honor their coming to you, and widen their entrance to the next world, and trade
them dwellings with You better than the dwellings they had in this world and a folk, better than
their folk in this world. Wash them with pure water, snow, and coolness, and purify them from sin
and misdeeds, like a white garment is cleaned of stains. O Allh, do not deprive us of their reward,
and do not test us who are left in this world after them.

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