Ten Tips To Fight back against helplessness occupying our minds and hearts

I was visiting a community in Chicago this past weekend for a program when one of the organizers shared an interesting observation; most of the congregation attending the Friday prayer were calm, silent, and surprisingly compliant as they walked into Jumaa. The answer was obvious for everyone who is following the news in Gaza. The Muslim community in the US, and by extension worldwide, are basically traumatized by the Israeli genocide. Emotions of helplessness, rage, anger, disbelief are seeping through the worldwide Muslim scene.

I was visiting a community in Chicago this past weekend for a program when one of the organizers shared an interesting observation; most of the congregation attending the Friday prayer were calm, silent, and surprisingly compliant as they walked into Jumaa. The answer was obvious for everyone who is following the news in Gaza. The Muslim community in the US, and by extension worldwide, are basically traumatized by the Israeli genocide. Emotions of helplessness, rage, anger, disbelief are seeping through the worldwide Muslim scene.

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Ironically, the brave people of Gaza – despite facing a massive amount of trauma – don’t have time for such feelings. If they saw a house burning in front of their eyes, their first knee-jerk reaction is to look for safety. Afterwards, they would jump into action to save lives: call the ambulance (if any), save the children, put out fires, etc. Such actions provide a coping opportunity from such trauma, a privilege that many of us cannot have when watching from a screen. We are left alone with feelings of guilt, doubts, and tirelessly scrolling through our newsfeed. If you are experiencing such parallelizing encounters, you may need to consider some of the following thought-experiments:Subscribe

1.     Start with connecting to the One and Only Changemaker!

In our God-centered worldview, every discussion about activism starts with Allah! Results come from Him, through Him, with His help, and by His blessings. As servants of the almighty, we are commanded to exert our best effort, plan, and work hard, but ultimately detach from the results. This does not align well with most of the modern self-help advice, which attributes results to grit, willpower, hustle, etc.  

As activists who care about justice and peace in Palestine and the rest of the world, we should renew our faith in God as the Only One who brings the results. Surah Al Hashr (Chapter 59 in the Quran) offers this perspective by repeatedly reminding the believer who Allah is, what His attributes are, and how He alone helped the early Muslims at the time of the messenger (Peace be upon him) in one of their battles:

He is the One Who expelled the disbelievers of the People of the Book from their homes for ˹their˺ first banishment ˹ever˺. You never thought they would go. And they thought their strongholds would put them out of Allah’s reach. But ˹the decree of˺ Allah came upon them from where they never expected. And He cast horror into their hearts so they destroyed their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers. So take a lesson ˹from this˺, O  people of insight! [Quran, 59:2]

This is why the instruction in the same chapter is to always keep God at the center of your thought process. If we ignore God, our own sense of identity, impact, and being will be lost:

And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. It is they who are ˹truly˺ rebellious.

These verses were discussed as part of our Weekly Dose of the Quran series, feel free to check the recording and subscribe here.

2.     Approach your goals as a gardener, not as a carpenter:

A carpenter has a fixated and rigid definition of success for the project he/she might be working on: A chair or a closet need to have specific dimensions, material, description, etc., otherwise it does not meet the expectations. Applying such mindset to our planning and our goals creates unrealistic expectations, frustration, and eventually helplessness, especially when the outcome that we care about is outside of our control.

On the other hand, a gardener mindset offers an alternative worldview to goal setting, which is very helpful when a bigger amount of uncertainty is involved. It encourages us to focus on planting our seeds, choosing the right environment, and improve our routines and day-to-day activities. In addition, it shifts our focus from the product to the process, and detach completely from the outcome. The following Ayah from the Quran teaches the believers such mindset that should apply to every seed that we aim to grow:

Have you considered what you sow? Is it you who cause it to grow, or is it We Who do so? [Quran, 96: 63-64]

For our work on Gaza:  we may wish to change policies but end up influencing the public opinion. We may post an article or engage in a debate that does not get enough attention, but end up inspiring someone else to speak out. When we detach from the results, we get a renewed sense of freedom to focus on the knobs that we can turn, the decisions that we can influence, and the micro-actions that drive long-term results. We would be focusing on the process, instead of being obsessed with the product. Eventually and collectively, our capacity as individuals and as a community will grow, by the will of Allah of course. Our confidence and accumulated experience will have a snowball effect, which may happen in a lifetime or after we pass. The irony here is that the only way to drive results is to change the way we measure our progress (what is referred to as: lag measures) and focus on doing our part (lead measures).

3.     Be Careful from the “All or Nothing” Mindset

A major deterrent that sidelined a lot of people is the all-or-nothing mindset: We want fast and immediate quick-fix results, otherwise why bother? Our minds have been rewired in the age of instant gratification and are demanding a solution for a century-old problem in few weekends. If we detach from results (step # 2 above) and connect to Allah (step #1), the next step is to stay positive and grateful about the little consistent progress that is taking place. We will stop measuring our efforts in terms of the outcome (which is out of our control) and hone into our maximizing our potential while tapping into our strengths.

Allah does not require of any soul more than what it can afford… [Quran, 2:286]

The implication of this Ayah and mindset is to feel happy and accomplished, and reward yourself for the little effort that you do even if you did not see immediate results. In the grand scheme of things, fulfilling your potential is a GREAT ACHIEVEMENT! and once you add that to the power of the community (see below), miracles will start happening in your life, inshaAllah.

4.       Invest in Education

Here’s one thing that’s definitely within your capacity: Educating yourself about the history of Palestine, effective talking points, and the ABCs of media literacy and manipulation. Remember that nothing can hurt a rightful cause more than a terrible lawyer. Get your facts straight. Inform yourself on the history of the matter, and the smartest ways to represent it. Learn how to debate, focus on the main points, and avoid any irrelevant discussions and details.

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A good documentary that I normally recommend is: The occupation of the American mind. It sheds light on the Hasbara, the Israeli propaganda strategy that dominated their media manipulation for decades. Luckily, the Palestinian cause is neither ambiguous nor complicated, contrary to the way the biased western media puts it. Just providing some background and context can provide a huge amount of clarity to people around you. There is a reason Prophet Muhammad PBUH gave a huge analogy to the superiority of a scholar over a worshipper. The scholar has an impact that is as massive as that of the messenger himself:

“The virtue of the scholar over the worshiper is like my virtue over the least of you. Verily, Allah, His angels, the inhabitants of the heavens and earth, even the ant in his hole and the fish, send blessings upon the one who teaches people what is good.” [Hadith, Tirmidhi]

5.       Be Careful from Outdated Tools and Methods

Two young brothers asked completely different questions after my lecture: one was asking about the impact of certain chants and activities in a Palestine protest, basically trying to use methods that were popular in the 1980s. The other young man was concerned that he cannot share posts of support on social media, for fear of backlash from his employer or graduate program.

I answered both of them with almost the same question: who said that these are the ONLY ways one could display support, influence public opinion, and mobilize the community? Allah has created us and molded us into diverse personalities, talents, and preferences, and that’s exactly how our target audience are created as well. The requirement here is to be intentional and methodic about engaging people in a conversation, regardless of the medium. Be playful, smart, and work within the means and constrains that apply to your specific situation. This diversity in approach was also a mindset that the companions of the messenger PBUH had. Some companions like Bilal Bin Rabah chose to challenge the Quraish torture with the chant: Ahad, Ahad! (one God, one God) and refused to tone down his defiance to their cruelty. Others chose to take the easy route and even hid their commitment to the new religion, such as Ammar Bin Yasir. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to activism:

And never would it befit the believers to mobilize collectively. So why should there not be, of every section of them, a faction which mobilizes to study the religion and to warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware? [Quran, 9:122]

6. Stick to the Community

I do not deny that there are some benefits to attending rallies and communal activities for the cause. Yes, they do indicate that a larger population of people cares for something, and they offer some form of moral support for the ones being oppressed (imagine how bad the oppressed will feel if no one reacted to their injustice). In addition to all that, I argue that the biggest impact of such congregation is on the protestors themselves: they help the attendees feel connected to a greater community of like-minded people. They give them much-needed validation that there is still hope in the world, and that people could get out of their comfort zone in support to innocent children they have never met.

Even if you cannot attend such protest, the message here is that you don’t have to agonize about the news alone! Find a community of support, pray with them, share your fears and concerns, and stick to the congregation:

And patiently stick with those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His pleasure. Do not let your eyes look beyond them, desiring the luxuries of this worldly life. [18:28]

7.       Build your Ark:

Prophet Noah was commanded to build his ark in a place that was miles away from any water body. He may not have known when and how he will be using it. He received more bullying and backlash from his community. All that did not persuade him from his goal, from his project, from his super long-term plan:

So he began to build the Ark, and whenever some of the chiefs of his people passed by, they mocked him. He said, “If you laugh at us, we will ˹soon˺ laugh at you similarly. [11:38]

This idea is inspired by the late Shiekh Muhammad Alshareef (رحمه الله) who definitely invested ALOT in building multipe arks for our community. Adopting this approach is the antidote to the instant gratification and carpenter mindset paralyzing us from doing useful work. Once we take our best shot at identifying our impact project (more on this in a future post), need to detach from results and start the grind. Whether it was a matter of building institutions, teaching young children, establishing economical and political influence, writing a book, etc. we need to worry less about when and how our ark will be utilized, and work hard to finish what we started.

8.   Resist the Urge to Check the News Frequently

We all know that continuous consumption of the news and analysis reports will never help the people we care about, but we fall for it and tend to stay hooked to our screens. This has to do with the way the news industry is engineered to grab our attention: The red banner, the flash updates, alerts, etc. all tap into our deep survivor instincts.
It will interrupt our long term thinking and destroy any attempt for deep flow (I suffered from these interruption while trying to finish writing this article).

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What can we do about it? we have to limit our checking of news to fewer updates per day, while using some productivity hacks (e.g. pomodoro technique) to finish our work uninterrupted. If you get a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing out), remind yourself that you can always check the news after you finish the task at hand. Unless there’s a major disaster in your home or neighborhood that requires you to run for your life, everything else can wait.

9.       Pray for yourself and for the Umma at large:

In addition to praying for the oppressed, we need to pray for ourselves as well. The Muslim Umma at large is heavily affected by the tragic events in Palestine, without of course forgetting the pains of many other countries and communities. In a sense, our victory in our personal battles is their victory, and our defeat could affect theirs. Prophet Muhammad PBUH taught a companion a dua that seeks refuge in Allah from all kinds of defeats, starting from the individual level and ending at the communal:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in You from anxiety, sorrow, disability, laziness, cowardice, miserliness, the burdens of debt, and the defeat of men (in the battlefield).” [Hadith, Bukhari]

اللهم إني أعوذ بك من الهمِّ والحزن، والعجز والكسل، والجبن والبخل، وضلع الدَّين، وغلبة الرِّجال

10.  Accept our Human Weakness

Part of the feeling of helplessness that we are experiencing is the illusion of power and control that we have in this world. We overemphasize what we can achieve, both in the spiritual and physical realms, and we get disappointed when we don’t get the results that we want. To this point, it may help us to think that even the best generation of believers, the companions of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, experienced similar moments:

˹Remember˺ when they came at you from east and west, when your eyes grew wild ˹in horror˺ and your hearts jumped into your throats, and you entertained ˹conflicting˺ thoughts about Allah. [Quran, 33:10]

The antidote for this is a renewed since of worship and servitude to Allah. When we assume our ideal status in this world as humble worshipers of the almighty, He will elevate us to realize our potential and maximize our impact. In fact, the Quran clearly states that this was the reason why the believers were victorious in the battle of Badr: by displaying a humble attitude to their creator:

And Allah had very truly given you support at Badr when you were humble. So be mindful of Allah, that you may give thanks. [3:123]

Remember that every calamity and tribulation could be an opportunity to elevate or demote us spiritually, depending on what we make out of it. Try your best to reflect, experiment, and share any of the above-mentioned actions. Feel free to reply with your comments on what worked for you and what didn’t. Remember that we are in this together!


May Allah help us fight feelings of helplessness, toxicity, and negativity with determination, faith, and action
Your brother,

Mohannad Hakeem

PS: Here are some good resources:

1. Staying Resilient While the World Lets Palestine Bleed
2. A call to action and lasting peace
3. Have Muslims in the West Betrayed Palestine?
4. The 40 Hadith on Community Service and Activism.

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To many, it seemed that the Pharaoh was in full control, he got it all: The military power, the political lobbies, the media outlets, the magicians, the narrative, complete dominance of all aspects of his oppression.

Maybe even the Israelites themselves thought they deserved to be enslaved, persecuted, and subjugated. Their dreams and urban legends about liberation started disappearing, and stories about fear, divisiveness, and despair filled their community gatherings and discussions. The only news to share and predictions to make were about the next child to be murdered, the next girl to be enslaved, the next family to lose their home… it was a matter of WHEN, not IF … The following Ayah captures the complete dominance that the Pharaoh had in Egypt:

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“Indeed, Pharaoh ˹arrogantly˺ elevated himself in the land and divided its people into ˹subservient˺ groups, one of which he persecuted, slaughtering their sons and keeping their women. He was truly one of the corruptors.” [28:4]

Another Plan in the Making  

Allah had a different plan for the Israelites, as He wishes for all of his righteous servants: to live with dignity and honor, free from any oppression. In fact, Allah’s plan involved turning them to leaders and inheritors of all of this kingdom:

“But it was Our Will to favor those who were oppressed in the land, making them models ˹of faith˺ as well as successors;
and to establish them in the land; and through them show Pharaoh, Hamân,1 and their soldiers ˹the fulfilment of˺ what they feared.” [28:5-6]

To the doubtful, this Ayah may seem like wishful thinking, dreams and aspirations, a figment of the believers’ imaginations, an illusion that they hold on to, an opium to the masses, etc. . Regardless, Allah’s plan was already decreed, and His decision is the ultimate one.

The last phrase in the previous Ayah could be very surprising to the doubtful voices at the time: “feared”! they may say! What would the pharaoh be fearful from?

Only later we learn that the eyes of oppressors rarely enjoy a full night’s sleep. The souls of the oppressed haunted the pharaoh in his sleep, despite being in the most safeguarded place of the time. He committed himself to an endless loop of murder right after the first crime took place. After that, he kept seeing in his dreams how his kingdom perished at the hands of a boy from the children of Israel. That dream caused him to escalate his murders and oppression, assuming that he can escape the plan of Allah and the decree of Allah.   

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What Would You Do if you Were There?
Hey, the intention of this post is not just another narration of the story of Musa, as you can read that in the Quran (See chapters 20 and 28 for a detailed account). In fact, even the Quran does not aim at providing mere anecdotes, stories, or historical events. Instead, it instigates in its reader a very fundamental question: What would you do if you were there? Which side would you choose? How would you see events, think about them, and react to them? this bias-to-reflection-then-action is consistent throughout the last revelation that Allah sent to mankind:

“So, narrate ˹to them˺ stories ˹of the past˺, so perhaps they will reflect.” [A’raf 7:176]

The Actors, and the Spectators
The story of Musa, peace be upon him, was filled with many actors who were the instruments that brings Allah’s vision to reality.

See, we all know that Allah works in mysterious ways in this universe. We don’t fully comprehend how or why it happens, since we only see the pixels not the big picture. But in the same token, we do know that an element of Allah’s plan involves assigning some tasks to His creations. Such actions, in turn, become the individualized and customized test of life: 

“So will it be. Had Allah willed, He ˹Himself˺ could have inflicted punishment on them. But He does ˹this only to˺ test some of you by means of others.” [Muhammad 47:4]

As the story of prophet Musa unfolds in the Quran, we start seeing many characters who assumed their role and fulfilled their duty. Instead of being just another spectator, they act with full determination to move the needle and fulfill the purpose of their creation. Eventually, such actors were honored by an eternal mention in the Quran, which is the biggest legacy any human being could dream of having:

The mother of Musa (it all starts with our mothers):

We inspired the mother of Moses: “Nurse him, but when you fear for him, put him then into the river, and do not fear or grieve. We will certainly return him to you, and make him one of the messengers.”[ Qasas 28:7]

The pharaoh’s wife (AKA Musa’s second mother):

 Pharaoh’s wife said ˹to him˺, “˹This baby is˺ a source of joy for me and you. Do not kill him. Perhaps he may be useful to us or we may adopt him as a son.” They were unaware ˹of what was to come˺.” [28:9]

Musa’s sister (Another Muslimah with a leading role):

“And she said to his sister, “Keep track of him!” So she watched him from a distance, while they were unaware.” [Qasas 28:11]

Harun, the public speaker

“And my brother Aaron is more eloquent than I, so send him with me as a helper to support what I say,” [Qasas 28:34]

So many characters to inspire us towards assuming our role in this life. But like every real-world story, Musa was surrounded with the bystanders, the spectators, who contributed in their own way to the demise and the struggles of Bani Israel:

The Bystanders

While the Quran does not mention any name (which by itself has a great implication), the Quran did mention many of their negative statements and attitudes:

They doubted Musa’s commands and ridiculed them:  

And ˹remember˺ when Moses said to his people, “Allah commands you to sacrifice a cow.”¹ They replied, “Are you mocking us?” Moses responded, “I seek refuge in Allah from acting foolishly!” [2:67]

 They complained endlessly about their situation:  

They complained, “We have always been oppressed—before and after you came to us ˹with the message˺.” He replied, “Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land to see what you will do.” [7:129]

They showed blind attachment to paganism even after seeing a miracle in front of their own eyes: 

We brought the Children of Israel across the sea and they came upon a people devoted to idols. They demanded, “O Moses! Make for us a god like their gods.” He replied, “Indeed, you are a people acting ignorantly! [7:138]

So much to reflect on through the story of prophet Musa, which spanned 29 out of 30 Juz in the Quran. It taught us endless lessons about human behavior and how we embrace guidance and change or resist them. Think about other characters: Qarun, Haman, Al-Samereyy, the magicians, etc. and what they represented and the legacy they left. In fact, there is a very important character in the whole story, which is often times ignored or neglected. That character is the reader, yes! It is YOU reading these lines.

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What About your story?

Remember that Allah is narrating this story to you, and He elected specific events to be shared in this timeless message of the Quran. The discussion on actors vs. spectators should invite us to look deep inside, especially as we see the genocide in Gaza unfolding in real time. These should strike each one of us with the very essential questions of our purpose and our role in life: 

• What is my legacy?
• How can I leave my mark in this world and help those who are struggling?
• How can I discover what I am really good at, and use that to the benefit of our umma (global Muslim community)?
• How can I leverage all of Allah’s blessings upon me: my career capital, my network, my connections, etc. to 10X my impact?
• Are there more effective ways to promote the causes I care deeply about?
• How can I find like-minded and like-hearted individuals who will support my legacy project, the way Harun (AS) supported Musa’s mission and impact?

These questions have been haunting me for a while, and that led me on a journey to collect the 40 Hadith on Community Service and Activism, which is meant to be a Muslim’s handbook to change the world. If these questions resonate with you, you may be interested in signing up for my upcoming Muslim Activism Bootcamp, a training and coaching program to empower Muslim activists and changemakers with the required tools, mindsets, and resources towards an everlasting legacy inshaAllah.

May Allah allow us to use His blessings in a way that pleases Him and Him only.

May Allah allow our small actions to cause a butterfly effect that will shake the thrones of the oppressors, and shade His servants with mercy and goodness

May Allah allow us to be in service to His creations, all creations, until the last moment of our lives.

Yours,

Brother Mohannad Hakeem

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