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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
My dear respected brothers, sisters, elders.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent his anbiya alayhi salam not only as guides for how to worship him,
but as guides to lead our lives in a way that is wholesome, harmonious and beneficial in this life
and a means of forgiveness and reward in the life of the Akhirah, inshaAllah.
Islam, therefore, is a deen.
It’s a complete way of life.
It’s not just a set of rituals of worship.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, having sent this deen, also tests us.
Allah said,
Ahasiban nasu an yutraku an yakulu amanna wahum la yuftanoon.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said,
Do people think that if they simply say, whether once they say, we believe,
amanna, that they will not be tested, that they will be left alone without being tested?
Now, this is a fundamental principle of life.
If you say in school and college, for example, if you say that you are ready,
you are given a test to go to the next class.
In organizations, if you say you are ready, then you are tested before you are given a promotion.
And so on and so forth.
So, we continuously pass tests after tests.
The benefit of passing a test is that it makes you stronger, more confident,
because after the test…
After the test…
After the test…
After the test, you know that you have learned something.
So, also in deen, with the benefit, additional benefit in deen,
that when Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala tests, he helps the person to succeed.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala promised to test us.
And he said,
وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيِّمْ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنفُسِ وَالصَّبَرَاتِ
وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَسَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّنْ رَبِّهِمْ بَرَفَةٌ
وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُخْتَدُونَ
In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said,
We will definitely test you
with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property and life and crops.
Give good news and glad tidings to those
who patiently,
patiently endure,
who, when faced with a disaster,
they say, surely to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala we belong
and to Him we will return.
They are the ones who will receive
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s blessings and mercy.
And it is they who are rightly guided.
Everyone will be tested,
but those who turn towards Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
and behave with dignity and patience,
they will receive,
they will receive Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s reward
and Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is witness for their faith.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that nobody was tested
more than the Abiyyah alayhimus sallam, than the prophets.
And that he sallallahu alaihi wasallam was tested the most among the prophets,
which means that he was tested most among all the human beings.
Ibrahim alayhi wasallam’s life,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala,
mentioned in the Quran,
was a series of tests.
Among the most serious of these tests
was when he was commanded by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
to take his wife, our mother Hajar alayhi salam,
and their newborn baby Ismail,
and leave them in the valley of Bakka,
later to be called Mecca.
Imagine what’s happening here.
When you go home,
look at, go to Google and see a map.
Ask for a map from Jerusalem to Bakka.
He is in Jerusalem.
He started from there.
And then, while he’s there,
and before that,
after decades of making dua for a child,
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala granted him a son.
And this is not any ordinary dua.
It’s a dua of Khalidullah.
Dua of one of the greatest of the Anbiya and Rasul,
who was later to be the father of the prophets.
His dua took decades.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave him a son.
And then he gets this command
to take his son and his newborn baby,
while his mother is still nursing him,
and take them to a place that he has never seen before,
and leave them there and return to Palestine.
So I went on Google to check the route and the distances and so on.
And Google says that Mecca and Palestine,
the distance is 941 miles.
1500 kilometers.
Ibrahim A.S. walked with his family.
The Quran does not tell us that he had,
a whole, you know, servants with him and guards with him and so on.
So Allah mentions only two people,
him and his wife.
The road from Mecca to Jerusalem later on became a major trade route,
because this was the route on which the Quraysh used to send their caravans.
But this was a few hundred years later.
At the time we are talking,
Ibrahim A.S. was from the Bronze Age,
before the discovery of iron.
And we know that Mecca did not exist.
There was nothing there.
There was only a barren valley,
sand and rocks.
And when Ibrahim A.S. reached there in a journey,
which was obviously difficult and potentially highly dangerous,
then I thought to myself, let’s see,
how long would he have taken?
Then you read the Quran, do all this, you know, it’s fun.
Plus it gets the lesson into yourself.
We say he went from here to there.
What do you mean he went from here?
Went from here, means what?
He got a Saudi flight or what did he do?
He walked.
How long does it take?
How long does it take to walk 940 miles?
So I did some research.
Now, military history is my interest.
So I read a lot about the Romans,
because the Romans were great marchers.
They traveled the land.
The Roman legionaries typically marched between 20 and 25 miles per day in five hours,
carrying all their equipment, which weighed 80 pounds.
Imagine the person marching, carrying 80 pounds, 25 miles in five hours.
You think you’re fit, right?
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
You’re not fit.
And remember, he’s not wearing fancy Hoka walking shoes.
He’s wearing wooden sandals with leather straps, and they have steel.
Not steel.
This is bronze.
So they had metal nails on the sole to get some grip.
Right?
And then when they reached their place, after 20, 25 miles, they would build a fortified
camp for the night, and only then they would cook their food.
But then I thought to myself, the average Roman legionary had the fitness level of an
Olympic athlete and was 10 times tougher.
Also, he would have been forced to march to keep up with the legion or face instant brutal
punishment.
The Roman army punishments were very, very brutal and instantly.
So Ibrahim al-Nislam is not, obviously not a Roman legionary, neither is his wife.
So I said, I assume that he will walk probably, they would walk maybe 15 miles in the same
five or six hours of walking.
That means it would have taken them 62 days to go from Palestine to Mecca.
Obviously, they would have, they’re not a military battalion covering distance.
They are people who are going from point A to point B. So they would have taken rest
days.
You get tired, you stop for a couple of days.
So we are looking at more than two months of journey, which means that this little family
has time to really bond together because they are traveling.
There’s nobody else there.
They have time to bond together, which means there’s a parting is going to be even more
painful.
Then they reach the barren valley of Mecca and all of this, while Ibrahim al-Nislam has
not told his wife where they are going or why.
He is being guided by Allah and she knows.
And so she doesn’t ask.
She doesn’t pester him.
She doesn’t insist in demanding answers.
They reach the valley, which is obviously not signposted.
You have arrived.
But he knows this is it because Allah has guided him.
There are no trees, no shelter, no water, nothing but rocks and sand.
He leaves them there with a bag of dates and a skin, water skin.
And he says, I’m going to go to Mecca.
I’m going to go to Mecca.
It’s very repaying in Mecca.
It’s very helpful, why?
You are only helping to have a basic means of finding a sugarcoating system that does
not fit inside montage.
You might be able to do drugs and stuff.
It’s not a Peace07!
It’s not a Laxative system.
You are doing fine use of coffee, you are making good use of the air primeiro.
At least, Sun passes is amazing because it.
So you are directing your waters and your
In Us together.
And so on.
So that’s what the darkness brings now.
I’m sure it depends on the Goddess Laha.
What can be so wonderful in the这
adoption of that shifted.
He doesn’t say anything.
He continues to walk and go away
because he has been commanded to silence.
Imagine what he is undergoing.
Think about the spiritual, the emotional test.
All of this stuff is easy to talk.
He left them and went away.
Think about this.
There’s a test for both of them.
And a test that is so severe,
we cannot even imagine that kind of a test.
But she is his wife and she is a woman of steel.
So she says, are you guided by your Rab?
He nods.
She says, then go.
Go.
Our Rab will not abandon us.
Think about this.
What an amazing example of mutual trust.
Trust in Allah is one thing,
but she also trusts this man is my husband.
He is committed to me.
He won’t just leave me, abandon me and go away.
So he is doing something.
He is wise.
I trust his wisdom.
He is commanded by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
We trust this connection between him and his Rab.
And so I’m at peace.
What kind of trust in the husband does this show?
Amazing example of Tawakkul and sheer courage and fortitude.
Ibrahim went away and when he reached,
he went over the rise and when he reached a place where she could not see him,
he raised his hands and he made dua.
And listen to this dua.
He said,
Our Rab, I live among my descendants in a valley that is not like a plant.
It is your forbidden house.
Our Rab,
Our Rab, let him establish prayer.
So make a group of people to be guided by them.
And provide them with fruits that they may be grateful for.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
See what I’m saying.
Our Rab, I have settled some of my offspring.
See this.
See this.
Dua.
See the words.
Reflect on these things.
He says,
Oh my Rab, I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley near your sacred house.
Our Rab, so that they may establish salah.
Dua.
So make the hearts of people inclined towards them.
And provide them with fruits.
So perhaps they will be thankful.
We ask Allah SWT to help us to do what pleases Him.
And to save us from what does not please Him.
Wasallamu ala nabiyyil kareem wa alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in.
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