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Alhamdulillah. My brothers and sisters, let us put ourselves in the caravan going with Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam for Umrah. He invited us and we knew that the invitation was a result of Wahi. And so we were going with complete belief that we would be able to do Umrah. And then thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that this did not happen. That He saved you and me from this test. Because not only were Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the Sahaba stopped at Hudaybiya, but Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam signed a one-sided treaty and they had to return to Medina without performing Umrah. As we know from the details of the story, the Sahaba were all of them very upset and sad at this unexpected turn of events. Imagine the severity of the spiritual and emotional test they faced. To the extent that even somebody like Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab radi al-Anu questioned Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam about it. Imagine the severity of this test. Here they were following Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam who they believed in, who had promised them that they would make Umrah, but it turns out that they would not be able to do that. Their desire is pure. What is purer than the desire to worship Allah? What is more pure than the desire to make Umrah? Yet they were stopped by the Horesh and refused entry into Mecca and Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam accepted this and he signed a one-sided treaty. So when Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam ordered the Sahaba to shave their heads and sacrifice the animals, nobody moved. They didn’t refuse to obey, but they did not move. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam was shocked. It was the first time it never happened before to him that he’d said something and they did not do it. But he didn’t insist or repeat his command out of his mercy for his Ummah, because to deliberately disobey a command of the Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam is Kufr, it takes you out of Islam. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam got up from where he was sitting and went inside his tent. His wife, our mother Ummah Salama nadiya Allah Anha saw his expression and she asked him, Ya Rasulullah what is wrong? He said my Ummah is destroying itself. She said what happened? When he told her, she said Ya Rasulullah this is a very severe test. My advice to you is please go out and do it yourself. Shave your head and sacrifice your animals and inshallah they will follow you. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam took her advice and did that. On a side note, just pause for a moment and think of this beautiful relationship between Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his wife. He didn’t argue with her, he didn’t pull rank on her, he didn’t say who is getting vahi, you or me. Right? He didn’t do anything. He listened to her and he accepted her advice and he acted on it and so it happened. He came out of his tent and he called Sayyidina Ali bin Avithari, brother Al Anho and asked him to bring the animals to be slaughtered and to shave his blessed head. The Sahaba got up and followed his actions. Nobody argued or dissented with tears flowing down their cheeks. They shaved each other’s heads and made their sacrifices. Not even one of them refused to obey Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam. When the Sahaba accepted Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam’s decision and returned to Madinah, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala called it a manifest victory and revealed surah al-fatih. Inna fatahana laka fatham mubeena to the end. The real victory there was the victory over the nafs, over personal desire. In this case the desire was noble and pious. It was not a haram desire. But with Allah, their obedience to him and to the Rasul alaihi sallallahu wasallam was more worthy of reward than their doing umrah. The reward was that though the treaty was for the suspension of hostility for a period of 10 years, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala gave Muslims Mecca itself in two years. That is why I call surah ad-debiya in my study of the seerah. I call surah ad-debiya the final qualifying exam of the Sahaba. This reiterates the fundamental criteria of right and wrong in Islam that ridha, the pleasure of Allah decides if something is right or wrong. Not the thing itself but whether it pleases Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala or not. Virtue is to do what Allah wants us to do. Sin is to do the opposite. It’s not the action but whether it pleases Allah or not which matters. When the Sahaba followed Rasul Allah sallallahu wa ta’ala despite whatever difficulty or reservations they may have had, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala called it a manifest victory and opened Mecca for them. That is why Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala declared that to obey Rasul Allah sallallahu wa ta’ala is to obey Allah himself. He said, He said whoever obeys the messenger has truly obeyed Allah but whoever turns away then know that we have not sent you as a keeper over him. This does not mean that Rasul sallallahu wa ta’ala is God. It means that what he commands comes from Allah. So when we obey him we are actually obeying Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and then he said, In surah al-hashr Allah said whatever the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam gives you take it. Whatever he forbids you from leave it and fear Allah. Surely Allah is severe in punishment. This is the spirit of Ramadan, the essence of taqwa. In Ramadan we make what is normally halal, halam on ourselves only because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ordered it. Not eating, not drinking and no intimacy is not a test of endurance. It is a test of obedience. It is a test of the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. That emphasizes us the foundation of Islam or budiyyah, complete submission of ourselves and our desires to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in everything. And as it happened in the case of the sahaba at Hudaybiyyah, it will happen with us inshallah. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala granted them success in this world and honored them in the akhirah by declaring that he was pleased with them. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala acknowledged the value of their obedience to Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam and called it obedience to himself. He said inna allatheena yubayoonaka innama yubayoonallah yadullahi fauqa idihim fa man nakasa fa innama yankuthu ala nafsi wa man awfa bima ahada alayhu Allah fa sayyutihi ajran azeema. Allah said surely those who pledge allegiance to you, O Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, are actually pledging allegiance to Allah. Allah’s hand is over theirs. Whoever breaks their pledge, it will only be to their own loss. And whoever fulfills their pledge to Allah, he will grant them a great reward. And he said Allah said indeed Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, O Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, under the tree. And this is refers to by Turidwan during Sulaib-e-Biyyah. He knew what was in their hearts, so he sent down serenity upon them and rewarded them with victory close at hand. That is the value of obedience, which is the essence of Islam. Today as we face a hostile world and different problems as the Muslim Ummah, we seek solutions in worldly means. We look to politics and political leadership and material wealth and technology for solutions. Nothing wrong with that, but in the process, we forget that the effectiveness to the solution comes only from Allah. It’s like wiring up a whole house with the latest technology and expecting it to work without connecting it to the power source. Without the power from the transformer, the house will remain dark. No matter what gadgets you have in the house, the transformer is our case. In our case, the transformer is Taqwa and Ramadan comes to connect us to it so that our lives can be illuminated and empowered with this connection. Total obedience is fundamental conditional step in Islam. Total obedience out of love, out of tasting and reveling in the glory and majesty of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and in our connection with him, which he gave us through his messenger, Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. That comes first. The rest, like in the case of Ibrahim a.s. follows naturally. Success is not difficult. It is inevitable for the mudtaqi, but only for the mudtaqi. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for his mercy and his protection from all disobedience. That is the real danger.
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