Podcast: Play in new window | Download (13.3MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS
Auto-generated transcript:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the honor of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions.
From my brother and sisters, you were talking about the five ways of beating stress, of dealing with difficult situations in life. As I mentioned in the last khutbah, Rasulullahﷺ told us, do not say the word if. If only, if I could do this, if this, if that. He said, if is the door of shaitan. Because whatever happened, happened because Allahﷻ willed it to happen. Nothing else could have happened. That is the best that could have happened and Allahﷻ decreed that. It did not happen despite Allah. It happened because of Allah. So don’t say if. Allahﷻ also told us that He would test us and therefore these tests when they come, any test, any difficulty, any pain, any suffering, any illness, any accident, any loss, Islamically speaking, is not failure. It is not a loss as in permanent loss. This is the difference in our thinking between thinking Islamically as per the Quran and Sunnah and thinking in a worldly sense in this dunya. In this dunya, if you lose something, then it is seen as lost permanently, gone. I got nothing for it. Any failure is seen as failure of myself. And that is why people get into depression, they go into despair. And they, in many cases, they commit suicide. Suicide is like an epidemic. Especially in the western world. Mental illness is an epidemic.
See the people in Gaza. There is nothing they have not lost, except their Iman. Ajeeb, eh? Except their Iman. You have seen what is happening in Gaza. How the entire place is completely destroyed. People, they are in a state of shock. Entire families have been wiped out. But at least I have not heard of a single case of any Palestinian Muslim who committed suicide because of despair. My whole family is gone, so bang. No. Nobody is dying. Ajeeb, eh?
It is strange. Ask yourself, why not? Go and Google this thing. Go and Google celebrity suicides. Even put a date on it. Maybe for the year 2025. 26 has just started. Maybe somebody has done it already. But 2025. Or celebrity suicide in the last 10 years. 5 years. You will be surprised. The number of celebrities who have committed suicide. Now, who is a celebrity? A celebrity is somebody who has actually achieved the so-called dream that everybody else is running behind. Right? Popularity, number of followers, money. You name it. Cars and houses and God knows what. Right? Planes. Yachts. So why do they commit suicide? I mean, they have got everything in the world. All the stuff which we are chasing. They already have it. So why do they commit suicide?
And then how come these people, the Palestinians, they are hujja. Believe me, these people are, Allahﷻ has created these people in this time, in this place, in this time. In this earth. As a hujjat. Either for the rest of us or against us. May Allah protect us from standing before Him, Jalla Jalaluhu, on the Day of Judgement. With the Palestinians on one side and us on the other side. And those people ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala why we remained silent and we did nothing when this was happening today.
Now you might say, what can I do? I have no power. No, you have power. You have power of tahajjud. You have power of making dua. You have to make dua before Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala. Make sure you don’t lose that. Yes, you and I do not have material power. We don’t have temporal authority. But nobody can stop us from praying tahajjud and making dua for them. Nobody can stop us from making dua in Salatul Fajr after, khurut in Salatul Fajr after the second rakaat. Nobody can stop us. If you do it, alhamdulillah, good for you. But if you are not doing it, ask yourself, why not? Not one’s way side. Because we do not despair. We are Muslims. We do not despair. The whole approach to pain, to suffering, to death, to loss in Islam is completely the opposite of the Western concept. In Islam, these tests are to elevate the darajat of the person. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he went to meet somebody who was sick, to do a adat to somebody who was sick, he used to say, tahura. He used to say, this is purification for you. He didn’t say, oh my God, you got so sick. No. He used to say, this is purification. Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la is wiping out your sins.
So on the face of it, I have a loss. On the face of it, I am sick. On the face of it, I am, you know, I have suffered a loss or an accident or something. But Islam is teaching us, this is good for you. Say, alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah that I have Islam, that I see the truth of this. This is not loss. This is not, oh my God, I got sick. No. Alhamdulillah. This fever is burning away my sins. This fever is removing my sins. Tahura, purification. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, a thorn does not prick the foot of a Muslim, but Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la wipes out a sin for him. Just a thorn pricking a Muslim. Financial loss. Some accident. Something happens. Everything in Islam, we see this in a positive light. We say, alhamdulillah, ya’la kulli haal. Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentioned this. Very specifically he mentioned this. In terms of loss. Huh? The ayat of Surah Al-Baqarah. But Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, wa la nabluhannakum. The lamb of taqid. Definitely I will do. Surely we will test you. There is no doubt about this. wa la nabluhannakum. bishayyim minal khawf. With these things. Khawf, fear. What will happen tomorrow? Months together. How will we eat? We don’t worry about all this. We say, alhamdulillah. wa la nabluhannakum bishayyim minal khawf. This fear. While your hunger. Prices of commodities are going up. Prices of food are going up. Alhamdulillah, we have not seen any of that. But I am saying, hardly even if you have seen it, Allah has given us enough money and so on to didn’t make any difference to our lives. But, it can. We ask Allah for his protection from this.
bishayyim minal khawf wal juw. wa naqsim minal amwal. Financial loss. Loss of business. wa lam fusi wa samarat. And loss in yourself. Which is, sickness, illness, accidents. wa samarat. In the fruits. Which is children, which is you know other things which we get from us. Allah has mentioned in counting out. Definitely, I will test you with difficulties, problems and so on in all of these things. Now why? Allah is not saying to punish you. Allah is not saying to do something. Allah is saying, I will test you. fabash shiris sabirin. And there is good news. So, for the people who have sabr. For people who don’t complain. For the people who don’t mourn and go, Oh my God, what has happened? Why only me?
Koi nahi mila Allah miya ku maich mila kya hai? Sa kai koi gora mere saath? Astaghfirullah na naus bila. Lohan bulte se bata. This is what I am saying. Think about this. There are people, the Palestinians are hujja against us if we talk like this.
Har cheez chal gaye magar, shikayat nahi. There are so many videos of journalists talking to the person. He is sitting there with nothing. There is no bread, there is no food, there is no shelter. Ghar chalega, sab chalega. And he says, how are you? He says, Alhamdulillah. Hajeeb. Unni hairan. The journalist is absolutely astonished. He says, how do you say Alhamdulillah? You have nothing. He says, I have Allah. Alhamdulillah. No complaint. Fabashshiri sabireen. And then Allah describes and defines who is the sabireen. Allazeena iza asabathum musibatun qalu inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun. These are the people who when they have masaaib, when they have musiba, when they have loss and calamities and difficulties, they say, we are from Allah and to Allah is our return. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun. And then Allah says, what happens to people like this? Ulaaika alaihim salawatum mir rabbihim. These are the people on whom Allah sends salam. Ulaaika alaihim salawatum mir rabbihim. Wa rahmah. And Allah sends this rahmah. And then Allah gives them a seal, a certificate. Ulaaika humul muhtadoon. These are the people who are rightly guided. Who is saying this?
Not somebody’s murids, not somebody’s friends, not somebody’s relatives. Allah is saying, these are the rightly guided people. May Allah make us among them. And we ask Allah to make us among them without the tests. I always make lot of dua to Allah to save us from tests. We don’t ask Allah for tests. But if there is a test, we ask Allah to help us to see that test and to meet that test with dignity and with sabr so that we become eligible for this. Ulaaika humul muhtadoon. These are the people who are rightly guided. Obviously these are the people for whom there is Jannah.
Think about that. How is it that Allah is showing us this is not what we are seeing today in Palestine. It’s not history, not mythology, it’s not stories from the past. This is our own chashma deed gawa hai muski hai. We are eye witnesses to what is happening. And may Allah have mercy on us thanks to social media, thanks to modern communication technology. Everything is visible out in the open. Nothing is hidden. So when we see these things please don’t get into arguments and discussions and debates about who is right and who is wrong and people are making all kinds of nonsensical arguments. Forget that. Look at the thing and say what is the lesson I can get from this? This is happening in front of my eyes. I am seeing what is happening. What is my lesson?
My lesson is first and foremost Alhamdulillah that Allah has kept us safe from that situation. We are not in Gaza, we are here. Number one. Number two, here are people who are setting a standard for us of what to do if there is a problem, what to do when we face difficulties. I don’t know if there is any difficulty which is worse or bigger than what they are facing. May Allah have mercy on them. May Allah have mercy on us.
And then we ask Allah we correct ourselves. Let me correct my life before a time comes when I am tested. We ask Allah to save us from all tests. So correct our lives. Make sure that our Aqeedah is correct. That we are not committing any Shirk. Make sure that we are fulfilling all the Fara’at. All the Ibadah and everything else which we are supposed to do. Make sure that our earning is Halal. Make sure that our spending is Halal. Make sure that our Ma’amilat are correct. Not deceiving somebody, lying to somebody, cheating somebody, taking away somebody’s right. Are we doing that? All of this is very very important. Make sure all this is correct. Because no matter what, no matter whether you are or I am the king of the world, or no matter whether we are the other end of whatever that is, one day we die. No matter what. One day we die. And then we stand before Allah without anything. And all that we have is what we have sent ahead of us which is our Amal. So we ask Allah to help us to live a life which is only and only for His pleasure. And nothing else. Only something which pleases Allah only one thing which gets the Rida of Allah. We ask Allah to give this to us. We ask Allah to make it easy for us. We ask Allah to help all those people who are in need. We ask Allah to protect all those people who need protection. We ask Allah to remove the oppressors and destroy the oppressors whoever and wherever they might be. And we ask Allah to help the oppressed whoever and wherever they might be. And may Allah send His blessings upon the noble Prophet and upon his family and companions with the mercy of Allah.