Take the help of Sabr and Salah – Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Centre

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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen, wa salatu wa salamu ala al-sharafi al-amriyi wal mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, Tasliman kathiran kathira. Humma baadu, my brothers and sisters, we are living today in times which are difficult, times which are trying, times which are full of tribulations, and in some cases, great calamities.

So how do you deal with these times? what must you do, what is the guidance of the Quran al-Karim and from the seerah of Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. I said this is something for us to think about and reflect about. Now Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentioned in the Quran al-Karim, the ayat which I recited in Salatul Fajr. Allah said, فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونَ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَحِ

The famous ayat of Surah Al-Baqarah where Allah said you remember me, I will remember you.

Make shukr, thank, be grateful, express gratitude to me and do not commit kufr, do not be ungrateful. And then Allah gave us a hukm. As we know in the Qur’an, every time an ayah begins with Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu, this is a direct command to the believers, it’s a ayat of hukm. So Allah is saying, Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu, ista’eenu bisabri wa salaah, inna allaha ma’asabili. Allah said, O you who believe, and this is a hukm, take help from, take ista’anat from, from sabr and salah. Verily, Allah is with those who have sabr. Now the issue of sabr is perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts that there is in Islam, may Allah forgive us. Many people think sabr means do nothing. Just bear patiently, don’t say anything, don’t do anything, just bear patiently. Now, this is completely, there’s no basis for this understanding. In Islam, the meaning of sabr is to make the maximum effort possible. Explore every opportunity, every resource at your command, every knowledge, and then turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for Salah is in the meaning of Salah as in the five Salawat, as well as Salah as the linguistic meaning of Salah, which is Dua.

So if you think about it, and I’ll tell you my dalil, why I say that Sabar means action. Because in the Quran al-Karim, in other places, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentioned Mujahideen. He mentioned the soldiers who are fighting in the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, but he didn’t call them Mujahideen, Allah called them Sabirin.

Now imagine there is perhaps no other action or role which is more action oriented, which is more rooted in total and complete commitment other than fighting in battle. Because when you are on the field of battle and today I’m talking about today’s battles are robotic with drones and people sitting and playing computer games. I’m talking about medieval times in the earlier times of battle where a man fought and literally with his life in his own hands and he committed completely and totally to the battle and he knew that if he lost that then he would lose his life because enemy would kill him. So it was commitment to a level and degree which we cannot understand. Allah called those people Sabirin which means Sabar is not just to sit around and wait for someone to come and rescue us. And we are waiting for this one to come and that one to come. And you say, well, what are you doing? Nothing. I don’t even pray five times a day. I indulge in haram. I earn haram. I eat haram. And then I expect the malaika will come for me. This is nonsense. This is complete, you know, senseless thinking. So Allah is saying,

take help from sabr. From sabr meaning making every effort, doing whatever is in your command.

The finest tafsir of this ayah is in the seerah of Rasulullah at the time of the battle of Badr. As we know, we all know the story that in the battle of Badr, the Muslims were only 313 and the enemy were, given the time and so on, were probably close to 1,500. So, it was three, four, five times the number. Rasulullah in the battleground of Badr, he set up the troops and he set up the battalions and he appointed commanders. He did all that. When he finished, he did all of this first, did everything.

He spoke to the Ansar and he got their commitment. but after completing everything, using whatever little resources he had, they had very little resources, but he used whatever he had. Then what did he do? He stood in Salah and he started making Dua. And his hands, his blessed hands were raised like this, where they say that they could see his underarms. He was wearing a shawl over his blessed shoulders. When he raised his hands like this, the shawl fell off. And he said, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, help me, help my people. Ya Rabb, if they die, there will be no one to take your name, to worship you on the earth. Ya Allah, you promised me, so help me.” He kept on and kept on and kept on making dua until Avogad Siddique said, Basti Ya Rasool Allah, your Rabb will not desert you. Your Rabb will do what he promised to do.

Now imagine, you know and I know, at least our Aqidah, alhamdulillah, that if Rasool had decided not to go to the battle at all. But in Masjid-e-Nabawi-e-Sharif itself, if he had, where he was sitting, if he had simply sat there and if he had said, Ya Allah, deliver Abu Sufyan to me here, Allah would have done it. Allah would have caused Abu Sufyan to be lifted from there and brought in the presence and at the feet of Rasulullah. He didn’t do that. He went to the place he actually went to the place and then he whatever they had like we know they had

313 people but they didn’t have horses and camels and this is very few and then even weapons everybody was personal weapons they had other than that but he took every he made every effort and then he said made dua and allah then remember allah didn’t end this dua with with istainu bi sabri wa salah, because if Allah had ended the ayah, istainu bi sabri wa salah, grammatically it would be correct and this is the Kalam of Allah . But we don’t know what is the solution because Allah is saying, take the help of sabr and salah. But what will happen? I will do this, but will I succeed? We don’t know. Allah didn’t end it there. Allah said, verily and truly, Allah is with the people of Salah. So Allah didn’t leave us in doubt, even if I do all the effort, even if I pray, will I succeed, we must not have any doubt about it, we must complete our part of the bargain. Our part of the bargain is, La ilaha illa Allah Muhammad, we keep our tawheed pure, we don’t contaminate that with any shirk and so on, we make sure that we complete and fulfill our faraid, Allah made five salafard on us, we complete that, we pray that, no matter what happens in the world. Allah made Zakat further on us. Whoever can pay Zakat, must pay Zakat no matter what. Allah made Ramadan further on us. We fast in Ramadan as long as physically we are capable, we are not sick. Alhamdulillah, no issue of saying, no, no, but you see, I’m a professional soccer player. I’m a professional rugby player. How can I play? Don’t play. Rugby is not further on you. Cricket is not further on you, right? I have to do this. I have to go here. None of that. Fardh is salah. Fardh is sawm. Fardh is fasting. La’allakum tattaqun. Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu. Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la says, fast because so that you will become powerful. Qutiba alaikumus siyamu kama qutiba ala allatheena min qabalikum la’allakum tattaqun. Fast. And then for those who have the way with all and capability of hajj, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la made hajj fast. So we do hajj. We like to do Umrahs may Allah have mercy on us. Some people do an Umrah like they’re going on holiday. Alhamdulillah it’s good, nothing wrong with that if somebody is doing that. Do Umrah every day if you like, but that does not take away from the further Hajj. I know people who have the money Alhamdulillah Allah has given them and they make Umrah after Umrah, but they have not done for Hajj. I say why not Hajj? No, I will do, I will do. When will you do? Allah gave you the money and Allah says, when whoever has the for the Sabeel, for the road, must do Hajj.

So Fard, Aqidah, which is Tawheed, Faraid, which Allah made Fard, you know the five Salawat and so on. And then we need to focus on, and this is where we need the Sunnah of Rasulullah, we need to focus on our Akhlaq, our manners. how do we raise children, how do we behave ourselves, how do we behave with our neighbors, how do we behave with our employees, with our employers, whoever, families, spouses, akhlaq. Then muamilat, our dealings. May Allah have mercy on us. All of us say this, all of us know this, our dealings are, those who are doing good, all power to them. But But by and large, our dealings are very, very, very weak and very, you know, shaky, right? We don’t stand by our word. We say something, we do something else. This has to change. This absolutely has to change because unless this changes, the difficulties that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is sending on us one by one by one will not stop. They will not stop because Allah gives this difficulty. Allah says, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la said all the trials and tribulations and the pandemics and the epidemics and wars and you name it all of this is this is the result of the

the hands of people. Allah said, you are doing this to yourself. Allah did not tell you to go fight some nonsense war for your, you know, to grab property or something. You did it. Now you complain, we have got a world where there is no safety, of course. You create, you lighten the fire, why are you complaining? So, Allah says, this is the thing to do, which is clear and then why does allah allow this to happen you are the many people ask this question no no if there is a god why is there suffering there is allah there is not a god there is allah and suffering is because we want suffering may allah have mercy on us so allah is saying no turn towards allah even that suffering is a mercy from allah it’s like somebody If you see these examples, mother is in the kitchen, she is cooking something, a little small little son, maybe two years old, three years old, he wants to, flame of the fire, he wants, it looks attractive, he wants to touch it. So, the mother will say, no, don’t do that, just touch it, don’t do that, you will get burned, touch it, no, I don’t. Finally, she slaps him on the wrist. Now, he starts crying, my mother hit me, your mother hit you because to save you, otherwise you would have gone in the fire. So Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, even the tribes that come are a mercy from Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la. So Allah said,

So take the help of Sabr and Salah. So we have to, I remind myself and you, we need to correct ourselves, our Aqidah, our Akhlaaq, our Mu’minat, our Mu’ashara, which is our society, Muslim society. How is it? What do we need to do? I don’t want to go into too much detail here, we don’t have time, but InshaAllah these are things that we need to think about, reflect on and ask Allah SWT for his help. Just a simple thing I will tell you, whenever there are difficulties and so on, in many places, Alhamdulillah, it takes me all over the world. You usually have people, the leaders of the community, ulama, non-ulama, who get together and say, this is a solution, this is a problem, what solution should we, what should we do, how should we, you know, invest, which stocks are likely to go up, which is not. All this talk we’ll How many times have you heard the Muslims get together and say, we are having all these difficulties. Let us reflect on what is it that we are doing wrong in our lives with respect to Allah Subh’anaHu Have you ever heard this thing? What is wrong with our Haqq with Allah, Allah has rights on us. Difficulties are there by all means, you know, find solutions which are within the purpose of law. But do we ask this question? How are we offending Allah or something? I mean, are we fulfilling the rights of Allah ? Are we following the Sunnah of Muhammad ? We never ask this question. But that’s where it begins. Because nothing happens. وَمَا أَشَابَكُمْ مِنْ مُّسِيبَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ No musibat comes on you except by the will of Allah. So if the musibat is coming and I consider myself, you consider, we all consider ourselves to be mashaAllah, mashaAllah, mashaAllah. We are practicing Muslims, we got a topia on our head, we wear a long kurta, we wear a short pyjama above the ankle, we are praying this, we are doing that, we are building this masjid, that masjid. Still, ask yourself the question, my brother, who is sending these problems? Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la, there is nobody else. Allah mentioned this directly in the Quran. Then you ask this question, why is Allah sending Masaib problems on me? Here Allah, find somebody else. No, it comes on you. Because we were given this responsibility of living by this Deen and taking this Deen to others. We left that. So, the protection of Allah is also lifted. So, we ask Allah to help us to remember and remind ourselves of our duty, which is our duty to him, to be done in the way of his Habib, Rasulullah. Then inshallah, all the trials, tribulations, difficulties and so on and so forth will vanish. And Allah SWT will give us what he promised, which is a beautiful, Hayatan Tayyib, as the jaza. Allah will give us this inshallah. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to help us and to be with us in every way that is leading to His pleasure, insha’Allah. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatika ya rahm al rahim.