Hope in Allah
By Abdul Nasir Jangda | 2026-01-19T07:17:40.990815+00:00 | Topic: Spirituality
Hope in Allah
Khutba by Sh. Abdul Nasir Jangda
Opening
In the Name of Allah, Praise be to Allah, and Peace and Blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and companions. Peace be upon you.
Introduction: The Power of Hope
So the topic for my session is hope. And hope is a very very powerful fundamental concept. Hope is an idea, it's a concept, it is a force. Actually, that has caused drastic change in the world multiple times throughout the course of human history.
Hope has been a tool, a resource that has been utilized by many people for many different purposes. Different people have utilized hope, and inspiring hope within different groups of people to achieve and acquire many different things throughout the course of human history. When we talk about Islam, when we talk about belief in Allah, when we talk about our religious, spiritual journey and experience, hope once again is a very powerful, important, fundamental concept.
And hope is something that Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) invoked. Hope is a command of Allah. Hope is a sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Hope is our main vehicle of delivering the message of Islam.
Hope is one of the primary themes of the Qur'an, of the Book of Allah. And hope has been a tradition of our scholarship and this ummah for 1400 years. So hope is really actually a very powerful, very very powerful thing.
The Heart and Hope
And the scholars, what they tell us is because of everything I've just said. Losing hope is the death of the heart. See, our experience as believers requires the entire body and it's a complete human experience.
It starts with the heart, it involves the tongue and it eventually requires dedication from the whole body of a person. The wealth, the life, the body of a person. But it all begins with the heart.
And it all first dies with the heart as well. That's why the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he talked about the fundamental placement and the importance of the heart in this big equation of life and Islam and spirituality and our relationship with Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him), that's why he said:
(Bukhari hadith 52, Muslim hadith 1599)
"There's an organ within the body. That if it's correct, the rest of the body will be correct. And if it is corrupted, the rest of the body will become corrupted. And know and understand and realize and write down and never forget that that is the heart."
And the scholars say that the death, the corruption of the heart oftentimes begins with a loss of hope.
Three Aspects of Hope
And so now when talking about hope, what I'd like to do is I'd like to split this discussion into three portions. The first is hope in Allah. What is the understanding? What is the realization? And what is the proper full understanding of hope in Allah? And how do we go about in having hope in Allah?
Part 1: Hope in Allah
The very first thing that I'll state here by something that Allah tells us in the Qur'an. Allah says قُلْ (Say). So this was an announcement that was given to the Prophet (peace be upon him). Something very interesting. Every single time Allah tells us to do something or not to do something, some places He does it directly.
Some places Allah gives us a command directly. Some places He forbids us from doing something directly Himself. Some places Allah tells the Prophet (peace be upon him) that you tell them.
And usually when Allah is telling the Prophet (peace be upon him) that you tell them to do this or you tell them not to ever do that. There's a lesson in that for us. And the lesson that we need to take home from that, what we're about to read, what we're about to say, what we're about to listen to, is that the reason why Allah could have told us directly, but the reason why He told the Prophet (peace be upon him) to say that, is because that will be very important.
This is a message that every believer needs to carry on. Allah is giving the Prophet (peace be upon him) the tools, the instruction, the guidance on da'wah. On how to spread the message of Islam.
So He's telling the Prophet (peace be upon him), this is how you invite people to Islam. So Allah tells the Prophet (peace be upon him), that means we all need to listen up because what the Prophet is being told to say is an instruction and a guidance to us as to what we need to say to people. The message we need to have.
And we can only deliver a message if we have first internalized it ourselves. And that's what we're here to do.
The Verse of Ultimate Hope
So He says:
"Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'"
يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ - "O My slaves," Allah says. Which of the slaves? That the ones who have crossed all lines and boundaries against themselves, the ones who have harmed themselves, the ones that have done severe harm to themselves, by living a life of sin, by living a life of hopelessness, by living a life of disobedience to Allah, by living a lifestyle that is harmful to them, not just spiritually but maybe even socially, and familially, and physically, they're living a life that is very harmful to them.
So Allah is specifically referring to these people, but something beautiful that the scholars point out, Allah still calls them, "My slaves." Allah is still saying, "You're My slaves." We still have a relationship with Allah.
So Allah is speaking to the worst of the worst, the most sinful people, the ones that are walking on very thin ice. The ones who have done severe harm to themselves, Allah gives them an instruction, He forbids something:
"Never ever, in the slightest bit, lose hope from the mercy of Allah."
This is an usool of fiqh. This is a principle of jurisprudence that when Allah uses the forbidding tone, when He uses the verb that is used to forbid something, that makes something impermissible. It makes something haram.
Allah is saying that it is haram. It is not allowed for you under any circumstance to ever in the slightest bit lose hope from the mercy of Allah. Why? Allah didn't just tell us something and not give us reason to believe it.
"Because Allah will forgive all the sins."
Why? How is He capable of forgiving all the sins?
"Because He and only He, most definitely He is Al-Ghafoor, constantly forgiving and Ar-Raheem, constantly merciful."
Nothing is beyond His capacity or beyond His reach.
The Story of Ya'qub and Hope
Allah will and can forgive anything that anyone has done. So never despair, never lose hope from the mercy of Allah.
Ya'qub (peace be upon him) tells his sons, "Don't ever lose hope from the mercy of Allah." (Quran 12:87)
Why?
"Because the only one who loses hope in the mercy of Allah is the one who is ungrateful to Allah, the one who disbelieves in Allah."
Losing hope is tantamount to disbelief. And the word that's used here in this ayah to talk about hope is رَوْح which comes from ژوح because it's the spirit of our iman, it's the soul of our hearts.
It's what keeps our hearts alive, it's that hope, that connection to Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) invokes in a supplication:
"We tie our hopes, we pin our hopes of Allah on your mercy."
And the higher, the more powerful, the greater Allah's mercy is, the more we need to have hope in the mercy of Allah.
Allah's Attributes of Forgiveness
Allah is so merciful, so forgiving, so kind, so benevolent, that just in the Qur'an itself, in the book of Allah, Allah when He talks about His ability to forgive, Allah mentions three different attributes for Himself in terms of forgiving that come from the same root. The root word is غَفَرَ, which literally means to cover something up. It means to forgive a sin as if it never even existed, like it was never even there.
But He says this three different ways. One place Allah calls Himself غَافِرُ الذِّنْب - "the one who immediately forgives." Another place Allah calls Himself غَفَّارٌ - "the one who abundantly forgives, the one who has no limitation in terms of forgiveness, the one who can continue to forgive no matter how much the sins might be."
The third attribute is غَفُورٌ - "constantly forgiving, immediately forgiving, abundantly forgiving, constantly forgiving." That's who Allah is. That's our introduction to Allah.
Allah tells us:
"My mercy encompasses and surrounds everything."
Allah says in a sacred tradition:
"My mercy has superseded and overcomes my wrath and my anger."
The Story of Surah Hud
I don't know if there's any sessions planned at the conference here this year, but it's not very hard to go and read for yourself. Read surah Hud, read surah number 11. When you read surah number 11, what you'll find is Allah talks about four or five different nations that Allah destroyed. The wrath and the anger of Allah fell upon these people.
It ravaged these people. It eradicated these people from the face of the earth. And when you read it, you'll feel overwhelmed.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) felt overwhelmed. The Sahaba looked at the Prophet (peace be upon him), Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) in one narration, looks at the Prophet (peace be upon him), and he says:
"You've grown old, O Messenger of Allah." He saw some white hairs.
So he says, you've grown old, O Messenger of Allah. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) says:
"Surah Hud made me old. Surah Hud made my hair go gray."
Think about that. So when you read that, you're overwhelmed by reading about the wrath and the anger and the punishment of Allah. And then take that into consideration, how fierce, how powerful the wrath and the anger of Allah is.
And then listen to this, Allah Himself says, no matter how powerful or overwhelming my wrath and my anger might be:
"But my mercy supersedes it and overcomes my wrath and my anger."
Imagine how powerful the anger of Allah is, but then imagine how powerful the mercy of Allah is, that it's more powerful than that. That's who Allah is.
The Individual Address
In another sacred tradition, Allah addresses each and every single person individually. When you read a hadith qudsiyyah, when you read sacred traditions, you find two types of addresses. In some Allah says يا عِبَادِي - "O my slaves."
That's a communal address. It's a collective address. Some places Allah says يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ - "O human being, O child of Adam."
That's an address to each and every single, one of us individually. Process that on your own. He's speaking to you directly.
Allah says:
"That if your sins were to reach the limits, the peak, the height of the sky, when you stand and you look up in the sky, as far as your eye can see into the sky, the clouds. If your sins were to stack all the way up to the sky... Then you ask me for forgiveness once. I forgive you. And it's no big deal. Don't worry about it. Ain't no thing."
This is who Allah is. This is our introduction to Allah. And this is what it means to have hope in Allah.
Hope and Shari'ah
You know the theme of this conference is something that really really piqued my interest. The theme of the conference is shari'ah. The overall conference. It's about shari'ah. And when talking about shari'ah, there's a lot of discussions to be had, there's a lot of different things that are discussed, a lot of different things that we can talk about. And one of the key conversations, one of the big things that comes up when talking about shari'ah is the hudud, the punishments that are issued in shari'ah.
It is a lack of information, a lack of knowledge, a shallow understanding and reading of our own deen and our own religion that we're not able to answer these questions, that we don't even know what to think, that we don't even know how to answer these questions to somebody else. When there are very very clear indications and narrations and instructions from the Prophet (peace be upon him) on how to deal with and how to understand these things.
The Hadith of Forgiveness Through Prayer
In the light of the sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), there's a narration which talks about that there was a man, Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) in the Sahih of Imam Bukhari. He narrates a hadith from the Prophet (peace be upon him). He says, that a man came to the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) and he said, Oh Messenger of Allah, I've committed a sin. And I've committed a sin that there is a prescribed punishment for. There's a prescribed punishment for this sin.
It was time for the congregational prayer. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, Leave it, let's go pray first. And the man went and made wudu and he prayed with the Prophet (peace be upon him). After the prayer, he comes back to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He says, Oh Messenger of Allah, I did a sin and there's a prescribed punishment for that sin.
So apply to me whatever punishment I need to be given. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked him:
"Did you just pray with us?"
And the man said, of course I did, (يَا رَسُولَ اللهِ - ya rasulallah) Oh Messenger of Allah.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"You've been forgiven. Now go about your way." (Bukhari hadith 6823)
Go do what you need to do. You've been forgiven.
Another narration, Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him). This is also mentioned in the Sahih of Imam Muslim and the Sunan of Imam Abu Dawood. That he says that a man came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and he's saying the same thing, he said, I've done a sin and there's a prescribed punishment for that sin. The Prophet (peace be upon him) remained silent.
Did not want to answer the man's question. He kept coming back to the Prophet (peace be upon him) repeating himself over and over again. Finally the time for the prayer came and they stood up and they prayed.
After the prayer, he comes back to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and again he asked him the question. The Prophet (peace be upon him) says:
"Don't you understand that when you left your house you made wudu and you made a good wudu. And then you came here and then you prayed with us. And you prayed a good salah."
And the man said, yes, O Messenger of Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Allah has forgiven that punishment from you. Now go." (Muslim hadith 2764)
This is within our deen, this is within our tradition. This is the relationship with Allah we need to have, we need to understand.
The Hadith of Repeated Forgiveness
The Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) tells us about sinning. And a lot of times about our attitude and what we need to understand in terms of living our lives. The Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) in another narration that's mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) says:
"A slave commits a sin. He says, O Allah, please forgive my sin. Allah says that he has a lord that will forgive his sin and takes the sin away from that person."
"Then that person goes back and commits the sin again."
"And he says, my lord, please forgive my sin."
Allah says, my slave committed a sin. But he knows he has a lord that will forgive his sin. And Allah forgives him.
Then he goes back and he does the sin again. And he says, my lord, please forgive my sin. And Allah again says, my slave committed a sin but he knows he has a lord that will forgive his sin.
"Now go about and live your life. Your sin has been forgiven." (Bukhari hadith 7507, Muslim hadith 2758)
This is the power of Allah's forgiveness. This is the hope that we need to have in Allah.
The Challenge of Shaytan
There's even a narration, a lot of times we talk about the influences, the things that can bother us, the things that can try to distract us from the hope and the mercy of Allah. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from the Prophet (peace be upon him), this is mentioned in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad.
"That shaitan said to Allah, by the majesty and power of Allah, I will not stop distracting the human beings as long as they have souls left in their body, I will not stop distracting them. I will stay at it nonstop, no quit in me."
Allah responded to this challenge, this threat from shaitan, from iblis by saying, "I swear by my power and my majesty, I will not stop forgiving them as long as they keep asking me for forgiveness. You do what you gotta do and I'll do what I can do." (Ahmad hadith 11478)
That is Allah's ability to forgive. That's who we're dealing with. So this is hope in Allah.
Part 2: Hope in Ourselves
The second area of hope that I wanted to talk about is hope in yourselves. Having hope in yourselves, not giving up on yourselves.
This is something the Prophet (peace be upon him) left us with clear examples time and time again, was demonstrated in his life to remind us to never give up on ourselves. Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) one of the heroes of Islam, a remarkable amazing person that we all look up to, says before Islam, he would drink and fornicate. But he was told not to give up hope on himself.
Allah did not allow him to give up on himself. Allah sent him reminder after reminder after reminder, never letting him give up on himself.
Part 3: Not Giving Up on Others
At the same time, the third area of hope is not giving up on others. Not giving up on yourself and not giving up on others. And there's a lot of overlap here and I'll tell you why. Because when we as a community have the attitude and the approach of not giving up on others, that actually inspires people to not give up on themselves.
When we start, when the community judges people, when we judge people and we give up on people, forget about him. He's hopeless. Forget about her, she'll never understand.
When we start to give up on people, they start to give up on themselves. It's an infectious attitude. Hopelessness is infectious. Just as hope is as well. It spreads like wildfire. So we as a community need to adopt the attitude of not giving up on people.
Examples from Islamic History
The list, the stories go on and on and on. Umar al-Khattab, Ikramah, the son of Abu Jahl. His dad was Abu Jahl, folks. His dad was Abu Jahl. It's about as bad as it gets. Not only that, but he himself fought by the side of his father against the Prophet (peace be upon him), multiple times.
He raised his sword against the Messenger of Allah, this young man named Ikramah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't give up hope on him. Continued to have hope.
When his wife comes and says, I think I can convince him and bring him back. He says, bring him back. When he arrives, look at this, look what it means. I'm not talking about rhetoric where we just stand on the stage and we say, don't give up on people. As soon as we're off the stage, check that dude out. No, no, no, no.
Implementing it. When Ikramah is arriving, the Prophet (peace be upon him) turns to the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them), and he said, Ikramah is coming and I'm hopeful he will join us. He will accept Islam.
So he says, when he's here, I don't want anyone to speak ill of his father. When he's here, I don't want anyone to speak ill of his father. Don't refer to his father as Abu Jahl.
Because obviously that wasn't his real name. Nobody names their son Abu Jahl. That would be pretty terrible. It means father of ignorance. That wasn't his name. His name was Amr bin Hisham.
He was called Abu al-Hakam, the father of wisdom. He was called Abu Jahl because of his actions towards Islam. But the Prophet (peace be upon him) tells the Sahaba, don't refer to his father as Abu Jahl.
Don't. Otherwise you're judging this guy before he walks through the door. You're hurting his feelings. You're not giving him a chance. Embrace him, accept him. Ikramah not only accepts Islam, but people often times don't know how Ikramah left this world, how he died.
He died as a shaheed, as a martyr in the battlefield. Fighting on behalf of Islam. Going from fighting against Islam to fighting for Islam. From a soldier of Abu Jahl to the soldier of Muhammad Rasulallah (peace be upon him). That's what hope does. Not giving up on people. That's what it accomplishes.
Wahshi, the man who assassinated the uncle of the Prophet (peace be upon him), caused severe pain to the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn't give up on him. He sent message after message after message to Wahshi, asking him to accept Islam. Come to Islam. Seek forgiveness for your life, for the way you lived your life.
Build a relationship with Allah. And Wahshi redeems himself by killing Musaylima Kadhab. Hope.
Hind bint Utbah. Hind, the daughter of Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan. She is the one who arranged and paid for the assassination of the uncle of the Prophet (peace be upon him). She hated the Prophet (peace be upon him) with a passion. But she comes and she accepts Islam and the Prophet (peace be upon him) welcomes her. Not giving up on people.
A Personal Story
There's a personal story. Someone that I came into close interaction with. I've told this story multiple times. But it gets me every single time. What not giving up on people does. And when we as a community can learn how to do this, how people can live up to their potential and what people can achieve and realize.
I was at a masjid. I was the imam of a masjid. And it was time for salat al-asr. The masjid is not too busy at that time. Right as soon as the salat was starting, a man walked in for the prayer. When he walked in for the prayer, it caught your attention because there were some very distinct things about his appearance.
He was covered with tats all from his fingers all the way up to his neck. So even though he was wearing clothes and everything like a full shirt, you could still see it all over his hands. You could see it on his neck.
So he walks into the masjid. Comes and prays with us. After the salat, I turn around. I've never seen him there before. So I said salam to him. I asked him if he was new to the community.
And he said, yeah, he just moved here a couple of days ago. And he found the masjid online and he came to pray. We got to talking and we realized I knew his imam from the community where he moved from.
So we kind of had some common ground. And we started talking. And he opened up to me because I knew the imam from where he was coming. He opened up to me a little bit. And he told me a little bit about his life. And he said that when he was 23 years old, his uncles were heavily involved in crime.
He was from California. His uncles were heavily involved in crime. And his mother had tried to protect him from that lifestyle for as long as she could until he was 14 years old and he dropped out of school.
And he started selling drugs, started, you know, basically joining into the business with his uncles and doing all that stuff. And he said it led him down a very dark path. And he said when he was 23 years old, he was arrested for the third time.
In California, three strikes and that's it. You're in for life. And when he was arrested for the third time, he was put in the cell at night to be presented before the judge in the morning.
And sitting there in the cell, he realized that at the age of 23, his life was over. His life was over. He was about to go to prison for the rest of his life.
And something clicked, and something just he realized at that moment what had happened, what he had done. And he said he fell into sajdah. He was born and raised as a Muslim.
Of course, didn't practice. Fell into sajdah. He said for the first time in maybe a decade, put his face on the ground before Allah.
And he said he cried all night long begging Allah for forgiveness. And he made an intention that, O Allah, if you forgive me, I'll change my life. And he remembered one thing, that as a child growing up, his mother always wanted him to memorize the Qur'an.
So he said that's the only thing he had in his head. That's the only thing he could think of. So he made a promise to Allah, O Allah, when I get out of here, I'm gonna go and memorize the book of Allah.
I'm gonna memorize the Qur'an. He says when he went before the judge in the morning, the judge looked at him, closed the file and said, stand up. He said, I'm tired of seeing young people come in here and just getting locked away for life.
He said, if I was to let you go right now, what would you do with your life? He said, it's funny you asked that, because I made an intention to change my life. I'm gonna go and study my religion. That's what I'm gonna do with my life.
So the judge says, case dismissed. Get out of here. Don't let me see you in my court again.
He says he walked out of the court, asked his mom how much money she had. Whatever amount of money she had, he jumped on a bus, went to the closest masjid, asked them where can I go to memorize Qur'an. They told him there's a Qur'an memorization school a couple of hundred miles away from here.
He got some means together, went to the school. He said literally just showed up, no luggage, no clothes, no nothing in hand. Just walked through the door.
Hey, how's it going? Who are you? My name is so and so, I want to memorize the Qur'an. They said, come on in. He said, I literally did not even know how to read Alif, Ba, Ta, Tha.
He said, the day I walked in that day, eight months later, I had memorized the entire Qur'an.
I met this brother about eight years after this story. When I met him, he was a husband. He was a father of three children. His oldest child was six years old who was memorizing the Qur'an from his father. Completely changed.
And he sat there and he told me this story himself. That's what hope does. Not giving up on people.
Stories from Our History
And I'll leave you with two last stories from our history to put these two things into perspective. Not losing hope in Allah, not giving up on others and not losing hope within ourselves.
The Story of Musa and the Drought
Musa (peace be upon him). In the time of Musa (peace be upon him), Ibn Khuzaymah mentions this story in Kitab al-Tawabin. At the time of Musa (peace be upon him), there was a drought. Allah commanded him to alleviate the drought, to get rain, take all the people, everyone, the whole population, take them outside into an open field and pray and ask Allah for rain.
So they go out there and they beg and they cry and they ask Allah for rain and it won't rain. Musa (peace be upon him) asked Allah, Allah, it won't rain. We did exactly what you asked to do, ya Allah, but it won't rain.
Allah tells Musa (peace be upon him), there's one person in this crowd that hasn't repented yet. There's one person in this crowd that hasn't repented, hasn't come back to me yet. Musa (peace be upon him) turns around to the people and says there's one person here who hasn't repented, hasn't turned back to Allah and it is not raining because of that person.
That person whoever he or she was, Allah knows, standing there hearing this, thought to themselves, it's because of me. And at that moment that person realized what they had done, what they were doing. So in their heart that person turns back to Allah and asks Allah, O Allah please forgive me in their heart.
And says, O Allah please don't embarrass me and announce me in front of everyone. I'm sorry I messed up, I didn't realize what I was doing. And it starts to pour, it starts to pour, starts to rain like crazy.
Everyone celebrating and running around and dancing and screaming and happy. Musa (peace be upon him), because he's Musa (peace be upon him), he turns back to Allah and he says, O Allah, what changed? Allah tells Musa (peace be upon him), before it was not raining because of that person, now it solely rains because of that person. Now I've made it rain, now I'm sending down this rain and this blessing from Allah, simply solely for my love for this person, out of my love for this person.
Musa (peace be upon him), because he's Musa (peace be upon him), says, O Allah, tell me who that is. I'd like to see this person, I'd like to meet this person. This is a very remarkable human being.
To be so disobedient to Allah at one moment to where Allah will deprive everybody of rain because of the sin of that person. And then a second later to become so beloved to Allah, Allah will shower His blessings upon everyone because of that one person. I wanna see this person, I wanna meet this person.
Allah says, O Musa, when he was sinful, I didn't disclose his identity and tell you who he was. Now that he's come back to me, you think I'm gonna tell you who he is so that you know his previous sins? No way. This is our relationship with Allah.
And our relationship with other people and our perspective and how we view and see other people.
The Story of Imam Ahmad and Abu al-Haytham
I'll leave you with a story from the life of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Imam Ahmad is a great scholar, a great contributor to Islam.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal dealt with some very difficult circumstances in his lifetime, where there was a king who had corrupt beliefs, and he was enforcing, and he was imposing his corrupt beliefs upon the people. And the scholars resisted at first, and then he tortured the scholars. So they started to give up.
And there's a permission, there's a concession within deen, within Islam, that if you fear for your life, you can say one thing but to still have iman in your heart. If you fear for your life. So the scholars started to back away from this fight.
Until Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal stayed his ground. One day finally, the king is tired of these antics, he's tired of this song and dance. He sends the soldiers, he says, arrest him and bring him to prison.
And they hang the lashes and the whips and the chains, everything in front of him, to let him know what's gonna happen tomorrow. And Imam Ahmad says, sitting there thinking to myself, I thought, that I can tolerate death, because if I die, I die and I go to the mercy of Allah. I go to jannah, I can deal with death.
I can deal with imprisonment. Yusuf (peace be upon him) was in prison. I can deal with imprisonment. That's no problem. But what I can't deal with as a person, what's tough for me, is getting tortured. I don't know if I'll be able to deal with that.
And he's thinking to himself, and he starts to tell himself, he says, Ahmad, what are you doing to yourself? Take the concession that Allah has given you. Take the easy way out.
So the next day the king sends the soldiers, and he says, bring Ahmad into the open field, the center of the town, chain him up and we're gonna whip him till he drops. We're gonna lash him till we kill him. And he says, as he was walking out, he was thinking to himself, let it go, just let it go, just give up, it's okay.
And he says, as he's being led, there was another prisoner, a very famous thief, a very famous thief of Baghdad, by the name of Abu al-Haytham. He was very like a legendary crook, a legendary thief. And he saw Imam Ahmad's face, and he saw fear on Imam Ahmad's face. And he stops Imam Ahmad, kind of grabs him for a second.
And he says, Ahmad, don't be afraid. He says, do you know who I am? He said, yeah, you're that famous thief everyone talks about. He goes, yeah, I'm Abu al-Haytham.
He says, I've been whipped 18,000 times, meaning I've received 18,000 lashes. The dude was counting. So you can tell, this guy was kind of a boss, right? Like he would count, like while they would whip him, he
would be like, 1, 2, 3, like that.
So he was keeping count. So he's like, I've been lashed 18,000 times.
"And I'm doing something bad, but I still stood my ground. I didn't give up. I do something bad, and they whip me, lash me 18,000 times, and I didn't give up."
"But you're doing something good here. So stand your ground, don't give up. Stand your ground, don't you dare give up."
And Imam Ahmad says, when he said that to me, I just found my energy, I found my strength. And I went out there and I stood my ground.
And the man who was entrusted with lashing Imam Ahmad, he says, I was lashing him as hard as I've ever lashed anyone in my entire life. He said, literally every single time I would lash him, I thought he would die. The man says that if I would have hit an elephant with these lashes, I would have killed the elephant. And every single time I lashed Imam Ahmad, he just stood his ground and he just kept going.
And the children of Imam Ahmad, the children of Imam Ahmad, they say that for the rest of his life, every night before Imam Ahmad went to sleep, and he would make dua for himself, he would make dua for his family, he would make dua for Abu al-Haytham. And his son asked him one time, he goes, but father, he's a bad dude. He's a crook, he's a thief, he's a criminal.
You sit here and you make dua for a criminal every day, oh Allah bless him, oh Allah reward him, oh Allah have mercy on him. He's a crook, he's a thief, he's a bad person. Imam Ahmad says, no, no, but he did a huge good deed in my life.
I wouldn't have been able to stand that day if it wasn't for Abu al-Haytham. That is the potential. You never know what somebody is capable of. You never know what they have to offer.
The Hadith of Human Potential
That's why the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"People are gold and silver mines."
Each and every single one of you, each and every single human being out there is a gold and a silver mine. We just gotta mine their potential. And we gotta put them in a place where they can shine.
Closing
May Allah give us all the ability to practice everything that's been said and heard.
Glory be to Allah and praise be to Him, Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but You. I seek Your forgiveness and repent to You.
And Allah knows best.
May Allah bless me and you in the Great Quran.
Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.