Coping with the Hardships of Life

Coping with the Hardships of Life

By: Abu Taubah

Opening Khutbah al-Hajah

All praise belongs to Allah. We praise him. We seek his forgiveness and his guidance.

We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own egos and the evil results of our own deeds. Anyone whom Allah guides, then no one can lead him astray. And anyone whom Allah leaves to stray, then there is none that can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is nothing worthy of worship and no gods in reality except Allah alone, who has no partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, is his slave and his final messenger.

"Oh you who believe, fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam."

Allah says what could mean, oh you who believe, fear Allah, respect Allah, remember Allah, as it is his right to be feared, remembered, and respected. And don't any of you die except that you die as Muslims.

"O mankind, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul and created from it its mate, and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (fear) the wombs (that bore you). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you."

Allah also says what could mean, oh mankind, fear your Lord. Remember your Lord. Respect your Lord who created you all from one soul, Adam. And created from that soul its mate, Eve. And raised up and spread from the two of them many men and women.

And fear Allah. And if you don't know who Allah is, Allah says the one whom you ask things for. And don't cut ties with the wombs that bore you. Indeed, Allah above you all is laying in watch.

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment."

Allah also says what could mean, oh you who believe, fear Allah. And in light of your fear of accountability, then say a word that goes straight to the point.

Meaning basically, think about what you're going to say and think about the idea that everything that you are saying is being recorded by the angels. But not a word that we say except an angel is writing it down and he understands what you intended behind that speech. You know, sometimes we say thank you, but we mean whatever.

You know, we say some things. So it sounds like we're being polite, but we're actually not. So the angel is writing down everything that we are saying. Everything that we intend with what we're saying. So this is the accountability. And Allah knows best that we're referring to, which is fear Allah and then open your mouth and speak.

If you do this, Allah will make right something you did wrong, correct our deeds, and forgive us our sins. And whomsoever is already obeying Allah, meaning whoever it is that is at that moment. Because this obedience is moment to moment.

No One is Guaranteed Safety

It's not something that, you know, a lot of times, we Muslims, because we live in a world full of kuffar, we think that we're saved. The mentality is we're saved. We've arrived at najat, salvation.

Whereas the Prophet ﷺ, he didn't teach us to have this mentality that we have been saved. And so now we are safe. They didn't have the mentality of safety.

They were constantly aware of the hadith. So think about this hadith, where the Prophet ﷺ said, that there could be a person, in fact there is and are people who do the deeds of the people of paradise until they're almost a arm span or a hand span from entering the jannah. And then they do the deeds of the people of the hellfire and they die upon that.

And so they are dragged and taken to the hellfire. And there are some people that do the deeds of the people of the hellfire until they've done so much, it's as if they're almost about to go to hell. And then the qadr of Allah, the decree of Allah comes into effect and they do the deeds of the people of paradise and they die upon that and they enter paradise.

Don't think for a moment that you are free and safe and that you're guaranteed to continue to do the deeds if you are doing the deeds of the people of paradise, but rather fear that you are that person who's doing all the deeds that would get someone into paradise and then at one moment you might do the deeds of the people of the hellfire and die upon that. Fear that reality because the Prophet ﷺ said this is a reality. There are people just like that who told you you weren't one of them.

And don't look at the people who are doing these evil deeds and say he's damned, he's doomed. There is no safety for him because he might be that other individual that's doing the deeds of the people of the hellfire. And then at the last moment right before he falls into the hellfire he begins to do the deeds of the people of paradise and he dies upon that and he goes to jannah.

Story of the Two Neighbors

Remember the story of the two people they were neighbors and one was an abid he used to worship Allah correctly and the other one was a fasiqa an open sinner and he used to do the deeds that the people would do that would cause them to go to hell. And so the abid he would notice him and he would say to him:

Fear Allah, remember Allah what are you doing? And the fasiqa he would say Mind your business Have you been created to watch after me? You a reporter or something? Why are you worrying about me? Mind your business, leave me alone with my Lord.

And this would go on and it's stated that it goes on and it goes on for years till finally one day the abid he gets sick, he gets frustrated with this fasiqa and he says to him:

One sentence. Allah will never forgive you for what you've done.

You see the mentality? Make sure you don't have that mentality that you look at somebody else and say, oh man, Allah is never going to forgive him he's going to hell. But this person had that mentality and Allah caused both of them to die. And when they both died he raised them back up and he went to the one who had done all this worship and he said to him Who gave you the authority to say what I'm going to do? Who gave you the authority to say who I'm going to punish and who I'm going to forgive? Who I'm going to enter into the paradise and who I'm going to throw into hell? Verily I have wiped away all your good deeds and I have forgiven this other person and he was dragged to the hellfire and the other person was entered into the garden.

This mentality of sanctimony is what has to be avoided from the believers. We can never feel that we are safe. The sahaba رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ all of them were afraid of falling back into disbelief.

They didn't walk around feeling safe. And if this is the best generation the generation of people who have tazkiyah from Allah who have a statement from Allah the most high who knows the inner secrets of our hearts who's closer to us than our jugular vein with his knowledge and he says رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ may Allah be pleased with them yet they were still afraid their entire lives that they might fall back into kufr. Where are you? Where are we? With our attitudes.

So fear Allah and be careful about what we say to other people and how we deal with other people. Because Allah might make us that person that falls into hell.

Understanding Tests and Trials

Every time we begin these conversations we begin with إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ and we go all the way to the end explaining

that the best speech is the speech of Allah and the most the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad we do this because this is the way the Prophet will begin his important speeches and these gatherings that we have as infrequent as they are are very necessary and very important to receive the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad because as we all know the Prophets they don't leave behind wealth not physical wealth of money and gems and these types of things but what they leave behind is knowledge and the purpose of that knowledge is to receive it and to use it to guide us through the difficulties and through the ease that we find in this world because Allah is testing us and this is the purpose of this lecture tonight this lecture is about coping coping with disasters coping with things that we don't like when things don't go the way we like them to go.

And it was very befitting that Allah made it that the electricity was cut off tonight when we came here because this is a perfect example of when people plan and Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners our arrogance has no limits what do I mean by that we make plans as though we own something but we don't own anything and Allah is constantly checking us and showing to us and proving to us that we don't control nothing not even nothing we can't make nothing we don't even know how that can be configured.

So we get very frustrated when things don't go according to our plan but what is that frustration that frustration Ikhwan sisters and brothers is just an expression of our misunderstanding of who owns what and who is in charge.

We Belong to Allah

We read in the Quran let me back up if someone were to disrespect you you would say who is he to do this to me doesn't he know who I am this is the mentality how could you do that to me stick out our chest if your child or your brother or your colleagues they don't give you what you consider what you expect as proper respect as a colleague as a boss as a supervisor, as a brother as a student even if a senior treats you in a way and you're a junior you feel that you have been disrespected because what you believe and what you see as your right what you feel entitled to but what belongs to Allah what isn't Allah entitled to He is فَعَالٌ لِمَا يُرِيدُ so we have to understand He does whatever He wants.

We belong to Allah so we have to put things in their proper context and understand what our role is in this whole existence.

"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me."

Allah has told us: I have not created the men or the genies and the men except for them to worship me.

Now what is this worship we say this word in English worship what does that mean in the Arabic language we call it عِبَادَة . Ibadah is from the word عَبْدِ . Abd is to be a slave so ibadah is not just worship it's better translated as slavery this is what ibadah is we are in a slavery that we volunteer for by our shahadah we take a contract Allah has promised us that if we give our life, if we give our wealth we give our time, our energy He will give us

jannah that's our agreement and during this agreement we have promised and sworn to be the slaves and to be in the sense of slavery for our lord and the slave doesn't control his time does he I'm asking you the slave does whatever his lord wants him to do, if he wants him to stop in the middle of a job and do something else then he has to stop he cannot care about what that job was doing he has to stop whatever he's doing and do what Allah or whatever his lord wants him to do understanding that he's not the finishing of the job that he's trying to please but he's trying to please his lord by doing whatever his lord would have him do at that moment.

Allah is Testing You

"And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient."

And Allah has told us: This is full of emphasis without doubt for sure any type of emphasis you'd like to put on the language it's doubly emphasized here Allah is saying I am testing you.

Why is he telling us that he's telling you that so that when something happens something happens that you don't like you want to know who's doing this to me who did that if my wife removes something from my desk who took that off my desk if I think my child did it, I want to chastise the child for touching my things and tell them they're not supposed to do it but if it's my father I say who did that, your father I have to be quiet, right I can't get upset it's my father's desk anyway he can do whatever he wants to with my desk, it's his the property of the child belongs to the father, we know this in sharia so I cannot get upset.

So Allah is letting us know we believe in Allah, right and his books, his angels his books, what else what do you believe sorry we said we believe in Allah, the angels his books his messengers, what else the last day, and what else the qadr the qadr of Allah the decree of Allah what's been preordained, what's been ordered and commanded to happen no matter what, and we say some people say the good of it and the evil of it, but it's all good a better translation of it is the sweet and the bitter because some things happen and they look like there's something that's bad but it's just bitter and some medicine is bitter it's not evil.

A person may break his leg and he may think it's a bad thing but that breaking his leg may lead him to Jannah that breaking his leg may lead him to Jannah because this is what Allah decreed for him to happen at that particular moment and we learn that when we read the story of Musa, when he was with Khadr in Surat al-Kahf every week, when the man came and he Khadr put a hole in the boat it looks like he's destroying the people's property he's stopping them from going to work that day that looks like a negative action but the day they stand there fixing their boat is the day that the king is on the road, in the waters taking everybody's boat that's out there so in actuality that hardship, that seemingly wrong action becomes a beneficial action because of the Qadr of Allah.

So we have to number one, accept when we say we believe in the Qadr of Allah that there is wisdom there is wisdom and there is goodness in everything that happens to us whether it's sweet or bitter, none of it is evil it's either sweet, we like it or it's bitter, something we don't like.

The Believer's Response

And Allah's messenger taught us this particular point when he told us I'm amazed with the situation of the believer if something happens and he likes the says (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ - al-hamdu lillah) and then if something happens that he doesn't like, he says (الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ - al-hamdu lillah) and this is only the case for the believer.

So how do we cope, how do we put this into practicality let's go back to the first ayah Allah's telling you he's testing you Allah is testing you you, anything that happens, believe it's from Allah, don't get mad at anybody, if you get mad you know what you're really getting mad at you're really getting mad at Allah.

تَصَوَّرُ ذَلِكَ

Think about that, picture that you're getting angry at Allah because Allah has told you in the Quran I am testing you, how is he testing you (بِشَيْءٍ - bishay'in) with something (مِنَ الْخَوْفِ - minal khawf) so he's giving you this خَوْف what is خَوْف some people translate it as fear this is the base meaning but what it is, is anxieties stress because fear can be translated a number of different ways fear has been translated as F-E-A-R, false evidence accepted as reality okay, so we see things, we think that it's in a particular way and we accept it as our reality this is the definition of stress worrying about something that hasn't even happened and may not actually happen so we're worried about this thing this is anxiety this is all it is anxiety and our anxieties are fed with the propagandas of the world and these different things there are things that increase our stress increase our fear but the believer he doesn't have to fear he recognizes that this is just a test to see what to see if I'm going to be grateful or impatient and ungrateful if I'm going to become irritated or I'm going to calm down and remember if I'm going to remember, become conscious and remember this is just Allah testing me as He promised that He is going to test me with what? Fear, hunger.

This hunger that we have in our stomach it's not just hunger in the stomach it's desire what do we say when someone strives hard for something we say he's hungry he really desires it, he really wants it so Allah is going to give us something, can you eat everything you see no, they say that pork, swine is the tastiest meat in the world I believe them it probably is the tastiest meat in the world does it stop it from being haram it would be part of the test to make it so delicious, right to make it even more challenging for the people not to eat it, but who has a desire from the believers to eat swine no one so it being tasty has no value to us because it is haram and likewise just because you get hungry does not mean you eat anything.

So Allah is testing us with our desires, with our hungers to see if we're going to satisfy these hungers in ways that Allah has prescribed so you're hungry you want to get married, then get married you don't go out and have illicit relationships so you're hungry for money, you don't go out and steal or take you rather take the means, the asbab the ways of getting wealth the first of them is fearing Allah remembering Allah so he's testing us with hunger, he's testing us with fear, these anxieties we're getting a reduction of our wealth, we lose.

We did everything right just imagine you did everything the way it was supposed to, you feared Allah, you took the ways that business means to get some money you did sadaqa you did everything right and you still lost some of your investment and you want to know what's wrong what did I do wrong you didn't do anything wrong probably but does that mean you're not going to be tested? Does it mean that only Allah loves you when he gives you all the things, is this the mentality when you give, when he extends to you, you say my lord loves me, when he takes away and restricts it you say aha man, he has humiliated me is this our mentality no, may Allah protect us from this, but rather our mentality should be that we expect these things to happen, why, because Allah has promised them to happen and he's emphasized the fact that he is going to test us with a reduction of our wealth, we're going to lose out sometimes in business to no fault of our own.

But how many times have we gotten an increase to no fault of our own, meaning we didn't do anything to get the increase, but we got increase we don't be complaining when that happens we're very happy so likewise, these other things are going to happen also and we're going to lose our loved ones deaths, and not just deaths, you know a lot of times parents they're very happy to have a child, but what happens when your child has birth defects what happens when your child dies, what you think is a premature death, it's not premature.

Allah's Messenger he told us that before everyone is born what's written on their neck the time frame that they're going to live, so when a child is taken from this earth it's not premature he didn't have a premature death he died on time he got hit by a car may Allah protect our children from that or something devastating happened to the child, he got sick and died, may Allah protect our children from these things, but if it happens it happened because Allah wanted it to happen and we have to accept that who gave you that child took that child back.

We belong to Allah and as the property of Allah, he can do he can do whatever he wants to his property and we should not have the arrogant mentality to feel that Allah doesn't have a right to do whatever he wants, just think as you many fathers how many times do you see something with your child and you take it away from them, because you don't like the way it is looking on the child, or the way the child is playing with that particular thing, or you just don't feel that that child should have that particular thing, you might have given it to them, vicariously through your wife or from your relatives or something, but it's your child and no one dare tell you what you can and cannot do with your child.

How much greater is the right of Allah who created you and gave you everything including the breath of air that you're breathing right now, that you rarely even think about that you rarely even think how many times you count your breath or you're conscious of how many breaths you take even in a minute, but each one of them is the smallest ni'mah that Allah has given you.

The Story of Good Deeds and Mercy

It's related that a man heard a man, a mountain full of good deeds is presented and the angels say to him would you like to enter into the garden by the ni'mah, the mercy of Allah, or would you like to enter in through your

deeds the man looks at his mountain of good deeds and says why don't I just go in by my deeds, see where I go okay, I got all these mountains I want to see what it's going to get me on this.

So then Allah says okay put all his mountains of good deeds on one side of the scale and take his eyes and put them on the other side as soon as his eyes touch the scale the mountain flies it greatly, the ni'mah of his eyes he can't even pay for that with all the good deeds that he's done because we have to pay for this life it's not just free we've been given this soul, we've been given this heart, and we have to come on yawm al qiyamah and get our souls out of the pond how are we going to do it it's not your deeds, it's only by the mercy of Allah, even the prophet said that he won't get into the paradise except by the mercy of Allah.

So what's the purpose of the good deeds then, right we're trying to prove to Allah that we want it we're trying to show effort even though we you know you see that child he's trying real hard but he can't really make it but he's trying, you give him an A for effort, and then you see that other child who has all the physical and mental capabilities but he's not really trying, you give him a C you push him back because he's not trying he's not trying.

That's the example of us we know, Allah knows that we cannot make it with our good deeds, but you better try you better try to prove it to him that you want it and that you deserve it, and you're wanting his mercy and that's the purpose of the good deeds.

Patience and Persistence

So Allah is telling us and give glad tidings to those who are diligent, who are patient what is patience now because sometimes people misinterpret patience but we think that patience is just sitting there doing nothing waiting like you're waiting for the bus for something to come by and all of a sudden you know, this mentality of Cinderella, someone's gonna ride in on a white horse and save the day, this superman mentality, no this is not the case.

We learn from the story of Musa that there's not one person that can come and save the whole nation the people have to be ready, one of the benefits we get out of the story of Musa now the prophet Musa (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام - 'alayhis-salam) was one of the best prophets ever he's one of the strongest five prophets how come he couldn't get his people to the promised land does anybody know why did Musa when the angel of death come he punched the angel of death in the eye and knocked his eye out and the angel of death went back to Allah and said you see what your prophet did to me he knocked my eye out why did that happen because we hear this story but many people don't know the secret behind it.

Allah took the eye of the angel of death and he put it back in and he told him go back and tell Musa it's time to go so what had happened was the angel of death came to Musa (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام - 'alayhis-salam) and he said it's time to go and Musa

said no not yet I want to guide my people to the promised land I'm their prophet I'm their guide that was my job let me take them he said no it's time for you to go he said well at least let me die close to the promised land angel of death said no Musa it's time to go.

Musa he has a hot temper he hit the angel and said no let me take my people so then when the angel of death came back from Allah and explained to Musa no Allah did not give you permission to take your people to the promised land why they're not ready not that you're not ready Musa they're not ready and so Allah is teaching us a lesson he made everyone of the people of Bani Israel that were living in subjugation under Firaun and so they had lost their manhood they had lost their drive to strive he made every last one of them die in the desert and he made a new generation raise up the ones that were born in the desert those were the ones that entered into the promised land and even the prophet Musa and Harun died before they entered.

But the message for us is don't wait for a man or someone to come and do something for you patience is not waiting patience is complaining to Allah that's one aspect of patience.

The Story of Prophet Yaqub

As we see what happened to Yaqub when his son was taken you talk about coping with difficulties Yaqub Israel the Nabi of Allah he knew from the beginning of this life of Yusuf that his son was going to be a prophet so when his brothers come back with this shirt that has blood on it do you know how another reason why Yaqub knew that this wasn't the blood of Yusuf the brothers as deviant as they were they weren't really good criminals they forgot to rip the shirt they made Yusuf take the shirt off they put blood on it but there was no tear in it if a wolf ate him the shirt would be destroyed it would be ripped.

Yusuf was always tried with his shirt because at the other time the woman of Aziz ripped his shirt from behind and then the next time he sends his shirt to his father's face and throws it on his face so he and his father knew that this was not the blood of Yusuf and that Yusuf was not eaten by a wolf because the shirt was not ripped.

Now why am I mentioning that coping with difficulties he knew that his son something had happened to him he didn't know what but he knew his son was alive he knew his sons were lying and he knew his son would live to become a prophet because he himself was a prophet and the promise of Allah was true he had revelation and knew that Yusuf was going to be a prophet.

So for 40 years some ulama say 80 years Yaqub lived not hearing a word from his son not knowing what had happened to his son but understanding that this was in the plan of Allah and so he dealt with it and he kept it concealed because he did not want to give up the secret of Allah but he told his sons I know what y'all don't know I know something that y'all don't know and he's dealing with this secret.

Then he comes back his second son is taken and his third son doesn't come back because when Benjamin goes Yusuf takes him and when they're going back Ruben the oldest one says I'm not going back I'm not going back after this he didn't trust his own brother he said don't y'all know what y'all did to Yusuf before are y'all playing

games and they said no we didn't do it he said well I'm not going back till my father gives me permission or I find another way to get my brother out of this situation so now Yaqub has three sons missing when he's sitting there and he's trying to deal with this and this is when he goes blind people think it's just Yusuf but now he's missing three sons the anguish that this man is feeling and he never complained to a human being he never complained to one person and in his anguish they said what's wrong with you old man you're going to eat yourself up with this anguish he said:

إِنَّمَا أَشْكُو بَنِي وَحُزْنِي إِلَى اللَّهِ

I'm only complaining to Allah.

So we learn from this that patience is complaining to Allah, why? Allah did it Allah is the one that did it.

قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ وَمَا شَاءَ فَعَلَ

It is the decree of Allah, what Allah has decreed and what he wanted happened so you go to the one that is in control and you plead to the king of all kings and you ask him with definitiveness you ask him with firmness save me help me give me.

And it's very difficult to complain to Allah, you know why? Because when we turn our mouths up to complain to Allah we have to take into consideration everything we did to get into the situation do you understand what I said? Most of the difficulties that we find ourselves in is due to our own stinking sins Allah tells us that and he forgives and wipes away much but all the situations pretty much that we find ourselves in are attached to our own sinning.

So when we turn to Allah and say, oh Allah, you know what I well, you know what I did to get, what can you say? Well you know Allah I've been trying real, no you haven't been trying, you can't lie you can lie to me, you can lie to your friend, but you can't lie to Allah, you can even lie to yourself but when you turn yourself up to Allah you know Allah is he knows all the secrets of the seeing things and things that other people don't see he knows what's in your heart you can't open your mouth and really say anything because you can't say that Allah is treating you unfair.

All you can do instead of complaining is beg beg Allah, because when you come out, we call this i'tiraf see in Islam when something difficult happens it leads us if you're rightly minded to tawbah do you understand what I'm saying? Because when you turn yourself up to complain to Allah you find you have nothing to complain about you have nothing to complain about.

Number One: Allah is Testing You

Number one, Allah is testing you he's promised you to test. Does people think that they're going to say we believe and they're not going to be tested are you tested? Yes, you're going to be tested and we definitely tested

everybody that came before you this is what Allah tells you in the Quran now, if you believe in the Quran, it always goes back to belief if you believe in the Quran, then know that you are going to be tested, expect it embrace it, because if you embrace it it's an opportunity for you.

And Allah says, we will make it known وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ Allah will make it known not that Allah doesn't know Allah says, He will make it known why? So you can't say yawm al qiyamah, if you'd have tried me I would have done such, no Allah makes it known here حُجَّةُ اللهِ عَلَى الْإِنْسَانِ it's the proof of Allah, the proof is in the pudding the proof is in the actions Allah tested you and you did this so yawm al qiyamah, you can't say see Allah, I was a believer, no if you'd have just tested me you would have found, no, Allah tests He tests and He said He will make it clear He will make it known those people who are truthful who are honest to their pledge their pledge of allegiance to Allah and His messenger and He'll make it clear those people who are liars they're perpetrating a fraud there's a defect in their construction, and Allah's going to extract and bring that defect out.

You see some people we say, they're a handspan into entering Jannah what's the justice of Allah throwing them in hell if they did all these good deeds and they're almost about to enter the paradise and they fall into hell Allah knew they were defective from the beginning Allah knew there was a defect in their character, in their soul and every defect, ya ikhwan every single one starts as a defect in the heart it's internal and then it's internal defect acts itself out externally.

So the reading of the Quran is the thing, it enlightens the heart, it purifies the heart and it's cleaning the heart and takes care of these defects that constantly get in the heart and they get in the heart from your hearing, from your looking, from your talking from your experiences of the dunya from the shaitan you are Allah and tricks you into thinking that it's you so Allah knows these defects and he is not unjust so he brings out the defect of the slain and gives him what he desired, what he deserves.

So what happens to the believer he's constantly cleaning that thing that heart, he's constantly trying to purify his heart so that it'll be strong enough to take the test because you talk to yourself don't you know that who talks to themselves, raise your hand who are you talking to what is talking we call it cognitive dissonance ok, what this is you have an ego, it's here your mind, what you think how you figure and then you have the heart and this is your spiritual home.

What did the prophet say he pointed to his chest three times:

Taqwa is here in your heart so if your heart is strong when you start to have that conversation with your heart, your heart is gonna say you know what, you're wrong you're gonna say yeah but everybody's doing it you start making excuses, we have to, it's raining or this, whatever the excuse may be that we come up with, we're trying to convince our heart, if we do not convince our heart, what is the action the action doesn't have any spirit and when we see the action we say oh, his heart is not into it, you get it because he knows there's a pull, there's a fight inside himself.

This is mujahadah this is the jihad of the body, the jihad of the soul that you're in every day, and the only way for the heart to win is if you give it da'wah, the da'wah of the Quran, the da'wah of the sunnah, and it strengthens the heart and allows it to overwhelm this faulty ego this over-entitled child, who thinks he deserves something and that's why we say, we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own ego, and the evil results of our deeds.

But the rightly guided one, the rightly guided one, when something happens that he does not like he becomes patient, what is his patience again? He turns to complain to the one who caused it to happen, when he can't complain because he becomes to the point of recognizing his own role in the situation then he says:

I now recognize.

I have oppressed myself.

Because the spirit of evil, this is the trick of shaitan, yaikhwan is that it comes back oppression it comes back as ظُلمات as darkness on the path on yawm al qiyamah yawm al qiyamah, the path over jannah, over the nahr, over the fire is thin as a hair, sharp as a sword, there are swinging hooks on chains going back and forth and it's snatching people off that path, cutting them, sometimes they can get back on the path, sometimes it drops them in the hellfire forever.

So on that path, every ظلم that you do in this dunya if you don't seek tawbah and follow it up with a good deed and wipe it out and it's tawbah, it shows up on that path as dark patches can you imagine that trying to get across that path, on yawm al qiyamah your final run all the effort that you spent in this dunya, preparing yourself and you look at a boxer he's running, he's doing, he's taking hits he's preparing himself for this fight right, the championship fight this is your championship run this is your opportunity jannah's on the other side and now you put obstacles in the way, you put dark patches that give you the opportunity to fall into the hellfire on that time and the path is very thin.

Shaitan is a trickster he tells you just do it he tells you you deserve better he tells you to oppress your soul, so when something happens to you instead of you recognizing where you play a role in the event you blame somebody else you oppress your soul and this is why you don't people fall into depression I mentioned cognitive dissonance I'm going to mention Yusuf, immunist remind me if I don't cognitive dissonance leads to depression because if your heart is not involved what happens there's a lust, there's a lack of luster you fail to thrive you get in a deep depression food loses its taste the sun no longer shines for you, this depression why this depression, because you have failed to recognize your role in the society you fail to recognize your role in the equation you fail to recognize your sins hence to seek the forgiveness of Allah.

The Story of Prophet Yunus

What happened to Yunus we listened in the salat, when he ran away and Allah put himself on a ship and Allah caused him to be swallowed by a whale, what did he say:

Allah tells us that he says I have ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي I have oppressed myself so we learn from this prophet what to do a musiba happened to him he got swallowed by a whale or a big fish we say whale because it's the biggest fish we know but he got swallowed by this thing the acid from the stomach is burning his skin off and he's sitting in there saying I have oppressed myself if you don't forgive me and have mercy on me I'm going to be one of the ظَالِمِينَ I'll be one of the oppressors I have wronged myself and he kept repeating this over and over again and this is what our situation is constantly we're oppressing ourselves and the only thing that we need to do is as Allah says:

Give glad tidings to those who are diligent who are persistent who are constantly remembering Allah patience is just complaining to Allah and being diligent, persistent constantly working towards that particular effort that you'd like whatever that thing is, I'm not just talking about patience when a hardship comes, patience in any endeavor is to be consistent at the thing, whether you fail or not you continue to strive.

Story of the Man Who Killed 100 People

Because we learn from the story of the man that killed a hundred people everybody familiar with that story? This man, he lived in a corrupt society we just go through basics of the story, he lived in a corrupt society and in the society, he killed people it's like kill or be killed in Bed-Stuy in my old neighborhood, they say Bed-Stuy it's like do or die you fight or you die that's the way it is what do you do in that situation? What do you do? You do or die so he lived in this corrupt society where he killed people and he killed 99 people and a lot of people don't take into consideration, they say why did he kill the hundred one? You think it's legal to kill? Killing has never been legal murder is murder all throughout time even the first son of Adam when he killed his brother he carried his brother on his back because he didn't know what to do with him he wanted to hide the shame but since he was the first murderer he didn't know what to do until he saw the raven the crow pecking at the ground then he knew to hide the body and to bury it and we've been burying ever since.

So here, this guy was a murderer with 99 bodies so he goes and he exposes his murder to some guy who's appalled what? You killed 99 people? Allah will never forgive you are you crazy? He has to kill that man he has to that's the law of the street now this guy can testify against him this guy can go to the authorities and tell them this guy killed 99 people, he confessed to me that's why he killed that guy if the guy would have said well, you

know, okay, whatever no problem, we good maybe he would have let him slide but this is what happens you have to think in a practical sense what would happen to a person who gets exposed to this type of thing.

But the point of the story was, the man was patient meaning persistent and diligent he didn't just give up he went until he found someone who gave him some good advice and that man told him to go to that particular land and he started to go there now the story doesn't say how old he was but you see that he died on the way, so it eludes to that he was older it takes a long time to kill 100 people it don't happen overnight and to get away with it it takes some effort so we imagine that this person was elder in his age he died on the path he never really made it but because, and Allah knows best of his persistence, his patience his diligence, Allah made the earth shortened for him so that he was taken to the paradise being from the people he was closest to the people of the good land and not the people of the foul land.

So we learn a lot about coping with these different situations and most of us don't really have real bad situations that can't be solved.

When Calamity Strikes

So Allah is telling us those who, when something happens to them that they don't like, some calamity strikes them that they don't like, could be anything they say إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ they recognize, going back to remembering, they remember I belong to Allah, I'm Allah's.

What do I, what am I entitled to? What right do I have to complain? My father, when I used to walk past my father sometimes, I have four brothers, he used to like pop us in the head you know, just pop us in the head when we're going by, but then my brother sometimes used to do the same thing, we're walking by, pop us in the head too if it was my brother, we'd turn around and we'd fight sometimes you get popped in the head and you don't know who it is you turn around, oh it's your father keep going, you turn around back and go back in direction, you know, because you know it's your father, what can you do?

When you realize that Allah is the one that's causing it to happen, you have to accept it you have to accept it and embrace it as an opportunity for you to get closer to Allah.

Allah is telling, Allah's messenger he said that Allah tests those that he loves by giving them hardship after hardship, and these hardships lift off their sins, they take away their bad deeds each one of these musiba, to the point that even if he is pricked with a what? A thorn if he's injured in the slightest way with a thorn prick it is the forgiveness of some of his sins, and he does this so that his slave can come yawm al qiyamah, free of the sins, having paid for it through the difficulties that he had to go through in this life and these difficulties are increased for the people that do more good deeds.

Examples from the Prophets

And we see these difficulties in the lives of the prophet look at the prophet Noah, his son drowned, his other wife didn't even get on the ship look at what happened to Ayub عَلَيْهِ السَّلام everyone except his wife, everybody in his family were killed in one day the building fell on them all his property were taken his livestock were stolen all in one event after the other Ayub is tested, then he gets sick for 18 years sick for 18 years, no cure in sight, nobody knows what's the problem all his friends leave him over the years, they get think about it, they get tired of going and seeing this guy, something's wrong with him, and it's a different era, where they believe that this musiba this uncurable disease it has to be a test from Allah Allah is doing something to you because you won't repent, and that's what they would say to Ayub you, you are sinful something, you did something in secret that we don't know and that's why Allah is doing this to you.

Eventually, it doesn't happen all at once but can you imagine having a friend that's sick for 18 years, would you go visit him everyday, would you have patience even with this person until his wife himself herself, she said you did something, come on you can't be that perfect seek the forgiveness of Allah, do this do that, he wouldn't curse Allah, he wouldn't say anything bad about Allah he wouldn't utter one word, displeasing to Allah this is the ultimate of patience and this is why when we think of patience, we're told to think about the prophet Ayub and his patience that he had he became an ibra, an example for patience.

So for ourselves, we don't have these situations, all we have to do is remember that we belong to Allah and that we are presently on course in every action, going back and returning to Allah why is this something that we should remember we should remember this because this might be our last moment, we might die on this situation, how do you want to see this situation on the last day you know because sometimes we don't recognize our everyday life as the whole concept of our life.

Duas to Say When Calamity Strikes

Oh Allah, reward me in this hardship and make some good come after it. Make some good come after it.

These are some of the duas that we can say:

Oh Allah, help me remember you To be mindful of you Then grateful to and beautifully worship you.

Here's what this dua When something happens that you don't like These are duas that the Prophet He taught us what to say And to seek a lot of istighfar And forgiveness.

Strengthen Your Heart

I said all this to try to remind us The concept of coping And I'm trying to go From many different angles So that we can understand This particular concept Because we're in a constant battle The mujahidah, like I said The battle within ourselves To get us to comply.

Now, just to wrap it up You have to strengthen your heart This is the tool that we need Because it has its own intellect Do you realize that the first organ To begin Is the heart Before the brain They say now someone is dead because his brain is dead The kuffar don't even know what death is They can't even define and agree upon What constitutes death Okay That's why they have all these other things going on But we know that The first organ You know, even after two weeks When the baby, you hear the heart You go to the doctor You can hear the ultrasound And hear the baby's heart It has its own intellect.

And the Prophet ﷺ taught us this He said If you don't find what you're looking for In the Qur'an And you don't find it in the sunnah Where do you go to ask for your fatwa? He said:

Seek your fatwa In front of the word Means to seek Like if you want the ghafir of Allah You say astaghfirullah So he said Look for the fatwa Seek the fatwa from your heart He said For whatever makes your heart Feel at ease and tranquility Then do that And whatever makes your heart Go back and forth And feel turmoil Then leave that No matter how many people give their opinion To the contrary Seek the fatwa of your heart.

But know That you cannot feed the heart Food Not the physical food The things that you have to feed your heart Is the food of the Qur'an That is the thing That will clean And purify your heart Couple it, season it With constant dhikr And a constant istighfar.

Write Down Your Sins

Think about your sins One person said If you could go home and write a list Of just your sins You know someone when they have a lot of money What do they do? They're constantly pulling it out and counting it Why are they doing that? To make sure they still got it, right? They want to see how much I got left How much money do I have? I hope I didn't lose none Me count it again It's a habit that we do.

Go home And count your sins It's better for you I challenge you, try this Go home Take a piece of paper out It's not from the sunnah or anything It's just an idea that I learned Write down your sins Really You know why a lot of people Won't really write all their sins down? They're afraid somebody might see that They're deathly afraid That that paper might fall Into enemy hands Okay That's a top secret document Right?

But I'm telling you Write it down So that you can look at that You know why? Because you'll get disgusted with yourself The ego is so powerful That it forces you Not to think about your sins So that you won't feel bad about yourself But did you know That feeling inferior Feeling bad About yourself Is the seed For every good deed And that feeling so good About yourself And so satisfied with yourself Is the seed for every evil action.

That people when they feel bad They try to do good But when they're Overjoyed with themselves Whatever, I'm good I ain't worried about that You see, that position Yeah, whatever I got enough in the bank, whatever But when they feel Man, I'm in trouble I'm not that good I have to get there Then they act In accordance.

So I'm asking you brothers Try this drill, do it in the middle of the night Don't let nobody see it, burn it After you do it No, no, seriously, because you know what will happen At least it's what happened to me and some of my friends After you make that list You know you left things off But what will happen is now You'll think about that list Okay And things that you forgot about will come to mind Sins you forgot about And when they come to mind Now there's an opportunity for you To ask Allah for forgiveness for that thing Aynan, specifically You remember it, ask Allah for forgiveness Cry over your sins Cry, I mean really Cry.

And if you can't cry Okay If you can't cry Go somewhere where no one else is there And pretend to cry What I say is this If you go somewhere Where maybe You can't find some place alone Maybe you can get in your car Maybe you can go to the beach At a particular time when no one is there, no one sees you Or people don't know you Pretend to cry Tabakkar When you start making the sounds And sobbing And no one's there, you will cry Believe me You will cry But it has to be on condition That you're alone And no one else is there.

We learned this from Umar ibn al-Khattab رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ He came to the Prophet ﷺ And he found the Prophet crying And Abu Bakr was there as well And they were crying They were crying because The Prophet ﷺ This was after Badr And the Prophet Had freed The Quraish, the Kuffar from Quraish Those that could ransom themselves By money And those that could ransom themselves By teaching 10 Muslims how to read.

Do you see the importance of reading? Do you see where the Prophet Put reading? Learning how to read Arabic The Prophet said The worst person, Yawm al-Qiyamah Is a person that Fought a Prophet Was killed by a Prophet Or killed a Prophet Worst people, Yawm al-Qiyamah Yet He frees The people that were trying to kill The Prophet of Allah And the message of Islam If they taught 10 Muslims How to read.

So that goes back To what we were speaking about earlier The importance of learning How to read And utilizing that skill To recite the Quran daily But we were saying what happened is He freed these people on the day of Badr After the battle of Badr And ransomed them And Umar ibn al-Khattab He said my opinion Is that we should dig a big hole Throw all those kafirs in it And burn them, send them straight to hell Kill each one of them And bury them Or leave them like that And there were some other Sahaba who said the same thing.

Abu Bakr He said we should ransom them Let them go These are our brothers, our cousins Maybe there are some good who come out of them So the Prophet He went with Abu Bakr's opinion And he freed them Later on Allah revealed in the Quran That if it wasn't for the promise of Allah That he allowed burying And that it's not befitting That the Prophet Free people when they haven't owned the land You know when they haven't taken kufr And that it was proper That he should have killed them That was the better action Okay.

The Prophet began to cry He began to cry I know a lot of people don't believe that the Messenger of Allah made some mistakes But he did And Allah shows it in the Quran What do you do when he says He frowned and turned away So the Prophet is showing that He left off doing something better His deed is forgiven And accepted by Allah But he left off doing that thing That was better.

And so he was crying over this And when Abu Bakr came And found out why the Prophet was crying He cried also because he felt Part of that problem Because he gave the suggestion to free them So here comes Umar And he says Why are you guys crying Tell me Tell me because if you tell me Maybe it will make me cry as well And if it doesn't make me cry I will pretend to cry.

So we see It's not from hypocrisy To pretend to cry And to sob over your sins Wallahi Allah's Messenger told us That the person Who cries over his sins Won't be punished for them in the hellfire.

We Are At War

So here is a benefit We're at war ya Ikhwan We're at war with Shaitan And the prize Is your soul This is the deal You want to take Every effort To defend yourself And protect yourself from Shaitan Make a list Of your sins, don't show it to anyone Because the Prophet said:

Everybody will be forgiven Except the ones who refuse And he said Everyone will be forgiven Except the mujahidun Everyone will be forgiven Except those who broadcast their sins.

So we don't say You don't tell nobody Your sins There's no righteousness in that What Allah has hidden for you Don't show Don't broadcast your sins And don't refuse He said I made the mistake It's not anybody will be forgiven Anyone will enter Jannah Except those who refuse And whoever obeys Allah Will enter Jannah Whoever refuses to obey Allah's messenger Has refused to enter Jannah But I mixed it up in the hadith Everyone will be forgiven Except those who broadcast their sins That's the correction for that.

So like I said, make the list Write these things down Think of it and seek refuge and forgiveness of Allah For all the sins that you can remember Cry over your sins If you cannot pretend to cry Ask Allah to forgive you For the sins that you know And the things that you don't remember And for the things that you remember doing And the things that you don't even know that were sins I'll ask Allah to forgive me And I'm sorry for forgetting some of the parts That I wanted to explain and express to you I'm trying to arm you And get you ready For this battle that we're in.

Closing

I say everything that I've said And may Allah forgive me And forgive you all.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ