Being Humbled by Our Sinfulness
By Hamza Yusuf | 2026-01-15T20:22:53.998105+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Being Humbled by Our Sins
Introduction: The Call to Seek Forgiveness
Servants of Allah, I counsel all of you and I counsel myself first and foremost to ask forgiveness of Allah. The human condition is a condition of trials and tribulations and overcoming those trials and tribulations. But the question that has to be asked is how do we overcome our trials and tribulations? And this is really what the prophets, peace be upon all of them, from the first prophet until our Prophet ﷺ, all of the prophets came with the same essential message, to teach people the right way, to teach people the right path, what's called the Siratul Mustaqim, the straight path.
The Blessing of Uprightness
Allah said:
"Had they been upright on that path, We would have given them rain in copious amounts, in abundance."
Allah tests people. These tests are to bring us back to Allah:
لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ - لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَضَرَّعُونَ
"In order that you are humbled by your sins and mistakes, that you try to redress and rectify them."
The Universal Morality
The basic morality of our species is very simple. It's not a difficult morality. And so when we talk about sinfulness, which is almost a word that has been excised from the English vocabulary, it's a word that people want to remove from their dictionaries, from their lexicon.
They have criminal law, which is positive law, made by men. But there's other law working in the world. It's a metaphysical law. It's a law of cause and effect. It's a law of you sow, you reap what you sow. And the basic morality of the human being was summed up in the Ten Commandments.
This was a country, despite all of its problems in the past, it had an ideal commitment to those Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were enshrined in many places. They've been removed because they say that we separate church and state, which is fine to separate church and state. But it doesn't change the fundamental truths of those commandments, which are shared throughout the world, whether you're Abrahamic people or not.
People everywhere had an understanding of those basic commandments. Allah in Al-An'am and other places in the Quran, there are three places where Allah sums up the morality of this book.
The Quranic Commandments
The morality of the Quran. Ta'alo. Ta'alo. Ta'alo means to come, but it also means to elevate yourself. Elevate yourself to the discourse of this book.
تَعَالَوْا أَتْلُ مَا حَرَّمَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ
Come and listen to what your Lord has told you is prohibited for you to do. Is prohibited for you to do.
أَلَّا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا
"That you don't associate anything with your Lord." (Quran 6:151)
This is the first in the Decalogue of the Jews and the Christians. And we share this land with many Jews and Christians. This is the first commandment in the Decalogue. Thou shalt not have gods beside me. Allah says:
أَلَّا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا
Honor thy parents. Honor thy parents. This is the fundamental relationship.
The Rights of Parents and Children
If this relationship is upset, then the balance is upset. And we see everywhere, parents being disregarded, disrespected by their children. Even murdered in many cases now. Matricide and patricide has become a common occurrence in our newspapers. Of people killing their own parents. But then Allah says about the parents, because there's a two-way relationship. There's a two-way relationship. Allah says:
وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا أَوْلَادَكُمْ خَشْيَةَ إِمْلَاقٍ
"Don't kill your children out of fear of poverty." (Quran 6:151)
Don't abort your children. Don't spiritually kill them. Don't force them to do things that are inappropriate for them. So the parents also have a right, have a responsibility to honor their children. The Christians have an understanding of this in their own book, in the New Testament. Paul says to the people, honor your parents. But then he says to the parents, don't give your children reason to dishonor you. This is the relationship.
And this is the foundation of human society. Is the family. And if the family becomes corrupt, if the family becomes debased, if the relationship between the parents is disrupted with their children, then this is the beginning of the chaos in a society.
And then Allah says:
نَحْنُ نَرْزُقُكُمْ وَإِيَّاهُمْ
"We will provide for you and them." (Quran 6:151)
We will provide for you and for them, for your children and for you. Don't worry about your provision. If you honor these laws:
وَلَا تَقْرَبُوا الْفَوَاحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ
"Don't go near sexual perversions and deviations. Don't go near them. What is manifest from them and what's hidden." (Quran 6:151)
The Prohibition of Immorality and Murder
Now we move in to the next relationship between the self and the sinfulness of the soul. These are called in some traditions, the hot sins. Don't go near sexual perversions and deviations. Don't go near them. The hot sin of human beings.
وَلَا تَقْتُلُوا النَّفْسَ الَّتِي حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ
"And don't kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right." (Quran 6:151)
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not fornicate. These are basic messages that have been given to us as guidelines for our lives. They're not difficult.
ذُلِكُمْ وَصَّاكُم بِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
"That's what Allah has counseled us to do, in order that you might understand and use your intellects." (Quran 6:151)
The Economic Commandments
And now we move in to the real grave sins after these which are the sins of commerce.
وَلَا تَقْرَبُوا مَالَ الْيَتِيمِ إِلَّا بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ حَتَّى يَبْلُغَ أَشُدَّهُ
"Don't go near the wealth of the orphans except in the best manner until they reach maturity." (Quran 6:152)
وَأَوْفُوا الْكَيْلَ وَالْمِيزَانَ بِالْقِسْطِ
"And be just in your commerce, in your commercial transactions." (Quran 6:152)
You look at how our country has become filled with the sinfulness of Wall Street, the sinfulness of all of these haram transactions and abuse of people's wealth. It's widespread ransom in our country. And these are the sins that the religions don't talk about anymore. The economic sins. The recent Pope began to address them and they called him a communist. Simply for bringing up the economic sins against poor people. But these are real sins.
And then, a reminder:
لَا تُكَلِّفُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا
"We don't give you more than you can bear." (Quran 6:152)
You can practice these things. These are not things that are outside of your ability to practice this basic fundamental morality. It's not outside of your ability.
The Command to Speak Truth
وَإِذَا قُلْتُمْ فَاعْدِلُوا وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَى
"And when you speak, speak justly, even if it's against your own relatives." (Quran 6:152)
Even if it's against your own people, your own relatives. Even if it's against your own religion. If your co-religionists are doing things that are wrong, you have to speak out against it. Because truth is truth, no matter where it comes from.
And the Muslims should be people of truth. Shuhada. Witnesses. We're supposed to be witnesses and you look at what Muslims are doing everywhere. Our community is filled with sinfulness. We're filled, we have racism. We have racism in our community, the Prophet prohibited racism. And then we have the cheating. The lying.
And then we have these crimes of, terrible crimes against people, against masjids. And now we see what's happening all over the world. If people don't wake up and see how serious what's happening. Look at Ukraine. Ukraine is in a major crisis. Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. What will it take? Does it have to come here until we wake up? What does it take for human beings to wake up and simply do one thing? Tubu ila Allah. Just turn back to your Lord.
And then Allah says:
وَبِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ أَوْفُوا
"Fulfill this covenant with God." (Quran 6:152)
This is a simple covenant. Just a few commandments. Fulfill this covenant with God. Fulfill this covenant. This is what Allah is asking us to do.
The Natural Signs and Modern Denial
Right now, the scientists say that there is about four miles up along the coast of California, is a pressure that's preventing storms from coming in. It's like a wall that has been put up. Who put that wall up? You see, the materialists don't believe these things anymore. But the people that were here before, they had Ohlone Indians
that were here before. If they had drought, they knew what to do. They would ask forgiveness. They would go make atonement. Aboriginal people understand this. Modern people have become so divorced from nature.
People now, they think, oh, what a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day indeed. But it's not a day to make you smile when it should be raining. It's not a day to make us smile. We should be worried. Governor Brown said that this is only the beginning. This is only, that's what he said. Now, he has privy to information we don't have. What do they know that we don't know? What's going on? Because everywhere, this planet seems to be in turmoil. Not just in human turmoil, but natural turmoil. And there's a relationship, and this is what modern people deny. They deny the relationship between human behavior and between the natural world.
But the ancients all understood this. They understood this. They understood ate. They understood nemesis. The Greeks understood it. The Hindus understood it. The Buddhists understood it. The Muslims understood it. The Christians. The Jews. They all understood it. Modern man doesn't understand it. Modern man is in denial. Modern man thinks that his actions have no impact. As long as he's not hurting anybody.
No. Our actions have great impact, and we're hurting many, many things.
The Consequences of Human Oppression
Abu Huraira said:
إِنَّ الْحُبَارَى لَتَمُوتُ فِي وَكْرِهَا مِنْ ظُلْمِ الظَّالِمِ
"That even the bird dies in the nest because of the oppression of the oppressor."
The oppression of human beings. Their oppression against themselves and against others. The drought is from our own doing. I once said to my Shaykh, Abdullah bin Bayyah, that the biggest terrorist is nature. Because it can do what no terrorist can do. And he said, no. The biggest terrorist is the human being. Because nature only does to the human being what the human being deserves.
وَمَا أَصَابَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَن كَثِيرٍ
"That any affliction that comes to you is from what your hands have brought. And how much does He forgive? He forgives much." (Quran 42:30)
وَلَوْ يُؤَاخِذُ اللَّهُ النَّاسَ بِظُلْمِهِم مَّا تَرَكَ عَلَيْهَا مِن دَابَّةٍ
"If Allah took human beings to account for their oppression, He wouldn't leave anything left on the earth." (Quran 16:61)
The Prophet said:
لَوْلَا عَجَائِزُ رُكَّعٌ وَشُبَّانٌ خُشَعٌ وَأَطْفَالٌ رُضَعٌ وَبَهَائِمُ رُتَّعٌ لَصُبَّ عَلَيْكُمُ الْعَذَابُ صَبًّا
The Call to Prayer and Repentance
So, this is something for us to think deeply about. To contemplate. In our tradition, even the Ahlul Kitab are to come out. They're welcome to come out and pray with us because we're all in this together. We're all in this together. And we need to pray. We need fasting. We need tawbah. People should be doing things, really. Because it affects all of us. It affects our children. If this drought continues, you will see serious consequences to this drought. Already they're starting to show. But they will get worse. There will be rationing of water. People will be forced to ration the water they use in this state. And that's why we need the rain. May Allah give us rain. May Allah forgive us.
"So I said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver. He will send [rain from] the sky upon you in [continuing] showers. And give you increase in wealth and children and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.'"
Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, wal-muslimin wa-l-muslimaat.
People don't believe in these things anymore. Many people don't believe in these things. That's fine, they laugh at Noah. They can laugh. But we believe in God. We believe that it's God that rules this universe. That there's a power behind all of this. That there's a reason why we were created. There's no shame. This is what should give human beings some sense of pride that they're servants of their creator. That they're grateful to their creator. Not that this is some kind of backward, pre-modern thinking before we knew all the answers.
No! Why can't they, with all the technology, why can't they bring the rain? All they can ask you to do is ration. This is the extent of all this knowledge that they have. They just tell you, use less water. That's all they have. You can't seed clouds that aren't in the sky. We believe that God is the one that brings the clouds. He has angels that have this system. The Quran talks about the riyah as a sign of God. Now we know how sophisticated the wind system on this planet is. It's a very sophisticated system. And now we know. We didn't know that knowledge, but the Quran had that knowledge.
The Prophetic Warning About Sexual Perversion
Now, in conclusion, the Prophet ﷺ told us some very profound things. And this is about the metaphysical nature of our actions and our behavior. And he sought refuge in these things. He told the muhajireen. He told them about certain khisal, qualities in people. And he said, I seek refuge in God that you never see this.
The first one he said:
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
"Never does sexual perversion appear in a people and they announce it publicly except that plague and diseases that were unknown to their predecessors will spread among them."
This is the first one. That sexual deviations and perversions never appear openly except diseases that were unknown to the previous generation. They will get diseases. This is a metaphysical reality. Now some people will say, but it doesn't just affect them, it affects everybody. Exactly. That's what the Qur'an says:
"Protect yourselves against calamities that don't just afflict the wrongdoers."
Because if it only afflicted the wrongdoers, everybody would just say, well let them do their wrong and they'll get theirs. No. But because it afflicts all of us, we have to stand up and condemn it. We have to say this is wrong.
They can say to us, just respect us, we respect you, respect us. No. In order for you to respect us, you have to respect our, not only our right, but our understanding and our responsibility to condemn what you're doing. To condemn it. We have to. In order to be true to our faith. In order to protect and guard ourselves from what we believe are calamities that won't just afflict you, but they will also afflict us. This is a real problem on this planet now. These differences of understanding.
But as far as I can tell, science is on our side. If we're really rational, if we really believe in rationality and what makes sense and what science is telling us, science is telling us there are certain things that you shouldn't do because they're dangerous. And as far as I know, there's nothing in our religion that's halal, that's harmful. But everything that's prohibited has harm in it. There's nothing in our religion that's prohibited that doesn't have harm in it. Nothing. And everything that's permitted is good for us. It's just using the intellect.
"What's better than Allah's judgment? Will you not use reason?"
So that's the first.
The Warning About Economic Injustice
But then he said the second one:
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
"No people become unjust in their commercial transactions except that they are afflicted with drought and difficulty of provision."
See people, again religions only talk about sexual problems. Our religion addresses the grave sin of economics. And you look at the economic inequality now that they're all talking about finally. They're starting to talk about this income inequality. These are the reasons that people are, rain is withheld from people when there's economic injustice. This is what Allah has told us through His prophet. So this is a grave tribulation.
And then he said that if a people, if they refuse:
(Sunan Ibn Majah 4019)
"No people withhold the Zakah of their wealth except that rain is withheld from the sky."
The rain, if they don't help poor people, because economic injustice is one thing, where you take from people, exploit them, all these things. But then, when you have wealth, and you don't help others with the wealth, then the rain is withheld from you.
This is what our Prophet ﷺ said. These are metaphysical realities. And you can't get around them. The Christian people and the Jewish people, their tradition, they know many of these things. But unfortunately, many of them have forgotten.
The Promise of Provision
The Qur'an says that had they only established the Torah and the Injil:
"If they had established the Torah and the Gospel and what has been revealed to them from their Lord, they would have been fed from above them and from beneath their feet."
They would eat from above them, from the fruit tree, and from below them, from what comes from the earth. They would eat from all that.
And then Allah says about them:
"There are good people among them, righteous people, moderate people. But many of them, evil is what they do."
Many of them no longer practice what they know to be true, and they've left it. So we're living in a country that has made many positive strides, undeniably. And we have to acknowledge that. But there are many things that they've gone backwards on. And we see the result of it.
Closing Du'a
So may Allah forgive us our sins. I'm going to turn towards the Qibla, make du'a. May Allah answer all of our prayers. May Allah bring rain, inshaAllah, that nurtures the earth. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
"O Allah, forgive us, have mercy upon us, and accept our repentance."
"O Allah, forgive us, have mercy upon us, accept our repentance, and bring life to the dead land."
"And know that Allah brings the earth back to life after its death."
Ya Allah, bring rain upon us. Ya Allah, forgive us. Ya Allah, accept our repentance. Ya Allah, bring life to this dead land. Ya Allah, send down upon us abundant rain. Ya Allah, You are the One who brings mercy. Ya Allah, we are in need of Your mercy. Ya Allah, we turn to You in repentance. Ya Allah, accept our prayers.
Bismillah, the sunnah is to repeat this if rains don't come until they come. So my recommendation for people in the masajid that we should do the Salatul Istisqa. People are busy, it's difficult for them to come out but we can do inshaAllah in the masjids. People inshaAllah in our different masjids and we should ask people around California, the Muslims to do this inshaAllah. Jazakumullah khair.