Lessons from the World- The Sunnah of Tribulation

Two Lessons from the World: The Sunnah of Tribulation

Opening Remarks and Context

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Allah yabarak fikum jami'an insha'Allah. Naturally I think the crisis has been immense. It's been incredibly difficult for all of us and so people are very passionate about things. Just one correction though, I'm not a normalizer. I don't have any, I've never normalized anything.

So in any case, it's interesting because one of the things that I think, before I talk about what I wanted to talk about, was just to talk a little bit about something that concerns this ability for us to be unified in hearts, but not always unified in positions and opinions. And I think that's really important because sometimes we often forget that there are different ways of viewing circumstances and conditions. Allah has made us brothers and sisters and we have families, our families, you always have uncles that they don't want invited to the holiday, but they come anyway.

And so it's okay. Alhamdulillah. No, no, alhamdulillah, I feel the love. But you know, even, I'm sympathetic with these voices, so please don't misunderstand me. I am. I understand, but I really believe that I have been misrepresented.

Personal Clarification and Response to Criticism

So I, you know, and I really think that I've never called for normalization. I've always supported the Palestinian. I wrote the Dua al-Nasiri, which is a book, I mean, I wrote that and dedicated to the Palestinian people. I have some of my dear friends here that came with me from California, are Palestinians. Yesterday, a man from Gaza actually came to me and just thanked me for helping him get his Islam back. So I know there's people, I received a message during this whole crisis from Gaza, and actually Kim Iverson had me, interviewed me because somebody from Gaza, who she met in Palestine, actually from the West Bank, sorry, actually told her, when you go back, please interview this person.

And so, you know, Inshallah, like I said, it's a difficult time and I feel the pain. I have the pain myself. We've shed a lot of tears in the last couple of months. I actually spent the last two months doing a very deep dive into the Palestinian issue. I read several books on it. I interviewed Chris Hedges. I actually was the one that invited Chris Hedges here to speak. So, and I think Chris Hedges, he articulates very much my views about it. So I just feel like I've been misrepresented.

But that's okay also. I mean, there's just, you know, this is an age of just a lot of falsehoods. The Prophet ﷺ said, that the truthful one would be called a liar and the liar would be called a truthful one. It's just part of the time we're living in. There's a lot of, it's a cancel culture. But I think it's important to remember the Prophet ﷺ was, he always had dialogue.

The Prophetic Character and Conduct

He always listened to people. One of his sunnahs is not to interrupt people when they're speaking. You can disagree with people, it's okay. But these are the sunnahs. He also never raised his voice. In the Shifa, it says, He never raised his voice in the marketplace, which is the one place where people can raise their voice. He was actually a soft-spoken person., he was a gentle person by nature. He's called (رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ - rahmatan lil'alameen), the mercy of all the worlds.

He was a mercy to everybody, including the Jews. He was a mercy to the Jews. Many of them rejected them, but not all of them. And some of them deeded property for the Muslims in Medina, and others were treacherous. And the Quran is very fair about them. We've seen many young Jewish people coming out.

One of the things that Chris said after being here, he said it's so wonderful to see so many young people. He said the Zionists are all old. He said the young Jews are out demonstrating against them, because the whole idea of an ethno-state is an anachronism. The idea of an ethno-state, that there should be states solely for one type of ethnicity, it's an anachronism. Most people don't accept this idea anymore, except for marginalized people.

There are people in Canada that don't want to see the diversity, but Canada is a diverse country now. And these are the changes.

Unity in Diversity and Different Approaches

So anyway, around the dome of the Prophet's mosque, they wrote, (كُلُّ يَعْمَلُ عَلَى شَاكِلَتِهِ فَرَبُّكُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ هُوَ أَهْدَى سَبِيلًا - kullu ya'malu 'ala shakilatihi farabbukum a'lamu biman huwa ahda sabeela) (Quran 17:84). Everyone will act according to their nature, their shakilah. Your Lord knows who are the most guided.

So one of the things that's important to remember as a community is, for instance, the aqeedah that I worship Allah with is from Imam Tahawi's book. I translated it into English. It's what I want to meet my Lord with. I follow Imam Malik's madhhab, and I believe in Imam Junaid al-Salih. That's the Islam that I embrace, that's the Islam that I teach, and it's the Islam that I love. And there's other people that have different views about dunya, like we're all trying to navigate this world. It's not an easy place to navigate. Imam Zaid said earlier, you know, that this is the abode of tribulation. It really is. It's dar al-bala.

Medical Analogy for Understanding Crisis

And there's a useful analogy from medicine, just in terms of trying to understand this civilizational crisis. An approach works in some cases, but in other cases it could be disastrous. And doctors know this, that one of the things that you have diagnosis, and then you have treatment, and they're not straightforward, but diagnosis always comes before treatment. Complications and side effects also result. So it's absolutely right to prevent oppression, but it may not be possible always to stop an oppressor.

It may not be possible to stop oppression by a given method or at a given time. In the case of Palestine, we can be as outraged as we like, and it's right to be outraged, and we should be outraged by what we're witnessing, because it's so beyond the pale. There have been more bombs dropped on a very small 26 by 5 mile city than were dropped on Dresden during World War II. The Nazis bombed London for one year. They destroyed 60% of the city. They killed 40,000 Londoners. We've seen in two months over 20,000 people are now dead. Most of these are women and children, because we know that 50% of Gaza is women and children, that is children under the age of 18. It's a very young population.

Patience and Means of Resistance

So we have to recognize that it's not reasonable to think that the unjust being unjust will lend an ear to our pleas for justice. So if the principle is sound, the question becomes one of means. Sometimes it's actually absolutely necessary to suffer in silence. Sometimes that's the means of survival, but it doesn't mean it's final. My ancestors were Irish. The Irish lived under the tyranny of the English for 700 years. That's a long time to live under a tyrant. In Ireland now, they don't speak Gaelic. They're relearning Gaelic, because their tongues were cut out for speaking Gaelic. That's why they speak the English language, and that's true for the Celtic people in Scotland as well.

My great-grandfather came from the Scottish Highlands to Canada, and he built a monastery in Alexandria, Ontario. There's a newspaper article about it, but one of the things that he mentioned was it was a blessing to be in a free land, knowing that his own ancestors suffered the persecution for being Catholics for centuries in Scotland.

Dealing with Different Types of People

So you have to keep your wits about you. You have to give yourself a chance to have a chance. The Prophet ﷺ told us that some people are like hard ground that absorbs no rain. In other words, they're just not open to guidance, and for that reason, it makes perfect sense to say you can't compel people to be religious. Religion comes from a desire in the heart. If you try to compel people, it doesn't work. It only produces hypocrites. But we have to deal with those people anyway, sometimes by simply avoiding their poison, or at least trying- avoiding trying to be affected by the poison as best we can, to the extent that saving our own selves is, in fact, preventing oppression.

Like the Palestinians say, sumud wujud, that the very act of just being steadfast in the midst of the oppression, that is the wujud, sumud, that your presence there is your sumud, your resilience. Overt deviance sometimes works, but it can also backfire, especially when people are set in their ways, or they have something at interest to say. Take note that many of our political discourses operate by setting off totally predictable emotional battles over quote-unquote hot-button issues or ideological constructs that do not encompass the welfare of the nation or the people as a whole. They take public attention away from the fact that their masters have no will to solve their fundamental problems, as that's not in their own interest, as exploiters of discontent.

Unity Despite Differences in Approach

And you have to see that people want to see us divided. I want to see a free Palestine as much as anybody in this room, and to think otherwise is to say something about me that you know nothing about. Did you open up my breast and look at what's inside my breast? And again it gets back to means, because people have been doing certain things, and they have their ijtihad. Other people have other approaches, and if we don't recognize that ability to actually differ, because we're not differing on aqidah, we're not differing on madhhab or how to actually perform our prayers and fast and pay zakat, we're not differing on the need for tazkiyah. We all agree on these things, so then it becomes a matter of how do we navigate the world that we're in and the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

The Dangers of Desperation and Imbalance

Feelings of desperation tend to affect our thinking adversely. If you feel desperate, it will affect the way you think, and that can lead to rash responses that don't help even if they come from good intentions. Self-preservation is a natural instinct, but like all instincts, it can become imbalanced and hypertrophied in the same way that the immune system is necessary to health, but an immune system can become overactive and actually begin to harm the body itself. You can have an overproduction, or you can have an underproduction.

Balance is the key to the human system of health, and where did God put our balance? In the eighth cranial nerve, and where's the eighth cranial nerve? It's in your ear, and so you have to be careful about what you listen to, who you listen to, who you believe.

Verifying Information and Being Just

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said (Quran 49:6). If somebody comes to you with news, and it actually says a fasiq, if somebody comes to you with news, tabayyanu. Find out whether, first of all, there's two qira'a of tabayyanu and tathabbatu. Tabayyanu means make sure you understand it. Tathabbatu means make sure the source is true, that what they're telling you is true, because you might attack somebody unjustly, and on the Day of Judgment, there's a place called the qantara, where the believers meet and they have to resolve their problems.

There's a place before you go into paradise, if you had, if you said bad things about people that were unjust, we're all going to be answerable on the Day of Judgment. So the Prophet ﷺ, one of the things that he told us about this time, the more time to think, the better. So we make our own ijtihad, we make reasoned judgments about issues of our life.

Personal Responsibility and Guidance

I mentioned last night, the Prophet ﷺ said, if the dajjal comes and I'm here, ana hajijukum. I will be your advocate. I will prevent him from harming you. But if I'm not here, kullu imri'in hajiju nafsihi. You have to take

care of yourself. The Prophet ﷺ, there's an ayah in the Quran that says (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ لَا يَضُرُّكُم مَّن ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ - ya ayyuhallatheena amanoo 'alaykum anfusakum la yadurrukum man dalla itha ihtadaytum) (Quran 5:105). Take care of your own souls. They will not harm you, those who go astray, if you are guided.

Somebody asked Ibn Abbas about that verse, and he said, laqad sa'altu khabiiran. I asked an expert. I asked Rasulullah. What does it mean, alaykum anfusakum? Because Amr bil Ma'ruf is our tradition. And he said, idha ra'aita shuhan muttaba'an, wa dunya mu'atharatan, wa i'jaba kulli dhi ra'yin bi ra'yihi, fa alayka bi khaasati nafsika. When you see people following their passions, when you see materialism being preferred over spirituality, when you see every person amazed at his own opinions, convinced that he is the only one that knows the truth, convinced that he has all the judgments that God has accorded, forgetting that every fatwa in the history of Islam ended with, wallahu wa rasuluhu a'lam, and Allah and His Messenger know best.

Historical Examples of Scholarly Differences

Because a fatwa is an ijtihad. There are ulama that made ijtihad. Abu Yusuf worked with the government, Abu Yusuf worked with the government, Imam Shaybani didn't. They differed. Two of the greatest ulama in the history of Islam, one of them said that he would take the job as a qadi and the other one said the imam refused to be a qadi. They differed on that. They're both rightly guided because they made their ijtihad. But this inability to recognize differences, that means that it'll only lead to disunity and ultimately conflict when pushed too far and even to the point of harming some people. Harming people.

The Prophet ﷺ said that everyone will be amazed at his own opinion. And so, khaasati nafsika doesn't just mean your own self, it means your family, it means your community, the khaasa around you. He said leave the amr al-amma. But the general masses of people in those times will be very difficult.

Community Challenges and Elevation

This is a very educated community, but we have many uneducated people in our community. We have real serious problems in our community. To point that out is not to be against the community, it's because you want to elevate the community. Imam Malik said the Prophet ﷺ said when he said that if you say the people have perished, then you have caused them to perish. Because there's always good, my ummah is like rain. You don't know if the first is the best part or the last. The time of these extraordinary ends that come with Isa alayhi as-salam.

The World as Tribulation and Trial

So the world is a tribulation and a trial, Imam Zaid pointed that out because it's at the essence of the Quran. There are two fundamental maqasid in the Quran: maqsad al-ibtila and maqsad al-ibadah. The purpose of tribulation and the purpose of worship. And there's a remarkable work that was done by an extraordinary woman, Nasreen Rosati. She's a professor of Islamic studies and she wrote a wonderful work on trials and tribulations in the Quran, which I plan on reading in the book club in Ramadan inshallah. It's a stunning study

The Reality of Evil and Divine Wisdom

So the world is tribulation and trial. The first thing is to know that Allah created the world for tribulation. We don't have the problem of evil like the Christians. It's never been a problem in our tradition. Sharr is part of the world. It's part of the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It doesn't go back to Allah. But it's part of his hikmah. Iblis is a creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

"[Our scholars say that the lam there is aqibah, as opposed to ta'lil. Allah is the one who created the heavens and the earth in six days, six periods of time. A day is like a thousand or fifty thousand years. We know that these are great periods of time. For Allah, there's no, there's no, it's always present tense. Allah."

The Eternal Now and Allah's Perspective

Imam Jurjani in the Ta'rifat, he said ad-dahr huwa al-an ad-da'im. When the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah says, do not curse time, dahar. It's not zaman, it's not asr, it's dahar. Dahar is the eternal now. It's the eternal now. And Allah is always in the present tense. There's no past or future for Allah. Everything is in the present tense. Allah encompasses all time.

And so 14 billion years, if that's what Allah decided to be the time in order to bring the earth into existence, as the modern scientists say, we don't know, give or take a few billion years. But if that's the truth, and we don't know that that's the truth because these are all conjectures. If that's the truth, for Allah, it's not 14 billion years. It's all in the same time.

Creation and Resurrection

like the same verse that Imam Zaid quoted from Surat al-Mulk.

So they say, if you say to them, you are going to be resurrected on the day of judgment, we are all going to be resurrected on the day of judgment.

I showed you yesterday, the signs that anybody who looks at those signs objectively will have to conclude that the Prophet of Allah was a prophet, because he predicted things that have come true that are so clearly true.

But he also told us, for instance, the Quran told us that the universe was created. The scientists for many, many decades said the universe was eternal. For 2,000 years, philosophers believed the universe was eternal. That's

what Aristotle said. The universe existed forever. The prophets told us, no, the universe was created. So the scientists of the past, for 2,500 years, they said it was eternal. But the prophets said it was created. Now we know it's created. That's what their science says today. It's created.

The prophets also told us that we will die and be resurrected. The philosophers said there's no resurrection. So they were wrong about the creation. They're wrong about the resurrection. We will be resurrected. And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says. When they're reminded that they will be resurrected, after their death, those who cover the truth, who reject, they say, this is just manifest sorcery.

The Nature of Fitna and Balance

So bala and fitna are used interchangeably in the Quran. The word fitna in Arabic means it is to test with fire. Fire is a disruptive element. Iblis is made from fire. The angels are made from noor. Noor is stable. The constant that we use in measurement in modern science is the speed of light, because it's not like fire. It's a constant. Noor is constant. It's stable. If you look at noor and nar, they're from the same root, which is noorah.

Iblis is made of fire. He's an unstable element. We are made of earth and water, so we have stability with instability. We have the two together. Iblis can heat up our water, and then we boil. And this is called ghalayan. When you become so angry, you're boiling over. And this is how shaitan does it. He has fire. If you don't have noor that keeps you stable, you become out of balance, and you lose your balance.

Testing Through Fire

And so this is very important to know that fitna is part of life, to test you. It's Allah testing you with the fire of shaitan to see what your element is. If your element is pure, it is stable. It will not break down. If it's impure, the dross will come off. The dross will come off. And so Allah is testing us. And this is also in the Qur'an.

The two dominant words are bala and fitna. And ibtila is a variant of bala. What is the word bala? Where does it come from? Baliya yabla. What does it mean? To be worn out. Yabla thawbuhu. The garment gets worn out. Bala is to wear you down until you enter into a state of submission. This is what tribulation is there to do. It's to wear you out until you surrender. It's like wearing out an enemy until they raise their hands and they say, I submit, I surrender.

Attaining Protection from Shaytan

That is what tribulation is to do. And once you get that point, once you get that message, shaitan has no authority over you. You've entered into those that (لَا سُلْطَانَ عَلَيْهِ - laa sultana alayhi) (Quran 16:9) He has no authority over you. You are from the awliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. These are the people that remain in the hub. These are the people of al-afiyah. The Prophet ﷺ said, is'al Allah al-afiyah. Ibn Abbas passed by some people in tribulation.

He said, but what is real health? What is al-afiyah? It's an untranslatable word in Arabic.

The word afiyah in Arabic, according to Ahmed Zarruq in his qa'ida, he says, it is the stillness of the heart from agitation. That is real afiyah, that your heart is still. It doesn't become agitated. What is ya'juj and ma'juj? It's agitation, it's from fire. This is the latter days when everybody is in a state of agitation. You have to find that source again. You have to find the source of sakinah. This is what we need.

The Gift of Tranquility

When the kuffar, when they, Allah calls it, they were heated up. That's what yahmi means. Humma is a fever. That's what shaitan uses to heat you up. You become mutahammis, you become haami, you're hot, you're fire. He sent down at that point, when they were filled with fire, he put the sakinah of light into their hearts and they were tranquil. They actually slept before the battle. They slept and they had pleasurable dreams. They slept before the battle. People can't sleep before battles, but Allah gave them so much sakinah in their hearts.

Two Responses to Tribulation

So, in terms of bala, to understand, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says

These are the kuffar. When they are given rahma, and then Allah takes it away from them, they become despairing, ingrates

So, here's the two responses of the kuffar. When they have tribulation, they despair. When they have blessings, they become arrogant. This is exact opposite of the believer to trial. So, you know who's following Iblis. If you want to know, one of the litmus tests for Iblis is racism. It's a litmus test. If you want to know if somebody's a follower of Iblis, their attitude towards other races, that'll tell you. Especially dark-colored people, because what did Iblis say about Adam? I'm not going to bow down to min hama'in masnun, a black clay. That's what he called him, black clay. So, he actually pointed out the color of the clay. So, it's like a litmus test to know if somebody's following Iblis or if somebody's not.

Beyond Race and Privilege

I don't like to use the language of white supremacy because I have never found it in the sunnah. The Prophet ﷺ, when he, there's a lot of white Muslims, light-skinned. Like, that's accidental. In logic, it's called arad. It's not essence. Just the color of your skin. Some people are light-skinned. Some people are dark-skinned. Dark-skinned people, in terms of sun, have black privilege. White people have to, you know, most of the places where white people are is cloud covers. They don't get all these cancers in Africa. They get them in Europe. Highest rate of cancer is in England. Skin cancer.

Trials of Beauty and Blessing

So, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the dunya involves trials, and this is important to remember. Bala is not just hardships.

made the whole earth an

ornament to test them. To see who's the best in action. Again, so the zina of the world is a test for people. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, the final test is on Yawm al-Qiyamah. Allah says

The day when tubla, Qatada said, tukhtabar. The secrets are all revealed, and people, the real test happens. When people will know who's who, we're...

Allah yubarak feekum wa karmakum wa 'ala Allah wa 'asha' Allah. You know, I wanted, I remember two months ago, I got a message from the imam in Masjid al-Aqsa. I just wanted to play it for you. Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.

Diversity as Divine Test

One of the other aspects about tribulation is the diversity of communities with their respective beliefs and laws. And the individual is a crucible. And a crucible is literally the, it's used to test fire. That's what a crucible is. So it's literally used to heat up a substance. And the human being is this crucible for trials and tribulations.

So in this surah, Allah tells us that it's also a tribulation to have different religions. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala intended that. And then Allah says, so vie in good deeds, vie in virtues, and know that you will be returned to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah will explain about what you were differing. He will explain to you about what you were differing.

The Miracle of Human Creation

We created you in a nutfah amshaj. And this is one of the ishkalat of the Quran. This is a miracle of the Quran. Because the nutfah is the meeting of the mashij of the woman and the mashij of the man. And so the ulema said, why is nutfah singular and amshaj plural? And in modern Arabic, one of the words they use for the genetic coding is mashij. So the amshaj come together. Allah created you in a tarqiba. He literally, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, put all of this genetic coding with four basic nucleic acids. And it's a miracle that every single human being is created min ma'in wahid. Right, but we prefer some over others. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that is the basis of the dunya. It's ibtila and then ibadah. Those are the two fundamental maqasid of dunya.

Manifestations of Divine Trials

This aspect of the Quran reveals how trials manifest in the lives of human beings. So now you have the manifestation of divine trials. The Quran highlights privilege as one of the manifestations of trials. Some people are set over other peoples as a trial for both of them.

That he has put some of you over others in degrees to test you.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya says that the rich are a test for the poor. The poor are a test for the rich. The ignorant are a test for the learned. The learned are a test for the ignorant. That this is part of it. Allah says

.

we made some of you a trial for others. Will you show patience? And this is the secret of tribulation is patience and shukr. These are the two qualities that the bala needs. It needs shukr and sabr. Shukr when it's a blessing, sabr when it's a tribulation.

Every soul will taste death and we will try you with good and with evil. And know that you're going to return to us.

Arrogance and Despair: Failed Tests

And then Allah says

This is another reaction. When people are honored and given blessings, they say, oh my lord, he has blessed me. But then if Allah tries them with adversity and constricts their provision, they say, oh I've been humiliated. My lord's humiliated me. So the nature of the world and the disparities among people are a trial. So Allah tests you and he will know who shows gratitude.

So the people of arrogance, they fail the test of prosperity. The people of despair fail the test of patience. These are like the three men that the angel came in Sahih Muslim. The bald man, the man with vitiligo, and then the blind man. And then the angel restored the man's hair, restored the man's sight, restored the man's skin. But then he came back later in the same form. And the two, the bald man and the man with vitiligo, they rejected. They said, we were always like this. He asked for charity and they wouldn't give him any. But the blind man, he was the one that really could see. And he said, you remind me of myself before Allah blessed me. And he told him, take what you want. So this is the test.

Patience in Hardship and Historical Examples

Good tidings to those who are patient in these trials. Allah will test you with hunger. In the 19th century, 50 million people died of starvation. Many Muslims died of starvation. People forget these things. They didn't lose their faith. The people now, may Allah provide them with sustenance. There's people in Gaza that don't know where their food is coming from. Somebody putting bread through a wall to get food to these people. In Sudan, we have 2 million refugees right now in Sudan. 2 million refugees. These people now are facing starvation.

These are the trials of the dunya.

And the saddest thing is they're trials, not just for them. They're trials for us. They're trials that reveal the failure of people to do. Everybody says, where's God? God says, where are you? God says, where are you? God will not be asked about what God does. But you will be asked about what you did. What you did. What are you doing? This is the question.

Remembering All Oppressed People

The Kashmiri, don't forget the Kashmiri people. Don't forget the people of Yemen. Yemen hasn't changed. One of the tribulations of our time now, is the news cycles. Muslims are completely reactionary to news cycles.

When something's in the news, they respond. When it's not in the news, they forget about it. This is a crisis. And who's providing the news? The news is, Iblis is providing the news. The real news

What are they asking about? The real news. The vast news. The news on the day of judgment.

Prophets, their name comes from the modern Arabic word for news. That's the modern name for news in Arabic. Nabiyun is the one who brings news. But people don't want to read the eternities. They want to read the times. They've forgotten the real news.

Sources of Tribulation and Fitna

And one of the great metaphysicians from Samarkand, he was a student of Imam al-Maturidi, al-Hakim al- Samarkandi. He said, (المخبر والمستخبر والخبر - al-mukhabir wa al-mustakhbir wa al-khabar) or in Europe, they go like that. The Arabs do that too. News casters. Those are the three sources of fitna in the dunya. News casters, news consumers, and news hounds. People looking for news. Those are the sources of fitna. And then he said, all of them are blameworthy.

So Allah tells us about these tribulations. There are many verses about this. There's over, there's almost 90 verses on just bala and fitna in the Quran. And they're almost perfectly balanced between Mecca and Medina. So this is one of the miracles of the Quran.

Prophet Ibrahim's Test and Covenant

Allah tested Ibrahim with kalimat, this deen that we've been given. And he completed them. And he said, I'm making you for humanity an exemplar. And then he said, and for my offspring, he said, this covenant does not reach oppressors, what Dr. Ali talked about earlier. It goes to the people that follow the prophets. And in our case, it's the last prophet that supersedes all previous prophets.

The True Meaning of Patience

So I mean, just in conclusion, a few things. One, sabr is miftah al-faraj, patience. People say, oh, you know, we've been patient for so long. How long do we, how long do we be patient? We haven't been patient. And I'll give you the reason why. This is from Imam al-Qushayri. In his Bab al-Sabr, he says, it is that the heart is completely submitted to the judgment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He said, it's to stop at the tribulation, and to remain in a state of purity despite the tribulation. It's to stop complaining when the tribulation comes. It's to swallow the tribulation without any claims. It's to recognize the mihna, you keep it inside, and you show the blessing. So on your tongue, you're in a state of gratitude.

Then, but the real definition of sabr is sabr al-ta'a wa sabr al-ma'asi. It is to be patient with obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and to avoid any disobedience. And finally, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when he said

And that's why the aqiba is for the people of taqwa. It's not for anybody else. The people of taqwa, when you have their time, but there is a day of judgment.

The Reality of Death and Judgment

We are all going to die. We didn't exist. You didn't exist. And now we exist. And then we will no longer be in this world. We'll go to another dimension. All of us. Our Prophet said, I'm at the decade that the Prophet said the majority of my people die in that decade. We're going to leave the world. We will be judged. And we will be judged about what we did, about what we said, about how we acted, about how we behaved. And the single most important thing, according to the Prophet, the thing that saves people more than anything else, is good character, is treating people decently. He said, and to have trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Essence of Tawakkul

Be people of tawakkul. They say that tawakkul is tahaqquq, wa takhalluq, wa tawathuq, wa tamalluq. That's the essence of tawakkul. Tahaqquq is to really realize the kalima of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. To know what that means. To believe it with your heart. And then, to take on the qualities of the Prophet. The akhlaq of the sunnah of our Prophet.

And then, tawathuq, to have thiqa billah, to be certain about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the qada and the qadar. That nothing will afflict you except what Allah has decreed for you. Nothing. That's tawathuq. And then tamalluq, is to be in a state of humility before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So

If you trust in Allah, He's enough for you.

Avoiding Self-Imposed Tribulations

Finally, the Prophet, he said, A mu'min should never humiliate him or herself. The sahaba, these were Arabs. They were people of izzah, in their very nature. They said, how could somebody humiliate himself? That wasn't even in their understanding. And the Prophet said (يَتَعَرَّضُ مِنَ الْبَلَاءِ لِمَا لَا يُطِيقُ - yat'arradu min al-balai lima la yutiq). To expose yourself to tribulations that you're unable to bear. To expose yourselves to tribulations that you are unable to bear.

There are tribulations that will be sent to you from Allah. There are people in here probably, who've been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. This is the dunya. That's a tribulation you didn't choose. There are people also that have depression. Depression, one of the words in Arabic, one of the meanings of bala', if you look in any good dictionary, al bala' al hammu wal ghamm. Depression is a bala' from Allah for some people. To be depressed.

Joy as the Purpose of Revelation

If you're depressed today, this is exogenous. It's perfectly natural to be grieving. But also recognize that joy is what Allah intended.

We did not reveal this Quran for you to be miserable. We revealed it for you to tas'ad, to be people of sa'ada. And this is why our Prophet, he was the mubtasim. He smiled constantly. He smiled in the face of people. He gave people joy to be in his presence.

Even in the most difficult times, when they were rejoicing in Badr. Uthman stayed in Medina. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ told him to nurse his wife, the daughter of the Prophet. When he got back after this great victory, he buried his daughter. He buried all of his children except for Fatima and told her that she would follow him after six months. Our Prophet buried all of his children. How many of us have had that tribulation?

The Prophets' Greater Tribulations

Nobody had the tribulation of the Prophets. We know the tribulation. The Prophet described Isa alayhi as-salam when they were beating him and blood was coming from his body. And he said, (اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ - Allahumma ighfir liqawmi fa'innahum la ya'lamun). The Prophet described that. He said, forgive my people. They don't even know what they're doing. There's people that don't even know why they're doing what they're doing. They're a tribulation for other people. Don't be a tribulation for other people. Don't be a tribulation for other people.

You will have trials and tribulations even from your own family. Yusuf alayhi as-salam, his own brothers plotted to throw him into a well. One of them suggested killing him. These were the children of a Prophet. Who has had that suffering? Who has had that? Seriously, who has had that? We can't even imagine that. So don't think the Prophets didn't have their difficulties. They had graver difficulties than we can imagine.

The Constant Nature of Tribulation

One of the things that my teacher, one of his sons, because every day they have people coming and trials and tribulation every single day. And one day his son said to him, Shaykh, can we have one day without problems? And he looked at me and he said, Take that arrogance out of your heart. Do you think our Prophet ever had a day without trouble? This is the sunnah of the world that we're in. It's according to Imam al-Junaid. This is the dunya.

Now here's the thing. We ask Allah for afiyah. And many of us have, alhamdulillah, good conditions, good situations. And we ask for blessings for the people wherever they are that are in trials and tribulations. This is the dunya. There's people that are up, there's people that are down. These are wisdoms woven by a wise hand. And then they come together and coalesce in the individual. The tribulations of the world, either sarrah and darrah wahina al-ba's. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that those, the people who are patient and people of taqwa, they will succeed.

The Reward of Those Who Suffered

So the Prophet, he said that on the day of judgment

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi 2402). Imam Tirmidhi relates that the Prophet ﷺ said, on the day of judgment, when they see the rewards of the people who suffered, they will wish they could go back to the dunya and have their skin flayed with scissors.

When they see what the people of bala got, the one who had the most tribulation in the dunya, Allah says to the one who had the most joy in this dunya (يُؤْتَى بِأَنْعَمِ النَّاسِ وَهُوَ فِي النَّارِ - yuta bi'an'ami al-nas wa huwa fi al-nar). Allah says to him, did you ever know any pleasure? And he says (وَاللهِ لا - wallahi la) I never knew any pleasure. Then he says to the one who had the worst time in the dunya from the people of belief, did you ever know any suffering? He said (وَاللهِ لا - wallahi la) I never knew any suffering.

Whatever memory of pain, and Aristotle says one of the miracles of the human body is you can't remember pain. You remember that you had it, but you can't remember pain. This is the afterlife. You won't remember the trials.

Remembering Wadea al-Fayoum

And people who know (وَدِيعِ الْفَيُّومِ - Wadi' al-Fayyum), this little six-year-old boy who was massacred by some insane person because they were Palestinians in the United States. This little boy (وَدِيعِ الْفَيُّومِ - Wadi' al-Fayyum) I mean his father named him miraculously (وَدِيعِ الْفَيُّومِ - Wadi' al-Fayyum). It's subhanAllah. He was stabbed. His last words to his mother who was stabbed but survived, he said, I'm all right. It's like he was in that liminal state and there must have been angels there to give that solace for a mother to see her child. And we cannot imagine what people are experiencing when they see their children dead, but they have to know that our prophet buried all of his children except for one. Nobody knew that pain like our prophet ﷺ.

The Nature of This World

So this is something to remember, that this dunya, this is the abode. One of the poets in the Mustatraf said (إِذَا مَا أَتَاكَ الدَّهْرُ يَوْمًا بِنَكْبَةٍ * فَفَرِّغْ لَهَا صَبْرًا وَوَسِّعْ لَهَا صَدْرًا - idha ma ataka al-dahr yawman bi-nakbatin * fa farrigh laha sabran wa wassi' laha sadra). And he used the word for the Palestinian nakba. This is centuries ago.

Imam Ibn Ata'illah said (لِيُخَفِّفْ عَنْكَ أَلَمَ الْبَلَاءِ عِلْمُكَ بِأَنَّهُ سُبْحَانَهُ هُوَ الْمُبْتَلِي لَكَ - liyukhaffif 'anka alam al-bala' 'ilmuka bi annahu subhanahu huwa al-mubtali laka) In order to soften and mitigate the pain of your trial is your knowledge that the one testing you is your Lord. The one testing you is your Lord. This should remove that.

The Day of Perfect Justice

When people come on the Day of Judgment, and this is a real day, it is a day that we will all see. It's a day that Allah said (الْيَوْمَ لَا تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَيْئًا وَلَا تُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا مَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ - al-yawma la tuthlamu nafsun shai'an wa la tujzawna illa ma kuntum ta'malun). There is no oppression on this day. This is the day where even the dog will have his day. The animal that was harmed unjustly, the horse that was beaten unjustly, all of them will have their day. That is the day of yowm al-qiyama. This abode is dar ham wa gham wa ibtila'

A Lesson from Syria: The Soundest Path

In conclusion, I want to say something. One of my teachers, Hisham al-Burhani, he was a great Syrian sheikh. Some people might even know about him. He had been in the Ikhwan. He had been in different approaches. He told me almost 40 years ago, and I was not ready for this. He told me, I looked at all of the manahij of the islah of

this Ummah, and the soundest one I found was the (مِنْهَاج - minhaj) of the (جَمَاعَةُ الدَّعْوَةِ وَالتَّبْلِيغ - jama'at al-da'wa wa al-tabligh). That's what he told me. I wasn't ready 40 years ago to hear that. I thought, what's he talking about? Because I had gone out with the تبليغ I don't know if Imam Zaid went out early on, but I went out. Dr. Abd al-Hakim Winter also, we went out. We did our three days, 40 days. I didn't do the four months, but I learned my first 10 surahs with the (جَمَاعَةٌ - jama'at). I learned the (أَدَب - adab) of eating with them. I learned many things, but what he was seeing was not the group that we call (جَمَاعَة التبليغ - jama'at al-tabligh). He was talking about a مِنْهَا that great عُلَمَاء in India put down. These were great عُلَمَاء Imam Kandahlawi. Some of the great عُلَمَاء Yusuf Kandahlawi is one of the great عُلَمَاء of his time.

The Six Principles

They had six principles, and this is what I'm going to leave you with. The first principle was know the كَلِمَة know the weight of (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ - la ilaha illallah) and the weight of the person that says (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ - la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah). This outweighs everything in the دُنْيَا and then the idea of prayer as the central and most fundamental pillar of our religion.

We have to create communities where we can pray together. The prayer is so important. The Prophet, when he was given the prayer, he was given 50 prayers, and Musa said your community can't do that. He reduced it finally to five, each one having the reward of 10. But his sunnah on a daily basis was to pray 50 رَكَعَاتِ as شُكْرٍ the 17 فَرْض and then he did the sunnah that equaled 50 رَكَعَات every day. That was the sunnah of the Prophet.

Knowledge, Remembrance, and Honoring Muslims

This is the most fundamental and important and then الْعِلْمُ وَالذِّكْرُ not just الْعِلْمُ وَالذِّكْرُ ذِكْرِ The Prophet in one حَدِيث came into a masjid, there were people learning, and there were people doing ذِكْر. He sat with the people doing knowledge, and he said (إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ مُعَلِّمًا - innama bu'ithtu mu'alliman). They're both valid places. People who are devotional need some عِلْم People who focus on عِلْم need some devotion. It's a matter of where your priorities are. They're both valid paths الْعِلْمُ وَالذِّكْرُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى to Allah

with طُمْأَنِينَة Those who believe their hearts have .(الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ - alladhina amanu wa tatma'innu qulubuhum bi dhikri allahi) (Quran 13:28) أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ ذِكْر Too many people are in a state of disturbance, of mental disruption. ذِكْر will calm people down.

And then the idea of إِكْرَامُ الْمُسْلِمِ the مَقَام of a Muslim. The Prophet ﷺ said (لَئِنْ تُهْدَمَ الْكَعْبَةُ حَجَرًا حَجَرًا أَهْوَنُ عَلَى اللَّهِ مِنْ قَتْرِ - la'in tuhdama al-ka'batu hajarun hajarun ahwanu 'ala allahi min qatri) مُؤْمِنٍ وَاحِدٍ . That to destroy the Ka'bah stone by stone is easier with Allah than to kill one believer. The meaning is to be a Muslim, not to backbite, not to speak ill of our brothers and sisters, to have good opinion.

There's two things that are higher than (خَصْلَتَانِ لَيْسَ شَيْءٌ يُجَدُ فَوْقُهُمَا مِنَ الْخَيْرَاتِ يُحْمَدُ حُسْنُ الظَّنِّ بِاللَّهِ ثُمَّ بِالْعِبَادِ وَجَنِّبْهُمَا لِلْعِنَادِ - khaslatan laisa shai'un yujadu fawqahuma min al-khairati yuhmadu husnu al-dhanni bi allahi thumma bi al-'ibadi wa jannibhumu lil-'inadi) everything in the dunya. A good opinion of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى . Have a good opinion of Allah. أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي بِي And then the ikram and then ikhlas. To have ikhlas in your actions.

Da'wah and Tabligh

And finally, da'wah and tabligh. They knocked out the da'wah and now it's just tabligh. Da'wah is to tell other

people about this religion. You don't give da'wah to Muslims. Muslims already accepted the call. You give tabligh to Muslims. (بَلِّغُوا عَنِّي وَلَوْ آيَةً - Ballighu 'anni wa law ayah) Da'wah is for non-Muslims. So we need to invite people, but we have to prepare the banquet. We have to make this religion beautiful to people as it was once majestic and beautiful. It's the most beautiful of religions. It really is.

The Nature of Time and Days

So and then he says (فَإِنَّ تَصَارِيفَ الزَّمَانِ عَجِيبَةٌ * فَيَوْمًا تَرَى يُسْرًا وَيَوْمًا تَرَى عُسْرًا - Fa'inna tasarifu al-zamani 'ajibatun * fayawman tara yusran wa yawman tara 'usran). This is the nature of the dunya. It's a day of yusr and usr. One day for you, one day against you. This is the dunya.

May Allah make all your days blessed. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is our lord and inshallah may we die on la ilaha illallah. May we be people who remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We may be inshallah people of da'wah that invite other people to Islam with our hal, before our maqal, with our state.

Daily Recitation of Quran

And then I hope everyone, and this is my nasiha for myself and all of you, have a wird of Qur'an every single day. Do not, the prophet was asked what is the best action? He said (الْحَالُ الْمُرْتَحِلُ - al-halu al-murtahil). The one who descends or alights upon a place and then sets out on a journey again. And they said (مَا هُوَ الْحَالُ الْمُرْتَحِلُ - Ma huwa al-halu al-murtahil)? Who is the hal and the murtahil? He said the one who finishes the Qur'an and starts it again.

Start your day every day, like today it's the 11th. This is the 11th day of the lunar month. Because in Morocco they start the day of the first juz on the first day of the lunar month. You always know what day you're at. It's either 11th or 12th. So that's a great blessing. Start the juz. People read newspapers or read their, for hours. A juz will take you a half an hour once you get used to reciting. With hadar you can do it in 20 minutes. Some people can do it even faster. But it's a half hour a day, 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes. Do khatm every month.

The Blessing of Morocco's Practice

We need more khatm. Morocco does 250,000 khatmas in their masajid every single month. When all these trials and tribulations happen, look at Morocco. How much stability they have. They have lots of problems in Morocco. But look how much stable their community is than other communities. And I really believe it's from the hizb they do in the morning and the evening. This is the book that the prophet ﷺ said to Imam Ali in the end of time when everything was dark. He said, How do we get out of it? He said الْقُرْآنِ Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ.

Closing Supplications