What to do during HARDSHIP

What to do during HARDSHIP - Khutbah by Mufti Menk

Opening Greeting

"Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."

Opening Khutbah

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, and all his companions.

My beloved brothers and sisters, as you know we are going through unprecedented times across the globe and we know that gaining or getting closer to the Almighty is a sign of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There is no point in people saying this is a punishment or this is a gift, rather it is a test from the Almighty and that test is supposed to make us draw closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Divine Test in Al-Baqarah

If you were to turn the pages of the Quran and if you were to look at the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, you will find something very interesting. For example in surah al-Baqarah verse number 154, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has revealed a verse that we've read many times and very very amazingly it is as though the verse was revealed for this particular moment.

Although we do know that this verse has been revealed many many years ago and it is applicable for anyone and everyone throughout the time right up to the end of time, let me read this verse and translate it for us to look into its meaning.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

"We will indeed test you, we will definitely test you with a little bit of the following..."

Amazing verse, Allah says we will indeed test you, we will definitely test you with a little bit of the following, before I mention what Allah says, listen to every single category and like I said it is as though Allah knew and He definitely did know but it is as though He revealed the verse for this moment. Allah says we will test you with a little bit of fear. Everyone has a slight sense of fear, some more than others.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says we will test every one of you with a sense of fear to a certain degree and a sense of hunger. There are many going hungry across the globe because of whatever the reasons are. Some because of the lockdown, because of the shutdown, because of the isolation, some because perhaps commodities are not available.

So Allah says some hunger, some because they cannot eat, there is no one to take care of them. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on us. So He starts off by saying I will test you with a little bit of fear and then with some hunger and the loss of wealth.

Many people have lost their jobs, people's income has diminished. Many of us across the globe have struggled in one way or another with our finances. Don't worry my brothers, my sisters, this is a test from Allah.

We will come out of it and Allah tells you how to come out of it. That's amazing. So if you take a look, Allah says we will test you with a little bit of fear, with some hunger, with the loss of wealth, the loss of wealth, and the loss of life.

People around you may die, you may lose your loved ones. Allah says don't worry, take it in your stride, subhanAllah. Allah says you will definitely lose loved ones.

Under normal circumstances we still lose loved ones, subhanAllah. So when it comes to a situation of this nature, yes there is fear, yes there is loss, yes there is a sense of uncertainty, yes there is a sense of anxiety, yes there is loss in terms of wealth, and yes there is loss in terms of life. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

And loss of produce.

Take a look at the farming and the farmers, may Allah make it easy for them. Take a look at the shops in many countries. Some of you are fortunate, you still have a lot available, but in other countries much is not available anymore.

And this panic, obviously, it is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has tested all of us with to varying degrees. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, well let me tell you how, how to overcome all of this:

Amazing, give glad tidings.

In all this uncertainty, in all this anxiety, in all these hardships, in all this loss, in all these tests, Allah says give good news to the following category. To whom? To those who are الصَّابِرِينَ, those who bear patience. Be patient, it will come to an end.

Prophetic Guidance

Bear patience, follow the rules. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, speaks about isolating oneself within their own houses. He speaks about not leaving this city that you're in if there is a disease of this nature or a plague.

He speaks about bearing patience. He speaks about the reward of the one who passes away under these circumstances. So all of that is already discussed by Muhammad, peace be upon him.

At the same time, he's given us a lot of different remedies. He has suggested so much and he has told us there is cure in this, there is cure in that. There is cure in honey, there is cure in the black seed, there is cure in the... Speaking about all sorts of illness, not necessarily this particular one, but all sorts of illness and sickness.

So make sure that you take your health seriously. Make sure you don't take the precautions for granted. Make sure that you do the best that you can, my beloved brothers and sisters.

Allah says, give good news to those who are patient. I want to know what type of patience is the Almighty referring to here? So if I were to continue with those verses, I will come across the answer:

Those whom when calamity strikes, when disaster strikes, when negativity strikes, they are the ones who say, they make a declaration with firm conviction and belief.

What do they say?

Indeed, we belong to Allah and unto Him shall be our ultimate return.

That is a statement you need to ponder over. So Allah is telling you at times like this, ask yourself, where did you come from, oh man? Where were you before your birth? And ponder over it deeply and develop a connection with He who brought you into existence and understand that you belong to Him.

Remembering Our Origin and Destination

If He created you, He has a plan for you. If He made you, He cares for you. So you just need to develop that relationship with Him and ponder over the fact that you came from Him, subhanAllah.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us at times of difficulty and hardship and calamity, those who declare that they belong to Allah, they believe that they belong to Allah, they came from Allah, they came from the Maker Himself, they are going to return to the Maker Himself. They say, we indeed belong to Allah and unto Him we shall return. Where are you going to go? My brothers and sisters, even if we were to be saved from this pandemic or this sickness or the virus that has taken the globe by storm, if we were to be saved from this one, it does not mean that we've saved ourselves from ultimately dying.

We have to return to where we came from:

From it We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will extract you another time.

In surah Taha, Allah describes how He created us from dust and soil and cause our return into the dust and soil, decomposed into it, and thereafter He will cause our resurrection from the same soil, which means there is life after death. My brothers, my sisters, prior to you being born, you were with Allah where He wanted you to be.

Right now you are with Allah where He wants you to be. Helplessness is a sign of the power of the Almighty. Because when human beings become helpless, it points towards the greatness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His power.

So ultimately we have to still return to Allah. My brothers and sisters, I pray for those whom we have lost. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant them forgiveness.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant them jannah. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for their loved ones. I tell you, I am going and you are going too.

Maybe not with this particular virus, but definitely at some point. Should I be scared of the fact that I'm going? The answer is no. Just prepare yourself as best as you can.

Hope in Allah's Mercy

Have hope in the mercy of Allah. And this brings me to the second point that we should always bear in mind and that is having hope in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Amazingly, we always repeat, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful, or the most beneficent, the most merciful. Remember, Allah is very merciful. He is the most kind. He is the most compassionate. He is the most forgiving and so on. If these are the qualities of the one who made me, surely I should not lose hope in His mercy.

While I must protect myself from perpetrating or engaging in that which is evil, immoral and unacceptable, I must make sure I constantly seek the forgiveness of Allah and I have hope in His mercy. One of the traps of shaitan or the devil is that he makes people lose hope in the mercy of Allah. And he's promised this.

Allah tells this to us in the Quran. And Allah says, O my worshippers, don't lose hope in my mercy. No matter what you have done, I will forgive you.

You simply need to seek that forgiveness. So when we seek the forgiveness of Allah, you need to have a heart that is reassured that you are forgiven by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That conviction is something that is an amazing gift for those who believe.

My brothers and sisters, never let a sin that you've committed in the past haunt you to the degree that you begin to question the mercy of Allah who says He is the most merciful. Because then it comes from shaitan, from the devil who wants us to lose hope in the mercy of the most merciful. Similarly, there is cure, there will be cure.

The people will be cured. This will come to an end. We need to have hope in that too. It is part of the mercy of Allah. It is a phase. We're going through a difficult phase, but it is just a phase.

And inshallah, we pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will let this come to pass very quickly. It is important that we have this hope. And it is very important that we bear patience when it comes to what Allah has tested us with.

Lessons from Luqman

Look at Surah Luqman, where Luqman the wise was advising his son, and he says:

O my son, fulfill your salah. O my son, be dutiful unto your parents. O my son, worship none besides your Maker. O my son, remember the Almighty is watching no matter where you are. And O my son, bear patience upon that which has reached you or inflicted, has been inflicted upon you.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us to bear this beautiful patience.

My brothers and sisters, at this time we should also be reaching out to those in need. And we should also be praying for those on the frontline, those who are providing for us that which is essential. Those who are providing for us the services that we desperately need, may Allah make it easy for them.

As for the elderly, reach out because it is through zakat that Allah opens the doors of an individual. A zakat will extinguish the anger of the Almighty. And we should not be saying, like I said right at the beginning of this lecture, we should not be saying that it is the punishment of Allah.

But what we should be doing is reflecting within ourselves how best we can become better people and more conscious of where we came from, where we are right now, and where we are heading. So these are a few reminders that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us.

Remembrance and Gratitude

My brothers and sisters, it is also very important to understand that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has taught us something amazing:

Remember me and I shall remember you. And be thankful to me and don't be ungrateful.

Amazing. Two beautiful reminders. The first one is, remember me and I shall remember you. Yes, some might argue that, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him says:

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516)

Get acquainted with the Almighty during your days of ease and during times of difficulty He will be acquainted with you, meaning He will come to your assistance, He will remember you.

Some might argue that, that means it's too late for us. Not at all. Yes, that is a very valid reminder, but if we have turned away from the Almighty in the past, it's not too late to remember Him.

In fact, it is a sign of the mercy, the love of Allah for you and I. If things like these help us to turn towards Him, it is a sign of love to Allah. Imagine, if we became closer to Him and mended our ways, wow, what a gift of Allah it is upon us. So if you remember Allah, He will remember you.

He will give you the calmness. He will give you that particular contentment that you're searching for, even in the midst of such great difficulty and hardship or such uncertainty, and in the case of many, anxiety. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala safeguard us.

So to remember Allah is something very important. Allah will remember you. The second part of that verse:

Be thankful and don't be ungrateful.

That is also absolutely important because at times like these, we should count the favors of Allah upon us when the whole world is looking at what's going wrong. We should look at what has gone right. Look at us, mashaAllah, many of us, we still have clothing, we still have accommodation, we still have a bit of food, we still have so much others do not have.

I draw your attention to something very interesting. There are people on the globe who have far less than us, but they are much more grateful than us to the Almighty. Think about that.

People who have less than a tenth of what we have and they are more than 10,000 times grateful to Allah or 10,000 times more grateful to Allah than we are. When we have so much, we have 10 times more than them and we are so ungrateful. Sometimes we don't even thank the Almighty.

Sometimes we don't even fulfill the obligations that He has placed on our shoulders. May Allah make us regular with the obligations that He has placed on our shoulders and may He make us from those who can abstain from the prohibitions that He has declared. So those two matters are very very interesting.

Remember the Almighty, He will remember you. Be thankful and don't be ungrateful. Allah says in another place in the Quran:

If you're going to be grateful and show gratitude, I will give you increase in goodness. And if you're going to be ungrateful, then my punishment is severe.

That's a warning from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But the first part of it is a great gift of Allah.

Allah says, you want increase in goodness? Do you want your good things to be multiplied? Do you want blessings in the good things we've given you? Well, then ponder over them and be thankful. The first way of showing gratitude to the Almighty is by worshiping Him alone, by fulfilling the obligations, by staying away from prohibitions. And then by verbally thanking Him, O Allah, I thank you.

For you is all praise, O Allah. For you is all thanks, O Allah. Amazing.

Brothers and sisters, let's be thankful to the Almighty. Let's remember Allah. The remembrance of Allah includes over and above what I've just said about fulfilling duties and staying away from prohibitions.

That gratitude to Allah and the remembrance of Allah actually includes the verbal remembrance of Allah:

Glory be to Allah. All praise is due to Allah.

There is none worthy of worship besides Allah. Allah is the greatest.

There is no power nor might besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who is the most high, the most great.

And we keep declaring the greatness of Allah and how insignificant we are. And that is what will please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Remember if you are to say: