A Divine Remedy

A Divine Remedy - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Praise and Supplications

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ خَالِقِ الْوُجُوْدِ مِنَ الْعَدَمِ وَجَاعِلِ النُّوْرِ مِنَ الظَّلَامِ وَمُخْرِجِ الصَّبْرِ مِنَ الْأَلَمِ فَمُلْقِي التَّوْبَاتِ عَلَى النَّدَمِ

فَنَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى الْمَصَائِبِ كَمَا نَشْكُرُهُ عَلَى النِّعَمِ وَنُصَلِّيْ عَلَى رَسُوْلِهِ الْأَكْرَمِ ذِيْ الشَّرَفِ الْأَشَمِّ وَالنُّوْرِ الْأَتَمِّ وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُحْكَمِ وَكَمَالِ النَّبِيِّيْنَ وَالْخِتَامِ سَيِّدِيْ وَلَدِ آدَمَ الَّذِيْ بُشِّرَ بِهِ عِيْسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَدَعَا لِبِعْثَتِهِ إِبْرَاهِيْمُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ حِيْنَ كَانَ يَرْفَعُ قَوَاعِدَ بَيْتِ اللهِ الْمُحَرَّمِ فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَعَلَى أَتْبَاعِهِ خَيْرِ الْأُمَمِ الَّذِيْنَ بَارَكَ اللهُ بِهِمْ كَافَّةَ النَّاسِ الْعَرَبِ مِنْهُمْ وَالْعَجَمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ لَمْ يَتَّخِذْ وَلَدًا وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ شَرِيْكٌ فِي الْمُلْكِ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ وَلِيٌّ مِنَ الذُّلِّ وَكَبِّرْهُ تَكْبِيْرًا

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ أَنْزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِيْ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِيْنُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَنَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْهِ وَنَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُوْرِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيْكَ لَهُ وَنَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُ اللهِ وَرَسُوْلُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ اللهُ تَعَالَى بِالْهُدَى وَدِيْنِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّيْنِ كُلِّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللهِ شَهِيْدًا فَصَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيْمًا كَثِيْرًا كَثِيْرًا

ثُمَّ أَمَّا بَعْدُ فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيْثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَإِنَّ شَرَّ الْأُمُوْرِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَإِنَّ كُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

يَقُوْلُ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِيْ كِتَابِهِ الْكَرِيْمِ بَعْدَ أَنْ أَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيْمِ:

"Indeed, man was created anxious: When evil touches him, impatient, And when good touches him, withholding, Except for those devoted to prayer"

اَللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الْمُصَلِّيْنَ الَّذِيْنَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَاتِهِمْ دَائِمُوْنَ وَبِشَحْلِيْ صَدْرِيْ وَيَسِّرْ لِيْ أَمْرِيْ وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِيْ يَفْقَهُوْا قَوْلِيْ

اَللَّهُمَّ ثَبِّتْنَا عِنْدَ الْمَوْتِ بِلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ اَللَّهُمَّ اجْعَلْنَا مِنَ الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوْا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ آمِيْنْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِيْنَ

Introduction to Human Psychology

There are a few ayahs that belong to Surah Al-Ma'arij and in my attempt to introduce these ayahs to you I'll share something with you in general and then come to these ayahs. Allah عز وجل created the human being and He didn't just create us like a machine. He created a lot of very intricate systems that all of us need to function. Our hearing has its own function, its own system. Our seeing works its own way. Our minds work its own way. Every part of our body has an entire mechanism behind it.

And part of that creation that Allah عز وجل made is He made the human body react to things. Of course, if you're eating unhealthy food your body is going to react a certain way. If you're in an extreme temperature your body is going to react by sweating or becoming uncomfortable. If something pokes you or stabs you or bleeds you you're going to have a knee-jerk reaction. You're going to immediately feel it. You're going to sense something.

So Allah عز وجل created this body with a sense of reaction. And that's part of the nature that Allah عز وجل created us with. It's a mercy of Allah that He did that because if we were in pain and we didn't know then we could even die and not realize that we're bleeding to death or we're drowning or something like that. So these sensations of discomfort that we have that make our bodies react even the sensation of hunger that makes us react to eat food or thirst that makes us react to drink. These are sensations Allah put inside of us for our own betterment.

The Spiritual Dimension of Creation

But there's another dimension to our creation. Of course Allah created our bodies. He created our cells. He created our skin and our bones and the blood that flows inside it. All of these things Allah created materially, physically. But there's another dimension to our creation which is our thoughts and our emotions and what goes on in our hearts and our minds. And Allah عز وجل created that too.

The feelings that you have whether they be anger they be sadness they be fear the thoughts that you have the analysis that you do the projections that you make and I make. All of those things are also actually something Allah عز وجل created and empowered us with just like our physical bodies. And sometimes in the Quran Allah will talk about the physical creation of the human being. And other times Allah will talk about how he made us as our personalities. What machinery did he put inside of our personalities in our hearts and our minds that we function a certain way.

And of course this is the study in modern times. Many would categorize this as the study of human psychology. How humans behave. How humans think. How humans feel. How they respond to certain situations. How they can navigate through their feelings and emotions and get better, etc. But in these ayat Allah عز وجل actually describes one dimension of human psychology and the way we were made. And that's really what this khutbah is about.

The Scene of Judgment Day

But before I get to that one last introductory thing. And that is that Allah عز وجل before these ayat that I want to share with you He described Judgment Day. And he described a very strange scene on Judgment Day similar to which has been described only one other place. But this place in particular Allah says:

"[The criminal would wish to ransom himself from the punishment of that Day by his children, And his wife and his brother, And his nearest kindred who shelter him, And whoever is on earth - all of them - [and then] it could save him.]"

The criminal is going to hope or wish for the notion that he may be able to give his own child or his children as ransom as pay for him not to be thrown into hell. And then he'll hope that he can offer his own spouse or he can offer his brother or he can offer his extended family the one that gave him protection and took care of him his entire time the ones who guarded him. He'd rather throw them and get them thrown into hell for him to be saved. And then Allah says and there will be people on that day that will be so shocked by what's coming. They'll say:

وَمَن فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ يُنجِيهِ

Take everyone on the earth. Let them go to hell. Just let me go. That's what they're going to say.

So this is describing an extremely reactionary response to the shock of Judgment Day. And from there Allah immediately transitions to the ayat I want to share with you.

The Nature of Human Reactivity

And those are:

"Indeed, mankind was created anxious"

The human being no doubt about it has been created reactionary. The human being was created and I'm roughly translating هلوع as reactionary. Human beings when something happens to them immediately they just want the problem to go away. Or if something good happens to us we immediately respond in ways that may not even be appropriate. We overreact and we're quick to react. We're quick to judge a situation and just do what we do. Just like physically if a needle touches you and you go like that. Just like that even in our minds and our hearts when something happens our thoughts and our emotions are sometimes out of control. And that statement by Allah is captured. That idea is captured by the word هلوع.

So before I go any further I'm going to try to explain some meanings behind this word because it's a very choice word Allah جل وعز depicted here in this ayah to describe what we're like all the time.

Classical Commentary on Halu'a

Ibn Ashur says in describing this word:

إِن الهلع قلة إمساك النفس عند اعتراء ما يحزنها أو ما يسرها أو توقع ذلك

What he means by all of this is the tendency of people to not be able to hold themselves back. Very little are they able to hold themselves back. When something that bothers you depresses you makes you sad makes you angry upsets you something negative happens. You're not able to control your reaction to that or your ability to withhold it is very very little.

Somebody said something absurd to you something offensive to you. You're sitting in a gathering and you're like how could you say that. And there's a tendency at the very least your face changes at the very least. For some people they'll explode right then and there and say Shut up! What did you say? And they'll become like that. You know, other people will say You could say that now but watch what I say about you online. And you know. Or whatever. They'll have reactions, right? And they're not able to withhold that reaction.

Maybe they can. It's like. It's like you know that kettle that's boiling and the lid is on but it's gonna blow eventually. Right? So your ability to withhold it becomes little by little little and little and little. And similarly when something good happens to you or something you were expecting you're not able to withhold your reaction of joy maybe your reaction to party your reaction to over-celebrate etc.

And so he's saying that we become reactionary at the first onset of good or bad news and we have very little control over that. We have very little brakes on it. And that's Allah's commentary first and foremost about this attitude of halwa.

The Created Nature of Reactivity

He also adds that Allah used the word خُلِق. The human being has been created this way. As if Allah programmed us this way. Like we're made to be this way. And that's an interesting thing to say:

كناية عن تمكن ذلك الخلق منه وغلبته على النفس

Meaning Allah said No doubt you were made this way to demonstrate that is actually your natural state. Like if you don't work on yourself, you're going to be reactionary. Like you're not able to withstand and be patient and be, you know to not let things get to you. You're not like that naturally. You're actually reactionary naturally.

I mean think about children. When something bothers them. They're not like I should sit and have sabr. They start crying right away or they throw a tantrum right away. Naturally as children grow then they have to develop that skill of reacting in a way that's more controlled right, to withhold. But that's not something that occurs to us naturally. Allah is describing that our predisposed state is actually of being very impatient and being very reactionary.

Training the Body and Soul

Now let me compare that a little bit with you know, the physical body. Our physical body is also very reactionary. It's also in a sense very weak. But you know there are people like you know people that are in the martial arts for example or boxing or whatever else. As they train their resistance for pain and their resistance for you know otherwise uncomfortable situations goes up. They're able to withstand more than a normal person can. The human body is capable of some incredible things to withstand some incredible endurance if it is put under regular training.

You can't go to the gym one time and then take a punch in the gut. You can't do it. You've gotta be at it for a long time and build that resistance and strength and then you're able to withstand otherwise something that would knock you out. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to take it.

And it's actually the same formula that Allah made for the physical body in the physical world. If you wanna get stronger you have to build your resistance. If you don't want the reaction of getting knocked out quickly you've gotta train yourself and get stronger. The same exact exercise program Allah created for our minds and our hearts. That we don't become reactionary with our thoughts with our speech because speech is an expression of what your thoughts are, right? If you're gonna blurt something out it's because that was going on in your mind or in your heart. And it's a lack of restraint a lack of resistance that you possess that you have the ability to have that is letting it come out. That's letting it just explode onto the scene.

Manifestations of Halu'a

And so now I wanna share with you how Mufassirun when our classical scholars looked at this word هلع human beings have been created هلوع extremely reactionary extremely quick to respond. How did they interpret this? There are several interpretations that they offered and all of them Ibn Ashur correctly points out are actually not the meaning of the word but certain manifestations of it. It's not the disease it's the symptoms. Like how do you see this come out in life?

1. Greed (الشره)

It's الشره. It's greed. Like human beings see an opportunity to make some money jump on it right away. Or somebody just simple example somebody's walking by they see like a a $20 bill floating or something they'll run across the street even if it's dangerous to go grab it before the wind takes it away. Right? This is هلوع.

2. Irritability (الضجر)

Similarly, الضجر irritability. This is an important one especially for younger people to get easily agitated. Like kids sitting in the backseat of a car Could you tell her to stop? He's still staring at me. You get annoyed so quickly. You get agitated and angry so quickly. What people say. Some people will literally come and tell me You know, that person's face bothers me I can't stand it I don't want to come here. Like that easily you get agitated by the presence of someone by the voice of someone by the words of someone.

Sometimes people in your own family you just hear one word they say السلام عليكم like oh god you again. They just said سلام man chill out. They didn't say anything else. But you become easily irritated by anything they have to say. Like you know young people they'll come home from college or high school or whatever Mom says how was your day? Mom, could you please just stop? Okay I had a long day I don't