Sunrise & Sunset

Sunrise & Sunset - Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

Opening Du'a

"O Allah, make me among those who believe and do righteous deeds, and advise each other to truth and advise each other to patience. O Allah, strengthen us at the time of death when we say there is no god but Allah. O Allah, expand for me my breast and ease for me my affair and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech."

Introduction: The Meaning of Tasbih

With remembering Allah, it's very fundamental to us to declare the praise and gratitude of Allah and to declare His perfection. Just some things that everybody should know or remind themselves of in terms of the phrase subhanAllah, it comes from sabaha which actually means to float. And when we declare the subhan of Allah which can be roughly translated, I don't like the translation glory be to God, I don't think it covers the word glory, but it really has closer to do with perfection.

That you know when something is floating it stays in the same place, it doesn't go down, it stays exactly where it's supposed to be. The idea of tasbeeh is that we think of Allah the same way, that Allah is perfect no matter what's happening in our life. And when something is said that is inappropriate about Allah, if somebody says something that is equal to shirk, something that shouldn't be said and it's blasphemous or offensive to Allah, then you know traditionally historically the Muslims when they heard something like that their immediate response was to say subhanAllah.

Allah's Perfection Above Shirk

So subhanAllah was said as if I disagree with you, that is offensive because Allah is too perfect for you to say something like that. Which is why in the Quran sometimes when people would commit shirk Allah says:

"Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him."

You know that Allah is way too perfect above the things they kinds of shirk they do to Him. So the idea of saying subhanAllah is you and I declaring, I confess and I admit that Allah is perfect.

I admit to the perfection of Allah, the flawlessness of Allah. So this idea of tanzih, of removing all flaw from Allah is at the heart of tasbih. Now having said that, Allah on different occasions in the Quran tells us to remember His perfection, or to call on Him as the one who is perfect, especially in the morning and in the night time, or in the evening time.

The Command to Remember Allah Morning and Evening

"So exalted is Allah when you reach the evening and when you reach the morning. And to Him is [due all] praise in the heavens and the earth and at twilight and when you are at noon."

There are ayat, multiple ayat like this in which Allah will say, declare His perfection in the morning time, when the sun comes up and in the evening time when the sun goes down. Multiple occasions, declares perfection before the sun comes up and right before the sun goes down. Now why is that? Why are those two times so significant?

The Legacy of Ibrahim (Peace Be Upon Him)

There are a few things to say about that. The first of them I'll say is that many of our traditions in our faith and much of our worship, it actually goes back to the legacy of Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)

And Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) lived in a town which the Bible describes as Ur. The name of the town is not mentioned in the Qur'an. But the town worshipped, as the Bible says, worshipped many idols. They had many, many idols. And actually some more recent archaeological digs claim that they found Ur and they found literally idols the size of maybe a doll to the size of a person. And everything in between.

Ibrahim's Demonstration Against Sun Worship

Thousands upon thousands of idols. And it's interesting that the largest idols that they found are actually a person that looks like a crown of a moon, another person like a crown that looks like Jupiter, which is in Arabic called Kawkab, and another person with a crown that looks like the sun. And remarkably in the Qur'an, Allah does not describe all of their idols.

He does mention that they used to have Asnan, but he does mention that Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) showed how false it is to worship the sun and the moon and the star. You know, Ra'a ash-Shams, Ra'a al-Qamar, Ra'a al-Kawkab. Those three are the ones that he highlights, and they're the three ones that were the biggest statues in the town.

So the idea is they had many, many gods, but the main ones they believed were the ones in the sky, meaning the sun and the moon and the star, the large star. So the thing about Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ),and let's go back a little bit, you know, ancient societies around the world understood that for the human eye, we experience this universe, the earth that we see around us, mountains, trees, birds, etc., etc., but nothing the human eye or human experience sees or appreciates is more powerful than the sun. That's the largest, most magnificent creation of Allah in our experience that we can see.

The Sun's Temporary Nature

It's a mighty source of endless energy. And that's why so many societies historically, pagan societies actually used to worship the sun, including the pharaohs, they used to worship the sun, because it's such a mighty source of heat and power, that they believed the sun god Ra, and the pharaohs believed that they were children of that god. But Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)'s society has a similar belief.

They also believe that the sun is a kind of god. And Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) demonstrates to them that how can you worship something that is impermanent? It goes away. And he's actually, you know, some people misunderstand the story.

He wasn't saying like, hada rabbi, hada akbar, this is my god. You know, the Sunday school version of the story, Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) believed that the sun was his god at first. And then he realized by the evening that it sets.

So he says, I can't worship something. I can't love something and I can't worship something that sets down. Ibrahim (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ) is one of the most intelligent human beings that ever lived.

Ibrahim's True Purpose

It's not like until he waited a moment of time to realize, oh my god, it disappeared, what am I supposed to do now? He already knew what's gonna set. He was demonstrating how silly it is to believe in the divinity of the sun to those who are around him. He wasn't doing this for himself.

This wasn't his process of discovery. He was showing others why this doesn't make any sense. He was demonstrating, (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)

In any case, when he describes that the sun goes down, and the sun's light starts disappearing, and darkness falls all over the earth, and it's a temporary thing, he wants to draw people's attention to something(عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ). That Allah, the one who's worthy of being worshipped, doesn't go through phases, doesn't change. And who He is, what the sun is to us, a source of heat and a source of light, changes in a matter of hours.

Allah's Permanence vs. Sun's Change

It goes away, and then it comes back for a few hours, and then it goes away again for a few hours. In other words, my relationship with the sun and the earth's relationship with the sun changes constantly, it's going through back and forth. But I want a relationship with someone who doesn't change, who's perfect, who's always the same, who doesn't experience this kind of up and down.

And so he's calling on people to understand that Allah is this permanent perfect being that's worthy of being worshipped. Now Allah in a sense reminds us of that, because the times of the day where the sun is actually going through a transition, light is turning into dark, or dark is turning into light.

The Significance of Transitional Times

It's the times where we notice that the sun's... we're reminded of the sun's temporary nature. It is at those times particularly that Allah says, remind yourself of the one who's always perfect. The sky over you is

going to change. The way the world looks in front of you in the daytime will be completely the way... it's not the way it's going to look at night time.

I'm reminded one time I was invited to a community on an island to travel and visit. It's a very beautiful island. And we arrived there at 11 o'clock at night. And they drove us through the mountains to the place we were staying. And the place looks scary, terrifying. There's no light outside, pitch black.

The only thing you see is the street lights in front of you, some homes that are lit in the distance. It's extremely, extremely scary. Because the darkness creates a kind of fear of the unknown.

And the same place when morning came was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Because when light comes, it completely changes your perspective. It becomes a completely different place.

Life's Changes and Allah's Constancy

So Allah describes to us in these two moments, the time of the sun setting and the time of the sun coming up. He describes to us or He encourages us to remind ourselves that this life goes through changes. It goes through dark and light.

But Allah is always the same. This is the time to remind yourself of Allah's perfection. So, subhanAllahi حين

Light and Darkness as Universal Metaphors

The other remarkable thing is that Allah calls on the imagery of light and darkness throughout the Qur'an. You know, in any culture, any civilization, including English literature, of course, ancient Arabic literature, Persian literature, you look at different kinds of literature around the world, light is associated with some things and darkness is associated with some other things. Darkness can be associated with hopelessness.

Darkness can be associated with evil. It can be associated with fear, or confusion, or maybe a worry about the unknown. When someone says, they're going through a dark time, virtually in any language that somebody would understand, they're in darkness means they're not in a good place.

Or when you say, I see a darkness on their face. Or you say about someone, I see a light on their face. There's no light on their face.

You can tell that these two things are opposites. Allah, He made this world experience light every day, and He made this world experience darkness every single day. Every single day.

Life's Inevitable Alternation Between Light and Darkness

And that's a powerful reminder that you and I, in our life, are going to experience light and we're also going to experience darkness. That's a part of life. That's how Allah wanted things to be.

And no matter how bright the lights are on the earth, when you're landing on a plane, in the middle of the night and all the city lights are on, no matter how bright those lights are, no matter how much energy we human beings spend to light up the city at night time, the sky over them still remains a black blanket. You can't compete with Allah's light that comes in the morning. The sun that comes in the morning.

You can't compete with it. There's no way. And so let's talk, I want to use this opportunity to remind myself and you a little bit about what it means to have light and what it means to have darkness.

Spiritual States: Light and Darkness

You know, light and darkness could be imagery for spiritual states when we are closer to Allah, when we feel like we're connected to Allah, when you're praying and you can actually feel tears come down your eyes that are stemming from your heart. There's a kind of light inside you. There's an ease and a comfort inside you.

There's a reliance on Allah. There's a contentment. I'm grateful for whatever you've given me. I'm grateful for the condition I'm in. There are times like that that we experience that kind of light in our life. That's spiritually you're in a state of light.

But then there are other times a person feels disconnected from Allah. Even when they're praying, they can't feel anything. They don't even feel motivated to make du'a.

They can lie here in bed, it's Fajr time, they know they're supposed to get up and they're just lying there staring at the ceiling, not being able to get up. That can happen. A person experiences a state of darkness.

The Reality of Spiritual Ups and Downs

And you know what sometimes? Allah is describing, no matter how close you can get to Allah, no matter how good your connection to Allah can get, there can be a time coming where that connection will become weak. This is not permanent. You and I cannot hold on to that state, that closeness to Allah permanently.

There will be ups and downs. We are going to experience turbulence on this journey. And on the other side, there could be someone who feels like, I've become so far away from Allah.

I'm so drowned in darkness, I'm so far away from Him, that I'm just drowned in sin, and I keep messing up over and over and over again. I'm like وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَى )Quran 93:2) - Allah swears by the night, but it becomes lifeless. I feel no faith inside me, I feel no light inside me.

And even then Allah reminds

Your master has not abandoned you. He didn't say goodbye to you. He's not upset. He hasn't given up on you. There's another light coming after that. Nobody is beyond hope.

Allah's Power to Transform Hearts

Just like light and day can be so absolute. I mean, when the sun comes up, there's no place that isn't lit. And when the sun goes away, there's no place that isn't dark.

And yet, it completely transforms by Allah's command every single day. So no one, human beings should know, if Allah can do that for the entire earth, He can do that for my heart. You know, that lamp in the sky that He can light up and He can bring out, is similar in some sense to the lamp Allah put inside my chest.

Which is why in Surah An-Nur, ironically the surah of light, He calls our heart a lamp. He describes it like a lamp that's lit up. Now, that's one state, one way to understand this analogy of light and darkness.

And especially when to remember Allah in times when the sun is transitioning into light and it's transitioning into darkness. But there are other important lessons here. Light and darkness don't have to just be in spiritual states.

Emotional States: Light and Darkness

In our relationship with Allah, they can also be our emotional states. A person can fall into hopelessness and misery. A person can be overwhelmed with grief.

Many of you have experienced things in your life that are like very deep scars and physical scars, if you get cut, Allah made the body in a way that over time it'll start healing. It may be a mark, but over time it actually gets better. When the human body breaks a bone and then you put it back in place, actually those joints that are fixed again by Allah's permission, those are the strongest part of the bone now.

It's more reinforced than anything else. That's how Allah made the human body. But sometimes emotional injuries, things that were said to you that hurt you, experiences that hurt you, that caused you pain, loss that caused you pain.

Yaqub's Enduring Grief

It could be something that lingers inside you like a cut that just won't heal. Like it feels the same every day. I'm reminded of Yaqub (عليه السلام) who would cry about the loss of Yusuf (عليه السلام) so many years later like he just lost him.

So much so that his sons, other sons couldn't understand why are you still crying about this like it just happened.

Are you gonna keep remembering, missing Yusuf, remembering him? Like you're gonna kill yourself? What are you doing? They would get upset with him. And that tells us something.

If a prophet of Allah (عليه السلام) His spiritual connection with Allah is flawless. I mean he's a prophet of Allah. And yet sadness is still a part of his life.

Spiritual Health vs. Emotional Pain

So just because you're spiritually healthy and your iman is in a good place, and your connection to Allah is in a good place, that does not mean that your sadness has gone away. Or that your pain has gone away. Or that your emotions aren't where there's, you know, those emotional pains can be erased.

Those two things are two separate things. Which is why light and darkness on the one hand is about our relationship with Allah. But on the other hand, it's also about other scars, other pain, other difficulty.

And sometimes Allah makes us experience those kinds of dark nights for a long time. But even then, Allah promises that He brings about what? Day again. He brings day again.

The Story of Zakariya (Peace Be Upon Him)

And even when He brings day, and particularly the ayah I recited to you, actually has to do with the story of Zakariya (عليه السلام). And Zakariya was a man who loved Allah, spent his time (عليه السلام) in worship, teaching, and teaching the religion of Allah, teaching the book of Allah. That's what he did with his life. His life essentially revolved around the house of worship, which you can call the masjid of that time.

You know. As a matter of fact, even when the angels came to him, they came to him in the mihrab, his usual place to be. You know, the place where he prays.

Now, all he wanted for so, so many years was someone who can take charge of the responsibilities he's carrying. My hair is turned ash. You know, I've gotten old.

I've got a foot in the grave already, and I don't see anyone. You know

Everybody that's left behind me, I'm not so sure they can do the responsibilities that I was carrying. Ya Allah, if I can only find someone to inherit my legacy, so I can teach them, and they can actually learn the way I lead them to, so they can carry this responsibility properly.

Zakariya's Long Wait and Allah's Answer

So give me someone who can do that. He didn't think it was going to be a child. But he wanted a child for so long, but his wife couldn't give birth.

And so he's gotten to old age. And by the way, not just for spiritual reasons, some people want to have a child. And they're not able to have a child. And they can live with that pain for many, many years. And

Allah decides that right before he's going to die in his very old age, that Allah decides that He's going to give him a child. And the angels come and tell him he's going to have a child.

And finally it seems like there was this years of night, and now it's about to turn into day. It's supposed to be light now, it's hope now. And Allah tells him, the sign from Allah is you're not going to talk to people for three days.

But while you're not going to talk to people for three days, interestingly, He tells him

Continue to declare how perfect Allah is in the evening time and the morning time. You keep remembering Allah in the evening time and in the morning. Why?

The Illusion of Perfect Solutions

Because you know when you and I hope for something, we really pray to Allah something works out, we make dua for it, we ask Allah for it, and in your head you tell yourself, if this works out, if this thing happens, if my daughter can just get married, if this one can graduate, or if they just get this job, or whatever else, you have something that you're hoping works out.

And if it works out, everything is going to be perfect. Things are going to be good. That's what's going on in your head.

You're telling yourself this all the time. And Allah says, no, even when you're about to have a son, understand something, nothing will ever be perfect because perfection is only for Allah. So remind yourself that when night turns into day, day will also eventually turn into night.

So don't forget that. Just because you got what you wanted, now everything is perfect. You're deluding yourself.

Perfection and permanence only belongs to Allah. That's why

Because you know, you might think after you're waiting to get something for so long, once you have it, problem solved. But no

Allah created the human being in labor, in difficulty.

Yes, we want things, we want things to make life better, but life is never going to be perfect. It's never going to be without problems.

The Devil's Whispers During Dark Times

Now what does the devil do? The devil uses your dark times to tell you, you know, he comes to you, you start saying to yourself, you think you're saying it to yourself, it's actually the devil telling you this.

He's telling you, well, God used to be pretty good with you, remember? I don't know why he's so angry at you now. You got sick, your kids don't like you, this happened, that happened, I don't know why Allah is

doing this to me. I was in light and all of a sudden he keeps throwing me into different kinds of darkness.

I don't get it, I'm making the same du'a, I'm still praying, I haven't changed, why has Allah changed towards me? These are the times you and I have to remind ourselves in those morning and evening times, the world around you will change. The one who never changed is Allah. Allah never changed, you think that Allah changed, just because your surroundings changed.

Allah's Constant Love

Just because you were surrounded by darkness, you thought Allah has changed. Just because you're surrounded by light, you're like, oh, finally Allah is good to me again. No, no, no, Allah has always been the same.

Allah loves you just as much when you're in darkness as He does when you're in light. When you're going through difficulty, Allah is still loving you. When you're in light, Allah is still loving you.

The Prophet's Example During Hardship

Which is why the opposite, you know, Zakariya (عليه السلام) was told, asked to remember Allah's perfection in those two times. And Rasulullah (ﷺ), when the insults were getting overwhelming, when the Quraysh would say the most horrible, horrible things to him. You know, when people say hurtful things to you, they hurt a lot.

Especially if you're a dignified person, if you're used to hearing cuss words all the time, it doesn't affect you. But here if you're a dignified person and you hear insults, it really cuts at you. Rasulullah (ﷺ) is a dignified person.

And he's hearing all kinds of horrible insults and allegations against him constantly. Every time he tries to do Allah's work, he is met with humiliation from the Quraysh. You know, sometimes the words can hurt more than a beating does.

And when that beating is getting so overwhelming for him, what does Allah say to him?

Just be patient over everything they say, just withstand it. And then he tells him, just keep remembering that Allah is perfect right before the sun comes up and right before it goes down.

قَبْلَ الْغُرُوبِ You know. Why would Allah tell him that? Because Allah is telling him, look, there is a night, there is a darkness, there is a hopelessness, but there will be light again. And then difficulty can come again, and light will come again.

The Test of Maintaining Faith

And this is just the journey between darkness and light that Allah created for every human being, for every single human being. Also almost a test, whether or not because of your situation do you let go of Allah or not.

The Wisdom of Prayer Times

One of the most beautiful things in our religion that keeps us connected to Allah is our five prayers. Everybody knows that. Our daily connection to Allah is five prayers. And of those five prayers, when we pray them together, two of them are silent. Dhuhr and Asr is silent. And Maghrib and Isha and Fajr are not silent. They're loud.

You notice the times when the world is surrounded by darkness, we recite the Qur'an louder. You notice that? And Qur'an is called what? Light. Qur'an Allah says,

Believe in Allah. Believe in the Messenger. And believe in the light that we sent down.

So when we are reciting Qur'an from our heart, we're actually increasing light around us. We need more light when there's more darkness. So when the sky starts getting darker, and we're still in darkness, then we increase the light of our hearts by reciting Qur'an even louder. It's such a beautiful religion.

It's such a profound reality that Allah has given us in our prayers. And so I remind myself and I remind you of those special times. The morning time and the evening time.

Night Prayer: The Closest Connection

And particularly what's being alluded to in the Qur'an seems to be the Fajr prayer and the Maghrib prayer particularly. But especially all the times when there is darkness outside. Which is why the closest prayers to Allah are at the dead of the night when the world is surrounded by darkness.

That's the Tahajjud, that's Qiyam al-Layl, right?

The Sun and Moon: Signs in the Sky

Now the last beautiful thing I want to share with you is Allah, even though the sky turns dark, Allah keeps telling us in the Qur'an that Allah made two remarkable signs in the sky, the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon. He keeps referring to them over and over again.

And you know what's amazing? Of course the sun is a source of light, we get that. But when the sky is surrounded by darkness, and we're blanketed by darkness, which can be in our personal life, it can be hopelessness, it can be anger, it can be previous scars, it can be anything. It could be a trauma that's not letting go of you.

It could be any of those things. Even in those times, if you look at the sky, if you have to look, it's not so obvious. The sun, you don't have to... you know where it is.

But the moon, you gotta find it sometimes. You gotta find it. But when you find it, that moon is not a light of its own.

The Moon's Reflection: Hope in Darkness

That moon is getting light from the sun. And so it's reminding you that the sun is not dead, that the light of Allah is not gone, it's there, even when you're in the dark. Even when you're in the dark, that light is still there.

SubhanAllah. It's a remarkable reminder to us that even in dark times, don't think light is missing. It's there, you just have to look for it. There's more effort required to look for it. And it becomes the most beautiful thing in the sky.

The Prophet as the Sun

You know, Rasulullah ﷺ, this is the last thing I'll share with you.

Rasulullah ﷺ was compared in the Qur'an to the sun.

You are a caller to Allah by Allah's permission, and you are a brilliant lamp. Siraj in the Qur'an is used for the sun.

It's actually used for the sun.

In Surah An-Naba Allah describes, He put in the sky the sun. The light that we get, the light of the Qur'an that we receive through the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is being described like the light of the sun.

And when the Messenger was among us, it was like a day. The best, the most fortunate people were the ones who got to experience that sun directly. They saw him.

They lived with him. They heard his voice. They didn't hear Qur'an from a book, or a recording, or some reciter.

They heard it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Sometimes they'd be sitting with him, and his teacher, Jibreel (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ), would be in the same room. That would happen too. Those people experienced the sun.

They experienced the brilliance of light. And then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is no longer in our company. He's no longer in our midst.

Believers as the Moon

Now we're by ourselves. But you know what? When we're no longer in his company, what's still there? The moon. And it still reflects what? The light of the Prophet ﷺ. The light of the sun is still reflected on the moon.

In the darkest of times, the believer, we are actually being compared to the moon, by the way. You and I are being compared to the moon. You and I are supposed to reflect the light of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for the world to find light.

Where is the world gonna find light? It's gonna find it in people. Why did Allah compare you and I to lamps? Why lamps? You know the old Arab saying,

In the morning time, the lamp is irrelevant. You don't need a lamp in the morning.

You don't need a lamp at night time. The believer, it seems, the believer was to be tested in this life, surrounded by dark situations, and instead of becoming hopeless because of dark situations, in fact the believer was supposed to be the lamp that illuminates the dark situation. We were supposed to be that lamp.

Our Source of Light

And where are we supposed to get our fuel? Our fuel is supposed to come from a pure source.

That's Qur'an. That's the legacy of our Messenger ﷺ.

That becomes our fuel, and that illuminates us. That gets rid of our own darkness. Not only does it get rid of our darkness, we become a source of light for others. So when they're in the dark, they can feel better.

They can find hope in us. They can find some guidance in us. They can find some love, some mercy, some courtesy in us.

Reflecting the Prophet's Qualities

All of those remarkable attributes of our Prophet ﷺ are supposed to be reflected in you and me in some way. In the way he used to just turn to people and care for them and listen to them and be patient with them and forgive them. Those qualities are supposed to now emulate in ourselves and people should find that light in us.

That's what's supposed to happen. So I remind myself and I remind you of the value of turning to Allah, especially in the morning and especially in the evening. May Allah make us a people that declare His perfection the way He deserves for it to be declared.

Closing Du'a

And may Allah overlook all of our shortcomings.