With Great Power Comes a Greater Test From Allah | Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan

The Power of Propaganda and the Test of Authority

For superpowers, it's not their money that gives them power. It's not their weapon that gives them power. It's their propaganda that gives them power.

When they can convince people they are high like the gods or they're gods themselves, then they remain unchallenged. The greatest threat to national security for them is the one person who destroyed their entire propaganda machine. That's why the generals didn't say, hurt the Israelites.

They said, let's kill Musa himself. Allah is saying, you don't have power right now and clearly you also don't have taqwa. And you think when you have power you're going to have taqwa? Maybe Allah will give you the same power He gave Fir'aun.

Maybe He'll make you a superpower. Maybe there will be people that were trapped under you. Maybe you'll become the zalim and they'll become the mazlum.

Maybe that will happen. And then Allah will see if you're any different from Fir'aun.

And the leaders of the people of Pharaoh said, "Do you leave Moses and his people to spread corruption in the land, and leave you and your gods?" He said, "We will kill their sons and take their women, for above them we are dominant." Moses said to his people, "Seek help from Allah and be patient. Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah, He gives it to whom He wills of His servants, and the end is for the righteous." They said, "We were harmed before you came to us and after you came to us." He said, "Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the earth, and see how you work."

Context: The Story of Musa and the Crisis in Egypt

Today's khutbah is dedicated to a few ayat from Surah Al-A'raf. That's the 7th surah of the Quran. And it is a portion of the story of Musa alayhi salaam.

It's a very interesting part of the career of Musa alayhi salaam. So I want to set the stage for you. Many of you, probably all of you are familiar with the story of Musa alayhi salaam.

This is an episode of panic after the magicians lost to Musa alayhi salaam. So when the magicians lost, then the government of Egypt was panicking. And the Muslims of that time, the Banu Israel, they were also panicking.

There were two different kinds of panic. One happening from Fir'aun's government, and the other happening from the Banu Israel, who were the Muslims of that time. And what Allah does is He places both of these episodes of panic next to each other in Surah Al-A'raf, one after the other.

The Religious System of Ancient Egypt

But before that, it's important to know some things about the religion of Fir'aun. I won't go into too many details, but a few things I think are important. They will help all of us understand what happened a little bit better. In the religion of the Fir'aun, the role of Fir'aun, the job of Fir'aun is to be the guide of Egypt, and to be the protector of Egypt.

And it used to be symbolized by a staff that he used to hold in his hand when he sat on the throne. You may have seen kings in the old days, they sit on the throne and they have a staff in their hand. The staff represented the guidance of Fir'aun, and the power of Fir'aun, the protection of Fir'aun.

The throne of Fir'aun used to have a snake on it, on top. So there's a long throne, and if you see archives and archaeological evidence of these thrones, they have a snake on top. The staff was sacred.

Another very important thing you need to know about this, there's lots of things to learn about the ancient Egyptian religion, because the Quran makes quite a big subject out of the ancient Egyptians, doesn't it? But just one more thing you should know is that for them, the magician and the priest for their religion was the same person. So in the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, when they accused Rasulullah of being a sha'ir or a sahir, that's one category, sha'ir is a different category, there's different categories. But in the ancient Egyptian world, the most respected people were the priests, and they were also the magicians, sahara.

These were the religious leadership. So when you read the Quran about the sahara in the time of Fir'aun, you're reading about their elite religious leadership. It's also important to note that even today, after so many thousands of years, you find that most of Egyptian architecture has disappeared.

But one of the few things that always survives are their tombs and their temples, their religious buildings, are still around today. This tells you something about what they did, they invested billions into building their religious infrastructure. But the question is, you think you would build a lot of money, invest a lot of money in something that will give you a return on investment.

The Propaganda Machine

Why are you spending so much money to build a temple? Why are the religious leadership the most important leadership? Because for Fir'aun, the most important part of holding on to power was to tell his people a certain kind of story. And the story was that Fir'aun is a child of the gods. He's the child of the gods, and he's the reason there's protection in Egypt.

He's the reason there's guidance in Egypt. The Nile flows, and it brings crop, and it brings prosperity to Egypt, all of it is because of Fir'aun. And who is giving the khutbah every week to tell the people that Fir'aun is the reason we have all this? It's the magicians.

And so the propaganda machine, the broadcast machinery of ancient Egypt was the temples. This is how the message was getting out to that society to maintain this fear of Fir'aun, this respect for Fir'aun, this awe for Fir'aun. When Musa alayhi salaam came and challenged him the first time, what was in his hand? A staff.

What did that staff turn into? A snake. In a moment he destroyed the entire religious mythology of Egypt. The two things that were sacred to them, the snake protects Egypt, the staff is the guidance of Egypt.

Now the guidance and the protection of Egypt is in the hand of Allah's Rasul Musa alayhi salaam. So in order to defeat him, the strategy was let's get the best of all of our religious leadership. From every single place. Every single one of the religious leaders from all the villages, all the towns of Egypt, all of them are gathered together to challenge Musa alayhi salaam. And in one day, in a single event, not only did they become believers, so the entire religious leadership became believers.

It's hard for me to imagine. I live in the United States and I imagine if all the church leadership in America got together one day and within 10 minutes all of them became Muslims and started doing dawah right away. It's like shocking.

You understand how that would be shocking. That happened. And now that's shocking enough.

What happened on top of that is, Fir'aun immediately says, torture these people and chop up the right arm and the left leg and hang them in the streets. So 10 minutes ago, these were the most respected people in Egyptian society. These were the religious people and the leadership of Egyptian society from the village to the cities, everywhere.

And 10 minutes later, they're hanging in the street. Their body parts are bleeding out. The entire nation is shocked.

In a sense, Fir'aun destroyed his own religion. You didn't even have to... I mean by killing the sahara, he's actually killed his own story. Who's gonna do the propaganda for him now? Who's gonna convince the people that he's a god now? Where's that gonna come from? He destroyed his own leadership.

The Emergency Meeting of the Generals

That's why there was a panic. There were two kinds of leadership in Egypt. There was the leadership that was religious, the sahara. There was the military leadership, the mala', the generals. The only leadership left now is the military one. The religious one is all dead.

They're gone. So they have an emergency meeting. وَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ مِن قَوْمِ فِرْعَوْنَ أَتَذَرُ مُوسَى وَقَوْمَهُ لِيُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَيَذَرَكَ وَآلِهَتَكَ That's the ayah I read to you.

The generals from the nation of Fir'aun start questioning Fir'aun. You know in the Quran, you find about Fir'aun, you don't question him. But now his own leadership is questioning him.

Are you gonna leave Musa and his followers? You're gonna leave Musa and his entire nation? You're just gonna let them stay? They have caused so much chaos in the country, and they have left you, and they have left your gods, they have left your religion. In other words, now we have to ask ourselves a very important question. Musa alayhi salaam did not have an army.

Musa alayhi salaam did not have millions in money. He didn't have media influence. He didn't own any businesses. He didn't have economic strength. He didn't have political strength. He didn't have social. None of the factors of strength are there. And the Egyptians are the mightiest military on earth at the time. And their generals are having a panic.

I would think the generals should have a panic if the enemy ships are approaching from the shores. The generals should have a panic if another empire is approaching and coming and attacking you. Or they're stealing your trade, or bankrupting your society.

Why is this nation, this superpower is panicking because of the people they consider slaves. They consider them slaves. And they call Musa alayhi salaam just another magician.

That's what they called him. Okay, fine, he's got some magic. But we've seen that before. It's not something special. He's just another priest from their perspective, right? Then why have an emergency meeting? And I'd like all of us to remember why. For superpowers, it's not their money that gives them power.

It's not their weapon that gives them power. It's their propaganda that gives them power. The most important thing to them is their story.

When they can convince people that nothing can touch them, when they can convince people they are high like the gods, or they're gods themselves, then they remain unchallenged. And they know that they don't have the resources, they don't have the, no amount of money, no amount of resources, no amount of power can maintain this government if the people no longer believe our story. And so long as Musa is around, and these people are around, these Muslims are around, our story is going to get questioned now.

And you made it even worse. So the greatest threat to national security for them is the one person who destroyed their entire propaganda machine. We have to wipe him out.

That's why the generals didn't say, hurt the Israelites. They said, let's kill Musa himself. Are you gonna leave Musa? وَقَالُوا لِيُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَيَذَرَكَ وَآلِهَتَكَ And Fir'aun, he could have responded at the time and said, okay, yeah, I think you're right, I think we have to kill Musa.

But you can tell, not only did Fir'aun love Musa alayhi salaam, what we learned in Surah Taha, but there's something else, he's also afraid of Musa alayhi salaam now. Fir'aun is afraid of Musa alayhi salaam. How do we know that? He saw when Musa alayhi salaam came into his own court, he defeated him.

Then he gathered all of the best religious leadership that has been loyal to him for generations. And they flipped on him in one day, in front of Musa alayhi salaam. They flipped on him.

And they were ready to die in their loyalty to Musa alayhi salaam, in that moment. Because he threatened them with death, they could have gone back and left Islam. No, no, no, go ahead, do whatever you want.

Fir'aun's Strategy: Psychological Warfare

He realizes Musa alayhi salaam has this power that I've never seen before. I'm not willing to mess with Musa alayhi salaam. So the generals were telling him, kill Musa alayhi salaam and his people.

What's Fir'aun's response? قَالَ سَنُقَتِّلُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ وَنَسْتَحْيِي نِسَاءَهُمْ وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ He said, we're gonna kill their children. We won't kill him. We won't kill all of them either, we'll just kill their children.

Targeting children became a policy of Fir'aun. Killing children became a policy. And you have to ask, what do you get from targeting children? That is psychological warfare.

You absolutely devastate a people, you psychologically break them, you emotionally break them when you kill their children. A person is willing to die for this cause, does that mean they're willing to see their child be ripped apart for this cause? It's a different question. So he wants to defeat these people mentally.

You see, one way to control a population is propaganda which affects the mind. It affects how they feel or how they think. And even if you're gonna go to war, it's not just for the sake of war or winning land.

You wanna go to war in a way that breaks people's mind, breaks people's spirit. That's why kill their children. Most effective way he could find.

وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ We will be dominant above them. You wonder, when he says, وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ They were already dominant over the Israelites. It's not like the Israelites have their own political entity, they didn't.

They had no power. So when he says, وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ That's already true. But it's as if in this ayah he's giving a future tense. We're gonna kill their children and then we will truly be dominant over them. Meaning even though we're physically already dominant over them, politically already dominant over them, now we will be psychologically dominant over them. Because it's actually a psychological war.

Musa alayhi salaam is freeing the minds of the people. And he needs to enslave the minds of the people again. This is their panic.

The Panic of the Muslim Community

Very briefly, I'll explain the other side of the panic. That's the panic of the Muslim community of the time. Banu Israel are the Muslims of that time.

Musa alayhi salaam comes to them and says, actually before I tell you what he says, let me tell you what's happening. Fir'aun is angry. Fir'aun just killed his most important people, his religious leadership in public.

That happened. The Muslims of the time were treated like second class citizens or slaves. Third class citizens. If you're one of them, you're looking at those priests hanging in the street, you're thinking, man, he doesn't even spare those people. They're from his skin color. They're from the elite backgrounds.

He didn't even spare them. We're nothing to him. He's just gonna bulldoze all of us. Musa alayhi salaam has gotten us in a lot of trouble here. Because he made Fir'aun so angry, he even killed his own people. So definitely he's gonna kill all of us.

So they're panicking. The Muslims are panicking. Because when you're facing a tyrant, and you see that the tyrant is getting angry, it starts making you nervous.

And one of the solutions that comes to some of their minds is, maybe if we go to Fir'aun, and we show our loyalty and say, hey, I know that Musa gave you a hard time. And I know I'm from Bani Israel. But I don't like Musa that much.

I even brought my mega hat. Make Egypt great again. I'm on your side. I'm one of the good ones. I don't oppose you that much. Maybe they're trying to seek help from... Because you know what happens? There's a Stockholm syndrome, right? You seek protection from the one who's holding you hostage to begin with.

They're hostages of Fir'aun. But they're like, well, he's got the power. He's got the country. He's got the land. He's got the military. Maybe we should beg him for safety.

So the one who's killing you is the one you go begging for safety. Yeah. So they're thinking about doing this.

Musa's Response: Seek Help from Allah

Musa alayhi salaam says, وَقَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ اسْتَعِينُوا بِاللَّهِ Seek help from Allah. If you hear seek help from Allah any other time, it's a general statement. But in this climate, this means, stop thinking about seeking help from Fir'aun.

Learn to seek help from Allah. This is the challenge between who are you gonna run to? Are you gonna run to your Fir'aun? Or are you gonna run to Allah? وَاصْبِرُوا And stay firm. Stay on your religion.

Keep going. In other words, okay, okay, okay. I won't seek help from Fir'aun. But if I look like I'm right next to Musa, then if he's angry at Musa, he's gonna be angry at all the people that are standing next to Musa alayhi salaam. Maybe I should do a little bit of social distancing from Musa. Stay at a little bit of distance so that even if they get people that are around Musa alayhi salaam, I'll be at a safe distance a little bit. I wanna be Muslim but not too Muslim.

No. Because I'm not that serious about. Maybe if they think I'm not that religious or not that loyal to Musa, maybe they'll leave me. He's saying, وَاصْبِرُوا. Stay firm on your deen.

Keep going. Persevere. إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُورِثُهَا مَن يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ The land belongs to Allah. He gives it to whoever He wants from among His slaves. It's a very powerful statement from Musa alayhi salaam. In the Egyptian religion, the land belongs to Fir'aun. And how do you know it belongs to Fir'aun? Because the river flows, because the crop grows, because everything is working fine.

That's why we know it's supposed to belong to Fir'aun. That's the religious mentality. Musa alayhi salaam says, the right way to think about it is who has power and who does not have power.

What's the formula in the Quran? What's Allah's formula? The land actually, the world, the power, the government, rule, belongs to Allah. And He gives it to whoever He wants among His slaves. When He wants, He'll give it to a prophet like Sulaiman alayhi salaam. When He wants, He'll give it to Dawood alayhi salaam. When He wants, He'll give it to Nimrod.

When He wants, He'll give it to Fir'aun. This is up to Allah. He gives it to whoever He wants. And so He's telling them, He didn't even say to them, like, you know, you would think He would give them a motivational khutbah, don't worry, the earth will belong to the muttaqeen. The earth will belong to the believers. No, no, no, no, no.

The earth belongs to Allah. Allah gives it to whoever He wants. And then He says at the end, you would expect, maybe okay, fine. For now it belongs to Fir'aun. But eventually we'll have it, right? Give me some good news. Give me some motivational speech over here.

He says, وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ And in the final end, the best outcome is for those who have taqwa, meaning the only thing you should look for is not land, you should be looking for taqwa. You need to have fear of Allah more than anything else. That's the biggest asset you will have.

Bigger asset than any land. When the Banu Israel heard this in their panic, they said, what kind of speech is this? We're having an emergency. Fir'aun is gonna come kill all of us.

The People's Complaint and Musa's Ultimate Response

And you're giving us a taqwa khutbah? You're telling us the earth belongs to Allah. What is it? Give us a practical advice. What good is your Islam? It doesn't give me any solutions.

They say, أُوذِينَا مِن قَبْلِ أَن تَأْتِيَنَا وَمِن بَعْدِ مَا جِئْتَنَا We were being tortured before you came. And we're being tortured after you came, after you arrived. In other words, they're saying, this Islam of yours that you brought, and we're all Muslims, it doesn't bring any solutions.

We were in a bad situation before becoming Muslim, or before your prophecy, and after your prophecy. Like it doesn't really change any reality on the ground. If your God is so good, we should be in power, and you should be destroyed.

And if not, then why are we even listening to you? There's no practical uplifting of the ummah from this khutbah. Practically, we're still in the same situation. So they're criticizing Musa alayhi salaam because they're frustrated because they're not in a position of power.

And Musa alayhi salaam responds so beautifully. And this is what I'm gonna conclude my khutbah with. He says to them, عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُهْلِكَ عَدُوَّكُمْ Maybe your Rabb, your master, will destroy your enemy.

Maybe your Rabb will destroy your enemy, meaning destroy Fir'aun, destroy the armies. And the Muslims listen to this and say, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. This is the kind of khutbah I wanna hear.

When Allah will destroy the enemy. Because I mean, okay, taqwa, fine. I heard about taqwa before. The earth belongs to Allah. I got it, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Iman, iman, okay, I got it.

That's good. But Allah will destroy the enemy, huh? Yeah, takbeer. I could get behind this message. This is the kind of speech I need to hear. This motivated me. And then He adds, وَيَسْتَخْلِفَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ Not only might Allah destroy your enemy, He might leave you in charge in the land.

Oh, نُورٌ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ. He's gonna destroy our enemy and give us control over the land. This is the kind of Islam I can get behind. This is the message we've been telling you, you should be giving. Finally, I hear the kind of khutbah I wanna hear. Something that brings back the glory days.

Or brings us to the victory, right? Motivational speech. Except Musa alayhi salaam ended the speech with one more addition. Part of it they really wanted to hear, right? Maybe Allah will destroy your enemy, maybe He will replace you, maybe He'll give you power in the land.

But He didn't say He will, He said maybe. He said maybe. But then He adds at the end. He said, فَيَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ Then He will see how do you behave. That changes everything. That one statement, فَيَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ changes everything that was said before it.

Completely. You know how in chemistry you have something and you add an element, it changes the properties of it entirely? That's what happened in this ayah. The properties of the entire message have now changed.

The Ultimate Test: Power and Taqwa

How? Allah is saying, you don't have power right now, and clearly you also don't have taqwa. Because when you talk to a prophet this way, it shows that you don't have any taqwa. And you think when you have power, you're going to have taqwa? If you can't even show taqwa in time of weakness, how are you gonna show taqwa in times of power? And maybe Allah will give you the same power He gave Fir'aun.

Maybe He'll make you a superpower. Maybe there will be people that were trapped under you. Maybe you'll become the zalim and they'll become the mazlum. Maybe that will happen. And then Allah will see if you're any different from Fir'aun. فَيَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ Then He'll see if you're any different from Fir'aun.

It's as if He's warning those Muslims of the... I use the word Muslims strategically. Because they were the followers of a prophet of that time. By definition that is a Muslim. He's telling the Muslims of that time, you are so obsessed with having power, and you don't realize that without taqwa, without taqwa, when you have power, you're no different than Fir'aun. There's no difference between you and Fir'aun. When you have power and you still don't have taqwa.

And you guys right now don't have enough taqwa. You don't have it. عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يُهْلِكَ عَدُوَّكُمْ وَيَسْتَخْلِفَكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرَ كَيْفَ تَعْمَلُونَ Then He will see how you behave.

In this there's a hint from Allah that actually a test of taqwa. We're being tested in our taqwa all the time. But we are especially tested in our taqwa when we are in a position of power.

I was told this neighborhood, there are people that are mashaaAllah successful in the world of business. There are people that are influential in governance. There are people that are highly academic, etc. that attend this masjid. All of you have been given a position of power in some way or the other. Economic, intellectual, governmental, some kind of power.

And every one of those positions is a position where you will be challenged in your taqwa. In a way that the person next to you is not. The challenge of taqwa for a taxi driver is different. The challenge of taqwa for a governor is different. Two very different things. And the higher the wealth, power, influence, leadership, the higher it gets, the more difficult the challenge of taqwa becomes.

Because nobody else is there to put you in check. You control everyone, nobody controls you. You tell everyone, nobody tells you. So the only gauge left is you have to check yourself, you have to correct yourself. What was the problem of the Fir'aun? Who's gonna tell me what to do? I'm Fir'aun. Why should I listen to anybody else? This happens as you rise, right? Becomes harder and harder to take advice.

Harder and harder to become conscious. I pray that Allah makes us a people of taqwa. And makes us a people that do not lose sight of the consciousness and the awareness of Allah.

And we remember that no matter what power Allah gives me, whatever wealth Allah gives me, whatever status Allah gives me, Allah can give it one day, take it the next day. تُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاءُ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَاءُ He gives, He takes. People that lived under Fir'aun at the time, never imagined a day where Fir'aun would be gone.

They couldn't imagine a day. It was impossible. And then one day he's in the bottom of the river. Just... It didn't even take a long campaign and this and that. No, no, just gone. Finished.

SubhanAllah. This is a humility that Allah has given us. And in the end He says, the only thing that will last forever, money won't last forever, power won't last forever, influence won't last forever, strength won't last forever, health won't last forever.

The only thing that will benefit you forever and benefit you forever, وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ May Allah make us from those that are Muttaqeen.

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