Fight Your Weakness - Sheikh Omar Suleiman

Fight Your Weakness

Sheikh Omar Suleiman

(خُطْبَةُ الْحَاجَةِ) Opening Khutbah

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

We begin by praising Allah by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon Him, the prophets and messengers that came before Him, His family, His companions that stood with Him, and those that follow in His blessed path until the day of judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

Main Khutbah

Dear brothers and sisters, what's your Achilles heel? What's your weakness? What is it that gets you down? And what is it that makes you question everything around you? Allah tells us in the Quran as a matter of fact that we would be tested. That every person would be tested in some capacity.

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) described the life of man as this line across a box. And he drew this box or this rectangle with the line extending outside the rectangle. And he said that this is the life span of man. Referring to the line. And he said this rectangle or this box is the actual... I'm sorry, he said this is the hopes of man. And he said this box or this rectangle is his life span.

Meaning his hopes in life always extend past the actual date of his death. How much time will actually be allotted to him. No matter who you are or what age you pass away, you'll always feel like there's something that was left on the table and you have hopes that extend.

(طُولُ الْأَمَلِ - Tul al-amal) "Hopes that extend beyond your allotted life span."

So this is man's life span and these are his hopes and this is his life span. And then he drew a bunch of small lines around a person. And he said that these are (أغراض - arad). These are tests. They're hindrances. He referred to tests (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in this particular hadith as hindrances.

These are things that would hinder you. One of them snatches you, the other one misses you. Meaning there are some people that are not tested in their health, but they're tested with their family. And there are some people that are not tested with their family, but they're tested with their health. And there are some people that are not tested with their family or their health, but they're tested with their careers and with their wealth. And there are some people that are tested not with their wealth or with their health or with their family, but they're tested with their reputation.

And there are some people that are not tested with those things, but they're tested with their religion. The point is that every person has a unique set of tests that they are going to go through in life. And many times when you see other people going through tests or that are of the nature, that you feel confident in overcoming.

The Nature of Tests and Faith

So maybe Allah is testing someone else in a way that you feel like you would be able to overcome the nature of that test. Maybe your weakness is different from that person's weakness, but we all do have a certain weakness. And at some point when we're put to the test, suddenly these things that are concepts and theories and principles that we often preach about and we talk about, suddenly these things come into play.

And at that point, it's not about the text, it's about how much you've absorbed of the text. It becomes purely experiential at that point. The other night in my masjid, I was speaking about this concept of a man who doesn't read anything about charity or does not know all of the ayats and ahadith about charity, but they are naturally generous people.

They already have the quality, they've experienced the quality of generosity. And so when they're put in a situation, they give and their generosity overtakes them, even though they don't necessarily know all the technicalities and the concepts or the virtues of that said generosity.

There are different people that have different qualities and there are people that are tested with different things and when they are tested, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, all of the things that you think that you had down are not as prominent in your character as you would have hoped they would have been.

Suddenly, you feel like you're reeling. You thought maybe that you'd be able to handle these types of tests, but the tests came and your faith struggled. Your faith could not hold you up. You thought that you had patience. You've attended lectures on patience. You've heard khutbahs about patience. But then something happens to you and you're not patient.

And at the core of that issue is that people tie their faith to so many different things, to so many different circumstances, to so many different people, that when that circumstance changes or when that person changes, or when that aspect of their life changes, suddenly the faith starts to wither away and disappear.

And that's what Allah says in the Quran:

"Some people worship Allah on an edge."

They worship Allah literally on a cliff. If something happens that's good to them or what they deem good, because only Allah truly deems good and bad, but something happens to them that they deem good, then they are grateful, they say, we love this faith, we're good with everything, we're good with our faith, everything is great, alhamdulillah.

The minute that something bad happens to them that they deem as such, that they deem bad, then they are literally like a person that's jumping off of the cliff of faith. Suddenly it starts to wither away.

The Difference Between Learning and Experiencing

How many people do you see that weren't so quote-unquote religious before a devastating health, a tragedy of health or loss of health came to them, some sort of disease or sickness. But then through that disease and through that sickness, they found faith and they found that wake-up call. And they turned back to faith and they turned back to their Creator.

Whereas there are so many people that were quote-unquote religious, but then once they're put in that circumstance, it doesn't hold up. Because the learned is not like the absorbed. And the preached about is not like the experienced. It has to go back to your own fundamental experiences.

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) for example, he said:

(Musnad Ahmad 4/278)

"That whoever does not thank Allah for the little things in life is not gonna be grateful for the big things in life."

Whoever is not patient, with the small things that are going to happen to them, how are they going to truly find patience with the major things that happen to them in life? If you can't have patience with someone cutting you off on the side of the road and hold yourself, if you can't have patience in an argument, how are you going to have patience when you're facing a disaster in life?

The experienced is not like the learned. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

"That knowledge is through seeking knowledge and patience and forbearance is through practicing patience and forbearance." (al-Mu'jam al-Kabir 7866)

You have to constantly make sure that those qualities are well-established in your heart, well-established in your character, so that when those things come, when those tests come, you know how to deal with them. Your faith actually holds up.

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught us many du'as in this regard, that it's not just knowledge, but it's actually making sure that you stick to that knowledge, that Allah gives you thabat and firmness. So he taught us to say:

"O Allah, guide me and keep me firm." (Sahih Muslim 2725)

The Story of Abu Bakr and Umar at the Prophet's Death

And Imam Hassan al-Basri (رضي الله عنه) when he used to read the verse in Surah Hud, the hardest verse ever revealed to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم):

"So be firm as you've been commanded and those that have turned back to Allah with you. And do not turn back on your heels, do not turn away from faith."

But the learned is not like the experienced. So Imam Hassan al-Basri every time he would read that verse, he would say:

"O Allah, You are our Lord, so grant us steadfastness."

The most frequent du'a of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), the most frequent supplication:

"O Turner of hearts, keep my heart firm on your path." (Sunan at-Tirmidhi 2140)

Your heart is already inconsistent, but then something happens and you have to make sure that it stays consistent enough on faith and that it doesn't go wild and all over the place.

When the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passed away, and you talk about a test to the community of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم), he was their everything. They saw him every day, they prayed behind him every day, they experienced his beautiful character every single day and then the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passes away.

And when some of the sahaba heard it, what was the natural emotion that overtook them? Denial. It can't be true. Absolute denial. Because that was the most convenient emotion to maintain the faith. That was

how they felt guarded, that's how they felt protected, it was a safety net.

So when the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passed away, and Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) starts to stand up and threaten the people who say that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passed away, and Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) was the one who stands up.

And who loved the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) more Abu Bakr or Umar? Abu Bakr loved the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) more. But Abu Bakr stands up and he tells Umar to sit down. And he says:

"Whoever used to worship Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) know that Muhammad has passed away."

"And whoever used to worship Allah, know that Allah is ever-living and He does not die." (Sahih al-Bukhari 1242)

And he read the verse:

"Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was but a messenger. Other messengers have passed before him. If he dies or if he is killed, will you turn back on your heels?"

Umar (رضي الله عنه) felt his legs escape him from under him when he heard that verse. And what did he say? Umar who used to stand up and pray at night, Umar who loved the Quran, what did Umar say? He said, it was the first time I heard that verse. That verse had new meaning to me because I experienced it.

Before, when we used to read that verse, that was a far possibility. We didn't think about it. But when Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) stood up and recited it in that moment, suddenly it meant something more to me. Suddenly it hit me, it struck me that even Allah mentions the possibility in the Quran or mentions that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم):

"that you will die and they too will perish."

You perish and they perish, Ya Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). It hit him there.

And his reaction, if you were observing that, his reaction, you might think that maybe he loves the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) more than Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) but that's just not true. No one else in there loves the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). After Abu Bakr maybe more than Umar.

But Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) solidified those concepts in his life. No one loved the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). When Abu Bakr (رضي الله عنه) thought that he would be in harm's way, he would put his life on the line all the time for the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So clearly the life of the Messenger was even more important to him than his own life. But he already processed in his mind and internally processed what it will be like when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passes away.

He paid attention to the ayahs more so than any other human being. He internalized them more so than any other human being.

The Reality of Tests

What does this mean for us, dear brothers and sisters?

"Do people think they just say, we believe, and then they're not going to be tested?"

to their faith, in regards to their health, in regards to their wealth, in regards to their families, in regards to everything else. You will be tested.

But here's the deal. As believers, we do not put ourselves in positions where our faith is going to be made vulnerable. We don't go seeking out things that will shake our faith. You know one of the men who was being hunted by Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was Sa'id ibn Jubair (رضي الله عنه) And Sa'id ibn Jubair was being hunted and Sa'id was told, if you trust Allah so much because he wasn't scared, he was visibly not shaken by the presence of that tyrant, why don't you jump off a cliff?

He said, Allah tests me, I don't test him. You don't test Allah. You don't ask Allah for hardship. You don't ask Allah to put your health at risk. You don't ask Allah to put your family at risk. You ask Allah for the best of this world. You don't seek out fitan. You don't seek out trials and tribulations.

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught us, for example, when Masih Dajjal, when the Antichrist would come to this earth, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, don't get excited about yourself and feel like I have confidence, let me go challenge him. Because it's a fitna. It's a test. It's a trial to your faith. You might really, really be convinced that if I'm in front of him, I've got this. But what happens when Al-Masih Dajjal, when the Antichrist starts to work spells and starts to do things, you might get lost.

Don't look for it. Seek refuge in Allah from him. And if you happen to encounter him, you would hope that Allah would make you from the protected. But the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did not tell us to go to those places.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) mentioned if there is a land that has a plague in it, don't go to that land. It's not that it's a lack of tawakkul, a lack of trust in Allah. We don't test Allah. We don't seek out those tests. But we prepare ourselves for the worst of tests.

Preparing for Tests

We prepare ourselves for the worst of them. We're always vigilant with our iman, always vigilant with our faith. And at some point, each and every single one of us has to take themselves to task and try to identify what those weaknesses are before those weaknesses are exploited.

That takes introspection. Before you get put in a situation where those weaknesses are going to be exploited and made vulnerable, you have to take yourself to task. Prepare yourself.

And the perfect balance of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)'s mission is that this understanding of the divine decree of Allah and everything being in his hands did not lead to an escapism on the part of the believers. It didn't lead to the believers escaping from responsibility. It didn't lead to people saying, well, I don't need to really do anything anymore because Allah is going to take care of me.

It didn't lead to pessimism amongst the companions. Instead the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, whoever amongst you can meet Allah while thinking good of Him:

"Expect well of Allah