Neglected Blessings and Unique Opportunities of the Coronavirus
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T15:23:12.074138+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Neglected Blessings and Unique Opportunities of the Coronavirus
Virtual Khutbah with Sh. Omar Suleiman
Opening
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. I hope you're all doing well.
Context and Initial Reflections
So I just walked back from the masjid from the Valley Ranch Islamic Center and pretty surreal to see the parking lot empty on Jum'ah but subhanAllah it's amazing how these things change so quickly for us right and this idea of the quick sudden change of fortune you know the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from the sudden turn of events the sudden turn of fortunes and blessings and it's very humbling for us to be in this situation.
Supplications and Intentions
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect everyone. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept the intention for the good deeds that we had planned to do.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to write them down for us fully. We ask Allah that this Jum'ah prayer that we had hoped to fulfill today that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala write it down for us without any deficiency whatsoever in its reward. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive us for our inability.
We ask Allah that everyone that had planned to do Umrah that Allah accepts a full Umrah from them. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that everyone that wishes to be able to have a successful Ramadan that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant them that when they say
(اللَّهُمَّ بَلَّغْنَا رَمَضَانَ - Allahumma balliqna Ramadan) - allow us to see Ramadan. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant the Niyah of Hajj for everyone from now that intends to do Hajj.
We ask Allah to give them the full Niyah of Hajj, the full intention of Hajj rewarded to them. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to have mercy on any of our brothers and sisters that pass away anywhere that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant them Shahada. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect our elderly.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to use us in the service of those who are already vulnerable that will now be more vulnerable as a result of this. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to replace the losses of
everybody financially, emotionally, whatever it may be with something greater in this life and the next. Allahumma ameen.
Main Theme: Things We Took for Granted
With that being said and I'll probably make this dua in the end. What I wanted to do was you know allow for us an opportunity to at least go through some of the perspective and subhanAllah the title of the khutba that I had is actually the one that I was intending to give which was the things we took for granted and I had imagined giving this khutba in the masjid right about how this might be our last time being able to do Juma here for some time right or what if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't allow us to have taraweeh prayer here and here I am doing this in my home office right now so I want to connect a few things for us inshaAllah ta'ala.
Important Note: This is not a replacement for Juma so please pray your dhuhr prayer for like as complete okay this is just sharing what I'd hoped to share with with the khutba inshaAllah to give that spiritual reminder that taskih inshaAllah ta'ala that we were looking for perhaps in Juma as a reminder and Juma is supposed to be a reminder.
Main Discussion
1. The Great Equalizer: Death and Its Lessons
So I want to start with this point Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has all of these things that are destined for us that essentially flatten all sorts of difference in terms of status in terms of health in terms of wealth in terms of whatever it may be the ultimate equalizer is death right because when we die it doesn't matter what we had in this world it doesn't matter what's put on top of our graves ultimately we all reside inside of our graves and our status is taken away from us our wealth is taken away from us the praise of people is taken away from us all of that is taken away from us so it's the great equalizer right and that it puts us all in the exact same situation.
2. Lessons from the Christchurch Massacre
Before death there are all sorts of disproportionalities that exist and people have blessings that are readily available to them that they take for granted so for example you know I talked about this last year subhanAllah and a lot of people have probably forgotten with everything going on we are exactly one year away from the Christchurch massacre the massacre of our brothers and sisters in Christchurch and I remember that being one of the heaviest Juma's that I've given here and then of course I was on a plane that same that next day to Christchurch to New Zealand.
I remember the khutba from last year which was that why did the Christchurch massacre shake us up so much may Allah grant all of them shahada and may Allah comfort their families why did that why did that shake us so much it shook us for many reasons one of them was that a lot of us who live in relatively safe
countries who live in easy circumstances and situations you know we've we've never had the thought in our minds of a bunch of people being killed in the masjid or having to fear for their lives going to the masjid.
However there are a lot of people that have gone out to their masajid they're attempted to go out to masajid in Syria and Gaza in India right now right at the time last year this wasn't the situation see subhanAllah how things have changed the Uighurs so many different people who did not have the opportunity to go out to jamaat and safety already that would have to worry about bombs falling on them you hear about you know a bombing at a masjid in Afghanistan so frequently right or in Iraq and these places that have been forgotten Syria Idlib you look at the masajid the destroyed um you know pulpits and and the minarets where people are calling out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala these were things that were very usual for them right where it was hard for them to go to the masjid.
3. The New Reality of Safety
And then Christchurch happened last year and there was this element of this isn't supposed to happen in New Zealand this isn't supposed to happen in a safe country this isn't supposed to happen in a western nation and a lot of us started to feel like um you know we were left out right we were left out and subhanAllah you know that happened Christchurch happened and suddenly an element of safety was taken away from us and now you have to worry about this in the masjid our worst nightmare had come true so what did that do it equalized things to an extent we're still not Idlib anywhere in the west we're still not Gaza anywhere in the west we're still not what's happening in India or with the Uyghurs anywhere here right but the that that vulnerability a new vulnerability had been added to us and taken and took away something from us that before we had taken for granted right which was that we could go to our mosques in peace we could go to our masjid in peace those of you that are from other faith communities you could go to your places of worship in peace right like and then all of these different things happened right and suddenly we don't have that anymore safety was taken away from us or at least the the peace of mind of assured safety right alhamdulillah we've we were still so much safer than different people but the peace of mind of assured safety was taken away from us.
4. Taking Worship for Granted
The idea of going to umrah or hajj so you you go to the next thing right if you live in a country and you have the means and your country's not restricted by quota you don't have to worry about being at a certain age to be able to go to umrah or hajj planning hajj and umrah is a scheduling thing for you right saving some money and scheduling right but you don't imagine not being able to get a visa especially if you have you know the right passport or you have the right economic status and subhanAllah now that's being taken away you know the the thing that doesn't necessarily have to have a you know a you know a particular type of status but it was just something we used to do all the time being able to go to the masjid being able to say salamu alaykum to one another being able to smile at one another being able to
uh to pray with one another um taraweeh prayer right who would have thought taraweeh prayer right would be taken away from us.
5. Ramadan's Lesson of Appreciation
And so the point is dear brothers and sisters that these are things that we used to take for granted and ramadan is meant to be able to give us an appreciation for blessings that we often take for granted right when ramadan comes it's uh it causes us to deprive ourselves of blessings that we regularly consume on a daily basis right so that we can have a greater appreciation for those blessings so it's a lesson for us in the midst of having some of this taken away from us to think about those blessings and to say alhamdulillah for them so that hopefully you know as soon as possible when we get back to to our ways of life when we get back to our worship our congregations our communal activities that we can appreciate them once again right that we can we can really revel in them.
Like think about how much now we're thinking about taraweeh right and so if in a previous ramadan maybe i would have got lazy i would have said well it's that ramadan dip right now um you know i wasn't able to go to taraweeh or i just didn't feel like it i dragged my feet to the masjid now now i have something right if i get to do taraweeh and may allah allow us to have as normal of a ramadan as possible right if i get it we're gonna value that taraweeh so much more now maybe if i used to drag my feet to jumah right now you know.
6. The Story of the 84-Year-Old Man
SubhanAllah had a man 84 years old uh really broke my heart he said that i haven't missed a jumah in 60 years not for travel or sickness can you imagine that 60 years you do the math of how many jumahs that is right 60 years he's never missed a jumah and he just doesn't know how to come to terms with being at home right now uh because it's just so unheard of and on you know it's so inconceivable for him those people that would get there before the adhan to make sure that the angels registered them right because the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned the angel's rule book that closes when the imam says salam alaikum.
How are we going to be the next time jamaah opens up to us inshallah time we're able to go back to our jamaah salam may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow that to be sooner rather than later and may allah allow us to take that now with with with a greater degree of reverence right the ability to go and the ability to do these things with ease how many people that wanted to go to umrah or hajj now or people that have their hajj in limbo now what if allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opens that up for you right so increase your nia right now increase your intention right now be grateful to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for all that he allowed us to do that we took for granted that other parts of the muslim ummah did not have available to them in terms of just ibadah that now we're having to come to terms with and use that to
propel you inshallah ta'ala not just through this to look forward to when that gets restored back to normalcy but use that to give you a greater appreciation for when it comes.
Four Key Lessons
1. The Equalizer
So that's the first thing second thing is that obviously when equalizers come it gives us an opportunity to develop empathy and empathy is a ibadah developing empathy is an act of worship and anytime you have an opportunity to feel what other people are feeling um it's a chance to not just appreciate the blessing that you had but to activate you towards making sure that others have that blessing on a normal basis as well so the increase of empathy is special in these moments right how do we increase our empathy thinking about our brothers and sisters that that you know have have lived through devastating circumstances.
You're at home praying jamaah or you know not praying jamaah i gotta keep on clarifying you're at home praying uh i'm at home praying today i don't have to worry about a bomb falling on my house right now right and i pray that that doesn't become the case so that shouldn't just make me go alhamdulillah i don't have to worry about things that other people have to worry about it should make me think you know how do i how do i work make dua for and work for those people that do have to worry about those types of things right so the increase of empathy is is a ibadah in and of itself it's an act of worship in and of itself so there is the equalizer there is the empathy and developing that empathy.
2. Gratitude (Shukr)
And then the next two things that come after that naturally shukr it is gratitude
(la'in shakartum la'azeedannakum) - if you are grateful I will increase you right now people you know some people are going to be focused on thinking about the things that they've lost out on right oh i can't do this anymore i can't do that anymore you know i'm not going to be able to go to this gathering or i had this special plan right spring break uh plans i had the plan to be with this amount of family you know instead of thinking about those things that you don't have or that you've lost out on say alhamdulillah say alhamdulillah say alhamdulillah all praises and thanks and glory are to Allah for what we still have right the the privileges that we still have.
If you know the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
(man asbaha minkum aminan fi sirbihi mu'afan fi jasadihi 'indahu qutu yawmihi faka'annama heezat lahu ad-dunya) - whoever wakes up with a roof over their heads and with with no major health issues and a meal for the day then that person is like a person who has the entire world (Tirmidhi 2346) i mean you're like a king at that point or a queen right it's like you have everything in the world that you need say alhamdulillah be
3. Service
So equal the equalizer of of sickness right and subhanallah you see now heads of states right that are not spared from sickness sickness makes no distinction just like death makes no distinction uh empathy right the growth of empathy the growth of gratitude the fourth one the growth of service um the people that are already vulnerable have just been made more vulnerable right so the homeless that already had to worry about not having a rooftop over their heads now have to worry about getting this disease and no one even knowing about it no one coming to their aid not even knowing how to get tested people that never had to worry about homelessness because they were making their check right they were getting their hourly wages they were able to make it day by day are now thinking about what it would be like to be homeless our elderly population have to think about things that they did not have to think about before those of us that care for them have to think about things that that we might not have thought about before.
Uh shukr is not just meant to make you gratitude is not just meant to make you say alhamdulillah it's meant to activate you towards works of hamd works of gratitude
so right now we should be thinking about what are some things we can do especially as this you know draws out what are some unique service oriented projects that we can develop inshallah in our communities in our um you know in in our places of worship through our organizations through our through our groups inshallah to where we're taking care of those that are really really going to suffer even more in these moments and for those of you that are in that category may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help you and may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be of help to you right.
4. Spiritual Opportunities
I i know that there are probably some of you that are watching this right now that are those people that are having to worry about if you can make rent if you can do you know your basic things uh next month may allah help you and may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to come to your aid um and activate those of us who don't have the dire situation that you might have to be able to to be in your service so let's think about uh service inshallah and how we activate ourselves towards service and then the last thing the spiritual opportunities that we now have in front of us that we did not necessarily have before.
You know uh anyone who's taken a class i taught this class on which is a book of spirituality summarizes a summary of the and it's really interesting because i was reflecting on the breakdown of uh of how they
broke down the idea of the worship that comes the unique opportunities of worship that come with being around people and the unique opportunities of worship that come with solitude and they talked about the unique sins that come with being around people and the unique sins that can happen in solitude right so they actually broke down uh the the idea of mixing with the people and the idea of uh of spiritual uh solitude right and what happens in those two.
Warnings About Solitude
So let's start with the sins right um typically people that spend a lot of time alone right shaitan can can offer some sins to you right that you could do uh you know when you're when you're all by yourself and that's what the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said when he was asked in the hadith of thawban um about to explain or to describe the hypocrites and
(hum alladhina idha khalaw bi maharimi Allahi intahakoha) - they are the people when they're alone with the prohibitions right the haram uh that that they consume those forms of haram (Ahmad 22265) so be very very smart about how you uh you you conduct yourself very very careful about not letting shaitan take advantage of your idle time right take advantage of your alone time.
The second thing in in terms of the sins of being alone um you know is that when we're alone now we're not really alone because we still have these right so subhanallah i mean you could engage in so many sins right now in terms of uh in terms of social media just sitting around you could waste your time watching things you could waste your time uh you know going through all of this stuff and you could waste your time uh getting involved in our ever you know our ever our never ending uh community fitan and drama that all happen in the sphere of online right don't do things that are going to be against you in this time now that you have alone and you're sitting on your phone and whatever it is and you could you can engage in so much haram watching haram engaging haram typing haram uh following haram just try to make sure that you don't use this time to yourself inshallah to be sinful right.
Opportunities in Solitude
Uh and the unique element of this social media uh part of this is that it gives us access to sins and it gives us access to good so think about the other side of this inshallah how can i listen to more lectures now how can i how can i grow my ilm grow my knowledge um you know my knowledge base now that i have some time inshallah how can i engage some of the helpful things that are online inshallah ta'ala right so using that as well um the potential for reading an amount of quran every single day what is your width how much quran are you going to read every day you know we're about to get into that uh that run run up to that to ramadan where we start talking about you know don't wait until ramadan to start reading quran right get used to the quran inshallah well now you have a lot more time to read quran so think about how you can develop your width develop your daily recitation from now.
How much salawat are you doing on the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) it's the day of night of friday how much are you increasing salawat reading surah al-kahf just because you're not going to juma doesn't mean that the sunnah of reading al-kahf is gone read surah al-kahf today make sure that you don't let this friday go without you finishing surah al-kahf right do those things now the unique opportunities of individual ibadah that you have and avoid the individual uh the sins that have now been more easily accessible to you you've got a lot more time on your hands now where you could go through these things online with these devices and things of that sort spend more time on the opportunities that you have of dhikr of remembrance of recitation less time on the more opportunity now you have to kill time by killing your heart with more sins that you would not do if you were busy out there and doing other things.
Family Time as Worship
And you know adding to that if you're with your family now subhanallah and those of you that that are going to have to go through this uh quarantine for the most part um without many people around you may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help you may allah fill your your your alone time with uh with great spiritual and emotional fulfillment those of us who who have families around us our spouses our children our parents uh those types of things you know people around us that we typically don't give enough attention to that we don't give enough time to uh the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught us that in every moment that we spend with our families whether it's a moment of intimacy between spouses or a moment of eating together or a moment of playing with our children or a moment of serving our parents which is actually number one right every one of those moments is a unique opportunity for ibadah is a unique opportunity of worship and we spend so much time in the hustle and bustle of life that we we neglect people in our lives right this is an opportunity to reconnect inshallah ta'ala to reconnect strongly with the people that are around us that we're never well that are supposed to be around us but um you know we don't spend enough time with so use that as a unique opportunity inshallah ta'ala.
Home Prayer and Its Significance
And the last thing that i'll say here uh is what the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said as you're thinking about prayer prayer prayer prayer right and the congregational prayer you know the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said
(la taj'alu buyutakum maqabir) - don't turn your homes into graveyards don't turn your homes into graveyards leave some of your prayer for your homes (Bukhari 432, Muslim 777) what that means is that typically speaking even though we pray fard al maktouba that which is written upon us in the messages the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) encouraged us to pray our sunnahs at home to pray our qiyam at home to pray as much as we can at home okay um why so that we could have that proper uh balance to where our sincerity is not compromised in the process of our public acts of good
and the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) warned us not to turn our homes into graveyards to leave some of our prayers for the home.
If there was any time where we could get regular with our sunnahs now regular with our qiyam regular with our tahajjud regular with our prayers regular with it all inshallah and find a way to do this at home now um without someone watching us without someone saying just just to find a way to pray in solitude to find a way to pray uh with our families or by ourselves and to enjoy the sweetness of that prayer whether it's at night or during the day just in our homes what a great reward that would be.
Taraweeh and Night Prayer
And if you look at the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) you know i know that a lot of people are thinking about taraweeh we're not just thinking about ramadan we're not just thinking about juma we're thinking about taraweeh i know taraweeh is on our minds if you think about taraweeh right in particular remember that the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) only prayed taraweeh prayer in jama'a in congregation for the first few nights of ramadan and then the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) started to pray at home because the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was worried that people would tack it on to the obligations of the religion and so it taraweeh is literally just another word for for the night prayer in ramadan and the asr the default of all night prayer is that it's better at home instead of in congregation taraweeh being the exception because of the idea according to even some of the schools of thought even in ramadan praying taraweeh at home is more rewardable but the idea of keeping the masjids full and the idea of how we push each other more when we're praying in taraweeh right uh we're likely to pray longer when we're in jama'a when we're in congregation we're likely to finish the quran when we're in congregation we're just more likely to hit our goals in terms of length.
And so uh you know if someone was to say what's the reward or the benefit of praying at home versus praying in the masjid that night in ramadan uh the the breaker the the tie breaker between those two uh you know when you remove fiqh from the equation to get the technical answer is well if you were going to spend 15 minutes praying taraweeh at home and an hour praying in the masjid then the hour wins every time you know what switch it up switch it up right now we have a chance to establish a regimen of night prayer at home and you know maybe some people i know you guys are going to miss the fundraisers and ramadan don't worry we will still be fundraising in ramadan we'll just bring that online inshallah but you're not going to have people pestering you at night uh maybe if we don't have the typical regimen with people that are standing up at night and asking you for sadaqa who's who's removing the opportunity for sadaqa from you in ramadan who's taking that away from you that opportunity for charity right of course you can still do charity if in fact it makes it more sincere.
The Value of Solitude for the Pious
So we have to recognize that as difficult as the concept of isolation can be isolation was what imam hassan basri rahimahullah said was was was the tranquility of the pious predecessors on earth it's what the actually looked for they longed for for solitude they longed for long moments of solitude where they could stay in that form of they could stay in that form of remembrance stay in that form of of excelling and and exceeding the next goals that they set for themselves in terms of their personal ibadah in terms of their personal acts of worship uh you know and and making sure that that's only for allah because no one else was around as they were taking that next step and that next step and that next step so you have opportunities for ibadah you have opportunities for worship that are you know very very specific to the time and you know with the with the way that we're kind of you know life is pausing on the outside our ibadah should increase our acts of worship should increase inshallah use that time wisely inshallah use that time alone uh to do special things to connect to the one who never leaves you whether you're quarantined or whether you are in the whether you're at work use that time to really connect deeply with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and and and immerse yourself in that time enjoy that unique spiritual opportunity that you have right now inshallah it's a special time for you you know flip it in terms of perspective.
Concluding Supplications
So we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to increase our closeness to him in these moments again i i just want to uh emphasize that uh those of you that are struggling even further may allah be at your aid may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help you activate us to be with you may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala increase us in empathy and gratitude and service and worship and spirituality and perspective and unite our hearts uh may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow this to be a moment where we can all come together as a community uh with this equalizer of sickness and illness may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to see each other in a different light not just to connect to him in a different way but to see each other in a different light inshallah so your grudges your your your difficulties remove those inshallah anything that reminds us of death you know.
I remember when kobe bryant died a lot of people were not happy that why are there so why is there so much emphasis on death and subhanallah my opinion then beyond just uh all of the elements of that anything that helps us remember the equalizer of death uh more is a good thing for us if we're productive with it right because it helps us live our lives better and it helps us long for the hereafter more so all of that is good inshallah ta'ala if it makes us think more and it makes us do more inshallah ta'ala so use this as an opportunity to be reminded um inshallah ta'ala.
Upcoming Activities
Uh tomorrow we're going to be if you follow yaqeen institute for islamic research if you if you like the page you'll see some information on a webinar that we'll be hosting tomorrow inshallah ta'ala uh sister sarah sultan sister najwa awad and myself to talk about specifically uh spirituality anxiety and practicality
in these times inshallah ta'ala so it'll be at 1 pm central tomorrow inshallah ta'ala uh and you can look out for the information that i'll put here as well as on those pages and um again you know i pray that allah purify us of our sins through these moments and allah allows to achieve the next level in our spiritual potential uh inshallah ta'ala.
We'll be regularly doing different uh activities events uh or not events activities see we got to change the terminology now activities webinars uh lectures whatever whatever we can do inshallah to stay connected in this time and to stay reminding each other with beneficial reminders inshallah we'll try our best to uh to move forward over the next period i don't want to say weeks or months um because allah knows how long this is going to be but we'll try our best to be with you all inshallah ta'ala and try to connect and try to give us that spiritual thrust necessary with the month of ramadan ahead of us.
Final Duas
Allah may allah's parents allow us to all see ramadan and to be forgiven through ramadan and to elevate ourselves in this ramadan more than any ramadan before may allah protect our elderly may allah support our vulnerable may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala use us for them may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala replace all of our losses with things that are better in this life and the next may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to increase in ibadah in our khalwah in our moments of alone time more so more so even than when we do so in our social gatherings may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala protect our masajid may allah return us to his houses as soon as possible may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow this virus to subside as quickly as possible protect everyone from its harm may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow our brothers and sisters wherever they may be who pass away due to this to be counted amongst the shuhada and may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala be pleased with the shuhada from christ church that we lost a year ago and comfort their families in this difficult time as the one year comes around and may allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allow us to develop perspective and to act in accordance with that perspective in these times allahumma ameen.
Final Reminder
Again a reminder pray four rakas this was not khutbatul jum'ah this was the reminder that i planned to share for khutbatul jum'ah.
JazakumAllahu khayran to all of you for tuning in i hope inshallah to see you next week at jum'ah itself inshallah ta'ala salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.