One Day You Will Remember What I Said To You Virtual Khutbah

"One Day You Will Remember What I Said To You" | Virtual Khutbah

Opening

All right. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Preliminary Announcements

InshaAllah ta'ala before I get into the subject, I wanted to remind everyone, if you are on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter, I put out the link to donate to the family of our brother Abdullahi Muhammad, who showed up again, who turned up dead in a prison here in Arlington, Tarrant County. And to, you know, we are inshaAllah seeking justice for him. But in the meantime, please do support his family inshaAllah ta'ala with their expenses as they've lost their breadwinner.

And you can find that campaign there. I also want us to make du'a for the father of brother Khabib, who passed away rahimahullah ta'ala from COVID. May Allah accept him as a shaheed, the father of Shaykh Abu Bakr al-Shatiri as well.

May Allah have mercy on him and accept him as a shaheed. And may Allah have mercy on all of those that have passed away from our community and make it easy for them. Their families, have mercy on them and make it easy for them.

Allahumma ameen.

Main Topic: The Believer in Pharaoh's Court

Context: Living Under Pharaoh's Tyranny

So tonight inshaAllah ta'ala or today, I wanted to talk about this verse that shows up from the court of Fir'aun. Now over the last few nights, we've been talking about this idea of people that find izzah, that find strength and that find dignity and honor by attaching themselves to al-Aziz al-Hameed, to Allah, the Almighty, the Innately Praiseworthy, and the implications of that.

And we've spoken a lot about what that translates to in terms of the stability of a person's spirituality and their uncompromising honor in the face of some of the most difficult circumstances. And if you're living in the time of Fir'aun, if you're living in the time of the pharaoh, you are living with the most brutal man possibly that's ever existed, a person who shows absolutely no remorse whatsoever in murdering people in the most disgusting of ways, including his own wife Asya, right?

It's different when you're talking about Umayy ibn Khalaf doing this to Bilal ibn Rabah radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, and there's no blood relation. But you're talking about a man who was so egotistical, who was so arrogant that he actually took his wife out and he humiliated her and murdered her in that horrific way because she challenged his narcissism, she challenged his oppression.

The Psychological Terror of Pharaoh's Rule

And if you're living in that time, it's extremely daunting to challenge the Fir'aun. And you can imagine, again, the psychological torture of anyone that lived in the kingdom of Fir'aun, which made belief in that time so much more appreciated, which made belief in that time so much more admirable, right?

That you have a pharaoh, and if you are a subject of the Fir'aun, you are worried about being accused of treason. If you are from the lower caste of people in the time of Fir'aun, you're worried about when he, on a whim, decides to carry out mass rape and mass murder, kill children.

Whether you're an Egyptian or from Bani Israel at the time, whether you're from the power class or from the class of those who have no power, whether you're a close confidant or you're a distant enemy, this man has kind of gotten in your head because he's someone that extends his cruelty to everyone in society when he even senses a hint of a challenge against him.

The Believer's Courageous Stand

And so there's this man that is in the court of Fir'aun, and he says those words that I spoke about, that Abu Bakr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu had said when the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم was being oppressed, when he was being beaten. And here you have the Prophet Moses, Musa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu being oppressed, he and his people being oppressed, the threats that are being hurled at Musa radiAllahu ta'ala anhu.

"Would you really kill a man because he simply says that, my Lord [is] Allah? Would you really kill a man just for saying that he believes in one God? Is that really just that you would kill a man just for that reason, you'd fight him just for that reason?"

And so you have this man that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about, and clearly the implications of it as the Mufassirin point out, is that he was someone who was in a senior enough position that Fir'aun wanted to devise a plot to kill him so that he didn't rupture the relationship that he had with his closest ministers, with his senior ministers there. And so Fir'aun is going to devise a plan to take him out, an evil plan to take him out.

The Final Warning

And this man is positing his advice to these people as a person who wishes well for them, right? Like wake up to your oppression, wake up to your cruelty, humble yourselves and you still have a chance to be saved.

Don't do this, right? Don't carry out this oppression and save yourselves and do what's good for you, right? So someone that's giving them good advice. And finally as he realizes that his advice is not reaching, what does he say to them?

"You will one day come to remember what I have said to you. And in the meantime, I entrust my affairs to Allah. Surely Allah is watchful over His servants."

So he's acknowledging at this point that because his advice did not reach these people, that he knows what comes next is the devised plan against him.

And he says, listen, one day you'll remember what I'm saying to you. You will come to remember what I have said to you. In the meantime,

"I entrust my affairs to Allah."

And indeed Allah is watchful over His servants. Now when he says

Most of the scholars, they say that this is referring to the punishment of the hereafter. The punishment that comes after this world, right? So you will come to know that what you have been warned about is indeed real, is true.

Allah's Protection and Justice

"And eventually Allah will save that person from the evils of their plot. And a woeful punishment encompassed the people of Fir'aun. A woeful punishment encompassed the people of the Pharaoh."

Then Allah goes on to talk about the way that they are exposed to the fire every morning and every evening. And this is one of the proofs of al-barzakh, the time between death and the resurrection, right? They are exposed to a punishment of the fire, but it is not the ultimate punishment when Allah would say to them on that day,

"The day that the hour shall come to pass, [it will be said], 'Make the people of Pharaoh enter into the most severe punishment.'"

Lessons from This Story

The Believer's Resolve and Trust in Allah

So I want to talk about this inshaAllah from a few different perspectives. One of them is that when the man said this, he had already developed a resolve that you know what, this is the truth and I'm willing to suffer all of the consequences that come with believing in that truth. But at the same time, though he had resigned himself to the potential of the worst type of plot in this life, he did not despair in Allah's mercy and Allah's power in the midst of all of that, right? So Allah is watchful over His servants, I entrust my affairs to Him, Allah is watchful over His servants.

So if Allah chooses to protect me in this life from your plan, or chooses to allow me to be inflicted by that harm only to be given the ultimate reward in the hereafter, then alhamdulillah, I'm okay with that. Then all praises are due to Him, I'm okay with that, I've resigned myself to that. And if Allah has decided in His divine wisdom to protect me from your plot in this life, and still grant me the reward in the hereafter, then surely He's capable of that and alhamdulillah, all praises and thanks are due to Him.

Independence from Outcomes

And so there is an independence of the outcome as well, that you know what, I'm okay at this point, I turn my affairs to Allah and I turn my affairs to Him knowing that He will do what is best for me. The main thing that my reward is assured, my reward is assured and His power is certain. And so whatever comes out of this, I'm okay with that.

Now the logical outcome of this is that He's going to be tortured. If Firaun did not spare his own wife, of course the Pharaoh is not going to spare him. Pharaoh does not spare anyone.

But Allah says after that, that Allah protected him, saved him from the evils of their plot. And a woeful punishment encompassed the people of Firaun. Now what ends up happening is that they are distracted from carrying out the punishment of this man by the pursuit of Musa صلى الله عليه وسلم by the pursuit of Moses himself and his people.

And so, you know, they come to this way of, you know, we'll deal with you later. And instead go out and they chase the people of Musa صلى الله عليه وسلم Musa and his people, Bani Israel. And of course as they are chasing them, we know what happens next.

Allah drowns them in their evil and then they are punished with that evil in the barzakh, exposed to the fire day and night and then ultimately on the Day of Judgment and enter into the worst type of punishment, the worst type of Jahannam. May Allah protect us from that fate. Allahumma ameen.

Practical Applications

Giving Sincere Advice

So this man, you know, is, you know, an interesting man to focus on. But I really want to focus on those words when you're trying to give advice to someone or when you're kind of state this position like, look, I've done everything that I possibly can at this point and I leave the rest to Allah.

If you follow the last few nights when we're talking about Tafsir Surah Ibrahim or reflections on Surah Ibrahim, we started off with this idea of, you know, that Allah guides whom He wills.

"You do not guide whom you love. [But Allah guides whom He wills.]"

And so you do your best but you disconnect yourself. You take responsibility but at the same time you acknowledge your lack of control over the situation.

You leave that to God, right? God's going to guide whom He wills. Allah will guide whom He wills. You do not guide whom you love. So you leave that to Allah. You do your best effort and you leave it to Allah. And then we moved on to this idea of a person who finds Izzah, who finds that strength and that power and that honor and that dignity in Allah, in their Lord.

Detachment from Outcomes

And one of the things, one of the outcomes that they are detaching themselves from is not just the outcome of what's going to happen to that person but the outcome of what's going to happen to them themselves as a result of their insisting on belief, insisting on truth and not resigning themselves to be defeated, right? So I don't know what's going to come about with you and I don't know what's going to come about with myself.

Examples from the Prophets

And there are various ways that this plays out through the Qur'an. There's the way of the prophets, right? So the prophets persevere with their people for years and years and years and years. In the case of Noah, 950 years, Noah صلى الله عليه وسلم . So they persevere with their prophets for years and years and years calling them to Allah. And as they're calling them to Allah, they're warning them but they're calling them from a place of great concern.

Listen, I'm trying to help you. I'm trying to help you. And eventually it becomes, at the end of it, you know what? I've tried at this point, I can't save you anymore from the torture, from the punishment that is coming your way because of all that you have done to reject and to push back on this guidance that was meant to take you from the darkness to the light.

So you know what? At this point, I resign myself to what Allah has decreed in regards to you. Sometimes it's with their own family members. And this is one of the most painful things when you read about the prophets is that they're speaking to their own family members and they're saying to their family members, to their children, to their spouses, to their parents, look, I'm trying to help you, right?

Family Dynamics in Prophetic Stories

So whether it's Ibrahim with his father or Nuh and Lut with their spouses or Nuh with his son, right? This is throughout the Qur'an of people that are speaking to their family members and saying, you know, I want good for you.

I want good for you. I'm not trying to hurt you. This isn't to punish you or torture you.

What's interesting about that is that this has practical implications for us in our own lives because there's sort of the da'wah to community and, you know, trying to seek justice and trying to do good for people, call them to tawheed and serve them for Allah, all these things, right? That's all there. And then there are people that are even close to us that are beloved to us. And so just like when we seek from the prophets inspiration, methodology, guidance on how to be inspirations to others and how to be guides to others, we also sit with the way that they sat with their pain, right? When they could not guide the people that were beloved to them and when they were trying to give advice to people that were not in a place to hear them.

The Pain of Unheeded Advice

So Allah tells us in Surah Al-Ahqaf, for example, the parents that are talking to their children and they're saying to their children,

This person is being spoken to by their parents and saying, look, I want good for you. You're going to remember this one day. I'm trying to guide you to a good path.

I want you to take this advice. I want you to do right by this situation. And that person says,

That person says, I don't care about you. I don't care about you.

You don't know what you're talking about.

I'm a grown man and a grown woman. You don't know what you're... Stop talking to me. Stop trying to give me advice. Stop worrying about me. And nothing is going to come about of what you're saying anyway.

And that person says

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