They Are Allah's Wake-Up Call to You | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

Allah's Wake-Up Calls: The Concept of Ibrah

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 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 and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. اللهم آمين

Dear brothers and sisters, if I was to ask you, what is the word for wake-up call in the Quran? You might say various things that come straight to mind, because Allah speaks of this idea of the signs of Allah through the stories and the verses and the lessons in the Quran as being meant to inject into us a sense of urgency. And Allah uses different words to describe the nature of different wake-up calls.

I was reading in Surah Ali Imran, and what caught my attention was the way that Allah uses almost two identical words to describe situations that Allah is telling us to wake up and to ponder deeply on - either what we are perceiving or what we are seeing.

Dhikrah: Remembrance and Reminder

On the first page of Surah Ali Imran, Allah says: "And no one is able to remember properly except for people who have this deep sense of perception." They're people of deep remembrance. They're people who clear their minds, and so when they hear any reminder, they immediately connect it to their own lives and they reconnect to Allah.

And the nature of a تذكرة (tathkira), the nature of something that reminds, is that it's something you already know, but it reminds you of Allah and it brings you back to your core over and over again to put you in a state of remembrance constantly.

Ibrah: Lessons for Those with Insight

On the next page, Allah mentions that He has given to you an example when two armies met one another. One group was fighting in the path of Allah and another group was fighting, and they appeared to be double in number. And Allah said: "Allah gives victory to whom He wills, and in that is عبرة (ibrah) - a wake-up call for people who have deep insight."

And so the word that's used is عبرة (ibrah). And I want you to think about this every time you now hear this word being used in the Quran: ibrah, wake-up call, wake-up call, wake-up call - and how specific it actually is.

Allah mentions ذكرى (dhikrah) - remembrance in the general sense - and things are meant to bring us back to Allah. But there are things that happen in front of you, things that you can see. If you're someone that's plugged in to what is pleasing to Allah, then anything that you hear of Allah immediately puts you in the zone and causes you to go into a state of deep reflection.

But when Allah points out people that you can see, or nations that came to pass, or different examples that are so obvious to the eye - but if someone is blinded from their spiritual reality of their existence, they won't be able to see - Allah uses this word عبرة (ibrah).

The Difference Between Sight and Insight

I was thinking about how Allah says فاعتبروا يا أولي الأبصار (fa'atabiru ya ulil-absar) - "So wake up, O people of insight." البصيرة (Al-basira) is that when you look at something, you see its deeper reality. البصر (Al-basar) is your sight. بصيرة (Basira) is deeper insight. You can look at something and you can derive more from it because you're paying deeper attention.

So two people can be reading the same book. One of them can take no lesson from it whatsoever. The other one can see something. Two people can be looking at what's happening in Gaza and walk away with completely different conclusions or completely different reflections. You could see someone who has fallen from grace, someone that is away from Allah, and one person walks away mocking, the other person walks away reflecting. They're looking at the same thing, but the difference is whether or not they're from أولي الأبصار (ulil-absar) - they're people of deeper insight. And Allah connects this idea of a wake-up call to people of deeper insight.

How Allah Invokes Ibrah in the Quran

How does Allah invoke this concept of عبرة (ibrah) in the Quran? Allah invokes it when He talks about nations before you that were destroyed. After Allah tells us in Surah An-Nazi'at about the destruction of Fir'aun:

"That's a wake-up call for a person who's paying attention, for a person who's in awe of Allah." That Fir'aun, while he was a man in a very particular time, a tyrant in a particular time, there are Fir'auns in every nation and there are people that display Fir'aunic behavior in every single context. And beware of having Fir'aunic behavior and being dealt with by Allah in the same way Fir'aun was dealt with.

Allah mentions لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌ (laqad kana fee qasasihim ibrah) - "That in the stories of the prophets that came before you, there's an ibrah. There's a wake-up call. There's a wisdom. There's something you should be paying attention to."

From Observation to Transformation

I'll give you just one more layer to this definition. One layer of this definition is that عبرة (ibrah) - the scholars of the Arabic language say - is when you see something that happens and it causes you الانتقال من حال إلى حال (al-intiqal min halin ila hal) - it causes you to move from one state to another. It's not just مشاهدة (mushahada). It is تغيير (taghayyur). You go from observation to transformation to actually changing yourself.

So you didn't just witness something, but you witnessed something in a way that made you wake up to your own reality and you said, "Wait, this is actually talking to me. Allah is not just talking about past nations. Allah is not just talking about past prophets. Allah is not just talking about people in the past or things that happened in the past. Allah is talking to me about me."

So it takes you from المشاهدة (al-mushahada) - you're just seeing something - to التغيير (al-taghayyur) - to transforming yourself. And that's why some of the scholars of the language say if you look at the word bridge, معبر (ma'bar), it comes from the same root. You go from one place to another. So these are stories not to entertain you when you're talking about the past, but also in your present reality.

The People Allah Places Around Us

And this is where I really want us to pay attention - in the people that Allah puts around us and the multiple stories that Allah puts around us. You know, social media today is filled with the أخبار (akhbar) of others - the news of others. So even if you are locked up in a home, even if you have no social life, you're constantly exposed to everybody's relationship difficulties, to everybody's recent change in their lives, to entire populations that are wiped out, to victims and villains. You're constantly exposed to other people's news.

Now your algorithm will give you what it thinks you're interested in, and there's something terrifying about that. Because the things that tend to drive our reactions tend to be things that are far less significant than things that actually matter in the world. And that's a sign of what the ibrah your algorithm thinks is for you. Your algorithm thinks you have an ibrah, you have a particular thing to change your behavior, and it wants to feed that behavior and give you something.

But you're constantly exposed to: "Did you hear what happened to this person? Did you hear what happened to this person?" You don't even need someone else to tell you "Did you hear what happened to this person?" anymore. You already see it. It shows up on your newsfeed constantly.

And even if you're not someone on social media, the gossip in our communities is non-stop. "Did you hear what happened to this person's marriage? Did you hear what happened to this person's job? Did you hear what happened? Did you hear that this person did this and this person did that?" We're constantly exposed to other people in their lowest states, correct? You constantly see someone else and their fault.

The ibrah is for you, though. When Allah shows you what's happening to other people, the ibrah is for you. The wake-up call is for you, and you're supposed to be a person of بصيرة (basira). You're supposed to be a person who's deriving insight from everything that's happening around you.

Studying Trajectories, Not Judging Outcomes

Someone might say, "Well, that means like if I'm looking at someone that went astray, I'm gonna be very judgmental of that person. If I'm looking at someone who got caught up in the money and they started to slowly relinquish their deen, or they sold their principles for a meager profit, then I'm gonna start judging that person. Or if I'm talking about someone that stopped coming to the masjid, I'm gonna start judging that person. I don't want to look too deeply at what's happening to other people." And there's a difference. There's a difference.

When you look at people that have fallen or people that have ended up in present negative outcomes, you're looking at them not to evaluate them but to actually evaluate yourself. You're looking at them not to pass a judgment on their outcome, but to study their trajectory of how they got there and then ask yourself: "Am I following the same trajectory?"

So if someone else followed this trajectory as an individual or as a family or as a community - you know, mashallah, everyone talks about Valley Ranch Islamic Center, our community is this, our communities this, may Allah protect it, may Allah protect all the communities that are out there - when you hear something that happened to another community, you could mock it, or you could study the trajectory and you could say: "How do we make sure our masjid never becomes that way?"

When you hear something - because we're all in each other's business constantly - when you hear something that happened to someone else's family, a marriage fell apart, a parent and a child fell apart, something happened in a household, someone else's household, you don't study it to mock it. You don't look at it and say, "Well, that's just terrible, and you know, I always knew something was off about this person and that person." You look at it and you look at the trajectory and you take the ibrah. What's something I can take from that and look at my household and make sure it doesn't become that household?

What's the ibrah that Allah is giving to me when you look at the individual that has, at least in the present tense, seemingly gone astray or done something very haram or fallen in a state of oppressing someone else? You don't look at them to say that that person is less than you and that person is going to hell and you're going to heaven because you're not that person. You look at that and you say: "How did that person get there? There's a trajectory. There's something that happens, and I want to know how I can make sure it doesn't happen to me."

You Don't Know Their True State

I don't know that person's state. And subhanallah, when it comes to how you look at other people, you don't know, as the scholars mentioned, you don't know their توبة (tawbah). You don't know whether they've repented or whether they will repent. You don't know their نهاية (nihaya). You don't know their ending. They might end up dying as the most pious of people and using what has happened as a catalyst to bring them back to Allah.

And third, you don't even know their حال (hal). You don't know their present state, what Allah sees in them now that you can't see in them, because even the angels can't see certain things about us. Perhaps Allah saw something in that woman of Bani Isra'il that was an adulteress to inspire her towards tawbah, to inspire her towards repentance, because there was something inside of her that would click in the right moment.

So you're not looking at someone else and saying that happened to them and this person is done, or this person even now is worse than me. There might be something about that person right now that makes them better in the sight of Allah. The ibrah is to study the trajectory. Why are they in that behavior or in that state right now? Allah is sending you the sign. Allah is sending me the sign. The ibrah is for us. The lesson is for us.

The Footsteps of Shaytaan

Some of the ulama even comment on وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ (wa la tatabi'u khutuwati shaytaan) - "Do not follow the footsteps of shaytaan" - doesn't just mean that the traps have been laid. It means that someone else has walked that trap before you. So there are observable footsteps to not follow, to not end up in the same place.

How did this person fall into زنا (zina)? How did this person fall into infidelity? Well, there is a trajectory, and if you are observing the same trajectory, then don't be surprised when you end up in the same outcome. How did that person become addicted to money and a slave to their wealth - عبد الدرهم وعبد الدينار (abd al-dirham wa abd al-dinar) as it appears? Well, there's a trajectory. Am I acting in the exact same way in my own business practices? How did that community get to this? How did that family get to this? Study trajectories and take the ibrah.

The fact that Allah gave you the eyes to see it means that He's also given you the potential to truly perceive it so that you take the lesson and you don't fall. And so the Quran constantly says فاعتبروا فاعتبروا إن في ذلك لعبرة (fa'atabiru fa'atabiru inna fi thalika li'ibrah) - "Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention, take the bridge."

You don't want to be like Bani Isra'il. You don't want to be like Fir'aun. You don't want to be like 'Ad and Thamud. You want to be like Nuh. You want to be like Musa. You want to be like these prophets. You want to be like أصحاب الأخدود (Ashab al-Ukhdud). You want to be like أصحاب الكهف (Ashab al-Kahf). Constantly, Allah is saying: "Pay attention to the ibrah."

The Quran is not a book about the stories of other people. It's a book about what your story could end up looking like, depending on how you respond to the revelation and how you end up defining your future trajectory.

Don't Become the Fitna

Now, I want to say one last thing here. You know, Ibrahim taught us the du'a, or Allah teaches us this idea:

"Oh Allah, don't make us the fitna. Oh Allah, don't make us a trial للذين كفروا (lilladhina kafaru) - to those who disbelieve." There's a very specific manifestation of that - that because of our own states, we end up being defeated by those who disbelieve and they would think that they are upon the truth because of how easily victory is coming to them. ربنا لا تجعلنا فتنة (Rabbana la taj'alna fitna).

And ربنا لا تجعلنا فتنة للذين آمنوا (Rabbana la taj'alna fitna lilladhina amanu) - "Don't let my behavior end up leading someone else to a negative behavior. Don't let my behavior end up leading someone else to a negative behavior." That means setting the trend, setting the trend.

And when the Prophet says that every single murder goes back to Qabeel and Habeel and a share of the sin goes back to the original murder, because he was أول من سن القتل (awwal man sanna al-qatl) - "He was the first one to set the trend." That's one way of being a fitna - someone follows your behavior.

There's a third thing here, which is: "Oh Allah, don't make me the ibrah for someone else in the negative sense." You know, subhanallah, you hear stories about people in سوء الختام (su'il khitam) - stories of people who had evil endings, and we hear them in the lessons and the teachings of mashayikh and people of da'wah and people that have dealt with communities that will tell you the stories of people who had su'il khitam, who had evil endings - may Allah protect us - people who wronged and people who did this and people who refused to listen to rightful guidance.

"Oh Allah, don't make me that type of an ibrah." Instead, you want to be what Ibrahim taught us: "Let us instead be leaders of خير (khair), leaders of good, stories of what it looks like to grab on to the rope of Allah and to pull yourself up to the salvation that He has made possible for all of us if we listen. Instead be إمامة (imamah), not ibrah. Be someone who is actually going to be a feel-good story, a success story."

Learning from Both Success and Failure

Now, in order for us to not become that ibrah, we kind of need both in our lives. You know, subhanallah, I don't remember who said this and where I heard this, but it was something very insightful: imagine if all of the seminars and master classes and webinars and whatever else you want to call them - like where we study the lives of people - imagine if we had people that failed, people whose lives were ruined, teaching those seminars. Seminars on "How I Failed." Masterclasses on "Everything Not to Do." We don't do that.

We always have the success stories, and people give you the celebrated and decorated resume of everything that they've accomplished in life. Alright, there's some good in that. There's some good in that to study success. There's also good in studying failure and making sure you don't pursue the same process of failure.

I don't know what this person's ending will be. I don't know what this family's ending will be. I don't know what this masjid's ending will be. I don't know what this country's ending will be. I don't know what this ummah's ending will be in the immediate sense. I don't know what it's all gonna look like.

But I know what it looks like right now. And I know that Allah is telling me something by the way that it looks like. فاعتبروا (Fa'atabiru) - "Pay attention." إن في ذلك العبرة (Inna fi dhalika al-ibra) - "Wake up. It's a call for you."

The fact Allah exposed you to it means that Allah wants you to take something from it.

It's Never Too Late for Redemption

The last thing I'll say here, dear brothers and sisters: just because let's say that you're like, "Well, I actually am already that ibra. I've already fallen. I've already been the example of this. I've already been the example of that." How many people who became imams of good were once ibras of شر (sharr), of evil? There are so many stories throughout our Islamic history of people that were in impossible states, where this was the story that you never wanted to be.

But Allah inspired them towards better versions of themselves, and Allah turned them into the complete opposite. And those are the best stories. You open the ayah, the ayah in Surah Al-Hadeed:

"Is it not time for those who believe to humble their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and what He has revealed of the truth?" Read the stories of Abdullah Ibn Mubarak, of Malik Ibn Dinar, of Al-Fudayl Ibn Ayyad - all these people who were lowly, lowly people: drunks, adulterers, in some cases even murderers, who completely turned their lives around and became the imams of us today. Not the ibra of شر (sharr), not the example of evil, the wake-up call of evil, but instead stories of salvation because Allah has not made us irredeemable so long as we're still alive.

And that's the رحمن (Rahman) behind the ibra, the Rahman behind the ibra. He gives you these wake-up calls out of mercy, so that you don't relegate yourself and shut your book and say that it's done. It's not done.

Lastly, don't assign something that happened to you outside of character - just circumstance - as Allah making you a lesson for someone else. Perhaps it's the resilience in that circumstance or that difficulty that was visited upon you despite good behavior that makes you an imam for someone else on how to have patience in difficult moments and how to maintain your faith and your character and your dignity, even when things fall apart all around you.

Conclusion and Du'a

May Allah allow us to be amongst those who heed the wake-up calls and who wake up others by heeding the wake-up calls. May Allah make us imams in خير (khair), people who lead in good, and not make us examples or lessons in evil and punishment. May Allah give us victory over our enemies, victory over our oppressors. May Allah protect our ummah, protect our communities, protect our families, and protect us from the spiritual diseases that erode all good.

عباد الله إن الله يأمر بالعدل والإحسان وإيتاء ذي القربى وينهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر والبغي يعظكم لعلكم تذكرون فاذكروا الله يذكركم واشكروه على النعماء يزد لكم ولذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وأقيم الصلاة