What If Allah Takes Everything From You? | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

Opening and Introduction

We begin by praising Allah and 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.

We ask Allah to make us amongst them. اللهم آمين. Dear brothers and sisters, if you feel like you fell off after Ramadan or after any type of intense season of worship, you're not alone.

In fact, most of us will feel a great sense of guilt right after we come out of these periods of worshipping Allah intensely. And the more intense the worship, the more intense the guilt. If any of you have ever been to Hajj, you know exactly what post-Hajj feels like.

And if you've been to Umrah, you know what post-Umrah feels like. And if you've been through Ramadan, which you have been now at least once or twice, or maybe 20, 30, 40 times, you know what that feeling is like, that I fell once again. But I was thinking about two ayahs of the Quran, and there's a question that I'm going to ask you.

Have You Fallen Back or Fallen on Your Face?

If you would describe yourself as falling, have you fallen back or have you fallen on your face? And I was looking at these two ayahs of the Quran, and it caught my attention actually in Ramadan. The first verse where Allah says:

There are those that worship Allah on an edge. And we're going to speak about this verse in detail today, بإذن الله تعالى.

They worship Allah on an edge. If good things happen to that person, then they're pleased, they're content with Allah, with his religion and with practice. Everything is good, I will stay on the edge.

I'm standing on a cliff, I'll stay on stable ground. But Allah says, but if test comes to that person, that person falls on their face. That person has lost everything of this life, of this dunya, as well as everything of the hereafter. That is indeed great loss. So the image that's given is a person who falls on their face.

Allah also says:

Muhammad was but a messenger of Allah. Other messengers have passed before him. All prophets and messengers as magnificent as they were. They all passed before him.

And he too will pass. Even if when you were with him, you felt like there is no way that a man this magnificent could ever die. And I can't imagine a life without him after I have had a life with him.

Muhammad was but a messenger. Messengers have passed before him. The one that this was revealed to was the Prophet being commanded to remind and recite of his own death.

Muhammad has passed. Other messengers have passed as well. If he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? And whoever turns back on their heels, they will not harm Allah in any way whatsoever and Allah will reward those who are truly grateful.

The Difference Between Falling on Your Face and Falling Back

What is the difference between falling on your face and falling back on your heels? The ulema mentioned that when you look at the Arabic language because this is the way to truly dissect these expressions. When the Arabs would say that someone fell back on their heels, it's not that they can't see the truth anymore. It's not that they're disoriented.

They're fully aware, they have orientation, they know what they're looking at, but they hold back out of a sense of paralysis. Is it still worth the investment or not? Is this going to yield me what I thought it was going to yield me? And so there are legal and practical implications here. People stopped paying zakah after the death of the Prophet.

Some people started to wonder, well do I still do this, do I still do that? You can imagine the masjid attendance dropping after the death of the Prophet. How much more fulfilling was it to pray behind the Prophet than any other human being. There are legal implications.

So there's holding back, but not necessarily disbelief. For some there is disbelief, but for many there is merely now a holding back. And of course those who denied zakah were in fact disbelieving.

But holding back, I can still see, but I don't know anymore. I know he was a Prophet, I know he was a messenger of Allah, but I don't know if I should still keep giving to this thing. Whereas when Allah mentions a person who falls on their face, a person who falls on their face is completely disoriented, lost, and ends up losing everything of this dunya and their akhira as a result of it.

They're lost. The idea is loss of clarity. Complete loss when you fall on your face.

Worshipping Allah on an Edge

Now the ayah that I want to spend time with is the first ayah. And that concept that's being spoken about here. From those of the people are those that worship Allah on an edge.

Ibn Abbas says أي على شك They worship Allah upon doubt. Doubt as opposed to yaqeen, as opposed to certainty. يعبد الله على شك What does that mean?

You know the A'rab, the Bedouin Arabs, they were very simplistic and many complex emotions sometimes are demonstrated to us through the Quran and the Sunnah through the way that the Bedouin Arabs reacted to things.

Because they had just very basic human reactions. There was no filter. There was a crudeness. There was a directness. So much so when it came to some of the questions that the Prophet was asked by the Bedouin Arabs. Some of the Sahaba, they said we would wait for the Bedouins to come and ask the Prophet some certain questions that maybe we were a little bit too shy to ask.

So there was a very direct reaction and response to things. Sometimes in good, sometimes in bad. Many times in fact in evil. And they're condemned for some of the crude ways by which they responded to the message of the Messenger of Allah.

The Test Case Mentality

So Ibn Abbas says that they would come to see the Prophet and they basically were looking at what the Prophet was calling to of Islam as a test case. You know when you worship idols it's a very simplistic form of worshipping idols.

It's very straightforward. If this idol gives me what I want, I stay. The superstition is working. I gave sacrifices to this particular idol that I built. It gave me what I wanted. I'm going to stick with this idol.

Once I felt like it wasn't working. The spell wasn't working. I was putting into this idol. I was making sacrifices for this idol and it wasn't working. Then I move on to the next idol. I just go and I build a new one.

And many of the Bedouin Arabs approached Islam that way. Where they looked at Allah and they looked at Islam and they said, you know what? We'll give it a shot. We'll test it.

Not outright belief. Not outright rejection. But we'll test it. We'll evaluate it. And so they would come. They would embrace Islam.

And then they would go back and they would look at their circumstances. If things started to get better with their finances, with their family, with their health, we stay. This is a good religion.

This is a lord that we will worship. If things started to look down, we leave. This is a bad religion. Clearly. Replace. Replace the god. Put another god there. Let's keep testing this out. And Allah condemns that behavior so harshly and so severely.

You can imagine that in a world where Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, who believed in the Prophet right away to the point, إذ كان قال فقد صدق If he said it, it's true. Whatever comes, I'm ready to take it and I'm ready to bear the responsibility and the penalty for believing in Allah.

And a world that produced Abdullah ibn Ubaid bin Saluh, the chief of the hypocrites, who played the game. Outright rejected but played the game to try to make as much as he could of the situation but hated Islam and hated the Prophet and hated everything about it. Had no intention whatsoever of ever believing in this message. There are a lot of people in between here.

These two attitudes and these two personalities. And so, you look at that and you go, yeah, that's silly. How could it be that a person just worships an idol one day and says, it's not giving me what I want. Let me move on to the next idol.

Modern Applications of Worship on an Edge

But if you think about the way that people treat Allah and they treat Islam, it's actually very similar to those crude Bedouin expressions that existed at the time. And that's why Allah did not condemn the Bedouin here.

Allah condemned the behavior that transcends culture and transcends economic class and transcends all generations, which is the attitude is the following. If good comes to that person, we're good. The blessings that come my way are nice.

When Allah is giving me what I want, it's wonderful. I can put Allah in evaluation and constant assessment. This is not ibadah. This is not submission. This is assessment. I can evaluate Allah.

You know what that looks like right after Ramadan? Alright, I made these really, really great du'as in the last 10 nights. I cried. I really got into it at Laylatul Qadr. Now let me watch what happens over the next year. Let's see if these du'as start to come to be.

And now we're getting after Ramadan. Oh wait, this is happening. I love Allah. This is wonderful. Islam is great. I made this du'a on the 27th night. I saw it happen. Alhamdulillah. Doesn't seem harmful at the outset. Surface level, you go, you know what? It's good. Alhamdulillah. It worked.

And the Prophet taught us that you should love Allah for the blessings that he provides to you. حبوا الله لما يغذوكم من نعمه It's an authentic narration. Love Allah for the blessings that he provides to you.

But there are some people that love Allah only to the extent, only to the extent that he provides them the blessings that they want.

Transactional vs. Transformational Relationship

And this is a very subtle difference between the two things. Do you love the blessings, or do you love the one who provided the blessings to you? Do you love the blessings, or do you love the one who provided the blessings to you?

Because if you stop at this, of only loving Allah to the extent that he provides you the blessings that you want, then your relationship with Allah is entirely transactional. There's nothing transformational about it.

So how do I transcend? I have to love Allah. I have to get to know the one who's providing the blessings so that I'm not framing God only through the blessings. I'm not framing Allah only through the prism of those blessings.

If I like my sleep, I'm a really good Muslim right now. By the way, this isn't always an idea of iman and kufr. Sometimes it's not just belief and disbelief. Sometimes it's rida, it's being pleased with Allah, or being displeased with Allah. Because there are borders to iman and kufr, to faith and disbelief.

So if you frame Allah through the prism of your blessings, I don't like this set of blessings, or I like this set of blessings, I'm pleased, I'm content right now. I made this du'a, I fasted Ramadan, I'm being a good Muslim, and everything seems to be going right.

Family is good, health is good, wealth is good. Alhamdulillah, I say it with a full chest right now. But you have to go past that. How? By getting to know Allah beyond the blessings. Who is Allah to you? What are His names? What are His attributes?

Developing an independent relationship with Him, of His blessings, so that you don't just love the blessings, but you love the one who provides the blessings. The blessings are a means to make you love Al-Kareem, Al-Wahhab, Al-Mu'ti, Al-Mannat.

You're supposed to be coming to a place of loving Him as a result of those blessings. Not, Oh Allah, give me this and I'm good. No. Oh Allah, I'm good regardless. And when the blessings come, they remind me of how you're always good to me. How you're always good to me.

When Tests Come

Now the second part of that ayah, where if fitna comes to that person, and Allah uses the word fitna, and this is certainly deliberate, which is a test. A test comes to that person, because a test is disorienting. Fitna is a test that is disorienting.

Meaning something happens to you, or you experience something, and there is a moment of trying to figure it out. A moment where you could lose your clarity. That's when Allah says, that same person then, انقلب على وجهه, falls flat on their face.

What's the prism here that's being used? You see, most people interact with life by what I have to do, and what I get if I do what I have to do, and what I have to avoid. That's pretty much how we live our lives. That's how we live our jobs. That's how we deal with the world around us.

And so it's really blessings, trials, and commands. There are wages, there are transactions, there are ways to avoid penalties, there are ways to avoid hardship. I'm always trying to live between these three different domains.

And so the second prism of framing Allah is test. Now, someone might say, I can bear this amount of test, because I can understand this amount of test. Like these types of tests happen to everybody. These types of trials happen to everybody. I know this person who was tested this way.

I can perhaps decipher how this test might actually be better for me. I see the silver lining of this test. I see the light at the end of the tunnel of this test.

But, here's the problem. If you only accept test to the extent that you can frame it in your own wisdom, you're still not worshipping Allah beyond the edge. You're still on a cliff.

So how do you get past that? How do you actually get to know Allah? Al-Hakeem, Al-Aleem, Al-Lateef. The subtle, the wise, always aware. And trust Him more than you trust yourself.

It doesn't mean you're not gonna feel pain. But I trust Him more than I trust myself. And so I'm not framing Allah through that prism of, how much can I understand the test? How much do I get it? And if I can't come up with the wisdom, then I'm jumping off the cliff again.

Now I'm gonna pull back and I'm gonna say, I don't get it. I don't get it. And here's an exercise that I'm gonna give you. It's a tough exercise. But I promise you it'll be rewarded after the pain.

A Difficult Exercise

Think of the three worst possible things that could happen to you in life. The three worst tests, the nightmares, the thing that really keeps you up. I can't imagine if this happened, what am I gonna do with my life? Think of the worst things that could happen to you.

Would it change your relationship with Allah? Would it change your worship of Allah? Would it change your submission to Allah and His decree? If the answer is yes, I've got work to do. I need to build a relationship with Him that's independent of the test and the trial.

Submission Beyond Understanding

And then lastly, dear brothers and sisters, what it comes down to is the tashri'ah, the taqdeer and the tashri'ah of Allah. What Allah tells you to do? Islam. Submission. We live in an age of arrogance and ego.

And you know what that ego looks like sometimes? I will accept this part of Islam so long as I can rationalize it. As long as I can get it. Now, by the way, Allah tells you, use your rational.

أفلا تعقلون People come to religion through rational means. I mean, one god is a very compelling argument. Tawheed is very easy to come to terms with. Islam, the rigor of the preservation of the Quran and the tradition and the way that it all falls perfectly into place. Yes, you use these things to come to faith at times. And this is how many people convert to Islam in fact. Like, it just makes so much sense.

But when you say, أسلمت I submit. And Allah says, don't be so quick to say آمنت to those Bedouin once again. I believe. أسلمت - آمنت When you say that, if you only accept the parts of the religion to the extent that you can frame it, I can make sense of it, I can put the logical 1 plus 2 plus 3, there's a problem. Your relationship with Allah is still on an edge.

And so these three prisms have to be broken. And especially when you come out of a season of intense religious production. And Allah specifically spoke to the ibadah, how much do you place yourself in servitude to Allah beyond the blessing, beyond the test, beyond what you can understand.

Allah Does Not Burden Beyond Capacity

Someone might say, Allah is pushing me to the limit. And I'll end with this thought:

Allah does not burden a soul beyond its scope. There's no doubt. However, it's true that you see some people and subhanAllah the pain that they go through, how can a single human being bear this pain.

If we lived in the time of Ayyub, we might be one of those people on the outside that said, he must have done something really bad to be punished that way. لقد أذنب ذنباً عظيماً He definitely committed a great sin. If he did not commit a great sin, Allah would not punish him this way for 18 years. That's how some of the people reacted around Ayyub.

Sometimes you see someone going through something, it's like, wow, what is happening here? And that person is being stretched. What I want you to pay attention to is not what's happening to anybody else, but come back to you and realize that what you might be interpreting as Allah pushing you to the limit might be Allah pulling you closer to Him.

Because balaa and test and trial is one of the quickest ways to get close to Allah. And one of the most intense ways to develop that du'a and that trust in Allah. And one of the most blessed ways to finally find in your du'a that complete submission and worship and devotion that's independent of circumstance.

May Allah make us a people that worship Him upon certainty and not upon doubt. اللهم آمين.