Seeking Serenity - AlMaghrib Institute IlmFest 2016

Seeking Serenity

By Sheikh Saad Tasleem | AlMaghrib Institute IlmFest 2016

Opening

(الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى أَشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ، نَبِيِّنَا وَسَيِّدِنَا وَحَبِيبِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi al-ʿālamīn, waṣ-ṣalātu was-salāmu ʿalā ashrafi al-anbiyāʾi wal-mursalīn, nabiyyinā wa sayyidinā wa ḥabībinā muḥammadin wa ʿalā ālihi wa ṣaḥbihi ajmaʿīn)

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers, our Prophet, our Master, and our Beloved Muhammad, and upon his family and all his companions.

O Allah, we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. O Allah, teach us what benefits us, benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase us in knowledge, O Lord of the Worlds. O Allah, show us the truth as truth and grant us the ability to follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and grant us the ability to avoid it.

(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatu-llāhi wa barakātuh)

Introduction: The Question of Patience

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy upon him) mentions that a man once came to Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy upon him) and he posed a simple but actually a very deep question. He said to him, he said, Ya Aba Abdillah (and Abu Abdillah was the kunya of Imam al-Shafi'i).

He said, Ya Aba Abdillah, which is better? Is it better that a person leads a life where they are faced with ease, they're not struck with a calamity and hardship and they are thankful because of that? Or is it better that a person goes through difficulty and hardship and then they remain patient upon that hardship?

And Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy upon him) replied and he said: Well, no one can be truly firm until they are tested and then they remain patient. For certainly that was the way of the prophets of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them). Every single one of them was tested and because of that test, they remained firm with their patience.

The Importance of Steadfastness

And what Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy upon him) is talking about here is our resolve, us as Muslims, that to be firm is an essential part of our Islam. And this is why when that companion came to Prophet (peace be

upon him) and he asked Prophet (peace be upon him) for advice, Prophet (peace be upon him) told him, gave him very simple advice. He said:

(Sahih Muslim 38)

Say I believe in Allah, then stay firm, stay upright upon that.

Meaning there's two parts to this equation. Yeah, part one is we believe, we have our Iman and so on and so forth.

But the second part of that is the consistency upon that Iman until we die. You see people come and go, people become spiritual, people start practicing Islam. People come and they go as well.

But the one who will be truly successful on the day of judgment is the one who persevered in their dedication and their submission to Allah. And that is why patience is a necessary part of Iman. There is no life without hardship.

There's no life without being tested and tried. And because of that, there is no success without the ability to be patient. We know that every single human being, we will all be tested.

Sometimes they're tested with ease and sometimes they're tested with hardship. And our tests vary and they differ. And even us as individuals sitting here in this room, if I were to speak to every single person here, I would imagine that you are dealing with personal trials, personal issues, personal tests.

These are all personal things that require personal patience.

Allah Reminds Us We Will Be Tested

Allah reminds us of this. Allah says:

Do the people think that they will be left alone simply because they say we believe and they will not be tested, they will not be tried?

Certainly we tested those who came before them.

Meaning just like the generations before us were tested, just like the generations before us went through hardship, after hardship, after hardship. Likewise, our generation, our time will be no different.

We will be tested. And if we're going to be tested, the only way to success and victory is by being patient. My brothers and sisters, we're either in our lives any given moment, we're either in one of two states.

Two States: Ease and Hardship

We're either in a state where we're tested with good and that requires patience, that requires shukr, it requires gratefulness. And gratefulness not, and I've said this before, but gratefulness not just with our tongue, not just, you know, typing hashtag blessed, right? There's more to it than that. Being thankful to Allah means being thankful to Allah not only with our tongue, but our tongue, our heart, and our limbs as well.

Meaning we spend those in the obedience of Allah and that is how we make shukr. So times of ease, times of good, that's a test but requires shukr. The other state that we can be in is being tested with something which is seemingly bad, with a hardship and that requires from us patience.

Allah tells us over and over again in the Quran how we will be tested and on the other hand, how we need to be patient. That's why over a hundred times in the Quran we find subhanAllah the mention of patience in some form or the other.

And We will certainly test you with something from fear, hunger, or a lack of wealth and life and fruits. However, glad tidings are for those who are patient.

And here Allah tells us our life. We're going to be tested in one form or the other. Here are some examples. We could be tested with fear, hunger, poverty, a lack of safety.

These are tests that our brothers and sisters around the world are going through today. These are very real tests. I know sometimes the lives, the comfortable lives that we live, we don't really truly sometimes understand these obvious and outwardly tests.

But for a lot of our brothers and sisters, a lot of people around the world, these are real tests that they're going through every single day.

Who Are the Patient Ones?

And you know what Allah tells these people? Allah says:

And give glad tidings to those who are patient. Why? How? Who are these people?

Those people, that when a calamity comes upon them, what do they do? They say: Most certainly we belong to Allah and we will return to Allah.

The Meaning of Inna Lillahi wa Inna Ilayhi Raji'un

You know the statement : (إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ - ʾinnā lillāhi wa ʾinnā ʾilayhi rājiʿūn)

We've made it almost as if it's just something that we say when someone dies. Right? It's like someone died and you're like, it's kind of like an awkward situation. Someone's like, Do you hear so-and-so died? And you're like, Oh, I'm sorry. (إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ - ʾinnā lillāhi wa ʾinnā ʾilayhi rājiʿūn) Okay, just something to say.

But you know what this statement really, really means for us? This statement is applied to any and every calamity because it puts things into perspective for us. Whether it's a loss of life, right? Someone dies and we remind ourselves, and this is a way in which we bring about patience within ourselves.

Now, we remind ourselves that this person who was in our lives, they were important to us. They were special to us. We love them so on and so forth.

But they belong to Allah. They were given life by Allah. And Allah chooses when to take that life away.

And even in taking that life away, there is goodness from Allah. We may see it. We may not see it.

We may recognize it or we may not. But part of our aqeedah, part of our faith, part of who we are, is that we put our trust in Allah. And we know and we understand that even in the taking of a life, there is goodness.

When we go through a different hardship, we remind ourselves of the same thing. We go through emotional stresses, emotional trials. We go through family problems.

We go through difficulties in school and college. Whatever the calamity or hardship may be, it's the same statement that we repeat. We say:

(إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ - ʾinnā lillāhi wa ʾinnā ʾilayhi rājiʿūn)

That we belong to Allah. And Allah is the one who we will return to. And it all goes back to Allah. Whatever this calamity is, whatever we are going through, there is goodness in it.

And what is upon us in that moment? It's upon us to be patient.

The Reward for Patience

Allah says:

Upon these people, the people who they're struck with a calamity, when they go through a hardship and they remain patient, what is for them? Allah sends salawat, salams upon these people. The blessings of Allah and the rahmah of Allah, the mercy of Allah. And it is these people who are truly guided.

The ones who have trained themselves to be patient. And here we see a connection between guidance, hidayah and patience.

Because we said, to say I believe, to say I'm Muslim, to accept the aqidah, that's just part of it. The other half of the equation is that patience. Without patience, we won't be able to continue and stay firm upon that.

Where Does Patience Come From?

But the question is, where does our patience come from? Okay, yes, we've said part of being Muslim is that you gotta be patient. It's a necessity of life. We're gonna be tested and therefore patience is required.

But where do we seek this patience from?

First Source: Our Spirituality

Well, the first place we seek patience from is our spirituality, is our connection with our Lord. And that was the way of the Prophets. The Prophets, when they were struck with a calamity, when they went through hardship and they needed to be patient and they knew they had to be patient in this moment, who did they turn to? They turn to Allah.

And this is why if you hear in the Quran, Allah telling us to be patient, know that what is meant here is that be patient by asking Allah to make you patient. And this is why we know the story of Ya'qub (peace be upon him). When going through a severely difficult time in his life, losing his two of his beloved children, what did he do? He said, He said, I only and only turn to Allah.

I complain to Allah with my grief and my sorrow. That is the way of the Prophets. That is the way of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The Story of Ibn Abbas

And that is why, you know, there's this famous story of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him). And in this story, he's on a journey. He's away from home.

And he is brought, you know, Ibn Abbas is traveling. He's not by himself. He's with some people, with some companions of his.

And a messenger comes and whispers something into his ear. And Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), he listens to what he has to say. Then immediately he turns around.

The Prophet's Hardships

And I've said this in my previous talks where we break down the hardships of the Prophet (peace be upon him). There's hardly a hardship that you can think of except the Prophet (peace be upon him) went through it. And one of them was the loss of a child.

We know that incident where the Prophet (peace be upon him) is holding his young infant child Ibrahim and he holds him to his chest as Ibrahim breathes his last breath. So does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to lose a child? Yes. Does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to lose the love of his life? Yes.

Does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to be turned away from his people? Yes. Does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to be rejected by your family members? Yes. Does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to be emotionally harmed? Yes.

Does the Prophet (peace be upon him) know what it feels like to see your loved ones being tortured and killed and maimed? Yes. There's not a single calamity except the Prophet (peace be upon him) knows what it feels like. So if there's anyone who deserves to say to someone be patient, It was the Prophet (peace be upon him). It wasn't an empty statement. It wasn't the advice like a lot of times people like me give right? Or maybe I haven't gone through what you're going through, but I'll say to you, be patient. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was not like that. He experienced everything and so when he said be patient it meant a lot.

You know, what's the irony of that situation is that when the Prophet (peace be upon him), when she said what do you know of my pain? The Prophet (peace be upon him) walked away and in walking away He in that moment showed patience. He practically showed patience in that moment.

Preparing Ourselves for Hardship

Brothers and sisters, it's those moments that we are talking about right now. It's not I'm not talking about a feel-good lecture. You know, you come here you feel good about patient. You're like, yeah, you know, I'm gonna try and be more patient. No.

What we want is that we start preparing ourselves from now from this moment so that when not if but when we go through a hardship that we have trained ourselves to be patient.

And that's why patience and spirituality are so linked in together and this is what Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) has been narrated upon him that he said that the compare if you compare the comparison of patience to Iman is like the head to the rest of the body. Like our body is our Iman and the head is our patience. Patience, it's that important. Our Iman cannot survive without patience.

And you know, one of the things that I have seen, Often I talk about this often many of my lectures. I've talked about this is a person who comes to me and says: My Iman is suffering. You know, I started practicing Islam X amount of years ago and my Iman was great. But now it's not doing so well, you know, I'm just I'm in a slump.

My prayers don't feel the same, etc. Etc, etc, or I'm having doubts and this and that my Iman is shattering. I'm in a low position, etc, etc, etc, etc.

And you know what to persevere in those moments? To pray that prayer even though you don't feel it to fast. Even though you're not getting the same level of spirituality that you got last year or two years ago or five years ago. That requires patience. To get up and pray in the night. That requires patience.

Struggling for 40 Years

It requires patience so we can persevere and this is why you know we have narrations of the early generations where they mentioned similar problems. For example, we have this one narration where one of the scholars of the early generations He said: I struggled with my nafs for 40 years and then it became upright then it became strong.

And sometimes we go like a month of a slump and we're like man, maybe this whole Islam thing isn't for me. Maybe this whole religion thing being religious and taking a maghrib classes and maybe that's just not for me. This guy he says 40 years for 40 years I struggled and I struggled and I struggled and I struggled and I struggled and then after that he became upright he became firm.

And the scholars mentioned how subhanAllah if you are struggling in your iman if you're struggling in your faith. That can actually be a blessing from Allah. That could be the way that you earn paradise. Because on in the other case maybe you're doing fine in your iman. And you're just skirting by with like the bare minimum right like you pray your five daily prayers or whatever and you feel fine. You're okay.

The other person who's struggling with their iman they pray their five daily prayers which are difficult upon them. They pray their sunnah prayers which are difficult upon them. They read the Quran over and over and over and over again until they begin to feel something. They read the seerah of the prophet, they access the hadith of the prophet. They delve in they dive into the text why in order to save their iman and through all of that When they come out of that they come out firm and strong Earning their place in paradise. That my brothers and sisters is the perseverance that is required.

Three Sources of Patience

So I said number one where does patience come from it comes from our spirituality. It comes from our connection with Allah.

Second Source: One Another

Number two our patience comes from one another it comes from the people around us our friends and our families in our communities. That's where patience comes from that's why Allah in surah al-asr Mentions what Allah says and enjoin patience upon one another. We said the first level is we only turn to Allah. We seek patience through Allah, but there are going to be times when we need one another. When your friend or your

brother or your sister Someone you know is going through a difficult time They need you sometimes. Not to give them solutions just to sit and listen just to be there for them. Just to know that they have this support.

And that's why my brothers and sisters by the way one of the goals of shaytan is Isolation he tries his hardest to isolate people. Especially when people are going through hardships Shaytan will come and whisper to the person. Hey, man. I think you just need some time to yourself. It's probably not a good idea to be around other people right now. And wallahi I have seen it happen.

I personally have seen it happen over and over and over and over and over again whether it be a Hardship or a calamity of this life or whether it be a crisis of faith or something dealing with Islam. Oftentimes people will just separate themselves from the masjid from the community. They'll sit by themselves. They'll just be like I need time to myself. And what that does is it cuts off one of the avenues that we have back to Allah.

The prophet said:

Most certainly the shaytan is with the person who is by themselves. And he is less so when there are two people.

Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2165

Meaning the more we have this support around ourselves the stronger we will be against the whisperings of the shaytan.

Third Source: Examples of the Prophets

Number three our patience comes from the examples that we have and that's why early on I mentioned that every single prophet who are examples for us Went through immense Difficulties and trials:

• Adam (peace be upon him) being taken out of paradise
• Nuh (peace be upon him) the difficulty in the dawah that he faced 950 years giving dawah and very few people believing
• We have Ibrahim (peace be upon him) having his own father disbelieve in the message of Islam Him being thrown into the fire and all the hardships that he went through
• We have Ayyub (peace be upon him) His sickness that he went through
• We have Musa (peace be upon him) and his upward the upward battle with Firaon
• We have Yusuf (peace be upon him) being torn away from his parents and everything being jailed and so on and so on and so forth everything that Yusuf (peace be upon him) went through

Until we get to The Prophet (peace be upon him) and as I said earlier in the life of the prophet (peace be upon him) you see every single calamity. Every single test through which the prophet (peace be upon him) persevered.

Finding Inspiration in Our Ummah

And I know a lot of times we look at things happening in the world today Whether it be Syria or here or there, Palestine so many places around the world and it brings us a sadness and it's it's hurtful. But there is a blessing there are many blessings in it.

One of the blessings that we have living living here in America are a nice comfortable easy lives Is that we should be inspired by those brothers our brothers and sisters we should be inspired. Not to belittle all our own hardships. But to be inspired by what they're going through and how much they are persevering persevering through. That's a moment of inspiration for us. So instead of feeling helpless and sad and Giving up hope we should feel that our ummah is strong Because we're dealt with so much and alhamdulillah.

We're able to persevere through all of that. And when you hear sisters going through dealing with Islamophobia here and being attacked and all that. That for me as a male That gives me so much strength. Because I'm I think of the tests and trials that my sisters are going through and I know I can't even really imagine what it Feels like to be in their shoes. But for me that is an inspiration for me as it should be for all of us.

The Equation for Success

So third I said our patience comes from those people who came before us my brothers and sisters true success Can only come from patience.

O you who believe, be patient and be more patient and be firm and have taqwa of Allah so that you may be successful.

And this right here This is like the equation for success. Allah says be patient and Then Allah says صَابِرُوا and you know sabiro can almost be translated as be more patient. Like be more patient than someone.

Well who? We as Muslims we look at this and we say we want to be more patient Than those who are attacking us. We want to be more patient than the problems that we are going through. Whatever we think is our limit we want to be more patient than that we want to surpass that patience.

And then Allah says رَابِطُوا and this is Like saying tie yourself down. Anchor yourself. رَابِطُوا comes from the word رَبْطٌ it's almost like Allah is saying hunker down. Tie yourself down make yourself firm because this calamity will pass. Help one another and become firm and hold yourselves to the ground because you will be able to persevere.

إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا

Right after a difficulty is ease.

And one of my teachers one of the statements that he told me very early on He said that one of the one of the blessings of this ayah the ayat إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا is that The harder the calamity is The the more difficult the situation is becoming We as Muslims we get more hopeful because we know that the help of Allah is even closer. As it gets more and more severe the help of Allah gets more and more closer, and that is glad tidings for us my brothers and sisters.

What is Patience?

That is what patience is. Patience is as the scholars would say تَرْكُ الشَّكْوَى To leave off complaining except to Allah, truthful and sincere in accepting what is happening and being pleased with what is happening قَبُولُ الْقَضَاءِ And to accept the Qadar of Allah.

And one of the main things that helps us be patient is our belief in the Qadar of Allah. Belief that Allah doesn't put us through pure evil. Belief that in hardship there is goodness. Belief that through hardship we can attain paradise and all of those things come together and they make it so that we can persevere.

And as I said earlier my brothers and sisters We don't want to be those people who just label ourselves as being patient and move on. Like I really hope this talk isn't a talk where you get out of this talk and say yeah It's good to be patient. And I think I'm a pretty patient person.

What I hope this talk does is that it inspires you to start working towards becoming more patient. So that when that calamity strikes we're able to persevere. When that difficulty comes and this is not an overnight. It's not an overnight fix.

Developing Patience Over Time

It's not a on and off switch You don't just turn on a switch and you become patient. Our patience varies and it takes time just like the bad habits that we have developed that have bad habits of complaining and getting upset and Cursing and this and that all these things that people tend to do when something bad happens. Those were habits that were developed over time. So likewise patience will be developed over time.

I ask Allah to grant us this patience I ask Allah to make us patient over these calamities and I ask Allah to help us understand and recognize these difficulties as tests from Allah and ask Allah to raise our Rank and the rank of our brothers and sisters who are going through these calamities and I ask Allah to grant them Patience over all of that.

اللَّهُمَّ آمِينَ

Closing

سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ

وَجَزَاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

End of Khutbah