Why Me - MASCON2018

Why Me? - A Khutbah on Tests and Trials

Opening

(السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - assalāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatu-llāhi wa barakātuh)

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Introduction: Our Limited Perspective

I want to talk to you today a little bit about how we perceive not only certain events, but the world as a whole.

You see, all of us, we come from different backgrounds, we come from different life experiences, we lead our own lives.

And subhanAllah, you can look at someone and you can try to make a judgment about what their life is all about, but we truly never really know what a person has really been through. Even if we have been there with them physically, we don't know what was happening in their heart when they were experiencing something. So we all have our own perspective.

And in reality, when we compare our perspective to the wisdom and the sight of Allah subhanAllah, without a doubt, we have to admit that not only are we limited, we are extremely limited. You see when Allah subhanAllah, one of His names is Al-Basir, the all-seeing. And of course the sight of Allah subhanAllah is fitting of Allah subhanAllah.

And yes, we have sight as well, but our sight is limited to us. Allah is Al-Hakeem, Allah is all-wise. The wisdom of Allah subhanAllah, we can try to understand it, we can try to see part of it, but we will never truly understand what is happening in the world around us, and even on a personal level, we may never truly, at least in this life, truly understand the wisdom behind what is taking place.

And sometimes it may be small things happening in our life and we think we get it. We think we understand, we think we know exactly why something is happening, but we may be wrong. Or we may be limited.

We may only know a small portion of what is happening. And all we have to do subhanAllah, is look at history, and look at how events were perceived in the moment versus how something was perceived later. And sometimes subhanAllah, and this is so telling for us, something happens and those who are there present in that moment, they have a certain outlook on what is happening.

And then it's not five years or ten years later, but it's possibly hundreds of years later that we begin to see the wisdom of Allah subhanAllah and why something is happening.

Understanding Suffering and Tests

And so when we think about suffering, whether it be the suffering of others or whether it be our own suffering, yes, it is normal to feel like we don't understand why it's happening. It is normal to say, why me? Why is this happening to me? And that is a completely human thing to feel.

Because yes, we are limited in our understanding. But as a Muslim, as a person of faith, the next step is very important. And that is that even though we don't fully understand or we don't properly understand why something is happening, do we attribute what is happening to Allah subhanAllah or not? And that is the question which differentiates someone who has faith and someone who is just going along with what is happening.

Because you know, the reality is, every single human being is tested by Allah subhanAllah. Every single human being goes through difficulty and hardship. It doesn't matter how privileged a person may feel their life is.

It doesn't matter how much wealth and prosperity and seemingly comfortable lives that we live. The reality is that we will be tested in one way or the other. The question is, are we tested with difficulty or are we tested with ease? And you know what? I was speaking to a brother who is going through a difficult time.

And I tried to convey to him this very idea and this very point. That I said to him, I understand that you're going through a difficult time. But you have to understand that you're not looking at the complete picture.

And you know what he said to me? He said, that's easy for you to say. You don't know what I'm going through. And I told him, you're right and you're also wrong.

You're right in saying that I don't truly understand what you're going through. I'm not going through what you're going through so I cannot 100% empathize with the way that you're feeling. You're right in that.

But you're wrong in saying that it is easy for me to say what I'm saying. Because wallahi, I fear for myself because I'm not going through that test. So the question that I must ask myself is, if you are going through this difficulty, then what is my test that is equivalent to that difficulty?

Tests of Ease vs. Tests of Difficulty

So when we look at our brothers and sisters suffering around the world and we think to ourselves, how is that fair? The question that we should be asking ourselves is, how does my test match up? Is my test a test of ease? Has Allah given me, given me resources, given me comfort, given me ease, given me wealth, given me abilities that I will be held to account for? Because we are all tested and there's no difference in the severity of our test.

But the type of test may differ. And that is why the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, they would be more afraid of tests of ease than the tests of difficulty. Because they would say when a difficulty comes upon us, we can see it.

We can recognize it. We know it's difficult and we know that in this moment we have to be patient. But what happens in a test of ease? What happens when we're living comfortable lives? What happens when we look at

other people suffering and we're not suffering? Do we understand that that is also a test from Allah? Or does that lead us to transgress?

You know Allah told us of one of the main reasons why human beings may transgress.

Allah says:

"No! Indeed, man transgresses, because he sees himself self-sufficient."

What happens in times of ease? What happens in times of comfort? We forget. And there's people who live their lives and they don't even feel that they need Allah. And that is why a person may go days, months without reaching out to Allah, yet a person who is going through a difficulty, a person who is going through a hardship, a person who is suffering may be calling out to Allah with every single breath that they have.

Recognizing Our Tests

And that is why, my brothers and sisters, we have to be very careful when talking about tests and talking about suffering. Because we cannot judge the test. We cannot judge what is really happening.

What is upon us is to try our best to recognize the test that Allah has put us through. You know something which is very interesting if we look at the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the type of test that Allah put him through, it is very telling for us.

Historical Example: The Day of Ta'if

You know Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), she once asked the Prophet after going through the battle of Uhud, which was a very, very difficult day for the Prophet. That was a day in which the Prophet was attacked, he was physically hurt, he was bleeding, and it was a difficult day.

So Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), she asked the Prophet, she said, have you experienced a day more difficult than the day of Uhud?

And the Prophet ﷺ, he said:

لَقَدْ لَقِيتُ مَا لَقِيتُ مِنْ قَوْمِكِ يَا عَائِشَةُ

He said, I have faced what I have faced from your people, O Aisha, meaning I have had test after test after test. I have faced hardship after hardship after hardship. It's not just one hardship.

There is so many. And then he said:

أَشَدُّ مَا لَقِيتُ يَوْمَ الْعَقَبَةِ

He said, the most difficult thing, the most severe thing that I faced, he said it was the day of Al-Aqabah, what he was referring to was the day when he went to go deliver the message of Islam to the people of Ta'if.

And this is in the beginning of Islam when the Prophet did not see any response from Mecca. Rather, all he saw in his own city was hatred and persecution. And so he turned to Ta'if, another city in which he had hoped that that city would show him some support. That city would show him some compassion when his own city had turned him away.

And he went to Ta'if with very high hopes. But what happened when he went to Ta'if? We know the story. We know how he was immediately rejected.

And not only did they reject him, and by the way, the Prophet Muhammad when he went to Ta'if, he went alone. He had no one. He walked to Ta'if because he didn't want the people of Mecca to know that he was perhaps leaving the city of Mесса.

So he went in secrecy. And can you imagine walking and traveling for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, and the whole time that he is traveling, he is hoping that perhaps they will respond to him. Perhaps they will show him some warmth. Perhaps they will give him some comfort, even if they don't accept the message of Islam. Perhaps they will give him some support. And after that long journey, he arrives by himself.

He goes to the leaders of Ta'if, and they reject the message. And they reject him. And not only do they reject him, they mock him and they make fun of him.

And they get the children, and they get the young folk to go out in the streets and chase him out of the city with rocks and stones. And he is being run, run out of the city. And they are stoning him, pelting him with rocks.

And they are yelling at him. They are mocking him. They are cursing him. They are making fun of him. And the Prophet is run out of the city. And you can imagine the emotional state the Prophet is in at this point.

You can imagine what he is feeling. He is emotionally hurt. He is physically hurt.

He was bleeding to the point where the narration mentions that blood had pooled up in his shoes. And it began to dry in his shoes, so it was even hard for him to walk. And in those moments of difficulty, he walked and walked and walked and walked and kept walking until he himself, he tells us that at a certain point I was shaded by a cloud. And I looked up in the cloud and I saw the angel Jibreel.

And Jibreel said to me, O Muhammad, Allah has heard the message that you have delivered. And Allah has heard the response that they gave to you. And so I am sending to you the angel of the mountains.

And you command him whatever you want to command. And the angel of the mountains comes to the Prophet Muhammad and says, we know what has happened. So just give the command.

And if you want, I will raise up the two mountains and destroy the city. And subhanallah, in that moment of pain and suffering and difficulty, wallahi, how would we have responded? You know, when we are hurt, we are more likely to hurt other people. That is why when someone yells at us, we are likely to yell back at them.

In that moment where our emotions and feelings are very strong, we usually act out. But how was the Prophet? He said, no. He said, no.

He said, perhaps Allah will make it that from their progeny, there will be those that they worship Allah with sincerity in their religion. Perhaps there will be those from their offspring. We cannot destroy them.

We cannot harm them. Because maybe there is something that I am not seeing here. And this is the most difficult, the Prophet said, the most difficult day that I have ever experienced.

And the Prophet said, leave them. Because perhaps there is something that I am not seeing. And what does history tell us? History tells us that not just a few people, but the whole city accepted Islam.

They came to the Prophet and the whole city took their shahada.

Historical Example: The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

We have the story, my brothers and sisters, in the life of the Prophet. That was the Prophet. What about the companions? We have the story of the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, Sulh Hudaybiyyah.

What happened? You know the Muslims, they were hopeful. They left the city of Medina. They were hopeful to go back and return to their home of Mecca.

And the Prophet had told them that you will make Umrah. And they had traveled from Medina all the way to Mecca to come make Umrah. There were approximately fourteen to fifteen hundred companions who had come with the Prophet Muhammad. And they camped outside Mecca for days and days and days.

And some narrations mention that they were all prepared. They were all prepared to come make Umrah. They had brought with them their sacrifice.

Some narrations mention over a thousand animals they had brought with them for sacrifice. And they wait and they wait. And at one point, they give bay'ah to the Prophet, what is known as bay'ah to Ridwan.

Fourteen hundred companions give bay'ah to the Prophet. They're ready. And they say, O Messenger of Allah, whatever it takes, whatever it takes for us to make Umrah this year. And then the treaty occurs, Sulh-Hudaybiyyah.

And what happens in the treaty? Well, from the perspective of the companions, it was an utter loss. Because part of that treaty said, you will not make Umrah this year. Go home.

You have come, over a thousand of you, you have prepared and you have traveled and you have brought your animals and so on and so forth. You know what? Turn around and go home. You're not making Umrah this year.

On top of that, part of that treaty also stated that if there's a Muslim who escapes or leaves Mecca to seek refuge with the Muslims, then the Prophet and the companions have to return those Muslims. And as the treaty is